Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Apr 01, 2026

• Protesilaos Stavrou ☛ Emacs coaching with Sacha Chua | Protesilaos Stavrou

  I maintain a strict privacy policy with everyone I meet. Specifically, I do not say anything about our meeting. But since Sacha has already published this information, I am happy to do this in the open.

  What follows are some comments on her post.

• Sacha Chua ☛ Thinking about Emacs coaching goals with Prot

  I want to get better at learning with other people's help, so I'm going to experiment with engaging Prot as an Emacs coach. Our first session is this week. Time to lay the groundwork!

• Jamie Zawinski ☛ XScreenSaver 6.15

  XScreenSaver 6.15 is out now, including iOS and Android. A whopping thirteen new savers this time: [...]

• Peter 'CzP' Czanik ☛ My new toy: Back to high-end audio

  My AI mini workstation from HP has seen some non-AI workloads this weekend. I installed Capture One for photo editing and a couple of software synthesizers. And realized along the way that while built-in speakers are nice, high-end audio is a lot better! :-)

• Ruben Schade ☛ Self-hosting a Mastodon instance?

  I’m thinking it’s time to host something else, but I haven’t decided yet; hence the Betteridge-adjacent title.

  Since 2018 I’ve been on the BSD Network, run by some of the kindest, hardest working people in the BSD community. When I suggested to GNU/Linux fans that some people need to run backdoored Windows (irrespective of whether they want to), they handled the ensuing explosion of vitriol and traffic with grace and professionalism. I’ve learned that Mastodon instances are only as good as their admins, and they’re the best.

• Web Browsers/Web Servers

  • Maury ☛ My ramblings are available over gopher

    For simpler clients, my server supports gopher: [...]

• SaaS/Back End/Databases

  • Vikash Patel ☛ ClickHouse vs. Postgres: When to Move Your Logs Out of a Relational DB

    Postgres is the most reliable tool in my stack. It handles users, configurations, and complex relations without breaking a sweat. But databases, like any physical system, have a “design limit”. For Postgres, that limit usually appears when you try to use it as a dumping ground for high-velocity logs and metrics.

    When your ANALYZE commands start taking minutes and your indexes consume more RAM than your data, you aren’t facing a Postgres bug; you’re facing an architectural mismatch.

• Content Management Systems (CMS) / Static Site Generators (SSG)

  • Alisa Sireneva ☛ There is absolutely nothing wrong with Web | purplesyringa's blog

    This is a rant about how broken everything Web is based on is. You know, the usual. No offence intended towards framework developers, I’m glad this technology exists, but I’m sure you know this feeling. It gets too much sometimes.

    I’ve been meaning to improve this blog’s technology for a while. It’s held together by two hacky scripts as opposed to a typical template engine, and that’s very limiting.

    Why not ___?

    So, why isn’t this a no-brainer? There are many static site generators, including classics like Hugo and Jekyll.

• Licensing / Legal

  • Ascensio System SIA ☛ ONLYOFFICE flags license violations in “Euro-Office” project

    We are aware of the recently announced “Euro-Office” initiative led by Nextcloud and IONOS.

    Based on publicly available information, the “Euro-Office” project uses technology derived from ONLYOFFICE editors in violation of our licensing terms and of international intellectual property law.

    [...]

    These conditions are not optional. They are a fundamental part of using the software legally and ethically.