This is the first in a series of posts I intend to write explaining how various free and open source software licenses work, and what that means for you as a user or developer of that software. Today we’ll look at the MIT license, also sometimes referred to as the X11 or Expat license.The MIT licens...

This is a (redacted) post from the internal blog of a new systems programming language we’re developing. The project is being kept under wraps until we’re done with it, so for this post I’ll be calling it XXXX. If you are interested in participating, send me an email with some details about your bac...

This is a (redacted) post from the internal blog of a new systems programming language we’re developing. The project is being kept under wraps until we’re done with it, so for this post I’ll be calling it xxxx. If you are interested in participating, send me an email with some details about your bac...

Pine64 has a really interesting idea: make cheap hardware with low margins, get it into the hands of the FOSS community, and let them come up with the software. No one has ever done this before, at least not on this scale, and it’s a really neat idea! Pine64 is doing a lot to support the FOSS commun...

Pine64 has a really interesting idea: make cheap hardware with low margins, get it into the hands of the FOSS community, and let them come up with the software. No one has ever done this before, at least not on this scale, and it’s a really neat idea! Pine64 is doing a lot to support the FOSS commun...

Happy New Year! I had a lovely time in Amsterdam. No one had prepared me for the (apparently infamous) fireworks culture of the Netherlands. I thought it was really cool. Our programming language continues to improve apace. Our cryptography suite now includes Argon2, Salsa20/XSalsa20, ChaCha20/XChaC...

Happy New Year! I had a lovely time in Amsterdam. No one had prepared me for the (apparently infamous) fireworks culture of the Netherlands. I thought it was really cool.Our programming language continues to improve apace. Our cryptography suite now includes Argon2, Salsa20/XSalsa20, ChaCha20/XChaCh...

I’m writing to you from a Sway session on Alpine Linux, which is to say from a setup quite similar to the one I usually write blog posts on, save for one important factor: a RISC-V CPU. I’ll state upfront that what I’m using is not a very practical system. What I’m going to describe is all of the im...

I’m writing to you from a Sway session on Alpine Linux, which is to say from a setup quite similar to the one I usually write blog posts on, save for one important factor: a RISC-V CPU.I’ll state upfront that what I’m using is not a very practical system. What I’m going to describe is all of the imp...

.redacted { background: black; color: black; } We are developing a new systems programming language. The name is a secret, so we’ll call it xxxx instead. In xxxx, we have a general requirement that all variables must be initialized. This is fine for the simple case, such as “let x: int = 10”. But, i...

.redacted { background: black; color: black; } We are developing a new systems programming language. The name is a secret, so we’ll call it xxxx instead. In xxxx must be initialized. This is fine for the simple case, such as “let x: int = 10”. But, it does not always work well. Let’s say that you wa...

Six years ago, I wrote a post speaking out against the use of Slack for the instant messaging needs of FOSS projects. In retrospect, this article is not very good, and in the years since, another proprietary chat fad has stepped up to bat: Discord. It’s time to revisit this discussion. In short, usi...

Six years ago, I wrote a post speaking out against the use of Slack for the instant messaging needs of FOSS projects. In retrospect, this article is not very good, and in the years since, another proprietary chat fad has stepped up to bat: Discord. It’s time to revisit this discussion.In short, usin...

I write a lot of blog posts about my ideas,1 some of which are even good ideas. Some of these ideas stick, and many readers have attempted to put them into practice, taking on challenges like starting a business in FOSS or stepping up to be leaders in their communities. It makes me proud to see the ...

I write a lot of blog posts about my ideas,1 some of which are even good ideas. Some of these ideas stick, and many readers have attempted to put them into practice, taking on challenges like starting a business in FOSS or stepping up to be leaders in their communities. It makes me proud to see the ...

I don’t believe in copyright. I argue that we need to get rid of copyright, or at least dramatically reform it. The public domain has been stolen from us, and I want it back. Everyone reading this post has grown up in a creative world defined by capitalism, in which adapting and remixing works — a f...

I don’t believe in copyright. I argue that we need to get rid of copyright, or at least dramatically reform it. The public domain has been stolen from us, and I want it back. Everyone reading this post has grown up in a creative world defined by capitalism, in which adapting and remixing works — a f...

The gaming and live streaming industry is a lucrative and rapidly growing commercial sector with a unique understanding of copyright and intellectual property, and many parties with conflicting interests and access to different economic resources. The understanding of intellectual property among gam...

The gaming and live streaming industry is a lucrative and rapidly growing commercial sector with a unique understanding of copyright and intellectual property, and many parties with conflicting interests and access to different economic resources.The understanding of intellectual property among game...

Greetings! It has been a cold and wet month here in Amsterdam, much like the rest of them, as another period of FOSS progress rolls on by. I have been taking it a little bit easier this month, and may continue to take some time off in the coming weeks, so I can have a bit of a rest for the holidays....

Greetings! It has been a cold and wet month here in Amsterdam, much like the rest of them, as another period of FOSS progress rolls on by. I have been taking it a little bit easier this month, and may continue to take some time off in the coming weeks, so I can have a bit of a rest for the holidays....

In a recent post, I spoke about some things that Linux distros need to do better to accommodate end-users. I was reminded that there are some Linux distros which are, at least to some extent, following my recommended playbook, and have been re-evaluating two of them over the past couple of weeks: Li...

In a recent post, I spoke about some things that Linux distros need to do better to accommodate end-users. I was reminded that there are some Linux distros which are, at least to some extent, following my recommended playbook, and have been re-evaluating two of them over the past couple of weeks: Li...

The Linus Tech Tips YouTube channel has been putting out a series of videos called the Switching to Linux Challenge that has been causing a bit of a stir in the Linux community. I’ve been keeping an eye on these developments, and thought it was a good time to weigh in with my thoughts. This article ...

The Linus Tech Tips YouTube channel has been putting out a series of videos called the Switching to Linux Challenge that has been causing a bit of a stir in the Linux community. I’ve been keeping an eye on these developments, and thought it was a good time to weigh in with my thoughts. This article ...

The Linus Tech Tips YouTube channel has been putting out a series of videos called the Switching to Linux Challenge that has been causing a bit of a stir in the Linux community. I’ve been keeping an eye on these developments, and thought it was a good time to weigh in with my thoughts. This article ...

The Linus Tech Tips YouTube channel has been putting out a series of videos called the Switching to Linux Challenge that has been causing a bit of a stir in the Linux community. I’ve been keeping an eye on these developments, and thought it was a good time to weigh in with my thoughts. This article ...

I briefly mentioned postmarketOS in my Pinephone review two years ago, but after getting my Dutch SIM card set up in my Pinephone and having another go at using postmarketOS, I reckon they deserve special attention. Let’s first consider the kind of ecosystem into which postmarketOS emerged: smartpho...

I briefly mentioned postmarketOS in my Pinephone review two years ago, but after getting my Dutch SIM card set up in my Pinephone and having another go at using postmarketOS, I reckon they deserve special attention.Let’s first consider the kind of ecosystem into which postmarketOS emerged: smartphon...

We use Internet Relay Chat (IRC) extensively at sourcehut for real-time group chats and one-on-one messaging. The IRC protocol is quite familiar to hackers, who have been using it since the late 80’s. As chat rooms have become more and more popular among teams of both hackers and non-hackers in rece...