Bonum Certa Men Certa

A Look From the Inside: Open Source Initiative's Voting Process is a Sham, Large Corporations Are in Charge

Video download link | md5sum a054cb54824c30e259b1ff0412d9ee8b OSI Controlled by Billionaires Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is dominated by openwashing, self-serving giant corporations that are neither Open Source nor tolerant of the Free/Open Source community (they mostly try to dominate or overthrow the community, using money and smear campaigns)

"STEP ASIDE, Richard Stallman, we'll take it from here!"



"Move over, Bruce Perens, we'll do a much better job! Everything is now Open Source!"

"Go away, ESR, we know better what we're doing. Leave it to the professionals, the rich adults in the room!"

That's the sort of attitude we nowadays see in the OSI, which wasn't always this bad. According to part one of this very long write-up, the voting process too is a sham, and not purely due to technical reasons -- a subject we've covered here many times before.

In the eye of an 'insider', Willis: "So it’s a troubling ballot to look at. There’s an ostensibly non-profit organization that’s an official OSI affiliate trying to run its CEO as an individual candidate while also running a second member (a board director) on the appropriate, affiliate ballot in the same election. There’s also two financial sponsors running candidates on the individual ballot, one of them (Red Hat) running two candidates at the same time for the two open seats."

"The OSI is willing to berate and banish even its own founders. Criticism isn't permitted."LWN has already mentioned this, but there are no comments at this time. "Nathan Willis," LWN says, "took a long look at the Open Source Initiative's 2022 board election and wasn't entirely pleased with what he saw."

If Willis said this about the Linux Foundation, there would be disciplinary action. As we noted recently, the Code of Conduct (CoC) Committee received “2 reports of concern that several CNCF ambassadors were airing grievances about not having talks accepted at the event, which belittled the work of the program committee”.

So merely questioning a process is a CoC violation?

Anyway, this is where we stand now. The OSI is willing to berate and banish even its own founders. Criticism isn't permitted.

"They know who bosses them. The oligarchs bought and paid for both of those institutions, in effect rendering them lobbying apparatuses for the billionaires, who use the Code of Conduct to ban people who criticise them."The OSI is already sold (to Microsoft mostly, as that's where most of the OSI's budget goes). Like the so-called "Linux" (only in name) Foundation, community is now something to be marginalised and "disciplined". The corporations are concern-trolling us. They wait for a reaction and then they attack the community.

The OSI and the so-called "Linux" (only in name) Foundation are broken beyond redemption. They cannot be redeemed anymore because everything in them is controlled by corporate money. Their chiefs are a mix of corporate employees and people hired using corporate money. They know who bosses them. The oligarchs bought and paid for both of those institutions, in effect rendering them lobbying apparatuses for the billionaires, who use the Code of Conduct to ban people who criticise them. Openwashing is being force-fed now. Polluters are "green", proprietary spyware is "open", and racist corporations working for the Pentagon are all about inclusion and diversity (they claim).

LWN says Nathan Willis "wasn't entirely pleased with what he saw." What an understatement! We've not even seen part 2 yet. I express my views on the matter in the video above.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Tentative Summary of Things to Publish in Project 2030
I'll still be in my forties by then
Rust People: Drain the Swap, You're Holding It Wrong
Does Rust make sense?
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, linuxconfig.org, and Plagiarised Phoronix
Many articles out there are nowadays fake
 
Our 5-Year Geminispace Anniversary is Coming Up
I still remember when Gemini Protocol was quite new
It's Right to Point Out Violence From the Right
Violence is a recurring theme
Web Browsers That "Do Hey Hi" (AI)
State-of-the-art plagiarism or "autocomplete on steroids" (not coined by us, nevertheless a nice description) don't have much/any prospect
Links 20/09/2025: Hardware Projects in View, Some Independent Publishers About Russia Prosper After Cheeto Cuts Funding
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Options and TV Time Machine
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Retrocomputer, Antique Phone Experience, and More
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Internet Shutdowns, Media Censorship, and Climate Worries
Links for the day
About 700 New Gemini Capsules in 13 Months (or 54 Per Month)
4.8K would represent a 20% increase
Techrights the Name Turns 15
About 6 weeks from now we turn 19
Microsoft is Running Out of Time and Floating Fake Figures, Fake Projects, Fake Narratives, Fake Excuses
Also, a lot of Microsoft's "revenue" claims are circular financing (i.e. Microsoft buying from itself, which means Ponzi-like fraud)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 19, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Navigating the Pressures of Modern Life and SpellBinding Accidentally Wrote Another Gemini Server
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Press Freedom Dying in US, Anti-Austerity Strikes in France, and Alan Rusbridger to Leave 'Prospect'
Links for the day
European Patent Office Illegally Gutting and Outsourcing Its Functions, Acting Like an Above-the-Law Commercial Business (It Won't Stop at Formalities Officers (FOs) and Classification Slop at the EPO)
breaking/violating laws and conventions
Offloading to the Sister Site
In the interest of not overwhelming readers
Links 19/09/2025: Coffee Club and "SpellBinding is Now Absurdly Fast"
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Lobbyist of American GAFAM Becomes Data Protection Commissioner in Europe
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Media Freedom Ceases to Exist in US, "Consider Dropping Twitter/X"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/09/2025: Thinking and Insect Bites
Links for the day
Microsoft E.E.E.: Git Will Now (or Very Soon) Fully Depend on Rust, Which is Controlled by Microsoft
Microsoft now makes Git dependent on Rust, or making Git dependent on GitHub, which is proprietary
The Right to Punch People (Apparently)
At Brett Wilson, Brett's job title is "Head of Crime" and Wilson normalises calls for violence
Slop or Fake Articles Have Turned Linux Journal From a Pioneering/Trailblazing "Linux" Magazine Into a Nuisance
some sites with former reputation - good reputation - turn into cesspools
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 18, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 18, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Seem to Have Had Only One Litigation Client in 2025, He Was Previously Charged, Just Like the Serial Strangler From Microsoft (Whom They Now Represent)
Karma is superstition, regulators are not
Project 2030 to Cover How "Project 2025"-Styled Anti-Media Zealots From America Targeted Techrights and Tux Machines
The common denominator is also their attacks on women
Brett Wilson LLP Failed to Meet Deadlines Set by Judge 7 Months Earlier, Tried to Ruin Our Holiday, Then Had the Audacity to Ask Us for Over 3,000 Pounds for Its Own Lateness
As a matter of principle we will never respond to assassin while we are on holiday
On Claims That After Bluewashing Red Hat Will Increasingly Become an Indian Company
Discussed this week (long and detailed)
Americans Attacking British Sites Only Months After They Leave America
We find it kind of funny if not ironic that this site, originally an American site, got legal harassment only from Americans and only months after it had moved to the UK
Despite Losing Over a Quarter Million Dollars a Year Software in the Public Interest (SPI) Gives Helping Hand to Libreboot
SPI's financial state depends a lot on its public image or its reputation
Slopwatch: Google Helps Plagiarism and Sends Traffic to Ripoff Artists
That Google as a company helps spamfarms is noteworthy
If You Want to Know the Future, Listen to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Andy Farnell
We're sure the FSF will have plenty of its own output
Links 18/09/2025: A Taliban Ban on Internet Access and Troubled US Job Market
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/09/2025: Computer Literacy and Accessing Alhena's Database
Links for the day
Links 18/09/2025: US War on Media (Truth Banned, Cancel Culture by the Hard Right), NYT Chief Executive Warns Cheeto is Deploying ‘Anti-press Playbook'
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 17, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 17, 2025