Bonum Certa Men Certa

This is How GNU Finally Dies

By figosdev

Vegas at night



Summary: "Brace for when GNU falls the way that OSI, FSF, FSFE, Mozilla, and the Linux Foundation did."

These three paragraphs speak volumes:



"The goal of the GNU Social Contract is to state the core values GNU maintainers who have endorsed it are committed to uphold. It is both an agreement among us, GNU contributors, and a pledge to the broader free software community.

Additionally, we think it can be a first step towards formalizing a transparent and collective governance of the GNU Project.

"Ultimately they spell out the takeover of the GNU Project by IBM and Red Hat."The process followed by this initiative is not supported by Richard Stallman. Nevertheless, we consider it a legitimate action by and for GNU maintainers to collectively define the core values we believe GNU stands for."

Those three paragraphs are a vicious and narcissistic lie. Ultimately they spell out the takeover of the GNU Project by IBM and Red Hat.

If you look into the history of OSI, a similar tragedy happened under the directorship of Simon Phipps. Today, OSI is stifled and staffed by GIAFAM.

They did the same to ESR that they did to Stallman. This does not mean I like ESR, but I believe the people in charge now are even worse.

"Today, OSI is stifled and staffed by GIAFAM."Today, the Linux Foundation is stifled and staffed by GIAFAM. They did the same to Torvalds. I definitely do not like Torvalds, but I believe the people in charge now are even worse.

Today, Mozilla is stifled and staffed by GIAFAM. They did the same to Eich. Although the opposite is a famous political slogan, I do Not like Eich. But I will note that after he left, Mozilla did become a horrible corporate shadow of its former self. Credit where credit is due, Eich was obviously the piece that had to be removed for Mozilla to be gutted.

This happened to Stallman as head of the FSF. I believe some of these people tried to fake Stallman's resignation from the GNU Project, and they have tried to take over GNU several times. Technically, they failed. But what people don't realise is they haven't stopped. They are still taking it over, gradually.

Brace for when GNU falls the way that OSI, FSF, FSFE, Mozilla, and the Linux Foundation did.

"Brace for when GNU falls the way that OSI, FSF, FSFE, Mozilla, and the Linux Foundation did."These are fascist, surveillance-state corporations taking over grassroots movements and non-profit organisations. They do it by weaponising useful idiots to do their bidding in the name of "progress", but it is nothing more than Social Justice Theatre.

Stallman was supposed to Resign. He didn't.

In the general pattern of these takeovers, that just means they will hit harder.

These people do not stop, and people are not resisting them -- they are making them welcome, instead of ejecting them from the GNU Project. Believe me, I know that's never going to happen. And by the time enough people realise the need is there, it will have slipped out of their hands.

I'd really like to be wrong about this. I'm pretty damned tired of my concerns being vindicated by history. People need to worry more about IBM. They're just as bad as Microsoft.

Rest well, GNU. I think you will make another appearance, when all this corporate destruction is over. Whenever that is.

"These bastards have spent the past few decades rewriting history, trying to scrub out Stallman and write in Torvalds, but it's bunk."Linux is already dead, and GNU has precious little time left. But it has a 36-year legacy that will not soon be forgotten. The software world was changed forever on September 27, 1983. It was far more significant than anything that happened in 1991 or 1998. These bastards have spent the past few decades rewriting history, trying to scrub out Stallman and write in Torvalds, but it's bunk.

They will try very hard to destroy the legacy, and they will certainly cause some damage. But what these useful idiots are doing is rewriting the constitution that governs the GNU project -- and the result will be takeover by corporations.

People say that can't happen because of the license. If that were true, then the GPL would protect the Linux kernel.

They've done a lot to work around the GPL to co-opt Linux. I'm not saying the GPL isn't powerful or necessary, it's both. But from lobbying against the GPL to lobbying against GPL3 adoption, to taking over the Linux Foundation, to simply violating the GPL whenever it pleases them, Microsoft has shown that the GPL is not invincible.

It's never enough to simply establish freedom -- it has to be defended. Licenses and freedom both need defending. Free software projects need defending. Their little coup is basically strapping charges to the governance of the GNU Project. When those blow, Stallman effectively won't run the GNU Project anymore, and the history of the Middle East, the history of OSI and countless other organisations (and other countries) already tell us what happens when this power vacuum is created.

"This isn't just a corporate takeover of GNU, it's a fascist takeover."Corporations will swoop in to rebuild the thing in their image. This isn't just a corporate takeover of GNU, it's a fascist takeover.

So you people that claim you are against fascism, but you let this happen, you cheer it on -- maybe your heart is in the right place, but frankly you suck at this.

Watch and see. Nothing precludes people in the future fighting to restore the GNU Project. But for now, it is as good as dead.

The clock is ticking -- say Goodbye before it's gone.

Remembering GNU will be the most important thing you can do for software freedom.

I've compared Stallman to Einstein, but Tesla also fits. Tesla worked for Edison, and was shafted all of his life. This didn't prevent Tesla from practically creating the 20th century. That motor that's spinning your drive -- you can thank Tesla. You can sort of thank him for the solid state components as well, I'm not saying he invented every aspect of them.

"You aren't progressives, kids. You're fascists with progressive branding."On the software side, you can thank Linus Torvalds. But that would be kind of stupid at this point. Stallman is the person you should thank. You can and should also thank Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, obviously.

IBM can thank these useful idiots and their idiot wiki page, for helping them finally kill the GNU. Keep count of the people from Red Hat, I bet there will be one from Google as well.

I'm so incredibly disappointed in you, Ian. I honestly thought you were on our side.

You aren't progressives, kids. You're fascists with progressive branding.

Goodnight.

Licence: Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Recent Techrights' Posts

Maintenance Reminder
We'll carry on publishing
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part VIII - Mobbing and Silencing of Dissenting Staff
that's the very cornerstone of functional democracies with real opposition parties
Reader Shares Recent Memes on Slop and 'Coding' by LLMs
"just some funny memes I thought were relevant to current coverage."
Invitation to General Assembly After 1,200 EPO Workers Participated in the Demonstration 3 Days Ago
"the strike of 19 March was also very well followed."
SLAPP Censorship - Part 17 Out of 200: A Long Track Record of Online Abuse, Then Choosing a Low-Cost Law Firm to Muzzle People Who Have Illuminated This Abuse for Over a Decade
Censorship by targeting ISPs and webhosts isn't unprecedented
 
No Tolerance for Attacks on Family Members
Being a Free software activist ought not lead to "collateral damage" like attacks on family members, including doxing
Sirius Open Source is Just a Zombie Firm With Shell Entities
Many companies fake their health and their size
Communities Can Only Survive When Trust Prevails
PCLinuxOS is still a vibrant and authentic community
Techrights Was Always a Community Site
The harder we're attacked, the more people participate in the site
Behind the PR Smokescreen and Microsoft-Sponsored Chaff, Microsoft Layoffs in "AI" Alleged This Month
In an age when ~1,000 simultaneous layoffs aren't enough to receive any media coverage, what can we expect remaining publishers to tell us about Microsoft layoffs in 2026?
Bluewashing at Confluent: Some Workers to Leave Within 3 Months (IBM Mass Layoffs)
Is the "era of AI" an era when none of the media will mention over 800 layoffs? [...] There's a lesson here about the state of the contemporary media, not just IBM and bluewashing
Microsoft OpenAI, Drowning in Debt and Forced to Make Significant Cuts (as Reports Reveal This Month), Does Hiring Disguised as "Takeovers" to Fake Value or Alleged Potential
Remember what happened to Skype last year
Slop Does Not Replace Art, It Contaminates Everything With Reckless Nonsense
many Computer Scientists do not want programs to get contaminated by slop
Coders Don't Just Reject 'Vibe Coding' Because They're "Luddites", They Just Know the True Cost of Slop
if some programmer says slop sucks, don't rush to assume selfishness or defence of one's occupation
When Nobody Else Covers the News
There's an obvious "media blackout" regarding the mass layoffs
Links 21/03/2026: David Botstein Dies, Slop as Censorship Apparatus
Links for the day
Links 21/03/2026: Metastablecoin Fragmentation and Crescent Moon
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/03/2026: Historic Ada Docs; The Lurking LLM on the SmolNet
Links for the day
HSBC the Latest Failed Bank Using Slop as Excuse for Its Financial Failure
"HSBC is planning on cutting as many as 20,000 jobs in the near future as the company allies with AI revolution."
A/Prof Susan G Kleinmann, Enkelena Haxhija & Debian-private risk to MIT
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 20, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, March 20, 2026
Plagiarism in "Linux" Clothing (LLM Slop in linuxiac.com, LinuxTeck.com, and linuxsecurity.com)
The net effect of those slopfarms is very negative
Links 20/03/2026: Facebook Weaponised Politically, Openwashing by LF and NVIDIA, Encyclopedia Britannica Sues Microsoft Proxy for Plagiarism
Links for the day
The EPO's Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Explains to the Administrative Council (AC) How Bad Things Have Become at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, Biggest Patent Office, and Corruption/Cocaine Hub (Jobs Sold to Friends)
We'll say a bit more tomorrow
IBM's Red Hat Diversity: Only 3 Women (Out of 11 Leaders)
For comparison's sake, the FSF is about 50% female
Symptom of Publishers Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop. Symptom of Software Companies Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop ('Vibe').
It'll always fail. It's hype. It's a bubble.
Under IBM, Red Hat Replaces Code With LLM Slop, Fedora is Slopware
Not even hiding it, those things are in plain sight
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Depictions of Culture and The Social Smolnet
Links for the day
SimilarWeb Was Never a Reliable Yardstick for Traffic
5RB may need some "house-cleaning"
Strangulation, suffocation, Jonathan Carter & Debian toxic culture confirmed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Reports or Hearsay Suggest Ogilvy Broke Up With IBM and Insiders Report Mass Layoffs in "Infrastructure" (Might Impact Red Hat Entrants)
hearsay in Social Control Media
Scheduled Server Maintenance Tomorrow Night
Starting 9PM
None of the Above (NotA) & Debian snubbing Sruthi Chandran
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/03/2026: Cryptography Pioneers Win Turing Award and BMG Sues Anthropic for Copyright Infringement
Links for the day
Even Uganda Understands That Journalists Never Belong in Prison
"Ugandan authorities must respect the spirit of this ruling and abandon any measures that seek to jail Ugandans for the free flow of ideas."
Inaction Helps Your Enemies
Without freedom, there's nothing else left
Windows Down From 99% to ~50% in Republic of Seychelles (République des Seychelles)
Windows fell by a lot
"systemd is essentially a corporate IBM/Redhat project and corporations of course will comply"
Microsoft and IBM care about users' freedom like Cheeto Lump cares about the US Constitution
Confluent Insiders: IBM Laid Over Over 800 at Confluent, Not Just 800
For the record, the layoffs at Confluent won't be over. After the bluewashing there will be "IBM RAs" impacting Confluent folks, aside from PIPs
The Layoffs at IBM Carry on (Shades of Enron)
Is IBM another Enron?
"IBM boss Arvind Krishna... financial package valued at $38 million in calendar 2025 - equivalent to the average collective pay of 765 Big Blue workers."
continues to ruin the company to enrich himself while pretending he has a strategy
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Digital Identity Bifurcation and a "Return to Gemini"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 19, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, March 19, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 16 Out of 200: Detailing the Actors and Explaining Techrights' Own Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Network
For those who have not followed our story
Microsoft "hiding behind bigger news of war, Epstein, other companies' layoffs"
They know what's coming, they just don't know when
Joerg Jaspert (Debian Account Manager/DAM) personally approved Raphael Hertzog's wife Sophie Brun
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Letter 'A' prohibited by Code of Conduct extremism
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Spoiler: Diversity & Debian means different things to different people
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Admits Failures and Criticism of Inaction on SLAPPs
many if not all solicitors and solicitor firms in the UK are in effect unregulated
Archiving or Preserving Pages About IBM Layoffs
Layoffs at IBM and the media does not talk about these
ABC, the American National Broadcaster, "Now Publishes Slop"
If the "big media" absorbs slop, it'll no longer be trusted and therefore not read/watched by the public
Links 19/03/2026: Culling Deepfakes of Artists’ Music and "Age Verification Isn’t the Answer"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/03/2026: "Aktion GPT-4" and "Kill All Descendants"
Links for the day
"AI" 15 Times in Short 'Article' From The Register MS. And The Register MS Got Paid to Publish It.
gets paid to do this
People Who Decided to Boycott Novell Over Its Microsoft Alliance Should Also Boycott Canonical
As an associate put it, "selling out further, due to Microsoft moles inside Canonical"
Links 19/03/2026: "AI Glasses" as Euphemism for Mass Surveillance and ABC (US) Has Begun Publishing Slop as 'News'
Links for the day
The European Patent Office, Europe's Second-Largest Institution, is on Strike Today
Lots more to come
What People Impacted by the Bluewashing Layoffs at IBM Confluent Say (While the Media Says Nothing at All, in Effect Burying the News)
Worse yet, the mainstream media spreads lies about it right now
IBM Has Turned Red Hat and Fedora Into Slop
This is IBM policy
IBM is Being Robbed, Companies and Jobs Are Destroyed
Companies taken over by IBM will be exploited and destroyed to keep a bubble inflated for a little while longer
In Confluent Layoffs, IBM Vapourises a Quarter of Its Workforce (IBM Buys Something That It Destroys Already)
In the past, such things were typically referred to as "media blackout"; now it's just "the norm".
IBM Effect at Confluent: Mass Layoffs and IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines (BCGs) Said to be Violated
For Confluent employees who survived the layoffs there will be "culture chock"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Links 19/03/2026: LLM Fatigue (It Doesn't Work as Advertised), "Small Web Feeds"
Links for the day