Bonum Certa Men Certa

The 'Old School' Web is Alive and Well, Contrary to What Hype About 'Smart', 'Clown Computing', 'Web 2.0', and 'Mobile-Friendly' Wants Us to Believe

Urban decay
Keep things simple and tidy, not bombastic and outsourced



Summary: Decaying World Wide Web bloat (Flash, ActiveX, AMP and so on) shows us that we need to go back to basics; sites that didn't rush to fake novelty (seduced by false promises) are still doing OK, whereas others perish and die from unmaintainable complexity and/or over-reliable on third parties

Today, 17 years ago, Tux Machines was born. It won't be long before the site turns 20 and it's still exceptionally popular. At an average of 400KB/second, based on the past month, it's actually one of the busiest hubs of GNU/Linux news. Tux Machines rarely publishes original stories; it's curating existing news and organises the news for easier digestion by those who aren't neophiles and have limited time in which to catch up with important events/developments. By means of comparison, Techrights turns 15 this year, it has a lot more traffic because of videos (based on volume at least), and unlike Tux Machines it mostly publishes original stories, along with memes, Daily Links, and the occasional poetry.

"After nearly 15 years we still haven't burned a source, not even by accident."In 2014 we became a busy hub for EPO news; Benoît Battistelli was such a terrible leader (already outdone by António Campinos in some ways) that EPO staff was "flocking" to our "cause", according to EPO leaks. People recognised that we were reliable and discreet enough. After nearly 15 years we still haven't burned a source, not even by accident.

The other day I had a chat with the person who runs Freenode. He had developed software that enables anonymous chats over IRC. Bear in mind he also founded a privacy-preserving VPN company called PIA, boasting millions of customers. Earlier today, as noted here before, we upgraded our Gemini server. We've long hoped to make it a possible vector through which to submit leaks to us. We're actually rather astounded that about 10,000 pages are requested from the Techrights Gemini (gemini://) capsule per day, on average, only a few months after we set it all up.

NetSurfOur capacity to publish is generally improving; what takes up a lot of time is technical work at the back end, improving all sorts of things that make the site better and more self-governing (we're mostly self-hosted, so it's hard to censor us).

One recent example of the technical work (not writing but building) is the IRC stuff; we strive to make IRC less centralised and more self-hosted, albeit federated. We hope that more sites and projects will follow our footsteps.

The Techrights site looked almost the same in 2006. In fact, no wonder Web browsers from around 2006 still work perfectly OK with this site, including NetSerf, which we're currently reviewing and plan to write about in the future (maybe videos too, but I want to study it fully for a long time). NetSerf has been on my machine for about a year, but I only recently (weeks ago) started using it on a daily basis. It gives hope for a Google-free Web, otherwise the retreat might be Gemini.

Web pages needn't be complex. JavaScript is rarely truly needed. Over the past decade or so many Web pages were turned into "webapps" against the wishes of actual users. In the process, Web giants extended their spying, prying eyes. We need to move away from all that and make it possible for people to pursue reliable information, without having to become the information themselves (what's known as 'surveillance capitalism', treating surfers like rats in a lab's maze).

Techrights isn't committed to lesser known projects for the sake of being "different" but for the sake of being right and just. Projects such as IPFS, Gemini, NetSerf and so on generally emancipate Internet users, putting back in control individuals rather than corporations. Notice how there's almost no corporation (at all) involved in those projects. By the way, NetSerf deals with Tux Machines perfectly well too. The sorts of Web sites NetSerf cannot cope with are the types of sites better not accessed at all (because of what they do to visitors).

Image credit: The NetSurf Developers - SF007, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Recent Techrights' Posts

RMS is Done at KCL, Next Stop is Oxford
The message of RMS has long resonated well in India
US Government Already Bailing Out OpenAI/Microsoft With "Contracts", As Usual, Back Doors You Cannot Remove Becoming 'a Step Closer' on New PCs (Unless Everyone Acts ASAP)
The next "logical" step towards digital prisons
Towards GNU World Domination
The FSF led by Geoffrey S. Knauth with his friend Richard Stallman in the FSF's Board [...] Let's encourage people to adopt GNU/Linux. There has never been a better time.
GNOME, Microsoft, and GitHub: The Lack of Reporting on Abusive Colleagues Contributed to Profound Media Vacuum (or Blackout), Now Resorting to SLAPPs
This lack of morality/courage has helped enable further abuse, lining up more victims
Microsoft Already Attacks the BSDs as Well (the E.E.E. Way, as Usual)
Bearers of bad news
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is in Trouble, May Soon be Out of Business
Openwashing needs to end
Microsoft's Debt Grew Over 6 Billion Dollars in the Last Reporting Quarter (Before Inauguration), Expect Worse Next Week When 'Results' Are Disclosed and Mass Layoffs Resume
Microsoft is bleeding. It does not want people to notice.
 
Links 22/04/2025: Ending DEI Policies at Adobe, FTC Sues Uber
Links for the day
Microsoft Devises PR Stunts to Distract From Impending Mass Layoffs and Likely Bad Results Preceding Those Mass Layoffs
A "voluntary exit plan"
Gemini Links 22/04/2025: Deaths, HamsterCMS, and More
Links for the day
Links 22/04/2025: FTC v. Meta Trial and Google Remedies
Links for the day
In Turkey, Windows Down Rapidly While GNU/Linux Grows
Although Turkey is in NATO (but not the EU), it cannot quite trust computer systems controlled by the United States
Richard Stallman Has Updated His Article on Why "Free Software Is Even More Important Now"
Richard Stallman is about to give a talk here in the UK in a few hours
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, April 21, 2025
Richard Stallman Gives Public Talk in London in 7 Hours (Need to Register as Venue Limited to 150 Seats), Public Announcements Begin to Appear
These are not announced weeks or months in advance
Gemini Links 21/04/2025: Remembering Pope Francis, Crystal Simulation
Links for the day
Doing Microsoft's Job. On IBM's Payroll.
today's Red Hat cannot recognise threats even after a head-on collision
Google News is Rewarding Slopfarms, Not Journalism
Don't read junk from chatbots
Teaching GAFAM in Schools is Like Teaching Children to Smoke Tobacco
So suggests an FSF presentation
Richard Stallman, Whose Site is Trusted by Greater Manchester, Has Come to the United Kingdom
He doesn't suck up to the Crown, so he'll never be "knighted"
On Desktops/Laptops in Singapore Does a Fifth of Users Run GNU/Linux?
Probably not, but it's growing fast there
Links 21/04/2025: Fake Ceasefire and Software Patents (Fake Patents) Thrown Out
Links for the day
Companies With Fake Values and a Fake Economic/Financial State (Phony Valuations)
It'll all go up in smoke, eventually
Links 21/04/2025: Microsoft LLM Slop (Plagiarism) Going Out of Control, CT Scans' Cancer Problems Was Underrated
Links for the day
4 Years Ago Freenode Crumbled From Within
there are still hundreds of thousands of users online at any given time
GNOME Has a Long History (Over a Decade) Misusing the Code of Conduct (CoC) to Censor (Cull) Legitimate Technical Criticism
This has nothing to do with manners, it's about control (by cover-up)
Microsoft Has Tainted GNOME, Which Has Key People Acting as a SLAPP Front Against Techrights (Trying to Censor the Site by Extortion and Many Threats)
One common denominator (other than Microsoft salaries) is GNOME, which was led by an actual professional crank until she quit so suddenly months ago
Homeland of Linux Kernel Turning to GNU/Linux?
Adoption of Vista 11 has been relatively low
According to StatCounter, This is What Linux Adoption Looks Like (Based on Web Requests Visible to StatCounter)
How much worse will it get for Microsoft?
Gemini Capsules Still Outsourcing to Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Now Measured at Less Than 10 (or Less Than 0.3%)
In Geminispace, Let's Encrypt is not commonly used
Twisting Microsoft's Failure (Transmitting Malware) as "SSH Backdoors" and a Linux Problem
Somehow we almost always find that those FUD pieces about "Linux" are based on obvious falsehoods
Vista 11 Has Burned OEMs and Some Move to GNU/Linux
When people can finally avoid Windows (there's no reason to attach it to new PCs) there will be a lot more GNU/Linux users out there
Remember That Microsoft Mass Layoffs Are Imminent Because Its 'Empire' is Falling Apart
European politicians take a long, hard look a Free software
Richard Stallman in the UK This Week, Scheduled to Give Two Public Talks (London and Oxford)
Those talks do not cover the same topics
Gemini Links 21/04/2025: April, Autism, and ASN
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 20, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 20, 2025
Links 20/04/2025: Partly Assorted Scientific and Political Leftovers
Links for the day
Links 20/04/2025: Many Data Breaches and Growing Censorship Wave
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/04/2025: Canadian Elections and "Use the Best Tools You Have for the Current Environment"
Links for the day
Deja vu: Hitler's Birthday, Andreas Tille elected Debian Project Leader again
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/04/2025: Bleeding Constitution and ChatGPT Infuriates Users Some More
Links for the day
Chinese OEMs (and World's Largest) Pave a Path Out of Microsoft Windows
So Microsoft now values (or prices) Vista 11 at just $140?
Gemini Links 20/04/2025: Contradictions of Mark Carney and Blog Questions Challenge
Links for the day
Microsoft's 'Lawsuit Diplomacy' (SLAPPs Riding UK Libel Law and Piggybacking UK GDPR, Inapplicable!) Will Only Give a Worse Image to Microsofters (and Microsoft), Give Exposure to Even More Suppressed Facts and Scandals
Microsoft came to dominate some sectors because of (or owing to) crimes; Microsoft won't just go away without some more crimes.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 19, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 19, 2025
Five (or Three) Years Without Social Control Media
Glyn Moody quit X (Twitter)
Electronics in People's Bedrooms
Modern technology not only blurred the gap between "functions" of rooms
Why GNU/Linux is Growing
There's growing interest in GNU/Linux right now because people do not fancy buying a new PC just to 'upgrade' (more spying) Windows