Bonum Certa Men Certa

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

"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).

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Word About the Upcoming Talk by Richard Stallman - Scheduled for Friday This Week - Has Spread ("The Cost of Freedom," Lausanne, Switzerland)
So the word is spreading
 
Microsoft Breaks Linux Again
Does it even care? It's selling Windows.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 14, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Links 14/01/2025: Vaccination Hesitancy Problems and Kangaroo Courts (UPC)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/01/2025: Introduction to GrapheneOS and Small Internet
Links for the day
Dr. Miriam Bastian From the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Gives a Talk in a Couple of Weeks at FOSDEM (Brussels, Belgium)
It's good to see people from all around the world and with very different backgrounds united around digital philosophy
Andy Farnell on Eating Your Own Dog Food
focuses on security but goes beyond that
EPO Uses the Misnomer "AI" to Attack Software Developers in Europe
The EPO is nowadays a huge pile of crimes
The European Patent Office’s (EPO) Communication on "Reform" is "Incomplete and Misleading," Says the Central Staff Committee at the EPO
This puts Europe at risk and makes it more vulnerable
[Meme] How to Lose Social Life (While Pretending to Still Have It)
Talk to people, not to microphones
Android (or AOSP) is More Free Than iOS, Both in Practice (as OEM Bundles) Both Are User-Hostile
In a perfect world, people would choose and deploy software that is entirely made up of reciprocally-licensed bits
Neuroscience of Consciousness Paper: Why Social Control Media and Proprietary Spyware Harm Your Health
"Software Freedom turns out to be good for your health"
Access to the Source Code of the Programs You're Using Matters (Even If You're Not a Coder and Cannot Fix Bugs)
Companies like Microsoft tell us that full access to all the code isn't important
Guardian Digital (linuxsecurity.com) Publishes Fake Articles About Linux and About (for) 'Linux' Foundation Openwashing
Brittany Day is at it again
Links 14/01/2025: LA Crisis and EU, UK Respond to "X.com" Threat From South African Oligarch
Links for the day
"AI Music" is Not Music and It's Hardly "AI" Either
Synthetic garbage is a solution in search of a problem
Webspam in BetaNews
Not only is it marketing SPAM
[Meme] 13 Years a Slave of Microsoft
Might makes right?
Gemini Links 14/01/2025: The Gemtext Print Hurdle and New Game: Fill!
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 13, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, January 13, 2025
Links 13/01/2025: Conflicts, Prisoner Exchange, and Homes on Fire
Links for the day
Angola: Microsoft Windows Falls Below 10%
Microsoft has a really bad 2024 in Africa
[Meme] Twitter ("X") Has Been Grooming Radicals Since 2022
Musk's very own "grooming gang"
[Meme] What Free Speech Ought to Mean
It does not sound like RMS suggests anything other than quitting social control media
Gemini Links 13/01/2025: RestFest, Yule, and Deedum
Links for the day
Modern Web Browsers as Web Censorship Software
We continue to recommend Geminispace
Two Weeks From Now Dr. Richard Stallman Speaks at The Summit of Future 2025 (India)
he will be giving a "Keynote Address" in India
Microsoft is Tight With Money: It's About the Salaries ('Cost' of the Workers)
a question of cost, not skill
Google Got People Sort of Addicted to Android So It Can Cash in (Services, App Store, Advertising) Decades Later
This is not software freedom
The Free Software Foundation Reaches 370k Dollars in Funding, Due Date is January 17th When Richard Stallman is Guest of Honour in Lausanne (Switzerland)
Even fellow board members seem unaware of it
Record Lows for Windows (Microsoft) in Botswana
The market share of Vista 11 is seen as going down
Preserving Deleted Articles About Bill Gates Talking Like a Drug Dealer About Computer Users
Now it's 2025. Different challenge.
Links 13/01/2025: Disinformation, Social Control Media Actively Promoting Nazism, and Catchup With Ukraine
Links for the day
Microsoft Front Group Starts the Year by Championing Underage (or Child) Labour
the fake 'FSF'
TPM Boosters Inside Debian (TPM Isn't About Security, It is About Control Over Users and Their Machines)
We're not rushing to any conclusions
Aaron Swartz Died 12 Years Ago After a Vicious Government Campaign to Stop Him
The Aaron Swartz story is a reminder of the importance of having verifiable/verified information out there for the general public to see
Links 13/01/2025: GitLab Enshittification and Minimalism and Efficiency with Gemini Protocol
Links for the day
Links 13/01/2025: Hardware, Health, and Conflicts
Links for the day
Chatbots Are Not Data-Driven, They're Human-Censored and Rely on Wage Slaves (and Sometimes Unpaid Volunteers)
This is the Microsoft wage slavery
Microsoft Appears to Have Fallen to Only 15% in Maldives
This is a problem for Microsoft
Rumours of IBM Canada Layoffs
We'll keep a vigilant eye on this
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, January 12, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, January 12, 2025