Forest @forestjohnson@pixie.town

Stepping down as Framework Linux Community Ambassadors

We are Tommi and Fraxinas, Framework Linux Community Ambassadors since September 2024.

We apprehensively followed the developments and the debate concerning Framework’s endorsement and support of Omarchy. We have no direct experience with this Linux distribution, its community, nor with the political environment around it. We did not speak up before now because learning about all of it and keeping up with all the commentary would have been a full-time job. Unfortunately we do not have the time to read every single comment on the dedicated forum thread.

Despite our admittedly limited and superficial understanding of this matter, we believe we have witnessed and read enough to make an informed decision and take a clear position.

The statements from Framework and from Nirav Patel (its CEO) made it very clear for us that Framework is not a company we feel represented by any more, and surely not a company that we want to represent as Ambassadors.

To be frank, it is not even necessary to dive into the petty drama about the recent events in order to provide an explanation of our decision. We are deeply disappointed by a company that is self-proclaimed as the resistance of the tech industry, the good David that intends to stand against the big tech Goliaths that are devouring it. Framework’s behaviour brought to surface an embarrassing and absurd inability to take an explicitly political position, blinded by the Western patriarchal narrative that technology in itself is not political. By trying to keep everyone happy (or at least not to make anyone mad) inside a fictitious “big tent”, the company proved to be no better than any of its Silicon Valley peers, dismissing comments about DHH, and comments about fascism and racism as not strictly related to the main mission.

We were proud to be ambassadors because we believed that Framework not only made products that empowered those who purchase them to fully own and repair their devices, but most importantly because we wrongly expected that this would imply changing the paradigm and the narrative about tech companies altogether.

We were offered the possibility of having a 1:1 conversation with Nirav Patel. We did not take it, because it is self-evident that our opinions are in contrast with the statements that he already made. Too bad, Framework is going to lose much more business than it would have if it simply acknowledged a mistake, took a deep inward look, and questioned its own values and stance.

In a world that is burning, thorn by conflict and greed, it is not enough to be “less evil”, to be radical only in some cases, and be moderate in others. We wanted to be ambassadors of a company that does not see fascism and proprietary software as two distant topics, but that recognised the entanglement of politics and technology, of capitalism and authoritarianism. It seems that this is not the case.

Farewell, Framework. We will miss the shining brave idea we had of you.

— @tommi and @fraxinas

The following statement was cross-posted on Framework’s Community Forum.

#Framework #politicalTechnology #SiliconValley #CalifornianIdeology

arXiv will no longer accept review articles and position papers unless they have been accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review.

This is due to being overwhelmed by a hundreds of AI generated papers a month.

Yet another open submission process killed by LLMs.

https://blog.arxiv.org/2025/10/31/attention-authors-updated-practice-for-review-articles-and-position-papers-in-arxiv-cs-category/

🏕️ my adventures in self-hosting: day 316 (realist edition) 👩‍🏭

a blog post in which I discuss how my #Sharkey misadventures provided some illuminating insights... including how grateful I am for self-hosted software that just works (hello @gotosocial). Also: I'm super grateful for the dot world group that allows me to have a Sharkey account that actually works as intended (thanks @ruud )!

🔗​: https://news.elenarossini.com/my-so-called-sudo-life/my-adventures-in-self-hosting-day-316-realist-edition/

#MySoCalledSudoLife #SelfHosting

Oslo's electric buses can be turned off from China, tests show
https://www.nrk.no/stor-oslo/ruters-egne-tester-viser_-oslos-elbusser-kan-fjernstyres-1.17629321

The Ruby community: currently in a knockdown / drag-out fight over whether platforming fascists goes against their goals of software engineering.

The Python Software Foundation, quietly continuing to be the adults in the room:

https://fosstodon.org/@ThePSF/115446659195456270

My local library has started a seed library!

They already created a tool library.

If you think this kind of thing is only for affluent or leftist places, let me assure you, if our poor town of 10,000 in a poor, red, Southern state can do it, your town can do it too.

The Linux Mint installation was refreshing, everything that Win11 wasn't. It asked my language and keyboard type then asked to connect to WiFi and it ACTUALLY TOOK "NO" FOR AN ANSWER. It asked for timezone and local account name and info and spent 10-20 minutes installing the base system.

It found my printer without asking.

I cannot express how happy amd relieved I am that I successfully installed the operating system and features I wanted AND THE COMPUTER DID EXACTLY WHAT I TOLD IT TO.

That is such a rare experience anymore. The OS does the one thing it needs to do - act as a layer between application software and my hardware. Machine setup asked for the absolute minimum information to configure a usable system. One reboot and I have what I want - a fresh working system.

It's like going through the McDonald's drive-thru, ordering a cheeseburger, fries, and Diet Coke, paying, driving away, opening the bag and finding a cheeseburger, fries, and a Diet Coke plus a straw, napkins, and a few ketchup packets. Nothing in that bag is unexpected or unwanted or out of place or actively disruptive to the enjoyment of a cheeseburger, fries, and Diet Coke. So simple a well-trained and attentive teenager could do it.

It's so weird and so comforting to use software not steeped in dark patterns and twee designer excess.

Introducing oavif: faster target quality image compression

https://giannirosato.com/blog/post/oavif/

oavif can be up to 63% faster than traditional target quality encoders. Learn how in the attached blog post!

#av1 #avif #compression

Ingenious

okay so I have no stake in this particular game beyond being a sicko but this is so funny from the bluesky CEO

looking at her other posts, her wider point is that bluesky is "neutral" and they won't ban troublemakers simply because the userbase want them to (and get on her case about it). which would be defensible, if not for the fact they do ban some (legal) speech, like people making fun about charlie kirk...

so it's just the ol' "cloudflare special" where they're a neutral conduit but only for the kinds of speech they personally think are acceptable (or that they think will result in continuing to get funding, I guess)

(and the CEO is having an extreme CEO moment posting through it instead of behaving like a grownup)

i've been out here in the open social network so long that periodically, when a new boat of bedraggled thought leaders washes up & starts saying things like "it's so cool that you can say the word 'tree' without bleeping it!" or "isn't it weird how nothing smells like sulfur?" ... i legitimately don't know how to react.

Apropos of absolutely nothing 👀

cloudflare = nazi collaborators

im still seething

https://www.osnews.com/story/143376/dark-patterns-killed-my-wifes-windows-11-installation/