Free, Libre, and Open Source Software, Sharing, Also Standards

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 20, 2025

• SaaS/Back End/Databases

  • [Old] Pierre 'delroth' Bourdoerce Freemann ☛ Go ahead, self-host Postgres

    I've been running my own self-hosted postgres for the better part of two years now, serving thousands of users and tens of millions of queries daily2. I expected it would give me much more trouble than it has. It's caused me exactly 30mins of stress during a manual migration and that's all. Aside from that it's been fast, stable, and much cheaper.

    I sleep just fine at night thank you.

• FSF / Software Freedom

  • [Repeat] FSF ☛ We can't advocate for freedom without your help

    The Free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded forty years ago in an effort to support GNU, the first operating system and first project to recognize why nonfree software is dangerous and do something about it. We've come a long way since then. GNU has arrived; I'm using it to write you now. But we need to do more. The software our community produced now powers the world; we ourselves have used it to carve out a niche in modern digital life where we know we can be free. That's not enough. Free software like GNU is needed now more than ever, by everyone, not just the technically capable.

• Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

  • Kevin Boone ☛ Kevin Boone: They don’t make them like that any more: Denshi block electronics kits

    To be fair to Radio Shack, their instructions were clear, written by a native English speaker, and they explained the design principles in detail. But, as you could assemble a circuit without understanding it – in fact, the construction method more-or-less necessitated this approach – the kit was only educational if you took the trouble to read all the documentation. I did, as an aspiring geek, but I doubt I understood much at ten years of age. The worst drawback, though, was that assembling circuits with spring clips and flying wires was tedious and error-prone.

    So my mind was blown when I first came across a Gakken ‘denshi block’ kit, although I wasn’t to know that’s what it was for many years. A sketchy-looking chap was selling these from a barrow in a village market, squeezed between other disreputable fellows selling imitation leather jackets and meat products that had started to smell. The kit wasn’t expensive, even by pocket-money standards, although I can’t remember how much I paid for it in 1976. £2, perhaps.

  • Open Access/Content

    • ACM ☛ Open Access Publication & ACM

      The move to Open Access is not just a change in policy, but a reflection of ACM's commitment to its community, where the goal is to remove barriers to publishing and accessing vital research, and accelerating the pace of discovery and innovation.

      ACM’s approach to Open Access is centered on two key elements: [...]

• Standards/Consortia

  • Document Foundation ☛ The Role of ODF in the Era of Digital Identity and Authentication

    Digital identity has become an integral part of everyday life. We use it to access work tools and sign documents online, and it is even replacing physical identity cards. However, most discussions on the subject focus on authentication systems, encryption and biometrics, ignoring the formats that actually carry our information.