news
Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Leftovers
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SequoiaPGP ☛ Sequoia's Input to the Upcoming European Open Digital Ecosystem Strategy
The European Commission has requested input to inform the upcoming European Open Digital Ecosystem Strategy. The initiative “will set out: a strategic approach to the open source sector in the EU that addresses the importance of open source as a crucial contribution to EU technological sovereignty, security and competitiveness” and “a strategic and operational framework to strengthen the use, development and reuse of open digital assets within the Commission.”
The following text is our submission. In our response, we highlight issues with the status quo. In particular, we criticize the dominance of American mega-corporations and suggest an alternative approach where no company is too large to fail, we discuss how proprietary software inhibits sovereignty and security and FOSS enables it, and we call for a significant investment in FOSS in the form of something like the proposed EU Sovereign Tech Fund, and the creation of an IT support ecosystem for consumers of FOSS.
Note: The response was limited to 4000 characters including URLs. To be consistent with the commission’s terminology, we use OSS instead of FOSS.
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Arjen Wiersma ☛ Completion (in Emacs hledger)
The Emacs distribution I mostly recommend to my students is Doom Emacs. It is easy to get going, well documented and it has an active community. One thing to really know about this setup, though, is the completion mechanism. This is the init section of Doom Emacs.
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FSF ☛ January GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali featuring twelve new GNU releases: GRUB, Units, and more!
Twelve new GNU releases in the last month (as of January 31, 2026): [...]
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Events
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OpenSSF (Linux Foundation) ☛ Join Us at Open Source SecurityCon Europe 2026 in Amsterdam
Open Source SecurityCon Europe is approaching, which means we’ll be gathering again in Amsterdam this spring for one of the most focused, practitioner-driven events in open source security.
Save your spot, register now, and add your favorite sessions to your calendar from the agenda.
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Content Management Systems (CMS) / Static Site Generators (SSG)
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WordPress ☛ WordPress 6.9.1 Maintenance Release
WordPress 6.9.1 is now available! This minor release includes fixes for 49 bugs throughout Core and the Block Editor, addressing issues affecting multiple areas of WordPress including the block editor, mail, and classic themes. For a full list of bug fixes, please refer to the release candidate announcement. WordPress 6.9.1 is a short-cycle maintenance release.
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Education
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Coalition for Networked Information ☛ CNI Spring Meeting CFP Reminder
The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) invites project briefing proposals for our Spring 2026 Membership Meeting, taking place April 13–14 at the Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City in Salt Lake City, UT.
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Perl ☛ Cast-Iron Community: Your Chance to Sponsor TPRC 2026
The Perl and Raku Conference 2026 is a community-organized gathering of developers, enthusiasts, and industry professionals. It takes place from June 26-28, 2026, in Greenville, South Carolina. The conference will feature an intimate, single-track format that promises high sponsor visibility. We look forward to approximately 80 participants with some of those staying in town for the shoulder days (June 25-29) and a Monday workshop.
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Openness/Sharing/Collaboration
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Open Data
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Nicholas Tietz-Sokolsky ☛ Some good English word datasets
I'm working on a silly word game right now, which means I need a list of words for it. I can't rely on the system word list, since this is for a web project. I'd also like, ideally, multiple lists of words with different criteria: most common words, all words, some subsets.
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