Bonum Certa Men Certa

Timeline of Free/Livre/Libre Software

Not quite what the corporate media likes to tell people

What if I told you it all started in 1983 and not 1991?



Summary: Our research into the history (and present) of Free software continues; at the moment it is our foremost interest and our subject of focus

THE Free Software timeline, maintained and constantly updated by figosdev (last updated yesterday), helps put in perspective what happened over the years and the decades. New leaks help do the same. We just want to have a better understanding/grasp of what happened and what is still happening. The present and future certainly depend on the past.



"The interest in the topics we cover is certainly there."Yesterday we published about 8,000 E-mails from Debian's 'elevated' (and secretive) community. Mark Shuttleworth shows up there more than a dozen times and we've found nothing really unsavoury in these E-mails (we studied many hundreds of these). One might ask, however, "aren't ordinary Debian Developers allowed to see what happens 'higher up'?" Transparency is certainly possible. We've found not much gossip or sensitive details in these E-mails; however we've learned a lot about the early days of Debian. It's good to have these in the public domain.

We're currently exploring a number of other angles. There are answers to particular questions which need further evidence and some of that is work in progress. We appreciate readers' patience and support. Moral support is very important. We don't mean to disparage but to understand. Truth has always been of utmost value. Due to the P.R. industry [sic] truth has long been elusive. We're very transparent about our processes and communications; the pastes in the latest IRC logs also reveal parts of E-mails. Sometimes we rub out names in the interest of privacy/anonymity. That seems sensible (protecting sources).

Techrights readership keeps growing. The interest in the topics we cover is certainly there. Our baseline readership is about 3,000 per article (direct views, not RSS or multi-post pages), sometimes 10k, sometimes even 150k (earlier this month). And that's just in the first week (not long-term statistics). But what matters is accuracy, not readership. We're very rarely proven wrong. We very rarely need to correct/amend articles.

"For the time being we're mostly done with research into IBM's past and the EPO scandals have quieted down (not that they're resolved)."On our "TODO" list right about now is publication of older material that can shed light on suppressed matters/issues in the GNU/Linux community. For the time being we're mostly done with research into IBM's past and the EPO scandals have quieted down (not that they're resolved). Regarding software patents, there's no sign of resurgence and in Daily Links we habitually add stories about such patents perishing in American courts. So we shelve those aside, so to speak, unless or until there's something major to report (a change in pattern). The recent FRAND ruling in the UK is not particularly interesting. Lots of blog/media coverage about that, mostly by law firms looking to make a buck/quid/euro.

"We're happy to see what Bruce Perens has to say this month and his huge number of Debian-Private E-mails reveal him or 'expose' him as a reasonable person who habitually speaks to Richard Stallman and promotes Free (as in Freedom) software."As promised, over the next few weeks we'll publish more findings about the past and present of Free/livre/libre software. We're happy to see what Bruce Perens has to say this month and his huge number of Debian-Private E-mails reveal him or 'expose' him as a reasonable person who habitually speaks to Richard Stallman and promotes Free (as in Freedom) software. As figosdev put it some hours ago: "He does a great job describing the problems, and people should pay attention to that. But his solutions have some of the same problems that Open Source do with regards to Free Software -- and he says things like two similar licenses in a set of 3 makes it more like 2.5 licenses because you don't have to learn three completely different ones. That's true on a certain level, but mostly 3 licenses are three licenses if you change a word or sometimes a semicolon. So sharing substantial text (in a legal document like that) -- even if he has a point, it won't have the effect he claims -- not for people who are actually going to learn the license. I suspect he will clarify that later as I'm sure he knows better and doesn't gain from misleading on that."

Recent Techrights' Posts

Destruction and Distortion of Information, Including Facts About Linux (Bonus: This is Destroying the Planet)
All that LLMs have going for them is hype, and moreover media that intentionally misrepresents them and their supposed capabilities
IBM Layoff Rumours, Large-Scale Implementations Weeks Ahead (in March 2025)
There are some people corroborating
 
Google Seems to Have Just Killed All Instances of Invidious
YouTube is rapidly becoming just "another Neflix"
Microsoft Skype in a Freefall: About 20% Decrease in Site Traffic in 3 Months (Amid Microsoft Phasing Out Credits)
Microsoft axing more services/features may mean that now they scrape the bottom of the barrel and Skype will simply die, discontinuing service (like ICQ) in a matter of years
Gemini Links 12/02/2025: Depression, Gabbro, WikiTok, and More
Links for the day
Links 12/02/2025: Health, Security, and Monopolies
Links for the day
Gemini Protocol is Increasingly Important to the Net
Gemini Protocol will turn 6 this summer
Former EPO Manager Warns That the Illegal 'Court' for "Unitary Patents" Enables “Law Shopping”
Daniel X. Thomas opposed the very existence of the UPC, which any honest person could recognise was both illegal and unconstitutional
Like GAFAM, the EPO is Passing the Financial Pains to Staff
the EPO is operating illegally at this point
Morale at Microsoft Ruined by the Company Labelling Thousands of Workers 'Low Performers', Sacking Them on the Spot and Denying Them Basic Benefits
people laid off as "low performers" go to social control media to bemoan the label
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 11, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Links 11/02/2025: Current state of the Internet and Smallnet Information Services (SIS)
Links for the day
Conservative Estimate: Over 10,000 IBM Workers to Be Laid Off in the Next Two Waves
The morale is low and layoffs are expected soon, with mass layoffs likely happening next month and then again later
Links 11/02/2025: Trade Wars and "Crisis for American Universities"
Links for the day
Parasitic LLM Slop Sites Destroy the Ability to Find "Linux" News in Google News
Remember that Google News laid off lots of its workers
Richard Stallman's English Talk in Italy Less Than 24 Hours Away (Torino) and Then Another Talk in Italy Scheduled (University of Bozen-Bolzano)
He's active and he travels a lot in spite of his medical condition
Links 11/02/2025: Nutritional Poverty, Closure of USAID, More Fictional 'Valuations' Around Buzzwords
Links for the day
Perl Programming Leftovers
recently in perl.org
Microsoft in Africa: From 98% to Less Than 10% in Just 16 Years
Microsoft being on less than 1 in 10 Web-connected devices in Africa is a very big deal
Almost as If MElon Reads Techrights
The joke we started appears to be spreading
Microsoft Blasted for Adding Insult to Injury: Workers Laid Off Without Prior Notice, Without Severance Payment and Basic Coverage (Like Health), Then Stigmatised as Bad Performers So They Cannot Find a Job Elsewhere
Such stereotypes end entire careers
Gemini Links 11/02/2025: NeoVim and Deploying Other People's Code
Links for the day
BetaNews is Still Publishing LLM Slop/SPAM About "Linux"
Assuming it is indeed LLM slop, it seems clear BetaNews has no intention of improving or is simply unable/unwilling to improve
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 10, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, February 10, 2025
Scheduled Maintenance Tomorrow and on Valentines
If the site (or Gemini capsule) is offline for a bit, the maintenance windows are likely the root cause
If Matthias Kirschner Loves Free Software, He'll Change the Name of the Microsoft-Sponsored Organisation He Governs (in Order to Avoid Confusion)
The FSF-EEE does not really like Software Freedom, it just loves money (including Microsoft's)
Soylent News Lessens the Scope of Discussion Due to Persistent Trolling and Online Abuse
if they make it a lot harder for new people to participate, then they limit the "general appeal" and reach
EPO's Local Occupational Health, Safety and Ergonomics Committee (LOHSEC) in The Hague: Workers Are Getting Sicker, Conditions in Which to Assess Patent Applications Deteriorate
"According to the Office statistics the total number of days of absence has gone up from 12.4 to 13.1 total number of sick days per Full Time Equivalent (FTE) from 2023 to 2024."
The Standard Needs to Improve Its Standards for Fact-Checking, Aaron Swartz Had Nothing to Do With Reddit and He Detested the Company That Created It
The Web is already bad enough as it is
When the Livestream of Richard Stallman is Apparently Bury-Brigaded Offline You Finally Learn to Avoid Google/YouTube for Streaming
Please, people, stop uploading to Google/YouTube
New Paper From the EPO Highlights Large-Scale Discrimination at the Office, Where People Are Rewarded for Granting More and More Illegal Patents
Even the Kremlin is probably more competent than this
Links 10/02/2025: Ban on D.E.I. Language, Listeria Risk/Outbreak
Links for the day
Links 10/02/2025: Announcing "Stringless" and Mental Health Improvement
Links for the day
Links 10/02/2025: Facebook Mass Layoffs, "Meta" Did What Aaron Swartz Had Done But to the Tune of 81.7 Terabytes
Links for the day
Microsoft Tarnishing the Brand of Arch
Of course Arch can do whatever it wants, but being associated with Microsoft is a badge of shame
The Ultimate and Inevitable Fall of OpenAI (Even Brave is 'Bigger' Now)
"When you advertise at the Super Bowl, you’ve reached just about every consumer in America. It’s the last stop. If you’re not profitable yet, you never will be."
Adding Slop to Your Blog Only Makes One Assume All the Text is LLM Slop
Simon Coter from Oracle has turned to slop
Macao is Leaving Microsoft Behind
Windows is falling to new all-time lows
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 09, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, February 09, 2025
Microsoft's WSL (LSW) Shows That It Can Never Love Linux, Only Windows
that's just how Microsoft rolls
Activism in Times of War and a Coup
'Linux' Foundation works for fascism
What the Silencing of Neatnik Tells Us About Linus Torvalds Inside a Microsoft-Dominated 'Linux' Foundation
Is Linus Torvalds free to express his mind as he wishes about every topic, even just any technical topic?
Windows Down to 11.35% in Senegal, as Measured by statCounter
Another all-time low (Windows was at 99% in 2009)
"Latest Technology News" in BetaNews is LLM Slop Promoting OOXML and Proprietary Software at the Expense of LibreOffice and OpenDocument Format (ODF)
Remember that "open-source" and Open Source aren't the same; the former is fake