The NixOS project -- a Linux distribution and packaging system which has achieved significant success -- has descended into chaos as political activists seek to implement extreme, discriminatory policies... and ban those who raise objections to the discrimination.

As the political activists within NixOS put it: They are committing a "purge" of people they call "Nazis".

First, a little background to set the stage for this wild tale...

Not actively pro-Trans?  You're a Nazi!

There is a significant, easily observable pattern of extreme bullying emerging within the Linux & Open Source world: One where people are forced to declare allegiance to "Trans Issues", or face severe consequences.

The typical pattern, within any given software project or company, goes something like this:

1. Trans Activists bully people into giving a disproportionately large amount of power (and praise) to people who identify as "Trans" -- often discriminating against "non-Trans" people in the process.
2. If someone raises concerns regarding that discrimination: That person is called a "Nazi", "White Supremacist", and "Transphobe".
3. That person is then banned from the project, community, or company (likewise, anyone who defends or agrees with that person is also banned).

Note: It is not necessary for a person to say anything even remotely negative about "Trans" people or issues in order to be banned and attacked by the Trans Activists.  The simple act of objecting to discrimination of non-Trans people is enough to provoke attacks and bullying.

A few recent examples of this bullying within major Linux and Open Source projects:

• openSUSE declared that anyone who does not fully support "Trans" activities -- and wave the "Pride Flags" -- is "Rotten Flesh" who should be banned from the entire Linux world.
• Asahi & elementary Linux both made a policy of not allowing any users or contributors who do not actively support "Trans" activities.
• The Hyprland creator was banned, by a Red Hat employee, from the Free Desktop project after a perceived lack of reverence for "Trans" activities and "pronouns".

Now, it appears, we can add NixOS to that prestigious list.

The NixOS "Trans Only" Committee Seat

This story begins, as most wild tales do, in an incredibly dull way.

Back in April, 2024, leadership within NixOS saught to create a new committee (focused on approving monetary sponsors of Nix).

I know.  A committee talking about sponsorships.  Boring, right?  Trust me, this gets crazy.

A small group of individuals -- who are best described as "Political Activists" -- demanded that this small committee must include dedicated seats for people identified as "Gender Minority".  (Aka: "Trans" People.)

Some NixOS project contributors raised concerns about having dedicated voting seats for one specific "minority group" (but not for others).

The core of these concerns seemed to be that this was, effectively, discriminating against some groups in order to provide a disproportionate advantage for one specific group (Trans).

So far, this is a pretty simple story.

• One group wants a dedicated "Trans only" seat on a voting committee.
• Another group is concerned that this would be discriminatory.
• The two disagree... and discuss.

Straight forward -- and boring -- right?

Unfortunately, things get dark.  Really dark.  In a hurry.

The NixOS "Purge"

Instead of the two sides discussing their differences -- and coming to some sort of agreement -- the political activists (the "Trans Only Seat" group) decided to take a more... intense approach.

They began, what they called, a "purge".

"What is needed is a purge," stated one of the NixOS leaders who advocated for the "Trans Only Seat", referring to people who disagreed with his stance.

"I don't disagree," stated another.

The desire to conduct a "purge" continued... with the libelous attacks ramping up.

This same NixOS leader referred to the NixOS project as a "Nazi bar" (referring to many of the people raising objections to the "Trans Only Seat")... reiterated the need for a "purge"... and finished it off with an image of the Antifa flag.

Context of using the Antifa Flag: Within the United States, many local governments and organizations consider Antifa to be a violent, terrorist organization.  Antifa has claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks (including riots, attempts to burn down Federal government buildings, and violent assaults on journalists).  "Antifa" has a track record of labeling any who oppose them as "Nazis".  That this symbol would be used, by NixOS Foundation Leadership, while calling for a "purge" of the "Nazis" they disagree with, is significant and worth noting.

On April 21st, 2024, the "Purge" begins.

Over the days that followed, several contributors to NixOS were suspended from the project -- including forums and other communication systems (with some individuals, eventually, completely banned).

After an exhaustive search, The Lunduke Journal was unable to find a single instance where the banned and suspended individuals made any derogatory statements against "Trans" individuals or any other groups.

These "purged" people were labeled as "Nazis" by some NixOS leaders... in many cases because they were not sufficiently supportive of the concept of a "Trans Only Seat" on a voting committee (among other political topics).

It didn't stop with the rank-and-file contributors to NixOS, either.  It went all the way to the top, with accusations being posted regarding the founder of Nix, Eelco Dolstra.  Prompting a response from the Nix founder.

"I must express my deep disappointment and disbelief at the accusation of excluding people from minority or marginalized backgrounds," stated the Nix founder in a blog post on April 26th.

The following day, the Nix Foundation Board denounced the words of the Nix founder.

Then -- and this seriously happened -- the Nix Foundation Board began drafting an abdication letter on behalf of the NixOS founder.

This is real.  Eelco Dolstra, the founder of Nix, had an abdication letter written for him and was pressured into signing it.  One of the drafters made a note to the Nix Founder that he must add himself as a signatory of the letter "for it to appear amicable".

The abdication letter was posted, with the Nix Founder as a signatory, on April 30th.

The NixOS Saga is Not Finished

This, truly, is a crazy tale.

Political extremists taking over a successful Open Source project -- from the inside -- and imposing wild, discriminatory, political policies.  Followed by the vilification -- and mass "purge" -- of any who opposed their extremist politics... culminating in the (seemingly forced) abdication of the founder of the project itself.

And, perhaps even more wild, is the fact that this is only a small fraction of the NixOS story.

A story with a huge number of players, and hundreds of pages of documents.  In-fighting.  Abuse.  Politics.  And more than a few swear words.

What's more... the saga continues to unfold, with NixOS itself currently in a state of chaos at the hands of a small number of political activists.

But the rest of this story... is for another day.

The original founder of GitHub (Chris Wanstrath) has partnered up with the founder of SerenityOS and the Ladybird web browser (Andreas Kling) to create "The Ladybird Browser Initiative" -- a USA-based non-profit dedicated exclusively to building a brand new web browser.  From scratch.

While many have claimed that developing a new web browser "from scratch" is an impossible goal, the founders of The Ladybird Browser Initiative believe they can do it.  What's more, they are confident it can be done without taking any funding from corporate deals or advertising revenue.

Their goal?  To have a fully functional "Alpha" version of the Ladybird browser ready sometime in 2026.

Ladybird Funding

Roughly one year ago, the Ladybird Browser received their first major sponsorship ($100,000 from Shopify).  Now, with the creation of a 501(c)(3) non-profit (accompanied by a $1 Million dollar pledge from the GitHub founder), Ladybird is preparing to become the only major web browser which does not treat the user like the product being sold.

"Today, every major browser engine is open source, which is wonderful, but there's still one issue: they're all funded by Google's advertising empire. Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, and Opera all use Google's Chromium. Apple receives billions to make Google the default search engine in Safari, and Firefox has a similar deal where they receive hundreds of millions each year.

 

The world needs a browser that puts people first, contributes to open standards using a brand new engine, and is free from advertising's influence."

The fact that every major web browser engine is funded by advertising (specifically, via Google) is, indeed, a concern -- which makes the idea of a web browser free from that influence incredibly interesting.

But how, exactly, is Ladybird going to pull this off?

"Unlike traditional business models that rely on monetizing the user, Ladybird is funded entirely by sponsorships and donations from companies and individuals who care about the open web. Our non-profit will not pursue corporate deals or revenue outside of unrestricted donations. The software and its source code will be available for free, forever."

While it's easy to dismiss the notion of "funding a web browser via donations" as an unachievable, whimsical goal... Ladybird has already had some significant success in that area (not least of which, the $1 Million dollars from the GitHub founder), resulting in Ladybird already having 4 paid, full time developers (with 3 more programmers "starting soon").

So, maybe this approach is not as "unachievable" and "whimsical" as it first seems.

No Corporate Control

Also fascinating is this statement:

"Our non-profit will not pursue corporate deals or revenue outside of unrestricted donations."

What does that mean, in practice?

It means Ladybird won't be doing corporate deals for default search engines.  Or marketing campaigns for other companies.  This means that, if they can stick to their guns, Ladybird stands a real chance of a truly independent web browser... one which no company can control.

In fact the Ladybird Browser Initiative even has a policy specifically not allowing corporate donors to buy board seats:

"All sponsorships are in the form of unrestricted donations. Board seats and other forms of influence are not for sale."

This is a huge deal.  Massive.

A problem many non-profit foundations face is corruption of their core mission via corporate control of their boards.  There are many examples throughout the Open Source world of exactly this sort of problem (looking at you, Linux Foundation), and to see Ladybird recognize this problem -- and take action to prevent it -- right from the start?

Color me impressed.

The Current Status

The first public "Alpha" release of Ladybird may be a ways out (slated for 2026), but the current development versions are already quite far along.

"We can already do some of our daily browsing with Ladybird, like managing GitHub issues and pull requests, and commenting on Hacker News. The browser is improving every day, as our community of contributors are actively fixing bugs and adding features."

Testing of a recent build of Ladybird confirmed that statement.  Many websites function perfectly -- including some quite complex sites.  While many other websites were... less than functional.  Lots of work has clearly been done, with lots more left to do.

Can the development team improve Ladybird to a point where it will be usable, as a primary web browser, some time in next few years?  Considering the progress to date... it seems entirely possible.

"We won't be chasing buzzwords"

The Lunduke Journal reached out to The Ladybird Browser Initiative's co-Founder, Andreas Kling, with a burning question...

Now that the Ladybird web browser has an official nonprofit, with multiple full time developers working on it, you are clearly moving towards direct competition with the likes of Google and Mozilla.  The eye of Sauron is upon you.  How does that feel?

Kling's response:

"Feels great! The web is one of humanity's greatest inventions, and it deserves diverse, competing implementations to truly thrive. The industry has been heading in a troubling direction for years, with companies like Microsoft and Opera abandoning their own browser engines in favor of Chromium.

 

We obviously don't have the resources of companies like Google, Apple, and Mozilla, so things will take some time. However, I'm extremely optimistic about the road ahead. We have a fantastic community of developers working on Ladybird, and we're making solid, consistent progress.

 

One thing we have going for us is focus. Unlike the major players, we're *completely* focused on one thing only: the web browser.

 

We won't be chasing buzzwords or looking for alternative revenue streams. Our goal is to build a good browser and give it away for free, while soliciting nothing but unrestricted donations from anyone who likes what we're doing."

There's a lot here to be excited about.

• No chasing buzzwords.
• No alternative revenue streams.
• Total focus on the web browser.
• A brand new, from scratch browser engine.
• No advertising or Big Tech influence.
• A rag-tag team of rebels going, toe to toe, with the Big Tech web browser makers.

While, according to the Ladybird team, they are a ways off from a major public release... it's hard not to feel a bit optimistic about what this could mean for the future of web browsing.  This may be early days still, but the possibilities are tantalizing.

The Lunduke Journal is rooting for you, Ladybird.

This article was originally published -- on a different site -- on May 24, 2023.  It is being republished now, on The Lunduke Journal, for historical preservation and reference.  Note: This content is highly political and many will find the topics and quotes, from Linux project founders and leaders, to be extremely disturbing and devisive.  Reader discression is advised.

Yesterday, elementary OS announced that it would be leaving Twitter.  The reason?  Because, according to the announcement, Twitter "promotes far-right authoritarian politics".

The founder of elementary OS, Dan Fore, then took to his Mastodon account to expand upon his reasoning -- stating that the deciding factor was that Twitter was allowing Florida Governor DeSantis to announce his Presidential candidacy on Twitter.

"With the latest news of Elon promoting Ron DeSantis' presidential run, I'm done," stated the elementary founder.  "It's become a far-right social network no diferent from Parlor or Truth Social and I won't be a part of it."

He then continued by saying: "An attack on trans rights is an attack on desktop Linux."

Mr Fore has also posted, reshared, liked and amplified a wide array of statements that appear to be designed to incite hatred, fear, and violence against any people who do not fully support the Trans fetish.

Such as the following:

"Media should stop asking "how will DeSantis fare in the 2024 election?" and start asking "who will die if DeSantis is elected in 2024? Who will be purged from their job? Have their children taken away?""

And:

"t's a genocide. Don't call it a "culture war." Or an "ideological difference."

The goal of eradication isn't even whispered anymore. It is regularly stated, loudly and proudly, by powerful mainstream conservatives."

It's a lot of hate.  A lot of fear-mongering.  And, importantly, it's a lot of false statements (there is no "Trans Genocide" happening) with the purpose of vilifying and demonizing others.

It's not just one Linux Distribution...

If elementary OS was the only example of this type of vile bigotry, we could write it off as an anomally.

Unfortunately there appears to be a number of examples of exactly this sort of messaging occuring throughout the computer industry -- and the Linux and Open Source worlds in particular.

Alyssa Rosenzweig, most well known as a developer who has (rather impressively) helped get Linux running on modern Macs (M1 and M2 Apple Silicon based), has recently issued the following declaration in a blog post:

"I’m on the board overseeing Linux graphics. Half of us are trans. If all you care about is Linux, resist the attacks on trans people.

 

If you have any decency, fight back."

"Half of us are trans," he says.  Accompanied by a call to "fight back" against an imagined "genocide", assumedly perpetrated by those who do not fully buy into his particular sexual fetish.

Likewise, the lead of Asahi Linux, Hector Martin, has removed Asahi Linux from Twitter... and has issued the following declaration:

Of course nobody is trying to kill Hector's colleagues.

And the vast majority of major corporations -- not to mention the President of the country -- are continually coming out in support of the Trans fetish.  So declaring that there is a genocide occuring is beyond ridiculous.

Just the same, Asahi Linux has declared that people who do not actively support a specific sexual kink cannot be allowed in their project.

The Future

Do Asahi and Elementary truly not want any users, customers, or contributors who are "Right Wing" (or even Centrist)?  It appears as such.

There are multiple Software and Computer organizations which have declared their support for the Trans fetish over the last few years... my guess is some of them will take things even further, by making similar statements to those we've seen from elementary OS and Asahi Linux.  By spreading hate, fear, and bigotry... all in the name of supporting a sexual fetish.