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

Social Control Media as a Rapid Race to the Bottom - Part III - Foreign Interference and Chaff/Flare
Why would you trust alleged 'communication' (platforms) controlled by the same people who cut your undersea cables?
[Video] Richard Stallman Explains What Intelligence in Computing Really Means and How Old That Is (Story About 1975, 50 Years Ago)
Uploaded 11 hours ago by Manuel Cuda News
Links 05/03/2025: Prioritising Science, Patents Squashed
Links for the day
New Short Clip of Richard Stallman's Thoughts on the "Hey Hi" (AI) Hype, Courtesy of Manuel Cuda News
about 6 hrs ago
What Microsoft and GitHub Really, Really, REALLY Do Not Want You to See or Know About
They're trying to misuse law in a completely different continent or to allege that reporting important facts is in breach of privacy law
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com and Other 'Linux' Sites With LLM Slop
SEO spam with machine-generated fodder, plus a person to whom English isn't a first language
 
Links 06/03/2025: Trade Wars, Trademarks, Attacks on (and by) the Media, Digg to Relaunch
Links for the day
The Fall of the Open Source Initiative (OSI): The Problems Are Much Bigger Than the Rigged Elections
It's not only about elections
Dr. Andy Farnell on Brutality and (or of) Brute-Force Computing
"Understandably, the ecological cost of compute was never really on the minds of pure computer scientists"
IBM Absorbs More of Red Hat and There Are Several Layoff Rumours
Those are just rumours for now
Gemini Links 06/03/2025: Digg, Project Failure, and More
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 05, 2025
Gemini Links 05/03/2025: News Processing, Misbehaving, and Git
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Cracking Past the 4% Barrier in Hungary
There are still quite a few very famous developers and Free software projects from Hungary
Meanwhile in the Matrix Room #dei:fedoraproject.org
Remember that IBM does a lot of perception manipulation
Rumour About Red Hat Layoffs Yesterday
Can somebody from Red Hat or someone who knows someone there (impacted or not) confirm that there are layoffs this week at Red Hat?
What is fixated behavior? Stalker or just a fan of Emma Raducanu?
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
In Iran, GNU/Linux Reaches New Highs, According to statCounter
Does that make sense? In light of geopolitics? Probably.
Always Safety First
We have some reasons to suspect that one of several parties (possibly not in the UK but having connections here), having suffered major and very expensive setbacks, may look to harm the messenger one way or another
Links 05/03/2025: Starbucks Debt Soars and CFO Changed, Apple Pretends to Value Privacy, "Cloudflare Blocking Privacy Focused Users From Accessing Third-Party Websites"
Links for the day
Canonical's Latest Love Letter to Microsoft (Ubuntu Promoting Proprietary Spyware With Back Doors)
Typical Canonical, promoting Microsoft (and sometimes Windows) instead of competing against them
GNU/Linux Climbs to Record Levels in Switzerland. Can the EU, Norway, the UK, and Switzerland Divorce GAFAM?
Germany openly speaks about becoming independent from the US. How about Switzerland?
Gemini Links 05/03/2025: Living in Interesting Times, Font, and Social Control Media with Gos v1.0.0
Links for the day
Just Because Common Currencies (Including the US Dollar) Are Considered Uncertain Doesn't Mean People Should Adopt Volatile Multi-Level (Pyramid) Schemes
the scammers are trying to "go mainstream"
Use RSS Readers Instead of Social Control Media
RSS readers were designed to save time. Social Control Media was designed to waste time.
The 'Windows Era' Already Came to an End
Microsoft said to shareholders everything would be alright because of "clown computing" and then "hey hi"
The Fall of the Open Source Initiative (OSI): Microsoft Committing the Largest GPL Violation in Human History, Then OSI Covering That Up on Microsoft's Payroll
LLMs don't make GPL violations any more noble or acceptable; it's not hard to see what OSI was paid by Microsoft for
Social Control Media as a Rapid Race to the Bottom - Part II - Think Before You Talk
The 'socmed' nonsense does not exist in our home
Links 04/03/2025: Hardware, Health, Data Breaches, Politics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 04, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 04, 2025
Luxembourg: GNU/Linux at 8% Based on Estimates
steady increases this year
Gemini Links 04/03/2025: Bicycle, Photos, and Motorola 6809 Assemblers
Links for the day
Crossbow tragedy, bigger than Kyle Clifford, social media culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Microsoft OSI Apparently Still Reading Techrights Closely, Trying to Make Face-Saving PR Moves
They have long had this reactionary rhythm, wherein it feels like we can 'control' what they publish and when by merely highlighting facts about them
Links 04/03/2025: Microsoft/Korea Game Industry Association Workforce Cuts, Outlook and 365 Outage Affects Very Many
Links for the day
Transcript of Richard Stallman's Interview With Manuel Cuda News in Italy (Debunking Fake "AI")
A rough draft, but checked by two people
Chad: All-Time Lows for Windows, According to statCounter
According to statCounter, many in Chad moved to Android
Links 04/03/2025: Universities Are Under Attack, Windows Attracts Ransom Against Ministry of Health
Links for the day
Microsoft Collapses While GNU/Linux Rises in Bulgaria, According to statCounter
Microsoft is losing across all sectors
The Fall of the Open Source Initiative (OSI): An Introduction
In a nutshell: there's a massive conflict inside the OSI and the OSI stooges (staff serving Big Sponsors like Microsoft) try to hide it
Paraguay: GNU/Linux Surging to New Usage Levels (7%), According to statCounter
Notice that the gains are at Microsoft Windows' expense
Social Control Media as a Rapid Race to the Bottom - Part I - That Sinking Feeling
When you realise you made an error and things you adopted more than 15 years ago became utterly bad
Microsoft's Entryism as Mortal Risk/Danger: The Example of the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
Microsoft is a cult
Links 04/03/2025: Microsoft Issues Policy Instructions to the Cheeto Mussolini Administration, Cloudflare Engages in Mass Censorship Again
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/03/2025: Athens, Fedora 41, and Yelling at Clouds
Links for the day
FSF Amicus Brief: Aspose.PDF for .NET 24.2.0, OOXML (.docx), and Microsoft Word (Proprietary)
Could the FSF not find any law firm that, in addition to talking about or for Free software, does not use .NET, OOXML, and almost everything Microsoft?
New Interview With Richard Stallman in Italy (Manuel Cuda News)
Due to Google's growing aggression against Free software and proper APIs, this cannot be downloaded and converted to a free format
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Belatedly Comments on Case That Tests Copyleft in the United States
"The Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced today it has submitted an amicus brief in the case entitled Neo4j"
If They Try to Censor You on Some Topic, Then You Should Cover This Topic Even More
OSI is only a small part of it
The UEFI hype and Microsoft's lies
By Sami Tikkanen
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 03, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, March 03, 2025
Thorsten Glaser & Open Source Initiative (OSI) resignations due to AI whitewashing
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock