Bonum Certa Men Certa

We Welcome Richard Stallman, Again



A publication from the Free Media Alliance

I've created a monster
Cause nobody downloads GNU anymore
They want Linux
I'm chopped liver



Well if you want Linux,
This is what I'll give ya
A little GCC
And the GNU Debugger



- Slim Stallman



They want Linux cause nobody downloads GNU anymore



Summary: "The Free software Federation is not an organisation, it is a collective term."

Today is a day for Free software and playful cleverness.



There was a time, when Free software was a grassroots movement. Do you remember those days? They're coming again.

People are going to make it happen, and are already making it happen.

Without a vote, without permission, without even firing the old guard and indeed, right under their noses, comes:

The Free software Federation

Now, this will probably run afoul of trademark issues sooner or later. And that's not important, because the name is not the idea. The idea is what's important.

So why even call it the Free software Federation?

Two reasons:

1. Because that's what it is.

2. Because that's what (other) people are already calling it.

The people calling this thing the Free software Federation did not authorise the name, they gave it the name. If and when they are required to do so, they will give it some other name.

But this is a federation that has existed for a while, it just didn't get very much publicity. That's about to change.

The Free software Federation is not an organisation, it is a collective term.

Who runs the Federation? The groups that belong to it.

The FSF runs the FSF.

SFC speaks for SFC.

The Association For User Freedom... doesn't even exist yet, but we look forward to them joining us.

And to the Free software Force, Hi! You may have more supporters than you realise.

Speaking of supporters, Hello Richard! Here is your small army of coders and advocates. We never left you. Don't worry, many of us support the FSF getting back up and running again as soon as possible.

We are calling for you to return to the board, where you belong!

But here's a question for the GNUisance and GNUFather: what if FSF failed? What if it fell? A lot of us are very upset, and some of don't think you can any more remove Stallman from Free software than you can remove Einstein from Relativity.

So the Free software Federation is a page that defines it as "a de facto group of organisations and institutions that advocate for Free software."

In a sense, this is not so much a definition as commentary on what already exists.

We are here, and so are you. And we are just as real as the groups on this list.

These are the groups who stand for Free software. The list is growing.

Yes, the FSF is among them. In fact it is by far the most established Free software organisation of all time. Through years of smears and mischaracterisation, the FSF has stood the test of time.

We hope it will continue to do so -- better with you, than without you.

But should it fall, we don't wish for there to be "nothing" in its place.

Many years ago, the United States government went to the largest telco and offered them an opportunity.

Revamp your network, so that it doesn't have a single point of failure.

The telco balked, but the internet was built anyway.

That telco is still around today. But so is the Internet.

And so now you have the FSF, and -- you have the Free software Federation.

Maybe you think this is crazy, and maybe you want nothing to do with this. The only problem of course, is that the Federation is:

"a de facto group of organisations and institutions that advocate for Free software."

And you sir, are most certainly an institution. None of this existed without you, and it still exists because of you.

When I first talked about this, I was thinking of a phrase. When I talked to someone in particular about this, they echoed that phrase though I had not said it.

That phrase, was "playful cleverness."

Long Live rms, and Happy Hacking.

Recent Techrights' Posts

SoylentNews Grows Up, Registers as a Business, Site Traffic Reportedly Grows
More people realise that social control media may in fact be a passing fad
 
Garden Season Starts Today
Outdoor time, officially...
More Information About Public Talks That Richard Stallman Gave This Week in Europe
Two talks in Switzerland
Engadget is Still a Spamfarm, It's Just an Amazon Catalogue (SPAM/SEO), a Sea of Junk Disguised as "Articles" With Few 'Fillers' (Real Articles) in Between
Engadget writes for bots now, not for humans
Richard Stallman's Talks in Switzerland This Week
We need to put an end to 'cancer culture'; it's trying to kill people and it is even swatting people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 28, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, March 28, 2024
[Meme] EPO's New Ways of Working (NWoW), a.k.a. You Don't Even Get a Desk at Work and Cannot be Near Known Colleagues
Seems more like union-busting (divide and rule)
Hiding Microsoft's Culpability in Security Breaches and Other Major Blunders (in the United Kingdom, This May Mean You Can't Get Food)
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is vast
Giving back to the community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 28/03/2024: Sega, Nintendo, and Bell Layoffs
Links for the day
Open letter to the ACM regarding Codes of Conduct impersonating the Code of Ethics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries