Bonum Certa Men Certa

Guest Post: Enough is Enough!

By figosdev

Enough



Not even two weeks ago, Techrights founder Roy Schestowitz said:

"I have been writing for many years about threats to Linux and more recently I focused on threats to Git (development processes, centralisation, censorship etc.) as well. I think we’re now at a critical point."

And I agree. The FSF has settled into focusing too much on matters of licensing, even as they dabble with other important issues such as the "cloud" (clowncomputing) and hardware that respects your freedom. I'm concerned that long term -- years from now -- the FSF will shift its focus towards being a hardware standard almost exclusively; as the software ecosystem moves further and further from the GPL and the FSF needs a way to justify itself to sponsors and members alike.

"...as the software ecosystem moves further and further from the GPL and the FSF needs a way to justify itself to sponsors and members alike."If software becomes almost completely controlled by monopolies again, the FSF won't have any serious influence over software anymore and thus like Mozilla since Eich left, its real mission will be defunct. But their RYF campaign is both important and about something you can rarely get for free, so the FSF can focus on something meaningful and commercial; even while it backs away from its primary mission of fighting for software freedom.

For years, half a decade even -- people have complained about the threat that systemd poses to freedom. It is designed to consolidate power into the hands of a single corporation. Microsoft outlined 20 years ago that to compete with Open source, they would need to target "a process, not a company." With systemd hosted on Github, they can now do both.

The FSF recognised the threat of code being on Github even before Microsoft owned it -- now that Microsoft hosts (controls) the code used in the FSF's most popular fully-free operating systems, they continue to ignore the problems that systemd brings to the table:

- It reduces the security of every GNU/Linux distro that adopts it (it already won a Pwnie.)

- It divides the communities that adopt it (quite deliberately, but let's blame every critic, and give a divisive project a limitless benefit of the doubt.)

- It reduces the modularity in every distro that adopts it, which reduces the user's freedom.

"Microsoft outlined 20 years ago that to compete with Open source, they would need to target "a process, not a company." With systemd hosted on Github, they can now do both."The FSF in the past has talked about backdoors that Microsoft puts in their own products, but it won't talk about how systemd is hosted on servers owned by Microsoft (and that this is one more reason people shouldn't use systemd) and it doesn't acknowledge that Microsoft can now add backdoors to systemd (and every distro that uses it) themselves. Do you trust Microsoft to run secure servers, when they deliberately compromise their own operating system?

And what people are waiting for is a concrete example of this grand f***-up in the making, and all we have are smaller examples for now, but those are ignored year after year. Meanwhile, various major problems that the FSF has acknowledged in the past continue to cluster around the software weapon formerly known as an init system, and the FSF doesn't dare speak against it or advise people to even question it.

I've said for well over a year, that systemd is not the only problem -- just the biggest so far. Google has its own anti-POSIX weapon, which it is a little more honest about being a way to crush POSIX itself, in the long-standing Microsoftian tradition of "de-commoditising protocols."

POSIX more than anything, is what the free software ecosystem has in common. Sure, there are many exceptions. But POSIX is the biggest rule even if implementation is incomplete, and attacking it is a great way to win the war against free software.

Finally, these attacks are not just against the core of most operating systems. Thankfully, along with their aging flagships Trisquel and GnewSense, FSF is at least welcoming Hyperbola-- the most free FSF distro of all time, and GuixSD -- what will probably become the most customisable FSF distro of all time. In the long run these may help a lot, but for now, Trisquel continues to destroy itself.

There are additional problems of infiltration of non-profits, which the FSF will not talk about. There are additional problems of degradation of software quality and security, followed up with denial and inappropriate claims of "FUD."

There are shills in the tech press, as many as ever before, misleading the public that the FSF will not talk about. And one of the best weapons these shills have, is the facts about what is happening to the quality and reliability of free software. systemd critics have warned about those for years, only for it to fall on deaf ears.

"Do you trust Microsoft to run secure servers, when they deliberately compromise their own operating system?"The facts matter -- always. While some of the points raised by shills in the media are accurate, others actually deserve to be called "FUD." The FUD about VLC is a great example -- they tried to paint VLC as insecure, but left out that the vulnerability was actually in a 3rd-party library. That's FUD if I ever heard it, and FUD is an age-old weapon used by Microsoft to fight competitors.

The problem with KDE however, is a fine example of the sort of design problems that we used to make fun of Windows for. It turns out, some designs are so terrible that they don't just compromise the security of non-free software -- quite a few bad security practices work on multiple platforms, including FLOSS platforms, and some designs count as bad security practices themselves.

As with systemd, Windows cared far more about new features than security or good design. Their constant design compromises and lack of care dragged security and privacy into crisis, with really awful technologies like ActiveX, Office macros, Hidden extensions that let people fake safe-to-open document types that were actually executables -- you think you're opening a file in notepad but it's actually malware -- users could improve security just by turning off "Hide known file extensions" but that one stupid feature alone caused how much damage?

When you bring these historically terrible designs from Windows to GNU/Linux, they don't get better. Sure, they are more likely to get patched after the damage is done -- and that's an advantage over non-free software. So is freedom, of course! Ben Mako Hill wrote "When Free Software Isn't Better" in 2010, and all of the points are valid -- but so is the fact that people are making free software WORSE.

That's a real threat to the free software ecosystem, and the FSF refuses to talk about it. They prefer denial and compartmentalisation.

The FSF ignores free software advocates when they talk about systemd making free software worse -- they ignore other people working to make free software worse -- they ignore the infiltration of Microsoft employees into highly relevant organisations like the Linux Foundation, who control a trademark that the FSF uses on a daily basis.

"Because we made fun of Windows for all of these things, many of us got into free software as a way to get away from all these terrible designs."And the war against free software continues, with KDE adding the equivalent of autorun.inf behaviour (another of those terrible Windows designs) to its software.

As with macros, non-executable formats should never, ever execute code unless the user runs them and knows they're running them. OFF is the only secure default for such features. Windows made all sorts of exceptions to good practices along these lines, while other problems like buffer overflow vulnerabilities are more about bugs in code than terrible design (perhaps there is some small overlap.)

But terrible designs are terrible designs, and at a minimum these features should be turned off. The motives of paid/bribed shills disclosing vulnerabilities is relevant, but do not change facts -- when dangerously stupid designs are exposed, it's alright -- even a good idea -- to note the motives of shills, but it's also still relevant that the designs are stupid and dangerous.

Because we made fun of Windows for all of these things, many of us got into free software as a way to get away from all these terrible designs. The people working on free software were avoiding these pitfalls, because their priorities did not put really dumb features over general safety. Modern free software developers are increasingly of the wrong priority set, and we are already experiencing the results.

Every bad design idea brought in needs to be heavily mitigated, preferably avoided whenever reasonable, and above all not simply denied when pointed out.

Either "outsiders" are attacking the quality of well-established free software products, or "insiders" are attacking the projects themselves -- which one it is doesn't matter as much as the fact that software we rely in is being degraded and made less reliable, harder to control, harder to secure, and harder to get away from -- in an awful trend lasting for at least half a decade now.

All of these things are problems for free software, and as with any bad war -- the denial only extends the ability of the people responsible to do more damage.

By all means, if you want to suffer more, then say nothing! Or better yet, deny the facts. But don't do so and expect people to be able to offer something better, or even good to people that want freedom.

"Questions are not dealt with honestly, goals are compromised and critics are abused."I can't think of a single distro to recommend right now, because too many of the people who cluster around the only distro I've loved to use in 5 years are COMPLETE dicks. I'm not going to subject innocent people trying free software for the first time to that. Questions are not dealt with honestly, goals are compromised and critics are abused.

Things are not just critical -- we are actually losing now, more than we were a few years ago. GNU/Linux reached its height in 2014, and it's been largely downhill ever since.

"GNU/Linux reached its height in 2014, and it's been largely downhill ever since."I'm VERY grateful to the people working hard to fix this, including the Hyperbola team. Everybody else, needs to figure out whether they prefer to march this thing forwards, or backwards. It's gone backwards for half a decade -- perhaps it's time to re-consult the map?

Don't wait another five years, we've already lost those to the people actively trying to destroy our ecosystem. Now is the best possible time to turn around and start winning again -- but only if we stay honest. If we can't be honest about it, any victory will be hollow, fake and pointless. The history of free software is so much better than this, and it should be again.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

'Tech' Gimmicks Are for Advertising, Not for Usability
In the case of Microsoft, they latched onto slop
BetaNews Sacked Brian Fagioli and Deleted His Comments, But He Still Tries to Use the "BetaNews" Brand for Self-Affirmation
Fagioli takes the work of other people
[Meme] Hard to Be a Better Person?
Sooner or later they'll realise that for each pound I spend they need to spend about 1,000 times more
New US Editor for The Register is a Microsoft Booster
"Avram Piltch has served as US editor for The Register since July 2025."
Reda Demanded That FSF Removes Its Founder, Now Reda Works Directly for Microsoft
A sellout and a traitor, first working for GAFAM, now Microsoft
PCLinuxOS is Raising Money to Support Development After Fire Incident at the Host
PCLinuxOS has not had announcements lately
Over 3 Months Later Brett Wilson LLP Still Unable to Recruit a Media Lawyer?
"Immediate start", but not found... still unfilled
Microsoft is Trying to "Pull a Nokia" on GNU/Linux as Desktop/Laptop Platform
We all remember that rather well, don't we?
 
Gemini Links 24/07/2025: Forgejo Woes and Smolnet Directory Week
Links for the day
Misinformation is Not Intelligence
It's low-grade plagiarism and it fails to show any signs of intelligence
Links 24/07/2025: Storage Tapes Still Kicking, Windows TCO 'on Steroids' (Microsoft-Induced Catastrophes)
Links for the day
Bobby Borisov (LinuxIac) Has Apparently Begun Experimenting With LLM Slop, So We Cannot Trust LinuxIac Anymore
So did LinuxIac become a slopfarm? Maybe not yet, but it's getting there
Informa TechTarget's ITProToday is Becoming a Slopfarm Generated by Microsoft Chatbots
Busted.
The LLM Con Artists Are Highly Destructive
Who will ever be held accountable for this scam?
Too Bribed by Microsoft to Move to Free Software?
Microsoft lies and Microsoft bribery (in politics)
Microsoft Hiring European Politicians is Another Form of Bribery; There Should be a European Investigation
When Microsoft bribed people in Europe for OOXML (there's no denying this!) a European government delegate said that Microsoft operated like a cult
Speed of the Site Should be Better Now
The "bot attacks" impact the speed of the sister site too
Getting More From AnalogNowhere
Recently we used many images from AnalogNowhere
Microsoft, Microsofters and 'Secure' Boot Shills Already Storming the LWN Report About Expiring Certificate, Shooting the Messenger
LWN has clearly stuck a nerve
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Disable "Secure" Boot Today (the Only Better Time to Do So Was Yesterday)
Don't trust anything Red Hat tells you about security
Links 23/07/2025: Windows Killed Company After 150+ Years, US Government Mimics Russia's Attacks on the Media
Links for the day
Freedom Generally Wins at the End, History Shows (But It's Constantly Attacked, Too)
At the moment people realise "Linux" (e.g. Android) isn't enough to guarantee any freedoms
“Inhumane” and “Disgusting” Mass Layoff Execution, According to Microsoft Staff
The workers are looking for other places to work
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Slogan for Its 40th Anniversary
The freedoms are what's most important
LLM Slopfarms gbhackers.com, "Cyber Press" and CyberSecurityNews Are Drowning Google News (and Shame on Google for Feeding and Facilitating Them)
All are run by the same people
Links 23/07/2025: Droplets GUI Patent Monopoly Challenge, Nokia Leverages Illegal Patent Court Against Rivals
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Community in Geminispace and Challenges With Old Computers
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day