Now that’s a nice service/page listing popular software projects and checking whether they actually are #FOSS or if they’re just #openwashing. https://isitreallyfoss.com/

Typical #Microsoft being Microsoft. And he's right when he says they have "miserably incompetent IT." Having to deal with their sign-in methods is a pain when it works. Imagine how much when it doesn't because your account is locked out, but then requires you to sign in to file an appeal.

These are the reasons why I stick with #FOSS, and not the kind Microsoft says it supports (#OpenWashing). #LibreOffice

https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-bans-libreoffice-developers-account-without-warning-rejects-appeal/

The only way Microsoft should be involved in a European Sovereign Tech Fund is if we fund it by taxing the living shit out of them.

But having them organise and influence it (and who gets funded by it), thereby de facto giving Microsoft EU taxpayer subsidies? Get the fuck out of here.

There are no words to describe how angry this attempt at corporate capture gets me when we’ve been working on sovereign tech in the EU for the past seven years with zero EU funding (not for lack of trying).

Note which people and organisations allow their names to be used to legitimise this effort so you don’t trust a thing they say on this subject in the future.

https://github.blog/open-source/maintainers/we-need-a-european-sovereign-tech-fund/

We do need a European Sovereign Tech Fund, yes.

What we don’t need is Microsoft – a trillion-dollar surveillance capitalist from the US that peddles proprietary technology and is helping Israel carry out its genocide of the Palestinian people as we speak – having anything whatsoever to do with it.

#microsoft #github #europeanSovereignTechFund #openWashing #corporateCapture #EU #tech #openSource #freeSoftware #FOSS #israel #genocide #ethnicCleansing #apartheid #settlerColonialism #Palestine #Gaza #WestBank https://ohai.social/@senficon/114904112159509578

ETHZ and EPFL announced the release of a Large Language Model (LLM) developed on public infrastructure: Trained on the “Alps” supercomputer at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in 8B and 70B parameters configurations, using open-source training data, respecting web crawling opt-outs during data acquisition, and natively fluent in over 1000 languages. Quoting: "The model will be fully open: source code and weights will be publicly available, and the training data will be transparent and reproducible".

I don't know how good it's going to be, but if true for me this is the real definition of "open-source" in AI (not the ridiculous, corporate-promiscuous definition by the Open Source Initiative).

https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2025/07/a-language-model-built-for-the-public-good.html

Does anyone know a good, #FLOSS-licensed implementation of the Android Managment API for non-#GAPPS / #degoogled devices that supports #eSIM provisioning?

• And no, I don't count #OpenWashing stuff that isn't #FLOSS but effectively #SourceAvailable to paying clients only unless one stumbles upon "development versions.

Basically like #MiniLPA but #remote and on #Android or any #Linux.

• I don't need like a complete eSIM issue infrastructure, but just something to i.e. push an eSIM profile (i.e. via ntfy to a device and make it install & activate / use it.

Not sure if #LucaWeiss or @LaF0rge have any ideas...
https://lucaweiss.eu/post/2024-06-24-esim-manager-for-mobile-linux/

• Granted a fully - #SelfHosting-capable managment #API is desireable as the #USA are unstable and I'd not want any #IT depend on the #vibes of the #Trump - Regime... ( See #CloudAct and how the #ICC as #Microsoft licensee got shafted!)

A new #Trump executive order defines a "gold standard" for federally-funded science.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/restoring-gold-standard-science/

Three points for now, and more later.

1. Most of the standards (3.a.i-ix) are borrowed from #OpenScience or conventional pre-Trump science. So far, so good.

2. Implementing the new standards is left to Trump-appointed political operatives (3.c).

3. With minor exceptions, agencies must make public "the data, analyses, and conclusions" on which they make policy (4.a.i.A).

More on the 3d point. In Trump's first admin, the Environment Protection Agency (#EPA) and Dept of the Interior required that all data used in policymaking be open. That seemed to be a laudable #OpenData policy. But it meant that EPA couldn't set policy based on private medical data on the harms caused by air- and water-borne pollutants. It was a head-fake to open in order to relax policies protecting the environment. That's why I called it #OpenWashing. Point 3 above is a big step in the same direction.
https://tagteam.harvard.edu/hubs/oatp/item_search?q=#oa.epa+AND+#oa.openwashing

Note that #Project2025 (p. 439) calls for this kind of openwashing, specifically at the EPA. The new Trump EO acts on that recommendation and extends it to all federal agencies.
https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf

Initially published in April 2010, Steve Jobs' "Thoughts on Flash" is a good reminder that when an ecosystem claims to be "open", you have to be cautious.

Apple's ecosystem is mostly closed, but they are honest about that fact.

While many systems fighting to gain market share claim to be "open", while being little more than APIs subject to use restrictions, which can be closed further at any time.

https://web.archive.org/web/20100722001052/http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

So annoying that here at #ICSE2025, llama models are invariably referred to as "open source" in talks and papers. #OpenWashing by Meta seems to be winning...

Caveat emptor.

Delighted to see MEP's taking up the fight against #Meta's #Llama #OpenWashing, and referencing the #OSAID as a potential solution.

The #OSI will keep fighting Open washing in Europe and around the world!

https://www.euractiv.com/section/tech/news/club-of-meps-demand-strict-ai-act-open-source-definition/

Es war toll für mich, dieses Jahr mit einem großartigen Team der @fsfe wieder bei den Chemnitzer Linux-Tagen dabei zu sein!

Die #CLT haben wieder mit einem vielfältigen Programm aufgewartet - zu oft musste ich mich zwischen zwei spannenden Beiträgen entscheiden. Zum Glück gibt es Aufzeichnungen! (Danke @clt_news und @c3voc !)

Meinen Talk zu #Openwashing gibt's hier:
https://media.fsfe.org/w/uDjX21M66BHiCia58ztt9H

Lasst uns genauer hinschauen und Openwashing entlarven!

CLT25: Openwashing ans Licht!

https://media.fsfe.org/w/uDjX21M66BHiCia58ztt9H

It's extremely unfortunate that a small minority in the #OpenSource community who have previously spoken very favourably about Meta's #Llama, or even gone as far as labelling it as Open Source, are claiming the OSI's OSAID is what enabled #Meta's #Openwashing.

Meta's Open washing predates the OSAID, and OSI have been fighting it for almost two years now! The OSAID is the best tool to win that fight.

https://opensource.org/blog/metas-llama-license-is-still-not-open-source