A podcaster's perspective on open source

The Besties is a video game podcast where the four hosts discuss a different video game every week. I was struck by something that Justin McElroy said on this week's episode about his recent journey into DIY computing via Raspberry Pis and Linux operating systems as I felt it was a wonderful articulation of the importance of open source software especially in this political moment.

This transcript begins at 47:30 in the 28th February 2025 episode on Monster Hunter Wilds.

Justin: At some point I just decided I've always kind of like appreciated the idea of open source computing and open source software and all that is like an ideal. But never really did it resonate with me and seeing the way things have gone technologically in the past 12 months, 18 months, it really became incumbent on me. I feel like there's a real value in understanding computing and not letting it be something that is completely controlled by oligarchs and billionaires and I feel like that has been a concerted effort to make it something that is controlled by people. And I think that as somebody who's always been pretty okay with brands, it's always kind of made sense, and then when you see how quickly people or companies make a heel turn, it really reminds you that it's good to take this stuff in your own hands.

So I've been trying to learn Linux because it's more based on like open source: there's a community of people who you're relying on rather than you know whoever is running Microsoft or Apple that week. So it's been really interesting, I got a cheap laptop, the cheapest one I could get, and I found a distribution of... So I don't want to go into this very deeply. But anyway, I put Linux on it. I don't want to talk about specifics because like 95% of the people will be bored.

Russ: I'm mostly concerned curious about what happens at the end? Like what do you do with the laptop after you've done all this stuff?

Justin: I throw it away. No, part of it is learning, right? I understand a lot better how computers work because I have this computer that I basically like put everything on to it. And because I have to understand all those parts in a micro... like on a very small system. I feel like I can understand on a larger level how it works.

So part of that is the learning process. The other thing is this laptop that I made, I was using it on the road, I was using on tour and it was super stable and run super fast and cost $200 and it kicks ass.

Russ: And you just like browse the internet and videos and...

Justin: No, no Russ. I'm sitting on... okay, so this was my impression, right? Yeah, I got Slack, got Spotify, got REAPER. There are video editing tools. There are analogs, open source analogs, to almost every program like available. So part of the end goal is like I am relying on it. I am trying to adapt to a community that is self-sustaining rather than be in a system where it is like spoon-fed and all of it is owned by corporate interest. So I'm trying to transition as much as I can to take control of that back, right? [...]

Griffin: I genuinely think it's a valuable even if nothing comes of it, like a valuable sort of something.

Justin: What do you mean 'nothing comes of it'? What do you, what is that? This is what I'm saying, Griffin. You heard what I'm saying, how smart I am. I know everything about computers.

This transcript was produced from the original MP3 using Vibe which is open source (MIT License) audio and video transcription software that uses OpenAI Whisper and is very easy to use.