🏦 💰 Taxpayer money should fund public goods.
When governments invest in software, it should be #FreeSoftware: software that gives the rights to use, understand, adapt, and share.
Sign the open letter to support this principle:
🔗 https://publiccode.eu
📣 Is "disable" the same as "uninstall"? We do not believe it. Google does.
Under the DMA, the FSFE with a coalition of civil-society organisations prompts the @EUCommission to open proceedings to investigate Alphabet's (#Google) regarding the uninstallation of pre-installed apps in Android.
Uninstalling is completely removing the app, not just disabling it! This is key for #DeviceNeutrality!
📎 https://edri.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Joint-DMA-complaint-Alphabet-for-publication.pdf
🎧 New episode 🎧
Listen to our latest episode of the Software Freedom Podcast about the AI act!
📻 https://fsfe.org/news/podcast/episode-36.en.html
With the EU AI Act about to come into force, @annabonnie and @lexelas discuss the current debate surrounding it and shed light on the arguments.
"Recent and not so recent changes in OpenBSD that make life better (and may turn up elsewhere too)" https://nxdomain.no/~peter/recent-and-not-so-recent_changes_in_openbsd_that_make_life_better.html and "The Impending Doom of Your Operating System Going to or Past 11, Versus the Lush Oasis of Open Source Systems" https://nxdomain.no/~peter/blog_wild_wild_world_of_windows.html - two 2021-vintage pieces of mine that are still relevant, unfortunately/fortunately #openbsd #windows11 #freesofware #libresoftware #softwarefreedom #sovereigncomputing
@WeirdWriter
> Matrix, because it is a venture backed service
#Matrix is a protocol with its own Foundation.
*Element* is a VC-backed service, true. But it's developing Free Code, for a decentralised network, in an engineer-driven company who can easily pull a LibreOffice or NextCloud if VCs overreach. Plus EU regulators, among others, are backing Matrix bigtime as an interoperability standard for RTC.
So literally none of the 4 vectors @pluralistic gives for enshittification are present.
Me:
> in an engineer-driven company who can easily pull a LibreOffice or NextCloud if VCs overreach
Note for developers;
As well as protecting us in our role as "users", freedom-protecting licenses protect you and your teams from your bosses. You've always got the option, as a team, to find an alternative source of funding, start a new org, and take your software with you.
The #DMA can open doors for #FreeSoftware: alternative app stores, browsers, emulators, and much more!
But right now, gatekeepers are throwing up roadblocks.
We need your help to hold them accountable.
🛠️ Developers: have you requested interoperability under the #DMA?
Share your story by taking this survey 👉 https://survey.fsfe.org/index.php/699938?lang=en
A big thank you to all the volunteers, employees and guests attending the @fsfe 's summer meeting. Such good discussion about lots of different topics around #softwarefreedom . 👏👏👏👏
Almost Human s01e06 is a troubling demonstration of how the power to control tech that other people depend on, can be abused. Gangsters give people synthetic hearts, programmed to stop at the end of the month unless the transplant recipient pays the demanded subscription.
Ngā mihi harikoa ki a koutou, mo te rā whakatā ā-ture o Matariki.
Happy Matariki public holiday everyone.
In Te Reo Māori, #Matariki is the name of a star cluster known in English as the Seven Sisters. Subaru to the Japanese. Pleiades to astronomers, and ancient Greeks and Romans.
For Māori, seeing Matariki in the night sky marks the start of a new year. As winter solstice passes, a time to reflect on the year ended, and envision the year to come.
In that spirit, a little #TechHistory ...
From the founding of the GNU Project in 1983, through the 1990s and into the 2000s, the main goal of Software Freedom activists was to replace proprietary software on people's computers, with software compiled from Free Code.
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A space for Bonfire maintainers and contributors to communicate
