hese days I use two media players to play my CDs (mostly 1990s albums and collections). One is KDE’s Dragon Player (because it’s based on Qt), the other is VLC. The latter has a lot more functionality but higher RAM footprint. In the past I used even leaner applications to achieve the same functionality. Those are no longer compatible with this setup (a lot changes in 20+ years in this sector).

I might write a detailed analysis about this some time in the future in a more Linux-centric site, but I need a unique and useful angle. I don’t have that at the moment.

remember starting my Ph.D. in 2003 when GNU/Linux was small and many challenges persisted (e.g. a Web that expected MSIE everywhere). We now look at around 10% market share for GNU/Linux – something many of us have dreamed of for decades.

Now a major goal is to teach people about Software Freedom, not just “Linux”.

HAVE just reproduced the latest long post from Pocock.

The election is tomorrow.

“Daniel Pocock wins the award for the person who has travelled the longest distance to take part in this circus,” someone wrote some hours ago, he “as he gives an address in Australia.”

So what?

There is another Australian in there.

HE world is getting worse in many ways. But there are also hopeful developments.

GNU/Linux is on its way to become “top dog” in desktops and laptops. I am super-happy that now, in 2026, we’re having those sorts of debates.

However, will the philosophical battle for Freedom be won too?

This is not a given.

Because “the politics like Daniel and you are fighting will worsen for a while,” as it was put to me. “Here there is a problem because there is not a single place (AFAIK) to learn even the smallest amount of ICT anywhere in the entire nation,” someone told me. “All have been replaced by Microsoft resellers [...] The digital sovereignty question is not a technical matter, but one of politics and specifically about how to purge the Microsoft resellers from their entrenched positions where they block teaching and learning of ICT across the EU…”

Consider for example what they do in schools (paywalled article). “Teachers talking about GenAI [sic] in schools more trouble than it is worth? [...] we are beginning to see signs that GenAI is starting to lose its lustre.”

Why did this nonsense manage to (or was allowed to) enter schools in the first place? What were they teaching and why? Who for?

“Is Microsoft in schools more trouble than it is worth?”

“Yes. It is,” I was told. “Are Microsoft cults in school administrations more trouble than they are worth? Yes, they are.”

We need to oppose not only proprietary software but also social control media and chatbots. They have no inherent value, they’re mostly instruments of indoctrination and “population control” or “social control” (the latter is less loaded a term).

Crossposted from Tux Machines

2 days ago: Non-Techs Using Slop Run Fedora and It’s Turning Out to be a Total Disaster

5 hours ago:

2022: GNOME (IBM/Red Hat Staff) Promoting Microsoft’s ‘Security’ Scam With the ‘Secure’ Boot Sham (this developer now publicly complains that IBM forces him to paste in slop instead of code)

2024 (‘Secure’ Boot sabotages dual-booting): Good Reason to Delete Windows, Not Dual-Boot, and Call Out the Microsofters Who Worked to Impose ‘Secure’ Boot, Undermining Antitrust Complaints

Last week (FUD against dual-booting): Poor Piece From Valnet: Microsoft Keeps Sabotaging GNU/Linux, So You Should Quit Using GNU/Linux

ou want to use GNU/Linux? To join 7.7% of the world? Why would you want to do that? Use Windows. Try WSL.

That is what they are trying to tell us and the companies that employ us. GNU/Linux is “dangerous”, “untrusted”, and “unreliable”.

he other day I received “Greetings from Georgia Tech!”

Why? Because Dr. Stallman (RMS) will be giving a talk there soon.

“Hi Dr. Schestowitz,” it said. “Thank you again for your support – it truly means a lot! We officially purchased RMS’s flights to Atlanta last night, and we’re all incredibly excited about the upcoming event.”

It’s about more than just the talk, it’s a statement of sorts. See what’s at stake.

“You’ve absolutely got a new ally here at Georgia Tech through us at LibreTech Collective, and you’ve also gained a new regular reader in me. I already follow Phoronix and a few other tech blogs, so when your Techrights post popped up in my newsreader a few days ago, it genuinely made my night!”

Techrights is a bit ‘different’ a site, http://tuxmachines.org has more ‘conformist’ material.

Techrights deals with whistleblowers. “Whistleblowing isn’t impulsive but premeditated,” as noted yesterday. “Impulse can lead to errors.”

Our reporting is certainly hurting all the “right” people. So we’re on the right track.

he FSF, which started Free software and seeks to protect it in perpetuity, has just said (yesterday evening) “it received two major contributions totaling around $900,000 USD.”

Those people could, instead, buy several houses. But no.

Instead they chose to give ‘firepower’ to the FSF, the real and true protector of Free software, unlike opportunistic copycats or splinter groups. “One of the reasons for my complete resignation from the organization is the deception of a volunteer who gave them a bequest of €150,000,” Daniel Pocock recalled. Last year when he ran for European politics he said: “Research found that some of the world’s largest companies have spent over $120,000 trying to censor me even before I announced my candidacy. I guess that I might have something to say that is in the public interest.”

Last year and again this year my wife and I filed three lawsuits against men who had attacked women and Free software luminaries [1, 2, 3].

They were on the payroll of monopolists when they did this.

Lawsuits are not cheap, but they are the necessary thing to do in this situation.

In life, people must make sacrifices to do what’s right and just.

“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.”

-Mark 12:41-12:44

“He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.””

-Luke 21:2-21:38