ix years ago, in October 2020, I worked on making a text-only (bulletin) version of Techrights. The sister site would have the same thing 3 years later.

In the same month I experimented with putting these bulletins in IPFS, then I looked into more protocols (like Gemini Protocol, which I had already explored before but did not adopt).

So there’s a sort of anniversary in late October. It coincided with the COVID-19 stay-home directives.

Free software (like IPFS) has since then stagnated somewhat. Like blockchains, we barely hear about it anymore.

It still exists, but how many people use it?

I don’t think RMS knows much (or anything) about IPFS. He’s not a fan of fake-coins, so he would probably find IPFS off-putting.

OUR years ago I made up my mind about leaving a 12-year employer because the managers had collectively broken a camel’s back with a “last straw” – the suggestion we should all get a “smart” phone and another rather major issue (fake address for the company, which I confronted the CEO about, only a day later).

It all added up and soon after I quit the CEO also left, along with several others. It was chaotic. I was trying to locate the post where I envisioned this outcome (me leaving to do better things). It took me about 4 minutes to find it because right after I had published it (July 2022) I immediately published about 7 more posts to hide it from colleagues. I didn’t want them to know I’d be leaving, as they might inform management in advance.

To reproduce some sentences: “Over the past few years I thought about part timing, as I’ve worked full time for nearly a decade already (maybe a full decade this summer) and I’ve been at the same employer for 11.5 years (milestone coming soon, some time this summer, August 12 being the exact date if I recall correctly).”

“I still wish to more extensively focus on freedom-fighting activism in the digital realm. It’s a lot more important, not from a “legacy” point of view; it’s just a lot more satisfying and personally rewarding than working for clients. It’s a community effort rather than a corporate objective.”

“This post isn’t a “Why I Left Sirius” post (or “Leaving the Job To Do Techrights Full Time”); I still need a job, I need to save money, and my wife does too. I’m not resigning. But I might have more free time.”

“But we both made a decision earlier this year; whatever the outcome, we need to focus on our sites, notably Tux Machines (just turned 18) and Techrights (turning 16 this year). Those sites are important for many reasons, to a lot of people. These people want to emancipate themselves from proprietary shackles, not working for proprietary software companies (or with proprietary tools) all day long.”

“Meanwhile, my workload associated with personal projects has increased to the point where I can hardly travel (too many activities require physical access inside the home). We still need to renovate the sites (upgrading things in the process), I want to sleep better, I need to become more active in and around IRC, and I wish to produce more articles and videos. I used to aim for a dozen a day, but when working full time it’s just too difficult to maintain that as a daily pace (as opposed to occasional “bursts” or “marathons”).”

“When I started writing in the non-personal sites, third-party sites, and this site (and in various other sites) I was still a student. Then, I was partly employed. Over the past decade it has been full time work, so a lot of potential (e.g. to write) was not fulfilled. I left social control media almost 5 months ago, freeing up a lot of time. The next stage might be reducing the number of hours per week that I work. Maybe a long overdue change. Maybe not even that… the decision is not purely mine.”

t’s only 4 days away from the GNU anniversary. I am still trying to think of a good way to mark that day/event.

Just remembering that it happened 43 years ago is important. The media rewrites history.

GNU is still alive and well. Because it is so widely used it has also come under hybrid attacks.

t is our special day today and at 4AM I gave my card. Despite people trying to blackmail and intimidate us this year, it has been a productive year and we see those terrorisation tactics as signals of weakness, of utter defeat.

Tomorrow it is Software Freedom Day 2026 [1, 2] and we have some plans for that. Freedom is not measured in money (which some conflate with safety or certainty), freedom is a more intricate concept. People who have freedom know and feel what it means.

Last night we visited the stadium and fed birds. It cost less than a pound but was very rewarding and without time constraints.

As I like to put it, why wait until retirement to do the things many people “wait until retirement” to do?

‘ve just returned from the park and stadium (which we went past twice ahead of Enzo’s first cup match for this club). They play music there and the staff outnumbers the spectators at these early hours.

Despite unpredictable weather we went to feed the flock of 70+ birds and it was fantastic. There were some sunny spells too and the ducks joined in.

Tonight we eat popcorn with cheese and tomorrow we have an exceptional schedule, including card exchange.

I am still eagerly awaiting the birthday of GNU. GNU/Linux is going mainstream this year.

ichard Stallman’s Web site is online again, but he seems to have lost a lot of work after this very long downtime and he’s not getting younger. What a shame. How often were full backups taken?

Stallman is 73 and like everyone his age he is not in fine health, he is surviving and coping with conditions.

When he was young, Stallman did not have a beard. No long hair either. It seems like the long hair developed some time in the 1980s.

oday the new statistics from statCounter should come out. Maybe hours from now. I am very interested in them. I am eager to see if there’s an upward trend in GNU/Linux usage as seen by the data they collect.

We’re going through an important transitionary period.

rowth of GNU/Linux has accelerated this summer and tomorrow at around 10AM statCounter will produce more evidence of that.

I plan to stay home around that time to check the latest data. I also to examine trends in Cloudflare Rader.

Stallman on LLMs: “The reason LLMs so often generate text whose meaning refers to false supposed facts is that they never really understand the text; they don’t work with meanings or facts in the domain of discussion. The terms they merit are “pretend intelligence” and “bullshit generators.”

“To avoid being lured into supporting the marketing hype based on “AI,” please join me in reserving the word “intelligence” for systems that qualify for it.

“I surely didn’t say anything about whether LLMs are “open,” because, as I’ve explained, I do not advocate making software “open” or “open source.” Those terms are depoliticized substitutes for “free” and “libre,” and were coined to win the support of businesses by avoiding the issues of freedom and justice (for the users of software) that might lead to criticizing businesses on moral grounds. Since those are the crucial issues in my view, the question I always ask about a program is whether it is free or libre.

“The LLMs that people mostly hear about are not released as free software. In fact, mostly they are not released at all: copies are not available. They can be used only as “online services” — meaning that the program a user directs a question to is running on some company’s computer, and under the developer’s total control. Even to modify it by patching the binary is impossible.

“Entrusting your own computing activity to software running on someone else’s server inherently subjugates you, because you can’t possibly modify that copy — even if it is a copy of a free program. We call that scenario SaaSS, for “Service as a Software Substitute” and we reject it.

“Since January I’ve heard of one LLM which seems to be released with freedom, including the training inputs. If that checks out, we would describe it as “free.”

“Alas, that doesn’t make it “intelligence.””

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.