garden/gemini/letter-to-floss.md

source, commit, generator, date

source	commit	generator	date
floss	c94e2aaddc	gemini	2026-01-30

An Open Letter to the Free Software Community

To my fellow hackers and builders:

We have won the war on the server, but we are losing the war for the user's mind.

We build tools that respect freedom, but we often forget that usability is a freedom issue. If a tool is too hard to use, it is effectively proprietary to the priesthood who understands it.

I call for two shifts in our strategy:

1. Focus on UX: We must treat design with the same reverence we treat code. A beautiful interface is an act of hospitality.
2. Build Siphons: Instead of building walled gardens, let us build "siphons" — tools that make it trivially easy to export data out of proprietary silos and into user-owned repositories.

Let us build software that feels like a home, not a puzzle. Let us build the Agora.

Flancian