Free Software

“Free (as in freedom) Software” is all about giving you back control of your digital life.

Both Debian and the Free Software Foundation have definitions of what it means to be free; in general, it means that you must be able to:

  • Inspect how the software works and modify it (source code access)
  • Give away copies of the software, whether modified or not
  • Base other software upon it, or integrate it into other projects (sometimes with the requirement that these other projects also be Free).

Free software usually also costs nothing, but here “free” means “freedom”.


Technology that supposedly is designed to connect people to each other. Facebook, Twitter, and maybe Youtube are examples.

This site is built for modern clients using Small Technology. It is served from static files, which are themselves small. It should make no references to any resources from other servers, which helps protect the Privacy of visitors.

Old technology is any tech that’s, well… old.

The world’s most popular Free Software operating system, the foundation of Debian, and foundation of much of today’s Internet.

Mastodon is a Free Software, decentralized, global Social Media network. Unlike the other major ones, it is not a part of the Attention Economy, and generally has no ads.

Here is information on papers, documentation, and publications written by John Goerzen.

Debian GNU/Linux is one of the oldest Linux distributions around. Some things that make it somewhat unique:

I am a programmer, manager, hobbyist, advocate, volunteer, dad, and nature lover. I live out on an old farmstead in rural Kansas that once belonged to my grandparents. The nearest paved road is about 3 miles away, and the nearest town (population 600) is 7 miles away. I have three incredible children, which I might occasionally mention on my blog.