Bonum Certa Men Certa

Free Software is Not About Price, It is About Freedom (Personal Autonomy, Control, Sovereignty, Privacy, Dignity...)

Reader's art

Beyond the lock
Drawing by Mogz (full resolution version) for Techrights. "About 4 hours, using various texture brushes, and a soft blender for the nature scene in the background," she notes.



Summary: Reasserting the importance of adopting Free-as-in-freedom (libre, livre) software; the window of opportunity is closing fast as a pandemic is leveraged as pretext for many hostile aspects of technology and once the door is shut there may be no alternatives left or permitted (e.g. anonymous payments using cash and software without state-imposed back doors)

TODAY we continue to release internal documents about patents (or Europe's monopolised patent office, which is also Europe's second-largest institution), but let's not forget what got us started; a decade and a half ago there was a directive in Parliament regarding software patents in Europe. Lobbyists of companies like Microsoft tried hard to cement monopoly by making it impossible to develop software in peace. Coding is an activity whose product is already covered by copyright law. Do we want patents on code? Is that even feasible to deal with? Code, unlike physical products, can be developed by a sole programmer. Programmers don't want to study hundreds of thousands of patents before writing a few lines of code.



"GNU/Linux is still the foremost vehicle for advancement of software freedom because it's likely the most practical to adopt and use (compared to lesser-known operating systems with far fewer device drivers)."Earlier this year we learned that software patents were leveraged against European developers and distributors of GNU/Linux distributions. No, not Canonical's or IBM's; actual community distros... people who barely live from one paycheck to the next (if they have a paycheck at all; some rely on generous donations). There's an urgent need to do something about it; the media sure isn't talking about it (too busy writing 'scripted articles' which are actually PR disguised as 'reporting'), but developers tell us about it.

GNU/Linux is still the foremost vehicle for advancement of software freedom because it's likely the most practical to adopt and use (compared to lesser-known operating systems with far fewer device drivers).

Beyond the lock close-upWe recognise that many of our readers are not coders; some aren't very technical either (or not technical in the software/programming sense). Mogz, who has just produced for us the drawing on the right (and above), understands that software freedom isn't just for coders. It's also important for artistic types like herself -- a person who values privacy and other cornerstones of a dignified society

There's an old saying about recognition of the importance of something only once someone loses that something. Think of elections. Back in the days people had no voting rights or only particular people could vote (e.g. the rich "landowners", only males, only 'white' males and so on). Had people, especially women, lost their right to vote, there would be an uproar, correct? Why aren't people protesting the erosion of their privacy? Why are people installing so-called 'apps' that spy on their movement in the name of 'protecting' them? Why are people tolerating operating systems which are very well known to contain deliberate back doors?

Our guess is, as time goes by and things get grimmer (we're seeing EPO workers increasingly concerned about being spied on inside their own homes) more people will begin to recognise just how important Free/libre software is. The problem is, by the time enough people realise this and "wake up" (akin to recognition of the voters' disfranchisement) it might already be too late to effectively work to correct it.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Unless a Third of All Microsoft Layoffs Worldwide Are in Redmond (Washington) Alone, Microsoft Has Just Lied to Everyone Via Jordan Novet in CNBC (i.e. the Usual Any Time There's Mass Layoffs and Novet Weighs in With False Numbers)
Maybe when Microsoft said 3% it meant ~6,000 or more in the US alone
As Expected, Microsoft Uses Media Operative (Jordan Novet) to Downplay the Scale of Mass Layoffs
here we go
Last Week's Public Talk by Richard Stallman Well Attended and Covered in Technical News Sites
and we're looking at about 60,000 Microsoft layoffs in 3 years
 
Gemini Links 13/05/2025: Apocalyptic Future and More
Links for the day
There Are Also Loads of Microsoft LinkedIn Layoffs Today (Keep Track of the Subsidiaries They Keep Out of Headlines)
Perhaps lost in the smokescreen
McKinsey (McK) is Killing IBM, It's All About Killing This Goose, "National Sales Team 80% on PIP Now" (Preceding Layoffs Without Severance)
PIPs are not based on performance
Links 13/05/2025: Microsoft Breaks Windows Very Badly Again, Mass Layoffs Reported (But False Figures, It's a Lot Higher)
Links for the day
2025 Will be a Big Year For GNU/Linux on Desktops/Laptops
with an economy like this, people who don't live in rich countries won't turn to Apple
Signs of Trouble: Microsoft Job Openings for Jobs That Do Not Exist!
Keeping up appearances?
"Special Place in Hell" for Women Who Help Violent Microsofters From Another Continent Attack Local Women Who Did Nothing Wrong, They Just Got Bullied and Deserve Sympathy or Compensation
Nothing says "Brat" like men who attack women, right?
The Numbers Game: 50,000-60,000 Microsoft Workers Laid Off in 2.5 Years? And Debt Still Tripled Under Nadella.
under Nadella Microsoft's debt trebled
The Slow Death of Windows Will Mean the Inevitable Demise of Microsoft
Once people stop using Windows, it'll be hard for Microsoft to sell anything to them
Gemini Links 13/05/2025: Shopping is an Exasperating Nightmare and Making Phones Minimal
Links for the day
23,000 More Microsoft Layoffs by the End of June If the Estimates Are Correct (In Addition to About 6,000 Layoffs So Far This Year)
There's no questions about many layoffs happening this month. It got leaked already. The only question is when (and also how many).
Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 12, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 12, 2025
Major Microsoft Layoffs This Week (Discussed Online)
later we can expect a lot of spin, even misinformation
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: Missed Deadline
they helped expose a number of other scandals
Links 12/05/2025: Measles Rising and Taliban Outlaws Chess in Afghanistan
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/05/2025: Advice, Iorist Ethics, and Touchscreens
Links for the day
The Finances of GAFAM Aren't as They Seem
MICROSOFT FINANCIAL PYRAMID revisited
Links 12/05/2025: US Brain Drain and Reminder That "Microsoft's Lobbying Efforts Eclipsed Enron" (Fraud Coverup)
Links for the day
The Enshittification of Royal Mail (Post Office/Postal Services) Continues
Enshittification is a thing, not only in the digital realm
Red Hat's Owner is Called "America's Worst Tech Company" (IBM) and Microsoft's Liabilities Grow
Microsoft has about a quarter of a trillion (yes, trillion with a "T") in liabilities
If the Gossip is True, Today Microsoft Has "Large M1 Meetings" to Discuss Almost 30,000 More Microsoft Layoffs in 2025
the claim is that Microsoft is preparing to lay off 10% of its staff
Microsoft Has a Long and Proven History of Funding Meritless Lawsuits Against Rivals and Critics (It Always Backfires)
It also looks like the solicitor used by two Microsofters to SLAPP us is being urgently replaced
Links 12/05/2025: Gardens and Kitchens
Links for the day
Links 12/05/2025: Media Being Attacked (New Forms of Attack on the Press), Many Data Breaches
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 11, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 11, 2025
Links 11/05/2025: Pyotr Wrangel and Kubernetes With FreeBSD
Links for the day
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: A Moment of Silence and Revisionism Amid US Government Investigation and Community Uproar
Not a word this month
Microsoft Florian Becomes Patent Troll, Arranges to Sue Companies (Extorting Money Out of Them)
From campaigner against software patents to paid Microsoft shill to "FOSS patents" (actually attacking FOSS) to revisionism as "books" (for Microsoft)... and now this
How the SLAPPs From Microsoft Staff Are Connected to the Corrupt OSI, Whose Majority of Money Comes From Microsoft for Openwashing, LLM Hype, and Whitewashing GPL Violations During Class Action Trial
Let's explain how some of these things are connected
Links 11/05/2025: China's Fentanylware (TikTok) Tells Kids to Vandalise Schools' Chromebooks and Increased Censorship in India
Links for the day
You Need Not Be a Big Company to Defeat Microsoft If You Can Successfully Challenge Its Core "Ideas"
Maybe that's just a sign that the ideas of RMS have become too effective and thus "dangerous"
Gemini Links 11/05/2025: Yeeting Oligarch Tech, Offline Browsing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 10, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 10, 2025