TIL, that in 2003, #australia tried to legislate #OSS first software procurement by gov agencies.
One wonders what if...

The Value of Open Source Software [Harvard]
--
https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/24-038_51f8444f-502c-4139-8bf2-56eb4b65c58a.pdf <-- link to paper / study [PDF]
--
#opensource #software #publicgood #economics #flexibility #responsiveness #cost #economics #marketshare #COTS #globalpublicgood #assessment #ecomomy #sharing #engagement #OSS #costbenefit ##supplyside #demandside #usercommunity #socialvalue #costs #programming #development #developers
@harvardhci

just wanted to give a quick shoutout to a couple of #oss tool I've been using a lot on my laptop and a new one I've been setting up (its #macos, ofc):
• Maccy clipboard manager
https://github.com/p0deje/Maccy
• Breaktimer periodic breaks
https://github.com/tom-james-watson/breaktimer-app

#Emacs video-trimmer-mode, freshely pushed https://xenodium.com/emacs-as-your-video-trimming-tool #ffmpeg #video #oss

Wie immer gilt: Ohne #opensource geht es nicht mehr. Aber alleine #OSS ist auch nicht genug. Sowohl #VendorLockIn als auch "komische" Konzern-Hintergründe sind auch in OSS möglich. Auch die #OSBA kann ein Lied davon singen, da sind jetzt ja jede Menge #proprietär e Konzerne dabei. Aber die Story von #Lyon und #Onlyoffice ist hart.
https://fossforce.com/2025/07/lyon-france-adopts-onlyoffice-from-russia-with-love/

My friends, I'm so excited and happy to introduce a new project: the illumos Cafe!

The positive and constructive spirit of the BSD Cafe, created and maintained by all the friends who participated from day one in building a strong and friendly community, deserves to spread to other operating systems. Because there are other OSes that deserve attention, certainly more than they're getting right now.

Operating systems based on illumos (like SmartOS, OmniOS, Tribblix, OpenIndiana, etc.) are mature, stable, secure, and perfectly usable for a wide range of tasks. ZFS is native, zones are an excellent method for containerization, and bhyve and kvm coexist beautifully - and so much more, too much to list in a single post.

So from today, the illumos Cafe will stand alongside the BSD Cafe in creating a positive, respectful, and growth-oriented (but also relaxing!) environment, starting right here in the Fediverse with a Mastodon instance and a snac one.

I've written an introductory article about the project, including some technical details. I invite everyone interested to read it: https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/08/18/introducing-the-illumos-cafe/

Choose your table, take a seat and enjoy your time at the illumos Cafe!

Woohoo! Version v6.3.0 of Firefly III has just been released . Check it out over at GitHub, Docker, or download it using your favorite package manager.

#opensource #oss #newrelease #php #software #personalfinance #selfhosted

https://github.com/firefly-iii/firefly-iii/releases/v6.3.0

When the moral authority of Linus Torvalds goes, so might the Linux (kernel) project.

Good piece in The Register.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/14/the_plan_for_linux_after/

The last 3 years have been a good reminder that donations are not a sustainable business model...

Sadly, the broad downturn in the tech sector impacted significantly both private and company donations to #OSS.

Aug 15, 1912: On this date future chef Julia (McWilliams) Child was born. During WW2, Child tried to enlist in the U.S. Navy’s WAVES & the Women’s Army Corps, but was rejected by both for being too tall (at 6’2”). Undaunted, Child instead joined the Office of Strategic Services & soon rose to become a top-secret researcher for Maj Gen William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan, the chief of the OSS. She is known specifically for developing shark repellents.

#OSS #WW2 #shark

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Child#World_War_II

Podman Guide for Container Management https://buff.ly/LMuAzcb #oss #opensource #linux #fedora #rhel

"LibreOffice is right about Microsoft, and it matters more than you think"

https://www.xda-developers.com/libreoffice-is-right-about-microsoft/

Please boost!

Looking for frontend devs for volunteer open-source team at a humanitarian aid org! As a Frontend Developer at Distribute Aid (https://distributeaid.org), you’ll create new pages for our website and update/maintain existing ones, often working closely with our designers and other devs. Looking for mid/long-term commitment. Main goal is to finally get our website relaunched. Volunteer commitment is ~5h/week.

Stack: NextJS, TypeScript, Strapi, Radix UI

We’re looking for experienced devs who are reliable, organised, and can communicate well. You do not need to know the full stack you’ll be working with. You just need to know how to learn and ask for help if you need it. Previous open source experience is nice but not strictly necessary. If you learn quickly and willingly, we can help you get started

It would be good if you have some availability overlapping with Central European Time and can make it to at least 1x tech hang per month and 1x sprint meeting per quarter (that’s ~4 meetings a month)

Our tech hangs are every Wednesday and Thursday from 6 to 8 pm CET/CEST and sprint meetings are during tech hang on the first Wednesday of each month

Our tech team is international and diverse—most of our team members are in some way marginalised—and leadership is fully queer/trans.

If you’re interested, please get in touch via tech@distributeaid.org. That comes directly to me as the Technical Program Manager. If you have any questions, you can ask me here too :)

Okay, I know it’s appalling that I keep forgetting this place exists (tbf I’ve had some really weird as shit interactions with randoms last time I tried) and that it took @LauraLangdon to remind me that THIS is where all the OSS/FOSS people hang out. But here I am now. And maybe it’ll stick this time.

Not much has changed and yet everything has changed. @finnporter and I moved to Galicia in Spain about 4 months or so ago. We’re loving it so far. I think we’ve just been lucky with the weather this year because it’s nowhere near as hot as I feared. The beach is a 7 minute walk from our flat. And because it’s the Atlantic it’s also nice and chilly, which I’m delighted by.

Chronic health stuff has… not been too great, but the Spanish healthcare system seems to actually be one of the few still functional ones, at least here in Galicia. So I’m waiting for referrals to an allergist for MCAS dx and probably to internal medicine for potential hEDS dx. Not thrilled I likely have these conditions but at least I may actually get to access care for them. I’m still too medically traumatised to actually believe it lol but so far everyone in the medical field here has been pretty great. Also, being trans is absolutely zero trouble here which is a delightful change for us.

I’m keen to connect to some covid conscious folks in Northern Spain if there are any around since it’s hard to make friends. Oh and we’re also looking for frontend devs for our volunteer open-source tech team at Distribute Aid. But I’ll just post about that separately so it’s easy to boost

Alright, I guess it’s good to be back. Hopefully I’ll stick around this time.

#Mozilla macht wieder Mist.

Hey @mozilla, we don't need no AI assistance,
we don't need no thought control.

https://mastodon.derstandard.at/@derStandard/115026316608908119

Please don't waste our donors money on rubbish. Make #Firefox stable, fast and secure.

Ugh!

> VC-backed company just killed my #EU trademark for a small #OSS project

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44883634

It seems that, behind those walled gardens, mainly weeds are growing. #OSS #Copyright #LawFedi

No More Markdown

Well, it's certainly not going away any time soon, but it doesn't have to be the default. While it's easily a majority of the docs formats that I have to use, it's not my favorite.

Perhaps in an ideal world it would be AsciiDoc or LaTeX _All The Time_, but we don't live in that world, oh well

In the interim, here's someone who wrote about the topic which seems worth sharing. Interesting points, ja?

- Why You Shouldn’t Use “Markdown” for Documentation: https://ericholscher.com/blog/2016/mar/15/dont-use-markdown-for-technical-docs/

Anyone know of a FOSS equivalent to Google’s PageSpeed Insights? I’ve been searching but can’t really find a Lighthouse alternative.