Free Software Timeline and Federation: When Free Software Advocacy/Support is a Monopoly Expansion Becomes Necessary

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2019-10-13 12:28:23 UTC
Modified: 2019-10-13 12:28:23 UTC

"With nonfree software, support is a monopoly, because only the developer has the source code and only the developer can make any change." --Richard Stallman in TN, India

"Proprietary software usually means a monopoly for support because only the developer has the source code..." --Richard Stallman in Zagreb, Croatia

Timeline

Summary: Support for Software Freedom -- like support for Free software (think Red Hat/IBM and systemd) -- should be decentralised and compartmentalised to make the movement stronger and adaptable

THE most recent events served to show that in order to make Free software more resilient and its support network a lot more robust (resistant to malicious/misguided dissenters, entryism etc.) we may need to federate advocacy of it.

"We thank people who have joined us in recent months as readers, IRC lurkers, contributors and so on."A contributor of ours is working on this timeline of Free (as in freedom, libre) software and it hopefully helps explain the history and how/why it all came about. Free software is a response or a reaction to particular events of significance. Yes, it was largely reactionary because prior to it (e.g. in the 1970s) sharing and passing around code had been the 'norm'.

We thank people who have joined us in recent months as readers, IRC lurkers, contributors and so on. We're currently working to better advance Software Freedom, not only by means of reporting and advocacy; those wishing to participate and are eager to help can contact us on bytesmedia@bytesmedia.co.uk (multiple recipients). ⬆

Coming Soon: Microsoft Fake Results, Mass Layoffs, and Silence About All the People Microsoft Pressured to "Quit" (So That They Don't Get Counted as Layoffs): there will be more mass layoffs
Speed of GNU/Linux: The media seldom speaks of the dangers of "proprietary software"
Proprietary Windows Versus "Linux" News (Trying to Keep People on Windows, Never Exploring GNU/Linux): Good editors know better how to recognise threats and not give them lip service
Ensuring That Every Computer User Anywhere in the World Can Take Control of All His or Her Computers: We must fight the people who attack general-purpose computing, in particular those who push this agenda very aggressively inside Linux
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Autism and Structural Navigation: Links for the day
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: The Purge, the Cover-up, and the Witch-hunts: OSI has gone "full Microsoft"
China is Already Culling GAFAM (Not Just Microsoft Windows): OS monoculture or "OS hegemony" may be coming to an end
The "Telephone Operating System in the Vatican" is 95 Years Old, Vatican Moved to GNU/Linux: Maybe Microsoft is down to zero already
If Tesla Shares (and Alleged Value) Fell 55% (From $489 to $222) in a Few Months Maybe It's Not Worth Anything At All (It's Just Gambling): Tesla swasticars have turned from a "status symbol" into a "public embarrassment" and cause for casual humiliation
Chromebooks' Adoption in Sweden No Longer Depends on Schools: School breaks are when classrooms are shut
No, IBM is Not Investing $150 Billion in the US and It Doesn't Even Have That Kind of Money: Here we go again... media as a vehicle of lobbying and misinformation
Leak: The EPO's General Consultative Committee (GCC) Does Not Consult Staff on Crucial Matters and Bypasses the Administrative Council (AC) to Do Illegal Things: violations against the EPO's very staff
New Leaks Coming Soon, We Maintain 100% Record of Successful Resistance to Censorship: We won't be told what we can and cannot say (especially when it's true)
Central African Republic (CAR): Vista 11 is Only ~0.2% Market Share: 99.8% to go!
BSD and GNU/Linux Replaced Microsoft in Secure Servers, All Microsoft Has Left is LLM Slop for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD): the FUD machine never rests
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: A Simple Task Tracking and Auto-Prioritization Tool and Other Programs: Links for the day
Links 28/04/2025: Canada's Election, Pakistan-India Conflict: Links for the day
Glue Inside Your Pizza (or Why People Will Get Fed Up With Slop): People are given "answers" from non-intelligence word dumpsters
Links 28/04/2025: Cyberattacks Happening, Chatbots Disappointing, and "Free Speech Under Fire": Links for the day
Phone Adoption Very Low in Vatican, Windows Usage Fell Nonetheless: Even in places where people still use desktops/laptops most of the time (and have access to these) Windows is gradually losing ground
GNU/Linux 9% in Cuba, Vista 11 Waning, Android Dominant: Microsoft has pretty much lost Cuba
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 27, 2025: IRC logs for Sunday, April 27, 2025
In 24 Countries Observed by statCounter Vista 11 is Still Less Than a Quarter of Windows Users Despite All Other Versions Being 'Expired': They ought to move to GNU/Linux
Links 27/04/2025: Pope Goodbyes, "Politics of Fear", Slop Redux and More Google Shutdowns (Google Debt Had Grown This Year): Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Serenity Dialectics, Hockey Jersey Ethics, and More: Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Death of Nest Thermostats, Death of Metaverse: Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Projects Workflow and Discovering Technology: Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 26, 2025: IRC logs for Saturday, April 26, 2025
Microsoft Isn't on the Map in USSR: To them, it's either Google or Yandex
In Central America Windows Became a Small Force: These are countries where Windows used to have well over 95% of the "market"
What's Very Vexing to GAFAM, EPO and Others Is That It's Incredibly Hard to Censor Us (and Nobody Ever Successfully Did That Before): resist, do not capitulate
Site May be Even Faster Now: It basically takes less than a tenth of a second to serve the page
Receiving SLAPPs and Collecting Them Like Trophies (the SLAPPs Always Fail): People who file lawsuits bring even more attention to themselves (or to embarrassing statements about them)
Year of GNU/Linux on the Laptop?: It's not happening only in Lenovo
What People Must Understand About the Open Source Initiative (OSI): some facts about the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
Many of the Scandals Are Interconnected (Overlapping People and Corporations): We're only getting started
More Copyright Lawsuits Against LLM Slop Providers and Suppliers of LLM Slopfarms Would Benefit Society: It's not just bad for the Web and for society; it's also legally dangerous
Links 26/04/2025: General Assassinated in the Town of Balashikha, US Promoting Seafloor Mining: Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: Facebook Layoffs Again, Remembering What's Real, and Say No to Mass Surveillance: Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: NOAA Budget Cuts and "Dog Days Ahead": Links for the day
In defence of JD Vance, death of Pope Francis: Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Three Years in Prison for Disney Employee’s ‘Menu Hacking’: The Economic Fallout of Digital Menus: Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 25, 2025: IRC logs for Friday, April 25, 2025

Free Software Timeline and Federation: When Free Software Advocacy/Support is a Monopoly Expansion Becomes Necessary

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