Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 22, 2026

• Tim Bray ☛ Quamina v2.0.0

  Did I mention optimizations? There are (sob) also regressions; introducing REs had measurable negative impacts on other parts of the system. But it’s a good trade-off. When you ship software that’s designed for pattern-matching, it should really do REs. The RE story, about a year long, can be read starting here.

• Events

  • APNIC ☛ Notice of AGM 2026 at APNIC 61

    APNIC Members are invited to attend the AGM at APNIC 61, held as part of APRICOT 2026, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday, 12 February 2026.

• Web Browsers/Web Servers

  • Unicorn Media ☛ Get Your Zen on With Zen Browser

    If you like Firefox’s engine but not its direction, Zen Browser gives you a familiar foundation with a more flexible UI, built‑in theming, and productivity-focused features.

• Education

  • Raspberry Pi ☛ How to put data first in K–12 AI education by using data case studies

    In Germany, as in many countries, AI topics are rapidly entering formal computer science education. Yet, this haste often risks us focusing on fleeting technological developments rather than fundamental concepts. As computer science educator Viktoriya Olari, from Free University of Berlin, discovered in her research, the fundamental role of data, which powers most modern AI systems, is critically underestimated in many existing frameworks. If students are to become responsible designers of such systems, they can’t afford to treat AI as an opaque box. Rather, they must first master the messy, human process that begins with the data itself.

• Licensing / Legal

  • Peter Bex ☛ FOSS for digital sovereignty in the EU

    The European Commission has posted a "call for evidence" on open source for digital sovereignty. This seeks feedback from the public on how to reduce its dependency on software from non-EU companies through Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).

    This is my response, with proper formatting (the web form replies all seem to have gotten their spaces collapsed) and for future reference.

• Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

  • Open Access/Content

    • Wired ☛ Jimmy Wales Will Never Edit Donald Trump’s Wikipedia Page: He ‘Makes Me Insane’

      On this week’s episode of The Big Interview, Wales and I discussed what it means to build something used by billions of people that’s not optimized for growth at all costs. During our discussion he reflected on Wikipedia’s messy, human origins, the ways it’s been targeted by governments from Russia to Saudi Arabia, and the challenges of holding the line on neutrality in an online ecosystem hostile to the notion that facts even exist. We also talked about what threatens Wikipedia now, from AI to conspiracy-pilled billionaires, and why he’ll never edit an entry about Donald Trump. Read our full conversation below.

      This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

• Standards/Consortia

  • Don Marti ☛ Superscript asterisk in Unicode

    Much better. And if you cut and paste from a browser into a text editor, you should get the regular typewriter asterisk back. Not bad. And the CSS can go in a stylesheet so it doesn’t have to be on every sup element. Still, though, the tags are something extra to type.

  • Daniel Estévez ☛ Tooling for CSP

    CSP is the Cubesat Space Protocol. It is a network protocol that was developed by Aalborg university, and is commonly used in cubesats, in particular those using GOMspace hardware. Initially the protocol allowed different nodes on a satellite to exchange packets over a CAN bus, but eventually it grew into a protocol that spans a network composed by nodes in the satellite and the groundstation that communicate over different physical layers, including RF links.