Bonum Certa Men Certa

Year 16

Techrights Year 16



Summary: And just like that, in the quiet of the night, ends our anniversary; we have a lot in store (coming soon)

Today we did not produce many articles; we rested a bit, as it's both a Sunday and a birthday. Tomorrow, as in about an hour from now, our 16th year commences, and then we'll release Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part V (part of a long series that will explain some internal affairs -- mostly scandals -- at GitHub). For those who missed the first 4 parts (we estimate about 20 to come, in total):

  1. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part I — Inside a Den of Corruption and Misogynists
  2. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part II — The Campaign Against GPL Compliance and War on Copyleft Enforcement
  3. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part III — A Story of Plagiarism and Likely Securities Fraud
  4. Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part IV — Mr. MobileCoin: From Mono to Plagiarism... and to Unprecedented GPL Violations at GitHub (Microsoft)


The past year has been exceptionally rewarding. We exposed a lot of EPO corruption and published important revelations about the Free software community. We actually foresaw and foretold some of the Freenode/IRC wars, having become aware of them about a month in advance (we attempted to ameliorate/defuse things). At the end, Libera Chat basically replaced Freenode, but it not growing much after the collapse of Freenode... it got 'stuck' at around 45,000-49,000 users, compared to 80,000-90,000+ in Freenode. Based on the latest figure that we've reproduced below, it's OFTC gaining a bit and hopefully many people have since then moved to self-hosted IRC networks (folks should quit relying on centralised IRC giants -- they themselves are part of the problem!).

IRC top 10

Our writing style has not changed much since 2006. I'm still the principal editor, but there are many of us involved in researching and writing. It's a group effort. Techrights is a real community and it is thriving because people who care about software freedom trust us, based on our track record.

"Over in our Gemini capsule we're archiving important documents, leaks, and books."Now that the CEO of GitHub is leaving we don't expect the main series to yield results in the expulsion/resignation sense. But we still hope it'll illuminate reasons for people to drop GitHub like a hot plate and move somewhere else. At a later stage in the series we plan to name some of the alternatives/replacements, having assessed them for our own use over the past year or so. We ended up rolling out our own with Gemini.

As far as I'm concerned, GitHub is the next CodePlex or the old Freenode. Without the trust, which erodes rapidly, people will flee. The exodus started years ago, but Microsoft presents false/fake numbers that include deleted accounts. We discussed this in IRC the other day (more direct link).

Over in our Gemini capsule we're archiving important documents, leaks, and books. We need to preserve such material for decades to come. We'll have further announcements to that effort in the coming days.

Recent Techrights' Posts

GNU/Linux Has Become More Mainstream in the United Kingdom
It's a long weekend here and we guess some people dabble in GNU/Linux migrations, at least at home
IBM is "Taking the PIP" (Piss), People 'Retire' 'Voluntarily' to "Focus on Family"
IBM has a billion bucks for 'the butcher', but not a million dollars for critical projects and initiatives in Free software
It Should be Uncontroversial to Say That Social Control Media is a Weapon
Democracy is not compatible with the likes of Kapo-Berg and MElon controlling public discourse of billions
 
Gemini Links 30/08/2026: Photography, Paper Books, Linux Kernel and the Debian Projects Permitting Slop Plagiarism
Links for the day
Imagine a World Where Nobody Fights for Software (and Computing) Freedom
The community keeps fighting back, so some of these ambitions are delayed or watered down
FSF Has Grown (More Staff) After a Year of Financial Growth
On October 4 the FSF turns 41
SLAPP Censorship - Part 166 Out of 200: Garrett Wasn't Found Innocent Per Se, the Court Wanted More Evidence of Who Was Behind Particular Accounts Using Tor
It's complicated
Criminals Don't Obey Laws, California Does Not Enhance Online Safety
It has been a while since we last mentioned so-called 'age-verification' laws
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 29, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, August 29, 2026
Links 29/08/2026: Stop the Hate, Goldfish Myths, and xmpp.nz
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2026: Wave of Social Control Media Bans, Suno Data Breach Class Actions
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2026: Microsoft GitHub Outage (Again), "Displaying Ads Directly on Your Monitor", and "Election Deniers Could Soon Control Elections"
Links for the day
Misuse of Bots (Now Sold as "Agents", "Hey Hi", "Automation", and "Efficiency")
They even try to rebrand robotics as "hey hi" and try to sell slop as "work"
Debian: Plagiarism OK, Just be "Responsible" About It
The result isn't the worst, but it's not good either
Don't Let Them Kill Activism
Are the oligarchs shutting the lid on activism and whistleblowers?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 165 Out of 200: Two Years Since My Wife and I Sued
In early September 2024 we hit back
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 28, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, August 28, 2026
Gemini Links 29/08/2026: Death Notice, Systems Biology, and Gopher
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2026: Chatbot Pushers Admit They're Used Heavily for Social Engineering Scams, Strong Backlash Against "Smart Glasses" (CCTV on Legs)
Links for the day
Michael Catanzaro's Latest Blog Post Affirms Rumours of Red Hat Changes and RAs/PIPs at IBM
reading between the lines, IBM is "spitting out" Red Hat staff
If Linux Was Written in Rust, 80% or More of Linux Developers Would Not Understand It (Same If It's Composed by LLM Slop)
The licence (GPL) is not enough when there are ways to bypass it
Gemini Links 28/08/2026: Absurd Tomodachi Summer, Screen Piggery, and Jugulans 1.0.3 Released
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2026: "UK Power Grid Has a Phantom Data Center Problem" and "Growth at All Costs is Cancer"
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 164 Out of 200: Patent Troll SLAPPs, Defamation Trolls, and Stranglers From America
You start to wonder if the core issue is insecurity
Rumours of More PIPs and Layoffs at Confluent Just Months After IBM Bought It
It is meanwhile apparent IBM will have mass layoffs next week (September)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 27, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, August 27, 2026
After Many Waves of PIPs (Silent Layoffs) IBM Makes Non-Silent Layoffs, Effective Next Week (September)
What we heard is turning out to be true