This was a rather quiet week for the Lunduke Computer Operating System (LCOS).  It is Independence Day here in the USA, and I took a little time off to celebrate with the family.  Likewise, one of the key early developers (working on the first version of our image creation script) took the week off to go camping.

Family time is important.  As is good BBQ.

Just the same, two very critical decisions were made this week.  Decisions which will have far reaching implications for the future of the project.

BSD Licensing

For all 100% original code (developed specifically for the Lunduke Computer Operating System), the BSD 2-Clause license will be utilized.

The BSD 2-Clause was selected for a wide variety of reasons.  Notably: simplicity, flexibility, and the fact that it has been well tested for over a quarter of a century (as the primary license of the FreeBSD project).

Also known as the "Simplified BSD License", it contains only two clauses:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

This license will be used for the imaging scripts, installation software, and any original software built for LCOS.

Of course, it goes without saying that a complete, functional LCOS installation will include a wide variety of licenses (from a wide variety of pieces of software).  But the parts we specifically build will use the BSD 2-Clause by default.

Government Structure

There are a great many issues plaguing many Free and Open Source Software projects -- often stemming from individuals, with motives contrary to the original vision of the project, gaining control over moderation or governance.

We see this happening in a number of different Linux Distrubutions and projects right now... and it just plain sucks.

In order to prevent this from taking place, The Lunduke Computer Operating System will be a monarchy.

While multiple, specialized governmental organizations may be created within the project (to fill specific needs)... a monarch will sit at the head, with the authority to override any and all decisions made by any such governmental bodies.

Some projects call this role a "Benevolent Dictator".  We call it a monarch.  For no other reason than because I like the sound of it.

All hail, King Lunduke.

Lots To Do

There remains a tremendous amount of work to do in these early days -- with a pretty hefty to-do list to crank through in the weeks ahead.  But progress is being made.  Even during holidays.

Regally yours,
-King Lunduke

Past Status Reports

• June 21, 2024
• June 28, 2024

My very existence drives many nerds to the brink of madness.  It is... a gift.

Below is a small sampling of nerds -- and Tech Industry folk -- who have lost their gosh-darned minds after reading a few of my Wild and Wooly Words of Wounding.

Here we go.  "Crazy Tech People Who Hate Lunduke - Part II"

Warning: One of the screenshots below contains some naughty words.  I censored those words... but you can probably still figure out what they were.  Also other screenshots, while not filled with naughty words, are mildly retarded.  Which may or may not be contagious.  I don't know.  I'm not a doctor.

Drew DeVault

We kick off this installment with a post from Drew DeVault -- CEO of SourceHut & developer of the Sway Window Manager.

Drew DeVault wants people to know about an important threat facing Free and Open Source Software: "a small but growing community of right-wing conspiracy theorists ala lunduke et al."

You hear that?  I am a threat to Free Software.  I, Lunduke, am dangerous.  Drew fears me.

Hey, maybe there's something to that!  We've already learned that I am capable of destroying entire Open Source projects entirely with my "Word Magic (tm)".  So, who knows!  Maybe I am a threat!

Also... when describing "right-wing" people in the Free Software world... who do they think of?  Lunduke, that's who.  That, right there, is some serious branding success.

Wait.  "lunduke et all"?  "et al"?

And... others?  Who are the others?  Am I their leader?  Do we have meetings?  Was there punch and pie?

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Endless OS

Cassidy James -- engineer on Endless OS, co-Founder of elementary OS -- spends a tremendous amount of his time talking about that dastardly Lunduke fella.  Pretty much any time a Lunduke Journal article gains traction within the Linux world... Cassidy is there to remind people just how evil I am.

Deadnaming!  Misgendering!  Regressive commentary!  Asking questions!

This Lunduke menace must be stopped!

I mean... come on!  Regressive commentary!  Regressive!

My favorite part of this is that last line: "[I don't know] if the contents of this post are true--I refuse to visit that site--but I figure you should know what you're linking to."

Everybody take note of what a good person Cassidy is.  You know he's a good person because he refused to read a Lunduke article... and he loudly told you (and everyone one else) about it.  That is the very definition of "good person".

I mean... Cassidy had to tell people how he refused to read a Lunduke article!

Shoot.  That virtue ain't gonna signal itself!

It's OSNews again!

The editor of OSNews.com is back for round 2!  Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you... Thom Holwerda!

Yessir.  He's a professional.

I'm impressed I was able to find a post of his where I only needed to censor 3 words.

NixOS

Within a few hours of publishing an article on NixOS... the Nix team got to work on their most important and ambitious code submission yet: "Suspend Bryan Lunduke".

That's right: "Bryan Lunduke has been suspended on all platforms"

Did I have accounts on the NixOS forums and such?  Apparently!  I guess?

Have I ever posted anything to any NixOS forum or system?  I don't... think so?  I mean... maybe?

But I definitely won't be posting anything now!

"Check mate, Lunduke," exclaimed the NixOS Foundation Team!

Linux Mint

Speaking of being banned from Linux Distribution forums... that reminds me of the time, a few months back, when Linux Mint not only banned me from using their forum... but they banned any usage of the word "Lunduke".

Seriously.

A Linux Mint user sent me the screenshot above, showing how the word "Lunduke" was instantly transformed into "violates forum rules".

So, naturally, I had to try this out.  It just sounded too ridiculous to be true.  Well, lo and behold...

"I was told that my name (violates forum rules) was listed as a forbidden word here on the Linux Mint forum.  Which... just sounded too preposterous for words.  Thus I am testing it out.  ;)

 

Yours in nerdiness,
violates forum rules"

Ironically, this very publication was almost named "The Violates Forum Rules Journal".  Had a nice ring to it, right?

Within minutes of making that test post, my Lunduke (err... I mean "violates forum rules") user account was banned completely.

Eventually enough people complained about this... so the Linux Mint folks unbanned my name.  Which means, I believe, you can use the word "Lunduke" again.

So, you know, I've got that going for me.

Two days ago, the Ladybird Web Browser made quite a bit of news -- with a major investment and the establishment of a new Non-Profit organization to build a "from scratch" web browser.

Positive, non-controversial, non-political, very nerdy news.

Unfortunately, within hours of the spotlight being directed at Ladybird, a group of activists launched an all-out-assault on the open source web browser -- by smearing it as "Transphobic", "Mysoginistic", and (this is absolutely not a joke) suggesting that the Ladybird developers actively support and promote human slavery.

Hundreds of posts repeating such smears (among others) -- with one Tech publication declaring a total boycott of Ladybird because of it.

What vile deed were the developers of Ladybird guilty of, which necessitated such an intense response, you ask?

Well, I'll tell you.

The Ladybird team stated... wait for it...

... that they were a "purely technical project".

Seriously.  That was their crime.  Being "technical".

Here's the details.

No politics in Ladybird

When the Ladybird Browser Initiative was launched, earlier this week, their team included a very small statement on "ideologically motivated changes".

That statement reads, in full, "This is a purely technical project.  As such, it is not an appropriate arena to advertise your personal politics or religious beliefs.  Any changes that appear ideologically motivated will be rejected."

Seems incredibly reasonable for a software engineering project to remain focused on... software endingeering.

However...

A number of activists decided to do a little digging and found a 3 year old suggested documentation change -- in a different, but related, software project -- where the word "he" was suggested to be changed to the word "they".

The person who created this suggested change -- who had never contributed to that project before and was completely unkown to the existing developers -- considered it a "minor nitpick" to change one word that wasn't, in his view, "exactly the best".

The change was rejected with the statement, "This project is not an appropriate arena to advertise your personal politics."

And that was that.  No controversy.  No conflict.  

Until this week... when the news spotlight was directed at Ladybird.

The Attacks Begin

Now, ask yourself, what would be the appropriate response to this?

A denied, 3 year old request -- by one person who did not have any involvement in a project -- to change one word that was a "minor nitpick"?

Well, for the writer of OSNews.com, the only reasonable response would be a complete ban on reporting anything about Ladybird (and deleting exisiting articles).

And, if you ask a variety of activists on Mastodon, the Ladybird lead developer should be smeared as "Transphobe."

You'll note that, at no point, has the Ladybird team ever mentioned anything regarding "Trans" issues.  At all.  Not one statement.  The Lunduke Journal looked high and low and found absolutely nothing.

And, yet, the label of "Transphobe" is liberally applied.

As is "Misogynist".  Often accompanied by swear words.

Attack after attack after attack.

Just to kick it up a notch, some activists even began suggesting that the Ladybird project was -- through their use of software version control systems -- advocating for human slavery.

Not a joke.

You can't make this stuff up.

At one point, responding to one of the various attacks, the lead developer of Ladybird, Andreas Kling, made a short statement on X.

"I have absolutely nothing against gender neutral language," stated Kling.  "I am however against outsiders doing drive-by [code changes] with ideological motivations.  If a regular contributor [had] made these edits, I wouldn't have thought anything of it."

This statement did not stop the attacks -- which continue to be posted across social media.

The Source of the Hate

Transphobe.  Misogynist.  Slave Owner.  That is just a sampling of the insults, accusations, and hate being hurled at the Ladybird team.

And, as is plainly evident from the evidence above, these attacks are not based in reality.  None of the quoted statements or actions, from the Ladybird developers, could even come close to justifying the accusations being thrown around.

Which begs the question... where, exactly, is this hate coming from?

Well, it turns out... we've seen these tactics before.  And, interestingly, we've seen some of these people before, as well.

The Trans Political Activists

Just 24 hours ago, The Lunduke Journal published a story detailing how a group of Political Activists had conducted a "purge" -- of people whom they believed were not sufficiently "Pro Trans" -- from within the NixOS project.

And some of the individuals who conducted (or supported) that "purge" within NixOS... are also at work here... attacking the Ladybird Web Browser.

One activist ("cafkafk") seen below, within the GitHub repository for the developer being attacked, celebrating the fact that other activists -- organized on "The Fediverse" -- had arrived to harass the Ladybird developer.

That same activist ("cafkafk") had spent time within the NixOS project -- both leading up to and during the "purge" of political undesirables -- pushing for bans of people who were deemed insufficiently "pro-Trans".

In fact, multiple key players in the "NixOS Purge" have been actively posting and sharing the anti-Ladybird attacks.

Attacks Across Open Source

Time after time.  We see many of the same tactics -- with many of the same people involved.

So many projects:

SUSE & openSUSE.  Hyprland.  Asahi Linux.  Elementary OS.  NixOS.

And, most of the time, with a consistent pattern.

1. People who are not actively, vocally supportive of Trans activities... are attacked.  Smeared.  Vilified.  Typically with dishonest, libelous statements.
2. No matter what sort of apology, justification, or attempt at appeasement is made -- by those being attacked -- the attacks continue.  Always.
3. Eventually (typically quickly) the attacks escalate into calls for people to "step down" or be "banned" in some way.

While there are some minor variations, from case to case, the overall patterns remain strikingly similar.  And, seemingly, escalating in frequency -- with three significant attacks in the last few months.

In fact, if recent history is any indication, we're likely to see additional attacks involving Open Source Software projects and companies -- by the Trans Political Activists -- in the near future.

As long as their tactics continue to have even the smallest amount of success...

As long as those being attacked fail to fight back...

The Trans Political Activists will not stop.  They will continue to attack and hurt people.