Bonum Certa Men Certa

Lack of Principles and a Lack of Honesty at Sirius ‘Open Source’ (Which Was Gradually Moving Away From Open Source)

Published yesterday: The Rule of Law or the Rule of Lie
Published yesterday: The Rule of Law or the Rule of Lie



Many countries throughout the world strive to uphold the rule of law–where no one is above the law; where everyone is treated equally under the law; where everyone is held accountable to the same laws; where there are clear and fair processes for enforcing laws; where there is an independent judiciary; and where human rights are guaranteed for all.



Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ is still the official name of the company, but the company isn't really ‘Open Source’ anymore; it's not a viable company either, it's run by only a handful of people

THE previous part of the report was entitled "Rules for Thee and Not for Me", hence the above article. Deception and misapplied rules (or selectively enforced rules) became all too common at Sirius ‘Open Source’, a company we left exactly one week ago. It was too much to bear and criticism had become impermissible. Colleagues were compelled to lie to clients, which had become less and less ethical. Sirius itself was rapidly moving away from "Open Source" (the words in its own name!) or abandoning Free software; there was no room for debate or discussion about that.



Below is the relevant part of the report we left last week (internally, just before leaving).




Openwashing Ltd.



It may seem absurd that a CEO of "Sirius Open Source" uses only Non-Open Source software, also known as proprietary software, i.e. in practice he rejects Open Source (championing macOS, Chrome and not Chromium, lots of "cloud" things that are proprietary and exceedingly privacy-infringing), but this is what we have come to expect in a company building a facade based on past branding/reputation rather than the present. This point was covered earlier.

As an aside, lately the company posted links to anti-FSF defamation tabloids via the company's Twitter account (Roy and Rianne did not comment but only took note), even though 1.5 decades earlier the company had financially supported the FSF. What happens when a company does not understand what it sells it may end up advocating Windows/WSL (helping Microsoft's attack on GNU/Linux) or even using Windows with some 'Linux' thing in VirtualBox instead of the real thing? Welcome to Openwashing Ltd. formerly known as Sirius Open Source. There might even be some Open Source people inside the company. Might. Maybe...

Sirius Open Source swag"Sirius Open Source" should be about more than the branding. People who actually use Free/Open Source software know that it is doable and know how to implement as well as recommend it (like the founder did; he gave many talks on the matter). Contrariwise, people who don't use Free/Open Source software simply insist it's not doable and sometimes say things like "this is just how the world works". This kind of defeatism paralyses a company that built its whole image around "Open Source" (even paying to advertise itself accordingly), which needs to be championed for 'Team Sirius' to distinguish themselves (there's plenty of competition; niches or sub-segments are simpler to complete for). Sirius as a company must not resort to false marketing, using the brand "Open Source" while in fact openwashing, neither caring about freedom nor using an OS (operating system) that adheres to freedom or autonomy and sometimes sends a lot of sensitive data to firms in foreign states. That includes some of the core clients' data.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 01/06/2025: "Vibe Coding" Turns Out to be a Fraud and Amazon Merits Boycott, Argue Bloggers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: "Stardust" and Ideal PC Setup
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2025: Windows TCO, Openwashing, "It's FOSS" Still Promoting Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: Simplification and Networks Everywhere
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 31, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 31, 2025
Google Bribes EFF. EFF Promotes LLM Slop as 'Fair Use'. To GAFAM It's a Low-Cost Lobby Hedge.
So the bribes pay off ("slush fund") and the word spreads
Slopwatch: Fake Text and Images, Financial Bubbles, and Scams in "Intelligent" Clothing
Sometimes what they mean by "AI" is just cheap labour somewhere else, as we discussed in IRC a few hours ago
Why Microsoft is Collapsing (Similar to What's Happening at IBM), As Insiders See It
IBM seems like one heck of a mess
Reliable Computing Means Free (Libre) Computing
Sites that want to promote security ought to deal with the biggest issues
Links 31/05/2025: US Court Orders Sides With RFE/RL, War Updates From Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/05/2025: ARM Server and power_supply Subsystem
Links for the day
Links 31/05/2025: Slop Stigmatised as Disinformation, Catalyst/Driver of "Death of Communication"
Links for the day
Common Sense 101: Do Not Write Blog Posts Saying You Want to Murder Colleagues (or Yourself)
Only crazy people would think stabbings are a joke
Microsoft Bankruptcy
"Microsoft unit in Russia to file for bankruptcy, database shows"
Techrights Does Not Compete With LLM Slop, It Exposes the Bastards, Plagiarists and Scammers Who Do That
People like Scam Altman, still facing a lawsuit from his own sister for sexual abuse against her
Links 31/05/2025: Microsoft-Connected Builder.ai is a Fraud and US is Purging Students Based on Race/Nationality
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Limmat, Doomscrollers, and Arguments Parsing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 30, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 30, 2025
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble Already Popped, But It's Not an Overnight Collapse
where Microsoft put its money
No More Steven Astorino at IBM, Chatter About Weekly/Nonstop Layoffs at IBM
What happened? Good luck guessing.
Looking at Corruption in Europe, Going Beyond the EPO
Expect a new series to kick off very soon
Slopwatch: Security SPAM and LLM Slop for SEO and FUD Purposes, Perpetually Tarnishing the Perception of Linux and (Open)SSH Security
A lot of this Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) comes from Microsoft and its LLMs
Links 30/05/2025: Google's LLM Slop Pushers Are Killing Journalism and Shira Perlmutter Fails to Stop Bribed Regime From Legalising Plagiarism (in "AI" Clothing)
Links for the day
Links 30/05/2025: Offline Arts and "Threshold of Patience"
Links for the day
Signing Off Serious Lies With a Statement of Truth is No Joking Matter
It's not hard to see what's happening here
Links 30/05/2025: LLM Slop Already Ingests and Vomits Its Own Garbage, Facebook Exec Admits Copyrights a Concern Too
Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Result in More Whistleblowers From Microsoft
Microsoft's predatory pricing is further
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu Became LLM Slop and Some People Fail to See the Immorality of Plagiarism
it lessens the incentive for people to publish real articles
EPO Poll: 68% Dissatisfied With Quality of Slop (Wrongly Framed as "AI") for Patent Classification
Slop does not work, it's just falsely advertised with extra hype (funded by slop pushers that sponsor the major media)
Big Crowds Gather to Learn About Software Freedom From the Man Who Started GNU/Linux in 1983
"It was a great success"
Microsoft Layoffs Again in Bay Area
Microsoft relies on people's false belief that being "in LinkedIn" will get you a job; well, seems like even working inside LinkedIn really sucks and you lose the job
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Fighting Against the Bad News, and Slop is Dehumanisation Disguised as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 29, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 29, 2025