Just learned about the FUTO keyboard. The source code license, the AI features and the requiremen to activate my microphone, made my BS/malware alarm go bzzz. So I looked up FUTO, and apparently it is an organization similar to FSF (but different).
So what is this FUTO thing? Are they good and trustworthy? Or is this just some new drug fueled eccentric crypto AI BS from Texas?
Is it “safe” to use the FUTO keyboard?
Futo is not open source, as they (now, finally) even admit themselves: https://www.futo.org/about/futo-statement-on-opensource/
See also https://opensource.org/osd and https://opensource.org/authority and compare it to Futo’s licenses; there are (at least) three reasons it doesn’t qualify, can you spot them all? (rhetorical question; don’t @ me)
I am locking this thread to avoid needing to remove misinformation and advocacy from Futo fans who think they should be allowed to redefine a term which there has been consensus about the definition of since before they were born.
FUTO is source available, so in terms of safety it is just as good as FOSS. All the voice to text is done locally. I use the FUTO keyboard and Grayjay and they’re both amazing. Don’t get too hung up on their license. It prevents other businesses from taking their source code and taking over the space with a for profit application. It is 99% as good as FOSS.
it is not as bad as many people thinks. I used it for a few months but was a bit uncomfortable for my hands
if your mission statement includes the word “normies” I’m fucking done.
So you don’t want to be a target of intrusive marketing and data collection but are ok with the everyday person being one? FUTO wants to create software that “just works” while still completely respecting the consumer’s rights. Not everybody has the time to troubleshoot issues or test out different foss products, and this is why proprietary software is so popular today.
I tried it a few months ago, had issues with poor text prediction and many typos that I didn’t experience with other keyboards.
Came back to 2 weeks ago and found it’s a LOT better, especially after I increased the height ~10-15% to decrease typos. Only issue now is the clipboard not picking up every time I copy.
Overall it’s been better than FlorisBoard and the other FOSS keyboards I’ve tried. Also you can load different local-AI models for the text prediction if you want.
FUTO is also behind the GrayJay.app which is fantastic (except when YouTube breaks it, but it gets patched fast!).
I know one of the guys behind FUTO is Louis Rossman, who I’ve followed for almost a decade. He’s bullish on right-to-repair and has some personal beliefs I don’t fully agree with, but every movement, bill, or program I’ve seen him endorse has been a great step towards personal privacy and control over my own media/content/digital-identity.
I’ve heard Louis Rossman is a controversial figure these days but I haven’t bothered to find out why. Too many other dumb things to worry about lol
Where did you hear he is controversial now? He’s always been open to working with both parties and complaining about NYC. The only recent things that come to mind are that he’s been mentioning his support for the 2nd amendment, and the custom FUTO license.
As for how well Grayjay works, it’s never been broken for more than a day except for last week while NewPipe got updated very quickly. Maybe YT’s Europe servers got Qupdated earlier than America this time around. (NewPipe is presumably developed mainly by Europeans, which is why it supports media.ccc.de while Grayjay doesn’t.)
Different objectives from FSF. FSF wants everything to be free as in freedom. FUTO wants to show people that making money from software should not explicitly require anti-consumer practices.
The two often clash because they both redefine generic terms to support their specific objectives.
They both believe that open source software is inherently a requirement for consumers moving forward.
I use standard FOSS where I can, but I hope FUTO concepts catch on in the spaces that are still vehemently opposed to the idea of FOSS. At the very least it helps boil the frog. I just don’t want to see the two fighting because that’s a waste of energy right now.
“AI” text prediction runs locally. Microphone is for voice to text functionality.
As for the keyboard itself. Ehhhhh. It’s lacking UX features to make it actually usable. I dailied it for a month and had far more typos, text prediction broke whenever a number or symbol was fat fingered into the string. Finding symbols you need was worse than gboard & SwiftKey.
I really want there to be a great open-source keyboard, but none actually deliver on UX atm.
I use the FUTO keyboard. The “AI” features that it includes are local-only predictive text and voice-to-text (both are very good, in my experience). It’s not open source, and neither is GrayJay (another FUTO project), which is a yellow flag, at minimum.
At the same time, they do fund open source projects, most notably Immich, which is a fantastic Google Photos alternative. I’m personally okay with using their stuff, and tentatively happy with them as an organization, but I’m keeping a watchful eye on their behavior.
I couldn’t of said it better, I feel the exact same way. I’m not a complete FOSS zealot, if the source code is open and theres no shady business/trackers that’s good enough for me.
Yeah. There’s something with their website and presentation that feels… Well, it didn’t turn off my alarm. I’m also too tired to dive deeper and find out by myself.
The keyboard seems really good though. Just wish the app would ask for mic permissions when it’s actually needed.
I use it and can confirm keyboard is great. You basically get gboard but without tracking.
@introvertcatto @sith have you used #heliboard ? How does futo compare?
I used heliboard before but always went back to either gboard, AOSP one on lineage, or FUTO
