Bonum Certa Men Certa

We Don't Know Who Will Run the Free Software Foundation, But We Know Who Will Run the GNU Project

Even after persistent toppling attempts Richard Stallman remains GNU's chief

RMS site



Summary: Software Freedom is under a heavy and perhaps unprecedented attack; some people out there are paid by the attackers to celebrate this attack and defame people (cheering for corporate takeover under the blanket of "Open Source"), but the founder of the Free software movement remains alive, well, and very much active

TWEETS are not a good/reliable source for reporting; but sometimes (unfortunately) people write official communications there.



"As it happens RMS shot his own foot," Bruce Perens wrote about Richard Stallman (RMS), "and no tears from me about him leaving. But 2 decades later."

Perens and Eben Moglen were seen by us as two individuals with sufficient clout to take the position of RMS at the FSF. Now we know Perens is not likely to be interested. "After years of facilitating OSI's assault on software freedom," wrote a former FSF employee about the above. "Anyway, consider this, given your stance on returning RMS to the board..."

"Don't believe the lie that the FSF rejected RMS; what we do know, for a fact (thanks to Mr. Pocock), is that the FSF actively censors messages in support of RMS."Another former FSF intern/employee then said, "we have to remember that Bruce [Perens] actually was the one who promoted Molly de Blanc for OSI and if you look at the history there... Clearly Molly is not a leader...but established credibility through the FSF. Bruce also told us not to pursue what happened with Ian Murdock."

"I was an early years FSF employee," the first one responded, "and for a number of years that after somewhat closely associated but I've been away for a few years. Now paying attention again w/the current mess. What happened with Ian Murdock?"

"We expect RMS to still be around and very much active, not only in GNU but also in other areas."Murdock, for those who don't know, is Debian's founder. Perens was an early project leader.

On went this conversation: "By "pursue" do you mean investigate? Because it sounds shady as shit."

"His [Twitter] account was [posthumously] deleted," I responded, "but police clearly abused him, while naked, to the point where he decided to hang himself..."

Apparently not everyone knew.

"Oh, god. I just looked it up. Oh, man."

We still see reactions like this one years down the line.

"We also hear about some upcoming meetings with RMS in Boston."We still keep in contact/touch with RMS and sometimes he keeps in contact with us. Sometimes FSF staff (past and present) who are loyal to RMS speak to us. They're not happy about what happened last month. Don't believe the lie that the FSF rejected RMS; what we do know, for a fact (thanks to Mr. Pocock), is that the FSF actively censors messages in support of RMS.

According to one of the above people, in a "presentation at LibrePlanet, RMS did mention something about promoting Free Software philosophies to maker spaces."

We expect RMS to still be around and very much active, not only in GNU but also in other areas. His Web site has been updated to make that point very, very clear. It happened after it had repeatedly been vandalised to state the opposite (we suspect an insider or associate with access credentials did this). We also hear about some upcoming meetings with RMS in Boston. RMS isn't 'history' or a 'has been', but some corporate agenda wants us to believe otherwise. There's a very heavy and very persistent attack on multiple fronts at the moment.

An hour ago Benjamin Henrion told us (in IRC): "Fosdem is using Github for the devrooms, they ask for a Pull Request to submit the CFPs, I will refuse in a short letter..."

It's almost as if FOSDEM (Europe) has been ‘outsourced’ to Microsoft. Create an account with Microsoft to talk or attend??? It is something we currently look into, e.g. who decided to pay FOSDEM this year and what for (e.g. keynote speakers' positions). Money is toxic in this context and it has already poisoned quite a few communities. Some people online have alleged that the FSF already takes Google money (Google is not a copyleft proponent but an 'unwilling' user of it). Others have told us about the ramifications of Stormy Peters officially defecting to Microsoft. This defection causes problems on multiple fronts. Techrights called Peters out as a threat/danger more than a decade ago. It's the same bunch as de Icaza of Mono and Friedman who's now using proprietary software (GitHub) to attack FOSS as a whole. From the inside.

Recent Techrights' Posts

With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries
Links 26/03/2024: Inflation Problems, Strikes in Finland
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/03/2024: Losing Children, Carbon Tax Discussed
Links for the day
Mark Shuttleworth resigns from Debian: volunteer suicide and Albania questions unanswered, mass resignations continue
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 26/03/2024: 6,000 Layoffs at Dell, Microsoft “XBox is in Real Trouble as a Hardware Manufacturer”
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/03/2024: Microsofters Still Trying to 'Extend' Gemini Protocol
Links for the day
Look What IBM's Red Hat is Turning CentOS Into
For 17 years our site ran on CentOS. Thankfully we're done with that...
The Julian Paul Assange Verdict: The High Court Has Granted Assange Leave to Appeal Extradition to the United States, Decision Adjourned to May 20th Pending Assurances
The decision is out
The Microsoft and Apple Antitrust Issues Have Some But Not Many Commonalities
gist of the comparison to Microsoft
ZDNet, Sponsored by Microsoft for Paid-for Propaganda (in 'Article' Clothing), Has Added Pop-Up or Overlay to All Pages, Saying "813 Partners Will Store and Access Information on Your Device"
Avoiding ZDNet may become imperative given what it has turned into
Julian Assange Verdict 3 Hours Away
Their decision is due to be published at 1030 GMT
People Who Cover Suicide Aren't Suicidal
Assange didn't just "deteriorate". This deterioration was involuntary and very much imposed upon him.
Overworking Kills
The body usually (but not always) knows best
Former Red Hat Chief (CEO), Who Decided to Leave the Company Earlier This Month, Talks About "Cloud Company Red Hat" to CNBC
shows a lack of foresight and dependence on buzzwords
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 25, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 25, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Discord Does Not Make Money, It's Spying on People and Selling Data/Control (38% is Allegedly Controlled by the Communist Party of China)
a considerable share exists
In At Least Two Nations Windows is Now Measured at 2% "Market Share" (Microsoft Really Does Not Want People to Notice That)
Ignore the mindless "AI"-washing
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Still Has Hundreds of Thousands of Simultaneously-Online Unique Users
The scale of IRC