isn't enough to call it open source

I never said that ProtonDB was open source.

you would still have a diverging dataset if you allow people to insert new records in the new app

An Open source WebApp would not prevent this from happenning either. A community-led fork is nothing if "new entries" are all going through the main open source tool extending the "old" database.

It would only benefits from having the same code base. Same problem, doesn't solve it.

The ProtonDB owners could just decide to not export that data any longer whenever they want.

I haven't read the whole license myself so I don't know all the legal aspect if they were going to do this.

But if they chose to close the database future entries, I'm pretty confident that the Linux Gaming community will organize themselves to quickly get another app, forking the open database previous from the closing decision. Allowing them to quickly move to a new common place. ProtonDB will probably lost reputation and usage as time goes but this is not a prediction scenario.

You also can't change the data being Steam specific when the app is closed source and not accepting contributions

That's another (valid) point. But nothing prevent you to build a webapp that periodacly imports from ProtonDB database to show Steam games data while also lists other titles that are not available through Steam creating a new database with your users entries for other platforms.

Open Source is a way to organize people around a project. ProtonDB author doesn't seems to want their code to be publicly available for consulting nor for improving or modifying by external people. And that's their rights to do so. For now, it seems that their projects is benefiting the Linux gaming community and the open license of the database is appreciated. If the project goes in an unexpected direction, people can fork the database which is the most valuable data, more than the code of the webapp.

I think OP means that the community feeds a database using a platform they have no real control over, as the source code of the website/WebApp is not public.

However it is good to remind people that ProtonDB database is published under the Open Database License ODbL at this GitHub repo. To me having the db under an open license is more important than a WebApp (especially now that anyone can build such a website in a probably insecure way, using a 20$ monthly LLM subscription).

I haven't digged into the db myself, maybe it does not come with the comments and so and only the borked, silver, gold, platinum labels.

So yes the website doesn't seems to be open source but the database is. So anyone could rebuild an alternative from its database (which is probably the most precious part of ProtonDB). If nobody already did it yet, it's probably because no one felt the need for, as ProtonDB already offer a valid, great and free user experience with currently no reasons to distrust the project.

Interesting, unfortunately I still rely on proprietary binaries but I could try it on a secondary device. Reproducibility is one of the reason I chose to learn NixOS.

I never said that GitHub was better. I just don't feel like using a package maintained by a stranger with no tied to neither the software I want to install nor the distribution packages repository.

Of course installing random code from stranger is never great advice regardless of the distribution source. But AUR is simply not for me, and many users don't understand the risk or let's say responsabilities it involves while installing packages from that source.

Is Guix the GNU approach to NixOS?

AUR has never been a good idea. I don't use it and this news proved me right.

Does that mean a distro official package manager would be immune to infections? Of course not, but they do offer a more secure distribution system and build greater trust. Minimizing the chance of malware being spread through their means.

Edit: If you have the knowledge and time to inspect the AUR packages you install, AUR might be good for you. I have none of these, that's why I stick to my official distro packages (and sometimes also some flatpak but from official sources)

I am not excited to have Linux-kernel anti cheat spyware on my machine, but I guess it's good to free gamers from Microslop monopoly.

One step at a time, you will eventually move to GNU/Linux in the future if this new hobby persist. But there is nothing wrong with beginning using software and tools you are already familiar with. However you will probably have to use WSL (Linux inside Windows basically) to make things work and all guides you will find will mostly be based on Docker and/or Linux. So you will definitely use Linux on your Microslop owned machine.

If you don't have the time to learn a new OS it's fine, but it will not necessarly make things easier, especially on the long run. That's my take on it.

My very first self-hosting homelab was a Linux Mint old refurbished desktop PC that I was remotely accessing through AnyDesk (I was a Windows kid user at that time). Now I'm on NixOS through SSH and still learning, I do not completely comfortable but I am able to use it and learn while doing so.

I would highly encourage you to try to run a lightweight beginer friendly Linux distro such as debian, Linux Mint XFCE or Kubuntu if you feel like you need a desktop environement and graphic user interfaces but if you really want to use that Microslop license you bought it's fine, you will probably switch in the following months or years. Okay maybe not, some people are fine using it.

You can also take a look at stuff like runtipi, yunohost, CasaOS, ZimaOS, Umbrel, Cloudron and stuff like that. They aim to be beginner friendly self-hosting "OS" or "WebUI".

From what I understood: ONLYOFFICE is a fork of Libre Office by a russian company. NextCloud was using ONLYOFFICE for its built-in cloud office suite replacement. Then they forked it with others to have greater control on the software with no communication whatsever to the company developing ONLYOFFICE without respecting their questionnable trademark restriction within ONLYOFFICE licence which I am still unsure if it was compatible with GPL licence Libre Office is using.

Yep honestly paying for posteo (fully foss back-end) is worth it. Self-hosting email is on the hardest side, not impossible but require more time and knowledge than many other services.