Bonum Certa Men Certa

The 'Old School' Web is Alive and Well, Contrary to What Hype About 'Smart', 'Clown Computing', 'Web 2.0', and 'Mobile-Friendly' Wants Us to Believe

Urban decay
Keep things simple and tidy, not bombastic and outsourced



Summary: Decaying World Wide Web bloat (Flash, ActiveX, AMP and so on) shows us that we need to go back to basics; sites that didn't rush to fake novelty (seduced by false promises) are still doing OK, whereas others perish and die from unmaintainable complexity and/or over-reliable on third parties

Today, 17 years ago, Tux Machines was born. It won't be long before the site turns 20 and it's still exceptionally popular. At an average of 400KB/second, based on the past month, it's actually one of the busiest hubs of GNU/Linux news. Tux Machines rarely publishes original stories; it's curating existing news and organises the news for easier digestion by those who aren't neophiles and have limited time in which to catch up with important events/developments. By means of comparison, Techrights turns 15 this year, it has a lot more traffic because of videos (based on volume at least), and unlike Tux Machines it mostly publishes original stories, along with memes, Daily Links, and the occasional poetry.

"After nearly 15 years we still haven't burned a source, not even by accident."In 2014 we became a busy hub for EPO news; Benoît Battistelli was such a terrible leader (already outdone by António Campinos in some ways) that EPO staff was "flocking" to our "cause", according to EPO leaks. People recognised that we were reliable and discreet enough. After nearly 15 years we still haven't burned a source, not even by accident.

The other day I had a chat with the person who runs Freenode. He had developed software that enables anonymous chats over IRC. Bear in mind he also founded a privacy-preserving VPN company called PIA, boasting millions of customers. Earlier today, as noted here before, we upgraded our Gemini server. We've long hoped to make it a possible vector through which to submit leaks to us. We're actually rather astounded that about 10,000 pages are requested from the Techrights Gemini (gemini://) capsule per day, on average, only a few months after we set it all up.

NetSurfOur capacity to publish is generally improving; what takes up a lot of time is technical work at the back end, improving all sorts of things that make the site better and more self-governing (we're mostly self-hosted, so it's hard to censor us).

One recent example of the technical work (not writing but building) is the IRC stuff; we strive to make IRC less centralised and more self-hosted, albeit federated. We hope that more sites and projects will follow our footsteps.

The Techrights site looked almost the same in 2006. In fact, no wonder Web browsers from around 2006 still work perfectly OK with this site, including NetSerf, which we're currently reviewing and plan to write about in the future (maybe videos too, but I want to study it fully for a long time). NetSerf has been on my machine for about a year, but I only recently (weeks ago) started using it on a daily basis. It gives hope for a Google-free Web, otherwise the retreat might be Gemini.

Web pages needn't be complex. JavaScript is rarely truly needed. Over the past decade or so many Web pages were turned into "webapps" against the wishes of actual users. In the process, Web giants extended their spying, prying eyes. We need to move away from all that and make it possible for people to pursue reliable information, without having to become the information themselves (what's known as 'surveillance capitalism', treating surfers like rats in a lab's maze).

Techrights isn't committed to lesser known projects for the sake of being "different" but for the sake of being right and just. Projects such as IPFS, Gemini, NetSerf and so on generally emancipate Internet users, putting back in control individuals rather than corporations. Notice how there's almost no corporation (at all) involved in those projects. By the way, NetSerf deals with Tux Machines perfectly well too. The sorts of Web sites NetSerf cannot cope with are the types of sites better not accessed at all (because of what they do to visitors).

Image credit: The NetSurf Developers - SF007, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day