They Tell Us Free/Libre Software is a Security Threat (Never Mind Proprietary Back Doors), a Licensing Risk (Never Mind Proprietary EULAs) and So Forth...
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2020-06-08 13:10:21 UTC
- Modified: 2020-06-08 13:10:21 UTC
Myth versus reality (shame -- like the religious concept of so-called 'sin' -- is a social control mechanism)
Summary: The tired old myth of overt sexism in Free software (never mind the trends in Computer Science or STEM disciplines in general) overlooks the simple fact that there are even greater barriers in the proprietary software world; in Free software any woman can participate (without having to pass job interviews) and the same is true for security, which can be assured/verified by studying source code, with the same applying to licence compliance...
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Claims That IBM Research Brazil is Shutting Down, Japan Impacted Also
- As usual, the corporate media won't mention this
- "GNU/Linux" No Longer a Pandora's Box
- Cannot even make or crack a joke... when you have a target painted on your back
- The "Nazi Bars"
- We don't condone or condemn the label "Nazi Bar"
- TV Programmes in Geminispace
- Sort of like teletext except more cross-platform
-
- Links 19/11/2025: Several Sites Admit Slop Bubble "About to Burst", US Government Tacitly Endorses Assassination of Journalists
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux Up to 5% in analytics.usa.gov, Apple and Microsoft Only Sell Fantasies
- As for Microsoft, it tries to rebrand Windows as "AI" something or "agentic" (AI) something because it's not selling well and Microsoft needs to engage in "creative" storytelling with shareholders
- They Want to Take Humour Away
- If society starts gravitating towards jokes being taboo and abuse/violence/online trolling being "jokes" (they're not), we're worse off and more like North Korea
- The New Stack, Sponsored by Microsoft: Pay Us Money to Read Promotion of Slop Composed by Microsofters to Sell Their Proprietary Slopware
- it's a self-promotional plug for someone who came from Microsoft
- Links 19/11/2025: Google Nest Surveillance and Daily Telegraph Still Up for Sale
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 19/11/2025: "Slack is a Sauna" and ClaudeBot Nuisance
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, November 18, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, November 18, 2025
- We Don't Keep Logs
- Not for any considerable length of time
- Wall Street Journal is Publishing Puff Pieces About Quantum
- For IBM [...] a lot of articles about "AI" are basically a form of spam
- Is the Lid Being Shut on Top of LLM Slop?
- It sort of "feels" like slop is becoming passé
- Celebrating Digital Sovereignty
- Digital Sovereignty is connected very closely to the concept of Software Freedom
- Your Web Site is Connected to the Net and the Server is Powered On, But Cloudflare Takes It All Down
- Anything outsourced means that yet another party can get things wrong, resulting in problems for everyone else "in the chain"
- The Register's Latest Slop Spam, Another Paid-for Article to Inflate the Bubble
- Remember when celebrities advertised FTX?
- Quite a Few Red Hat Layoffs These Days (or Departures)
- Remember that if there are Red Hat Layoffs, they won't be called "Red Hat Layoffs" but instead be "IBM RAs" or some thing to that effect
- Today is an Excellent Day To Remind People to Dump Clownflare (Cloudflare)
- If people think that Clownflare (Cloudflare) will improve uptime and make access better (it sure makes accessibility far worse), remind them of all the times this clown show goes wrong, taking down with it a lot of the Web
- Links 18/11/2025: Asbestos Fears, Delays for GAFAM Undersea Cable
- Links for the day
- Links 18/11/2025: "Bitcoin Showing Signs of Severe Collapse" and CEOs of GAFAM Finally Speak About a Slop Bubble
- Links for the day
- Apparent Red Hat Layoffs in "AI" (Supposedly a Strategic Area for IBM)
- What is going on there?
- Gemini Protocol as a Growing Source of Audience (Mostly Technical People)
- Clients for Gemini Protocol are available for almost every platform imaginable
- Techrights' Assessment of Red Hat Layoffs in 2025 (Yes, They Happened!)
- In short, Red Hat layoffs did occur this year, but even when they did the media did not mention these (and those would count as "IBM" regardless)
- The GPU Bubble (GPUs Marketed by Useless Slop)
- "they're selling GPUs for the sake of selling GPUs"
- EPO Change May be Afoot, Keep Pushing and Hold Those Feet to the Fire
- Backlash is brewing and societal trends reinforce backlash right now
- Links 18/11/2025: CISA Advisories, Climate, "U.S. Layoffs Surge and Blaming AI is Part of the Smokescreen"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 18/11/2025: "Block Them All", Annex, Signed Commits, and "Cryptography of the Internet"
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 17, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, November 17, 2025
- Right Under the Nose of Mainstream Media
- That the media fails to cover the matter mostly speaks volumes about the media
- Formalities Officers at the EPO Face Uncertain Future, Administration Gets Asked About That
- They're being too polite (perhaps) to people whose agenda is detrimental not just to the EPO but also the EPC
- Spanish Focus Coming Soon and Maturity of Site Search
- We'll soon be focusing on Spain
- Slopwatch: LLM Slopfarms Seem to be Slowing Down Somewhat
- LLM addiction is a very unhealthy addiction
- Thailand: Windows Down Sharply, Microsoft Loses Share to GNU/Linux
- the Thai economy is strategic and relatively important in the region
- EPO General Consultative Committee (GCC) Agenda: Reduction of Staff's Salaries (Compared to Inflation)
- knocking salaries down some more
- Gaming Journalist and Guru Jason Schreier Says Microsoft is Indeed Behaving Like It Exits the Console Market
- Remember that many shops no longer sell or stock XBox
- Links 17/11/2025: ‘Agentic OS’ Backlash and Facebook ('Meta') Loses Yann Le Cun
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 17/11/2025: Technology's Harm in Schools, 3D Printer Blurb
- Links for the day
- Coming Soon: EPO Trip in Spain
- António Campinos being 'Marcosed'
- Links 17/11/2025: "You Don't Need Animations" and Blocking Copyright-Infringing Sites Inevitably Goes Wrong
- Links for the day
- The Register MS: Slop is "FOMO" (Fear of Missing Out), FOMO is Funding Us
- even former management (Editor in Chief of The Register MS) admitted to me it was aware of this issue
- What's 4Chan and Why It's So Problematic
- Incels and losers converge around online echo chambers
- Difficult to Win Arguments When the Simple Facts Are Not on One's Side
- Starting arguments over things when you know the facts (unlike money!) aren't on your side is a dumb move that can only ever result in severe loss of credibility
- Python is Attempting an Outreach to African-Americans, Microsoft Lunduke Has a Problem With That
- Did he manage to brainwash himself into this ideology wherein bigotry is in fact tolerance, inclusion, equity?
- Tribalism Injures Projects
- In Free software communities, there are many species and "breeds". Some developers are happy to work with everyone else based upon technical merit
- IBM is Googlebombing Its Way Out of Trouble and Criticism
- IBM is a dying giant
- No, There is Nothing Impressive About Slop Plagiarism-Enabled, Computer-Generated Images in Your Web Site...
- When people use slop they do not broadcast an embrace of innovation; they merely signal they're lazy, unethical, and unscrupulous
- After Denial (of the Issues) Comes Censorship
- Every critic of the status quo is "racist" and every criticism is "racism"
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 16, 2025
- IRC logs for Sunday, November 16, 2025
- Intel, Facing Mass Layoffs (Including Many Key Engineers Who Work on Linux Kernel), is Pushing for Slop Inside Linux
- replacing proper, well-tested code (and documentation thereof) with slop
- More People Want to Quit Windows (Vista 10 is "End of Life"), Restricted Boot (UEFI) Makes That Harder
- It's widely agreed (a consensus) that Restricted Boot is a bad thing for GNU/Linux
- IRCNow Helped Techrights
- If you want to gain more independence or "sovereignty" over your communications and need help setting things up (no prior experience setting up/configuring IRC), go to IRCNow
- How We Managed to Make IRC Inclusive and Free Speech-Tolerant Without Banning People
- People in IRC seldom agree on everything, more so if politics are aired and especially in the wrong context/s
- UEFI 'Restricted Boot' Will Usher in Rootkits Into Linux
- Those of us who understand and value what it means to truly own our devices should definitely be alarmed by these trends
- Plan for European Patent Office (EPO) Coverage This Month, Next Month, and Next Year
- How much longer can European politicians ignore all this corruption?
- Germany-Based Focus Online is Apparently Covering Up Cocaine Use at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, the European Patent Office
- More contact details for the German press - Focus online
- opensource.net Dead Since Middle of Summer, opensource.org (OSI) Still Leaderless
- At the moment the brand "Open Source" is misused so heavily that we have considered adding a new category to our Daily Links, focusing a lot less on "Open" and more on software freedom as a concept
- Photos From Richard Stallman's Talk in Argentina Earlier Today (Remote Talk)
- Dr. Stallman's talk went ahead