news
Free Software and Openwashing Leftovers
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University of Toronto ☛ Some thoughts on (not) using GNU Emacs' Tramp remote editing system
Tramp is a famous and often praised GNU Emacs system for editing remote files; lots of people will call it one of Emacs' compelling features. As part of a big GNU Emacs renovation earlier this year, I made Tramp actually work for me, and at that point I expected that it would be a curiosity and I'd mostly not use it. That has half worked out the way I expected, and the other half is that I'm editing this Wandering Thoughts entry with Tramp, as I have most of my entries since then.
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Unicorn Media ☛ OpenAltFinder Connects Users With FOSS Alternatives to Nonfree Apps
The website pairs proprietary programs with free and open-source replacements, then provides useful details to help users compare their options.
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Dan Langille ☛ Replacing security/pam-ssh-agent-auth with security/pam-ssh-agent
Yesterday, I learned that security/pam-ssh-agent-auth is abandoned and deprecated. Looking back, I first used this about 13 years ago, and wrote about it while describing how I set up ansible clients. Today, I tried one of the two recommended replacement: security/pam_rssh – mentioned by Romain Tartière security/pam_ssh_agent – the one I’m trying Very much a drop-in replacement Here’s what I did.
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Openwashing
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Open Source Initiative ☛ OSI Governance Survey [Ed: Ruth Suehle (SAS, proprietary) does not want people to know OSI is run by sponsors, i.e. companies like Microsoft. It's a front group for the oppressor, it even promotes plagiarism.]
We invite the Open Source community to participate in the OSI Governance Survey and help inform the future of OSI’s governance.
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SaaS/Back End/Databases
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PostgreSQL ☛ powa-archivist 5.3.0 is out!
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Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra
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Document Foundation ☛ Community Member Monday: Aleksi Kallio
Tell us a bit about yourself! I’m Aleksi, and I live in Oulu, northern Finland. I graduated this spring with a bachelor’s degree in business information technology, and before that I did a vocational degree in software development.
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Education
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Creative Commons ☛ Creative Commons to Convene "A Conversation on Collaboration" Alongside UNGA 81
Open source and digital sovereignty are closely related. While open source does not suffice for digital sovereignty, it is a critical building block. While definitions of digital sovereignty vary, it is generally accepted that digital sovereignty at the national level entails the ability to independently control everything from infrastructure, to hardware, to software, to data.
The day’s conversations will work through questions including: [...]
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Hackaday ☛ Hackaday Europe 2026: Open Source Hardware Goes Underground, Literally
These days open source is everywhere, and frankly, we couldn’t be happier about it. But even with as prevalent as open software and hardware has become, we still occasionally hear about a project that takes the concept somewhere unexpected. Which is precisely why we were so eager to hear more about the fascinating work [Phil Underwood] has been doing.
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Funding
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Citizen Lab ☛ Call for Applications: Information Controls Research Program 2026
The Open Technology Fund is accepting applications for the 2026 Information Controls Research Program.
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