Lunduke
News • Science & Tech
GNOME bans Manjaro Core Team Member for uttering "Lunduke"
"Lunduke" has become the "He Who Shall Not Be Named" of Big Tech and Open Source
July 23, 2024
post photo preview

The GNOME team has censored -- and deleted the account -- of the maintainer of Manjaro Linux GNOME Edition.

Why would GNOME take such a drastic action for a person so important to the packaging and distribution of GNOME software?

Because that Manjaro Linux GNOME Edition maintainer... dared to post a link to an article published by The Lunduke Journal.

How to Get Banned from GNOME in 1 Easy Step

On July 21st, The Lunduke Journal published an article entitled "GNOME Ousts Elected Board Member in Secret... and Tells Nobody for 2 Months" -- covering the expulsion and banning of GNOME Board Member, Sonny Piers.

That article was then posted by Mark Wagie -- a member of the Manjaro Linux Core Team, and maintainer of the Manjaro GNOME Edition -- to a GNOME forum post, relevant to the topic.

 

Screenshot of the post prior to deletion.

 

Within roughly 1 hour, that post was flagged and hidden...

 

Screenshot of the post after it was hidden.

 

Shortly thereafter, the post was deleted entirely... as was Mark Wagie's account.

That's right.  GNOME deleted the account of a Manjaro Team Core Member, and a GNOME package maintainer.  All because he posted a link to an article that had the name "Lunduke" on it.

From Mark Wagie:

 

"Today, I dared sharing your article on the GNOME Discourse forum in the Updates to the GNOME Foundation Board of Directors Roster topic. It didn't take long before my reply was flagged as spam and hidden. My account was also deleted with no communication whatsoever. I was able to take screenshots before my account was deleted.

 

A fellow Manjaro forum user told me he messaged the GNOME Discourse Moderators and 'questioned the wisdom of banning the Manjaro GNOME maintainer from their forums.'"

 

This is, without question, incredibly peculiar.  Banning a prominent contributor?  All because he posted a link to an article relevant to a topic being discussed?

An article, I might add, that nobody has objected to based on the facts.

Is the leadership of GNOME so afraid of the truth of their actions being exposed, that they resort to banning anyone who simply links to articles about GNOME?

Or, perhaps, is the GNOME leadership filled with so much hatred and fear for all things "Lunduke" that they are willing to cut off their own nose to spite their face?

He Who Shall Not Be Named

Here's something truly crazy: This isn't the only instance of people being censored (and banned) from portions of the GNOME project for uttering the name "Lunduke"... this week.  This is simply the most ridiculous example.

While it's true that the GNOME Foundation operates with a high level of secrecy -- often ignoring members of the press entirely -- they appear to reserve the bulk of their animosity for anyone who dares to mention articles or shows from The Lunduke Journal.

And they are not alone.

Leadership throughout the Big Tech and Open Source world have hard "Do not mention Lunduke" policies -- with some within the Open Source industry regularly screaming, bullying, and threatening anyone who dares to link to The Lunduke Journal.

One prominent Linux distribution even went so far as to add automatic censorship to their forum -- which instantly changed the word "Lunduke" to "violates forum rules".

 

102127_gfaxwjam9ardl8k.jpeg

 

Likewise, members of the Fedora (Red Hat) Linux Marketing Team speak openly about the need for hard censoring anything related to "Lunduke".  (The Fedora Marketing Team also likes to call Jewish men "Nazis", apparently.)

 

Source

 

The fact is... they fear the word "Lunduke".

Why?  Because, when you do shady things, the truth makes you look bad.  Wikipedia, Red Hat, The Linux Foundation, Google, Microsoft, and, yes, even GNOME (and so many others).  They fear the truth.

The Lunduke Journal reports the truth.

All of which has resulted in "Lunduke" becoming the Big Tech and Open Source equivalent of "Voldemort" or "Beeltejuice".  Should that name be uttered a little too loudly -- or, perhaps, three times in a row -- Lunduke will appear and wreak havoc.

And, you know what?

I'm ok with that.

Because here's a fun secret about being "He Who Shall Not Be Named"...

Everyone instantly knows exactly who you are talking about.

community logo
Join the Lunduke Community
To read more articles like this, sign up and join my community today
22
What else you may like…
Videos
Podcasts
Posts
Articles
November 02, 2024
Apple Removes Ability to Run Unsigned Apps in macOS 15.1

Big Tech's war against "sideloading" continues. With Microsoft and Google not far behind.

The article:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/6304352/apple-removes-ability-to-run-unsigned-apps-in-macos-15-1

00:23:36
October 31, 2024
Wayback Machine & Google Website Cache Go Offline Weeks Before 2024 Election

With a Presidential election days away, the biggest ways to record online statements are conspicuously broken.

00:13:05
October 31, 2024
25% of Google Code is AI Generated

Layoffs, lack of pay raises for engineers, but they're not replacing programmers with Al. Wink wink.

00:12:59
November 22, 2023
The futility of Ad-Blockers

Ads are filling the entirety of the Web -- websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. -- at an increasing rate. Prices for those ad placements are plummeting. Consumers are desperate to use ad-blockers to make the web palatable. Google (and others) are desperate to break and block ad-blockers. All of which results in... more ads and lower pay for creators.

It's a fascinatingly annoying cycle. And there's only one viable way out of it.

Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links? Check here:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm

Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal

The futility of Ad-Blockers
November 21, 2023
openSUSE says "No Lunduke allowed!"

Those in power with openSUSE make it clear they will not allow me anywhere near anything related to the openSUSE project. Ever. For any reason.

Well, that settles that, then! Guess I won't be contributing to openSUSE! 🤣

Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links?
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm

Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal

openSUSE says "No Lunduke allowed!"
September 13, 2023
"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044

This episode is free for all to enjoy and share.

Be sure to subscribe here at Lunduke.Locals.com to get all shows & articles (including interviews with other amazing nerds).

"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044

That time my Linux box was hacked and owned by the Chinese in 30 minutes...

I normally used linux on my home network. Never had any issues.

Then one day I put up a Linux instance on DigitalOcean. Within 30 minutes the Chinese had hacked it and DigitalOcean had shut it down.

The linux vm's in digitalocean just sit on the internet, unlike my home computers and VM's that are behind my router. I had NO IDEA about the basics that one needs to do to lock Linux down.

Spent the weekend educating myself and set up a new linux vpc on DigitalOcean that never got hacked. It didn't take brilliance, but it did take some basic education on security.

I tell this story to add some context to securing, debloating and turning off or blocking telemetry on Windows. It takes just a bit of time and education to learn what to do.

I find it weird that anybody who educates themselves on running Linux and extolls the virtues of how customizable it is, and the power of learning how to use VI --- would...

Time to buy a Mac Mini - but no. Not really.

My Beelink Windows 11 computer has died. It won't turn on and I don't know why. It doesn't even try to turn on. So, great time to get a Mac mini for the same $600 I have in the Beelink!

Not so, unfortunately. I need this box specifically to run Windows software - and it has 64gig of ram for running docker containers and virtual machines. It's actually over kill for how I'm using it.

I did buy the Asurion 3yr protection so I get to ship it back to be fixed. Risking my data...and my upgraded ram.

So, I ordered another one to be delivered over night. I'll swap the nvme's and ram, so that I'll have a running machine with my data....and I have until January to return this PC.

In that time, I'm hoping my original will be fixed. If I end up owning two of these computers, that's an acceptable outcome to be back up and running tomorrow or the next day.

3 hours ago

Zelle money transfer app, everyone.

No data is collected or stored after a complete system scan because... trust me, bro.

post photo preview
November 03, 2024
post photo preview
Last week at The Lunduke Journal (Oct 20 - Nov 2, 2024)
Linux v. Russia! Internet Archive Weirdness! RISC OS Web Browsing!

Ok, first off: I totally forgot to publish a "week in review" article last week.  Woops.  My bad.  So this article covers the last two weeks.

Second: Over the last 14 days, apparently there's been 16 shows.  Hot dang.

And the news has been all over the map!  The big story, obviously, was the "Linux v. Russia" craziness.  The really wild part of that story is that it's still ramping up.  The next month is going to see some wild stories relating to open source software and sanctions compliance.

Oh!  Oh!  And the Internet Archive stuff!  Insane!

But, you know what my absolute favorite news story was for the last two weeks?  The one about RISC OS having WiFi and a modern web browser now.  That story just made me happy.  It's nice to know that, even when various software companies and organizations are losing their darned minds... there's still bright spots of nerdy joy out there.

The Shows

The Articles

Read full Article
November 02, 2024
post photo preview
Funny Programming Pictures Part LXII
Number 7 will SHOCK you!

No Ctrl-C's were harmed in the making of this post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read full Article
November 02, 2024
post photo preview
Apple Removes Ability to Run Unsigned Apps in macOS 15.1
Big Tech's war against "sideloading" continues.

On Monday, October 28th, Apple released the macOS 15.1 update.  And, with that update, Apple has ratcheted up their war on "sideloading" by completely disabling the ability to run unsigned macOS software.

And signing software, of course, requires an Apple Developer Connection subscription.  Which, for most people, is a costly thing.

 

Every Few Months, A Little Less Freedom

 

Just a little over one month ago (September of 2024), the initial release of macOS 15.0 brought with it a new round of restrictions on running non-signed (also called "non-notarized") applications.  With 15.0, users could still run non-signed software... but they needed to jump through a few extra hoops by openning the System Settings and manually enabling each application they wanted to run.

 

 

This change made running unsigned software on macOS a bit more annoying -- additional steps to do something that used to be a simple "double click on the darned icon" process.  Annoying, to be sure.  But, luckily, all software could still be run.

That all changed -- less than 45 days later -- as Apple released the 15.1 update to macOS, which included the removal of the "Click around in System Settings" option to allow unsigned apps to run.

Now, in 15.1, when you attempt to run a non-notarized piece of Mac software, you will be greeted by a simple error message: "The application 'Finder' does not have permission to open '(null)'."

 

 

No option to run the software whatsoever.  Effectively banning all non-signed software (such as those developed by a hobbyist).

 

The War on Sideloading Continues

 

This isn't exactly a surprising move by Apple.  Over the last few years, all of the Big Tech operating system companies (Microsoft, Apple, and Google) have pushed -- with increasing intensity -- to lock down what software users are allowed to run on their computers.

Increasingly restrictive "application signing" systems, and the removal of "features" which allowed non-signed applications to run, have been a stated goal of all three corporations.

All in the name of a war on, what Big Tech has termed, "Sideloading".

What is "Sideloading", you ask?

"Sideloading" is most simply defined as "The act of installing software on a real computer."  And Apple, Google, & Microsoft are determined to stop people from doing that.

 

 

These companies haven't exactly been quiet about their goal to stop people from installing software on their computers (outside of approved, heavily restrictive mechanisms).  Back in 2021, Apple published a whitepaper entitled "Building a Trusted Ecosystem for Millions of Apps - A threat analysis of sideloading".

 

 

That's right.  Apple considers you having the freedom to install whatever software you want on the computer you own -- something every real computer (including those made by Apple) have done since the dawn of Personal Computing -- to be a "threat".

With macOS 15.1, Apple is taking significant steps to neutralize that "threat".

No software freedom for you.

 

The Last Workaround

 

As of now -- with macOS 15.1 -- there remains one final way to work around these draconian and artificial restrictions.

To do so requires the complete disabling of "Gatekeeper", the system which verifies downloads and restricts the running of non-signed applications.

This can be done via a fairly simple terminal command run as root:

 

sudo spctl --master-disable

 

However, it should be noted that with Apple's ever increasing requirements of application "notarization" -- and increasing reliance on the Mac App Store for software distribution (which ties into Gatekeeper) -- the full disabling of "Gatekeeper" seems likely to cause issues going forward with "Apple approved" methods of installing software.

Likewise, at Apple's current rate of attacks against "sideloading", the ability to turn off Gatekeeper may not be long for this world at all.

 

Don't Laugh, Google & Microsoft Users

 

While the news, today, is focused on Apple (their fight against the most basic freedoms of computing -- the ability to run software)... both Microsoft and Google have made it clear that they are all in on the war against sideloading.

Case in point: Google is migrating Android software away from "APK" application packages... to the far more restrictive "AAB" application bundles.  Microsoft, likewise, is pushing for a reliance on their online store.

So users of Android, ChromeOS, & Windows shouldn't laugh.  You're next.

Users of a variety of open source, alternative operating systems (such as Linux, BSDs, and many others), however, can laugh all they want.

Read full Article
See More
Available on mobile and TV devices
google store google store app store app store
google store google store app tv store app tv store amazon store amazon store roku store roku store
Powered by Locals