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Disgusting. Pausing my volunteer tablet driver contributions and any future Linux-related work until The Linux Foundation grows a bit of ethics. If they don’t change, I’ll look elsewhere.

➡️ Edit: Thanks to all your comments and feedback, I now see I'm reacting against The Linux Foundation’s misbehavior, not the open-source Linux community and ecosystem itself. They’re separate entities; I needed that reminder. My frustration is with that corp, not the code. I'll reconsider my pause.

Hylke Bons 🥜

2026-08-15 11:08:36

mastodon - Link to source

The Linux Foundation had $300 million in revenue in 2025.

can't hire a designer.

absolutely pathetic.


Esta entrada fue editada (anteayer, 19:46)

reshared this

in reply to Carlos Solís
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David Revoy

@csolisr That's a question for later. I just know that when I left Windows Vista and adopted Linux, no professional artist was using it. Whatever I decide next, I'm not afraid to pioneer a little bit.
@Carlos Solís

Oblomov reshared this.

in reply to David Revoy
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Martin Owens

@csolisr

Unlike proprietary software the value is not in the thing as written, but in the ongoing labour and the ability to organise labour for that thing

Free Software is a fundamentally different proposition and it hurts me when folks misunderstand and imagine Linux is something akin to Windows that you either bare the pain of or depart for elsewhere.

The kernel's Labour is driven by hardware vendors, not users. A friendly reminder that our broken economics opens terrible doors

@Carlos Solís

reshared this

in reply to mohs
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David Revoy

@mohs Understood. I put two nights before writing this, so I think I'm weighting correctly my words about my feelings. I understand that they don't own the Linux code, that it is possible to fork, but they really disgust me as a flagship foundation right now.
My motivation is just finding fun when I look at other OS. Maybe I just need a time to digest? Holidays ? 😅 Thank you for your feedback!
@mohs
in reply to David Revoy
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mohs

I certainly would not want to invade in your decision about how to spend your time. It might also be a solution to decide more precisely who you want to support upstream with improvements.

Recently I did read a prominent statement, that ethics should not be considered in technical decisions. But if that would be the default we would use technology without any ethical concern. In that case it is better not to use the technology at all.

in reply to mohs
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David Revoy

@mohs No problem, and thank you for the feedback. as you saw, I just edited my post. I had a misunderstanding about how big was the role of the Linux Foundation, and this post helped me to find a bit more clarity and discernment between The Linux Foundation’s misbehavior, and on another side remember the open-source Linux community and ecosystem itself.
I'll learn to just ignore the Linux Foundation, and see them as what they are: the toxic bank that manage external company funding.
@mohs
in reply to Kirtai 🏳️‍⚧️
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LisPi

@kirtai @mohs There's considerable history with the whole "disregarding ethics" and fascism.

It's very much a red flag for someone to adopt that position.

If anything, we need more thinking about the externalities of technologies (not just direct ethical consequences), not less.

@mohs @Kirtai 🏳️‍⚧️
Esta entrada fue editada (ayer, 9:26)
in reply to David Revoy
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AlexanderMars

@datarama seriously, ignore the linux foundation, it's everything bad about corporate foss. Big corps lording over and coopting community work, when they're not too busy self dealing.

Anyone thinking BSD is some green pasture of freedom, good effing luck. The hardware support alone would turn my daily driver into a paperweight. I love that BSD exists, but it need a community that's a bit more than server racks and zfs pools. Linux is only just growing out of that mindset.

@datarama
in reply to elgregor
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Strypey

@AlexanderMars
> more devs need to release more code as CC-NC

CC strongly discourage using their licenses for code. Ways to make Free Code less vulnerable to corporate freeriding have been discussed, at length, for decades. But Source Available licenses create more problems than they solve.

@elgregor
> AGPLv3 or later, to scare off corpos. Then offer a separate commercial license

This is the way. Make them give credit to original devs, and publish their modifications.

@davidrevoy @datarama

@David Revoy @datarama @elgregor @AlexanderMars
in reply to AlexanderMars
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Juank Prada Art

@AlexanderMars @datarama The ironic thing is that the grow of the Linux ecosystem has come in part (and not a small part) thanks to the corporate we currently criticize.

It’s easy to ignore it because many here moved to Linux when it was easy to install, easy to use. And a stable alternative to run our games

To be honest, BSD right now is in a better state than when I moved to Linux in the 90’s and if anything can help
It grow is precisely having more users, support and demand.

@datarama @AlexanderMars
in reply to Juank Prada Art
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AlexanderMars

@Juankprada @datarama

I was a YDL user in the 90s, in those days deing a designer using Linux, I actually got told to go back to the Mac on a forum once or twice. I still hear that my feature request is too much of an edge case, until I frame it as accessibility issue, then it gets fast tracked.

Whether BSD is daily drivable depends a lot on use case, and ironically most of what make BSD usable for art and design(wacom drivers as an example) was ported from Linux.

@datarama @Juank Prada Art
in reply to AlexanderMars
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Juank Prada Art

@AlexanderMars @datarama This is true. I wouldn’t dare to deny that.

Back then communities of BSD and Linux where a lot more friendly among themselves and they benefited from each other.

These days seems like there is some sort of distance between them (there are many reason for that which are non important for my point here). (1/2)

@datarama @AlexanderMars
in reply to Juank Prada Art
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Juank Prada Art

So what I’m trying to say is BSD could benefit from all the knowledge of the Linux community if adapted correctly to the BSD philosophies.

I myself have made a very rough evaluation of my Comic production setup using GhostBSD and seems to be fine. So far nothing fails. I had to make some hardware changes to achieve it though. (change wifi card for example) (2/2)
@AlexanderMars @davidrevoy @datarama

@David Revoy @datarama @AlexanderMars
in reply to Juank Prada Art
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AlexanderMars

@Juankprada @datarama

Not disputing that someone can make BSD work, or that it would benefit from a larger community. It should have one.

Personally, I have waded through enough neck deep shit of linux growing pains(surely, you as well), that I'm not installing BSD to go back to that. Linux today is amazing, my partner's work provided Macbook pro regularly shits itself, while my Ewaste Surface Pro 6 has been trouble free for 4+ years.

BSD is okay, right now Linux is awesome.

@datarama @Juank Prada Art
in reply to AlexanderMars
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Juank Prada Art

@AlexanderMars Oh I did. My laptops default wifi card didn’t work well with BSD and I had to use a usb dongle to get wifi working (with the low speeds you mentioned). Then I changed the wifi card to one of the supported ones by FreeBSD and it’s working fine for me right now.

May need to do more extensive testing but I believe there has been major improvements on the wifi field specially on FreeBSD with their latest desktop/laptop initiatives. Worth checking out

@AlexanderMars
in reply to Björn
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Juank Prada Art

@thaodan @AlexanderMars @datarama Well It can happen of course. Apple already took it, Nintendo and Play Station use BSD as their OS for the consoles and Netflix uses FreeBSD for their servers.

But the philosophies behind the projects I believe, makes them more resistant to corporate influence

But sure… nothing is ever fully protected from the corporate prying eyes

@Björn @datarama @AlexanderMars
in reply to AlexanderMars
glitchsoc - Link to source

catboy_of_the_seaaa

@AlexanderMars @datarama
I hate it when people suggest niche and unhelpful alternatives whenever something questionable happens.
It's frankly just rude of people and I think it's just a ploy to feel morally suprior.
I'm sure BSD has uses but it could not function as the genuine backbone linux is in so much infrastructure. Switching to anything else at this point would be catastropic.
@datarama @AlexanderMars
in reply to AlexanderMars
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Björn

@AlexanderMars @datarama I think the Linux foundation is a pretty bad example of cooperate foss.
There are good cooperate foss players such as #redhat, #suse , #intel or #amd.
I've seen the Linux foundation more in copyright texts for Android downstream kernels then anything else.
Ah and Linux Standard Base, which hasn't been updated for ages.
#amd #intel #suse #redhat @datarama @AlexanderMars
in reply to catboy_of_the_seaaa
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Strypey

@catboy_of_the_seaaa
> what does the linux foundation like... do for linux actually

I believe they pay Linus' salary as BDFL of the Linux kernel, and quietly fund of bunch of R&D on low level components nobody ever hears about. But the GNU/Linux OS that people casually call "Linux" could carry on quite happily without them. Especially if, for example, the EU funded a distribution for public use, with plans for sustaining it if upstream dev stopped.

@datarama @davidrevoy

@David Revoy @datarama @catboy_of_the_seaaa
in reply to datarama
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Lauma Pret ♡ ᪲᪲᪲🌈

@freedesktop.org @datarama
in reply to Tomáš
akkoma - Link to source

Moses Izumi (he/him)

@jackemled
when I posted on my blog about how cool (and funny) it'd be to have an OpenBSD system that just runs a virtual Haiku environment, I still mentioned the idea of replacing the VM with a plain old compatibility layer.

moses-izumi.neocities.org/JokeDistros
[ @prahou may have already read it, but I extended the disclaimer at the end a little ]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Operating Systems - Moses Izumi

moses-izumi.neocities.org
@Tomáš @Luna Lactea
in reply to David Revoy
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Emmet O'Neill

Uhg, gross...

I think what's most disappointing to me about *all* of this stuff is having spent so many years believing that FOSS was at least partially grounded in an ideology and a philosophy, and not just about being cheap and, well... sloppy.

It's difficult not to burn out, to be honest.

I have to remind myself that a lot of people really do care, and want to do what is right.

in reply to Emmet O'Neill
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Strypey

@emmetoneill
> having spent so many years believing that FOSS was at least partially grounded in an ideology and a philosophy

The problem here is "FOSS", which mashes together 2 totally different philosophies. Software freedom ("Free Software") is exactly what you thought " FOSS" was about. Then came Open Source, which opened the door to corporate shitfuckery like the Linux Foundation and Mozilla Foundation/ Corporation (the latter owned by the former, both utterly captured).

@davidrevoy

@David Revoy @Emmet O'Neill
in reply to David Revoy
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DougMerritt (log😅 = 💧log😄)

It's important to know that they do not own Linux in any sense. They are licensed to deal with trademark issues, essentially because Linus is intensely uninterested, so *someone* has to do that.

They do not own nor control the Linux kernel source code, nor that of the many Linux distributions.

They *do* host and legally coordinate the Linux kernel effort, but if they disappeared, the kernel people would simply find another way.

> possible to fork

There's not even anything to fork that I'm aware of.

I've been using Linux since version 0.9, but I haven't been paying attention enough to know what on Earth they do with $300 million. I hope it's largely worthwhile, but I dunno.

@Varpie

@🪨
in reply to David Revoy
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Patrick Georgi

Linux Foundation started out as vehicle to pay Linus and others, but that's about as close to Linux as they get. Otherwise it's a trade organization (not a charity) to pool resources like that, and so these days they're rather AI heavy.

So, LiFo deserves all the contempt you (and I and all others) can afford, but I wouldn't make _that_ the reason to stop any involvement with Linux.

in reply to David Revoy
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yoasif

Just so everyone knows, the same applies to #wikipedia and the #wikimedia foundation:

quippd.com/writing/2026/08/04/wikipedia-turned-on-its-volunteers-now-its-coming-for-its-workers.html

Yes, they are also union busting.

Wikipedia Turned on its Volunteers. Now it’s Coming for its Workers.

TL;DR: In the last year, the Wikimedia Foundation has fired several union organizers, including those that worked on the Community Tech team - a team dedicated to building features for the volunteer community that edits Wikipedia.
Youssuff Quips
#wikipedia #wikimedia
in reply to yoasif
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Strypey

@yoasif
> same applies to Wikipedia and the WikiMedia foundation. Yes, they are also union busting

Just when we need them the most. I wonder if it's practical to decentralise WP out from under the Foundation? It would certainly be possible to set up a parallel effort, as some kind of platform co-op. It wouldn't need to start from scratch, since WP is under FC licenses, and they could incorporate each others' changes.

@davidrevoy

@David Revoy @yoasif
in reply to David Revoy
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datarama

@ToonLink My impression is that they genuinely don't notice. And I have a theory why: The slop machine is a lot like a slot machine, and you need to pull the lever a bunch of times before you get something "good enough".

But once you've started pulling the lever and you start looking at slop, your threshold for "good enough" rapidly starts dropping.

(I used to know a Stable Diffusion enthusiast, and watching him use that thing was a bizarre spectacle that resembled a cross between gambling addiction and the frustration of a user interface whose only operation was "undo/redo".)

@Toon Link
in reply to datarama
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Toon Link

@datarama That's a fair point! The longer I looked at the picture, the worse it got, but I had to *look* at it to see past what looked like acceptable shapes at first glance.

And we all know those moments when we hit the submit button, and suddenly all the mistakes we made shine bright. :blobcatmeltcry:

But becoming numb to it makes a lot of sense.

@datarama
in reply to Toon Link
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mausmalone

@ToonLink @datarama I mean there are other *insane* things in there when specifically considering Linux. The computers there aren't any specific models but one looks real close to an Apple II and one looks real close to an IBM 5150 - two computers that predate Linux by a decade or more.

I'm sure people who are really *really* into retro computing can probably identify the models that the LLM copied, but I'm willing to bet they're mostly, if not all, too old to run Linux.

@datarama @Toon Link
in reply to mausmalone
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Toon Link

@mausmalone Yup! It looks like one of the boxes are split in half, too, where the machine got confused and tried to put the stack of disks in front and beside the box at the same time.

There are shadows that don't make sense; there's a mouse that almost looks like a mouse but isn't. And, as you pointed out, a lot of the computers themselves look like they're from the 80s. It's like once you find one mistake, they keep stacking up.

@mausmalone
in reply to David Revoy
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Baŝto

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Remix of "This is fine" (peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2025-07-01_This-is-fine_by-David-Revoy.html) by David Revoy − CC-BY 4.0

Misc - Pepper&Carrot

Official homepage of Pepper&Carrot, a free(libre) and open-source webcomic about Pepper, a young witch and her cat, Carrot. They live in a fantasy universe of potions, magic, and creatures.
Pepper&Carrot
Esta entrada fue editada (anteayer, 20:00)
in reply to David Revoy
mastodon - Link to source

[object Object]

@ozzelot the linux foundation receiving a fuckton of money from multiple AI corporations (including Palantir) and paying Torvalds a $1.5 million/year paycheck is almost certainly the reason why Torvalds instituted an AI policy in the kernel that requires maintainers to use LLMs for review and encourages slop in the kernel. he evoked a right-wing conspiracy theory while doing it.

a lot of people have told you the Linux Foundation isn’t Linux, that they don’t matter, that you should keep contributing. that doesn’t make any sense if you think about it, does it. this is capitalism, and the person at the head of a project receiving large amounts of money certainly affects everyone who’s part of that project.

the Linux Foundation posting slop is a symptom of a sickness, but keep your eye on what matters. the kernel is rapidly becoming slop and it’s run by someone who very loudly dislikes you and me and everyone else who doesn’t like LLMs. you can do better with your time.

@Ozzelot
in reply to sjvn
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yoasif

@sjvn @zzt @ozzelot There is no slop in the kernel? Are you using some definition of slop that isn't "words extruded from an LLM"? Cause it seems pretty obvious that it must, since Linus himself told people that don't like AI to fork it.

arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/linus-torvalds-to-critics-of-ai-coding-in-linux-fork-it-or-just-walk-away…

Linus Torvalds to critics of AI coding in Linux: "Fork it. Or just walk away."

Creator says he will "very loudly ignore" those arguing for a ban on AI tools.
Kyle Orland (Ars Technica)
@sjvn @Ozzelot @[object Object]
in reply to yoasif
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domi

@yoasif @sjvn @zzt @ozzelot

> he told people who dont like ai to fork it
This is wrong, he only forbad forbidding ai.

Its not like an ai contributions ban would have been enforcable: either the human did a good enough job with the ai-assited change request, or it gets rejected as slop by the other maintainers, who are assumed to be competent to do so.

So the only thing Linuses move did is prevent threads like this one in their own discussions. This whole news item is neither dramatic nor interesting, and certainly nothing to be sad or angry about, even for people who hate LLMs from the bottom of their soul. Good reasons for that, but still.

@sjvn @yoasif @Ozzelot @[object Object]
Esta entrada fue editada (anteayer, 22:42)
in reply to domi
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sjvn

@domi @yoasif @zzt @ozzelot If you were on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, you see discussions over when--and when not--use AI in the kernel are still going on. See for example, Greg KH's recent note: lkml.org/lkml/2026/8/3/1374

LKML: Greg KH: LLM policy for drivers/staging/ going forward

lkml.org
@yoasif @Ozzelot @[object Object] @domi
in reply to sjvn
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domi

@sjvn @yoasif @zzt @ozzelot

> Because of this, going forward I am going to automatically reject any patches generated with a LLM for the drivers/staging/ subsystem,
with one exception noted below.
Yup, makes sense. And none of this contradicts anything i was trying to say or my feelings about the matter.

@sjvn @yoasif @Ozzelot @[object Object]
in reply to domi
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yoasif

@domi @sjvn @zzt @ozzelot "Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it. Or just walk away."

That's direct from the link I posted.

How is what I said a bad summary of what he said?

The mailing list post is even linked in the article!

@sjvn @Ozzelot @[object Object] @domi
in reply to yoasif
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domi

@yoasif @sjvn @zzt @ozzelot
I understand your perspective, but it only makes sense if you do the full boycot of all projects that dont also fully boycot ai use. This is a valid idealogical position, but IMO assuming this of anyone who reads the summary without even mentioning it goes too far: Nothing prevents kernel contributors from hating ai, staying in their roles, and critizising or slapping down any bad contributions made with, or without, ai, within their power, and just carrying on mostly as usual.
@sjvn @yoasif @Ozzelot @[object Object]
in reply to domi
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yoasif

@domi @sjvn @zzt @ozzelot Wait, you are telling me that I should have quoted the section instead of providing a link in order to summarize it for you?

And then you thought you could correct me because you didn't see anything in my comment that proved my position (since I didn't summarize or provide a direct quote)?

You didn't bother to even ask me what my evidence was, just went to straight to "correcting" me?

That's a hilarious interaction. 🤡

@sjvn @Ozzelot @[object Object] @domi
in reply to yoasif
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domi

@yoasif

> Wait, you are telling me that I should have quoted the section instead of providing a link in order to summarize it for you?
Not at all. It's actually quite simple.

I'm saying:

1)
Linus quote:
> "Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it. Or just walk away."
does not translate to your summary of:
> Linus himself told people that don't like AI to fork it.

Your version implies that one has to like ai to be part of the Linux project. This is not true. It is only people who want to forbid other people from using ai project-wide, that he is telling to fork, in the context of this quote.

I'm also saying that

2)
> Its not like an ai contributions ban would have been enforcable: either the human did a good enough job with the ai-assited change request, or it gets rejected as slop by the other maintainers, who are assumed to be competent to do so.

... which is also relevant for this discussion, and probably more important than 1, tho i understand you honed in on 1 as i called you "wrong".

@yoasif
Esta entrada fue editada (ayer, 6:41)
in reply to domi
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yoasif

@domi Sorry, I disagree that you have proven me wrong, at best it is a disagreement on what not liking AI means. If it means that they don't want AI contributions, I said nothing wrong.

If it means that they don't want to contribute AI on their own- that seems meaningless, since no one is forced to contribute AI; the only thing being enforced is others using it.

I don't people were demanding that people who dislike AI contribute AI, so your interpretation seems quite off-base.

@domi
in reply to sjvn
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[object Object]

@sjvn @Ozzelot
in reply to sjvn
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Mr.Brisby

@sjvn @zzt @ozzelot
“Palantir is not a LF member” but guess who is: OpenAI, Oracle, Google, Meta, M$, Anthropic, Actualyze Ai, Nvidia, Ai Craft Works, Ai Robotix, ASW, Cast Ai, Cielara Ai, Robotech Ai, RSMC.Ai, Spotify, Tencent, and many more with Ai agendas.

No way there isn’t slop in the kernel.

Please take your clown nose, contact Linus and tell him he’s a fucking idiot, a shill and to shut the fuck up with his slop addled mind.

@sjvn @Ozzelot @[object Object]
in reply to David Revoy
foundkey - Link to source

SuperDicq

Driver development is still useful for the rest of us. You don't hurt the Linux Foundation by stopping driver development, but you do hurt everyone else. Linux is free software and it belongs to all of us. The best thing you can do is run Linux-Libre, which removes all the proprietary blobs they added of the years.
in reply to David Revoy
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iknowpony

in reply to David Revoy
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Jonathan Kamens 86 47

I mean, if your concern is the use of generative AI in Linux, then from what I've been reading, The Linux Foundation is the least of your problems; a much bigger problem is Linus Torvalds.
But, as others have pointed out, it's not clear there's anywhere better to go instead of Linux. 🤷
Ref: startpage.com/do/search?q=linus+generative+ai+linux

search

www.startpage.com
in reply to David Revoy
mastodon - Link to source

elgregor

First of all, you need to contact The Linux Foundation, otherwise they will not realise you are upset at them.

Second, Linux and TLF are two different things and likely only the former cares about your tablet driver contributions unless the manufacturer of those tablets is a TLF member.

Third, I suspect this is a result of one employee's decision because likely TLF does not have any internal AI use guidelines. That brings us back to the first point. Complain to them.