The Programmer's Fulcrum 16 October, 2026
This post originally appeared on The Fulcrum.
Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum.
It's your weekly curation of the essential news in the Open Media Network and Open Social development communities with a focus on devastating big tech via Techno Anarchism.
As usual, we aim to provide actionable content you can use to destroy Techno Feudalism each week. It has the additional benefit of weakening authoritarianism.
IMHO, the best way to do that is to use tools from the Techno Anarchist Manifesto to build your own site(s) to participate in the Open Media Network. Then you should share it (them) via Real Simple Syndication (RSS), Open Social, and possibly a newsletter or podcast. This approach is similar to what some call the IndieWeb and its POSSE philosophy.
The second best strategy is to have accounts on open social and use the hell out of them. And do the same with a RSS feed reader.
If you want some recommended tools see our LESS stack.
We publish TPF on Fridays so you can enjoy it over your weekend.
There's good stuff in all of our categories, so please take the time to enjoy and bookmark the items most relevant to your goals. We hope you are inspired to create new ones.
Or you can jump straight to your favorite section.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And may involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck´em.
Featured Item(s)
Misha Things writes:
Given what is at stake, it is surprising that so few people seem to be aware of, and engaged with this struggle over our digital world. Much like many of the boomers and generation X (what’s in a name) could not be bothered to think through the geopolitical and economic implications of letting the Americans build our digital world, a big part of the younger generations seems to have thrown in the digital towel, accepting their lives as digital serfs.
On a related note, we have an important pivot development with Manade:
Corporate surveillance, techno feudalist tech sucks and people want to leave it. But, some people have trouble with selecting individual tools that work well together. LESS is our very opinionated selection of a coherent stack. We want to make it easy for you to tell big tech to sod off.
Our Manade project will pivot into supporting and promoting this decentralized democratic tech stack.
With the new focus we aim to reduce decision paralysis and KISS for end users of tech. We want to help you escape the increasingly fascist techshit we are all stuck with.
The name is obviously inspired by KISS, the philosophy that "less is more", and the ideals of the country where we live, France. Long live liberty, equality, and solidarity.
Announcing LESS - the Liberté, Egalité, Solidarité Stack
Pivot to AI writes:
Linux kernel maintainers are complaining they’re drowning in slop. Torvalds’ answer is: less people, more chatbots!
Torvalds said he is not trying to push non-chatbot users out of the project. But there’s already so much slop code and so many slop procedures that his actions don’t match these words.
I suggest the social action: shame. Shame these people. Their actions are shameful. AI bros hate being shamed and they try to make rules against shaming — because shame works.
None of these people doing shameful things deserve a place in polite company. They should be shamed for their shameful choices.
Linux kernel goes full AI slop code, hides chatbot commits
Linus has always been a libertarian but as he ages he's becoming more of a techcunt. Discouraging. I guess it's time to start checking out FreeBSD if you're technical enough.
CMSs
pckt shares:
Okay, so... A lot has happened on pckt
You can now "import a blog from: Substack, Ghost, Tumblr, Buttondown, Pika, WhiteWind, or from anywhere that exports as Markdown."
Jay Perry explores:
Manton Reece has announcements for Micro Blog:
On a journalistic note, Current Affairs explains:
WordPress
Haurand Webdesign has:
Zustände in WordPress 7.1.x bei Buttons
Good stuff.
Small Web
Tim's Blog shares:
Ghost
Spectral Web Services announces:
Magic Pages lets you:
Choose what your site sends to the social web
Tools
Fast Wonder reviews:
Open Source Summit Prague: Sovereignty, Metrics, and Burnout
Matrix envisions:
What will it take to build an open source Europe and how the Digital Commons EDIC can help
Open Productivity announces:
Open Productivity: Six Open Source Vendors Form Joint Venture for openDesk
Gut. This is a solid option for medium-sized operations and up.
The Document Foundation peruses:
Goodtech examines:
Souveraineté numérique : le rapport accablant qui pointe les lacunes de l’Europe
Tuta announces:
Building a private internet together: Tuta & (photo storage app) zeitkapsl partnership
Browsers
9to5Linux reports:
Mozilla Firefox 158 Is Now Available for Download, Here’s What’s New
Remember to use forks of Firefox like Zen, Waterfox, or Librewolf.
Speaking of, Waterfox announces:
6.7.6 — Feed controls and browser fixes
Cloud
Nextcloud reports:
Armira Growth teams up with Nextcloud: Frank Karlitschek on what it means for the community
They need to do this in order to take business away from Microslop, Gaggle, and Sapple. If you have a problem with it, check out Framaspace.
Writing
The Document Foundation announces:
The Document Foundation (now) has its own visual identity
LibreOffice comes to the rescue of Microsoft Publisher users
Creative
Vaibhav Haldia explains how:
A Patent Troll Almost Killed GIF
The Worldwide Web Consortium announces:
Updated Candidate Recommendation: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2
Kdenlive asks:
Linux / Open Android
Amos Batto asks:
Will Linux phones become a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly?
This is an incredible (and long) post on the challenges Linux phones face. You might want to start at the end. ;)
LineageOS announces:
24.0: Slick Seventeen, Awesome Applications, Universal USB Tools
The Free Software Foundation Europe has a:
9to5 Linux reports:
Linux Mint 27 “Adrien” Slated for Release on Christmas, Based on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
Matthias Kirschner demonstrates:
This week's featured OMN tool
Scribus
Scribus is the go-to Libre Desktop Publishing Application.
Programming
Terence Eden says:
I paid people to try and follow my README
Kruno Golubić looks at:
The 2026 round of new domain endings
Markdown
Writing Slowly longs for:
Built-in support for the ‘Web of Markdown’?
HTML
Master.dev lists:
5 Good Choices for HTML Containers
Great stuff.
Scott Jehl explores:
Standards In Progress: Making Video Posters Accessible, Responsive, and an Element
Ahmad Alfy examines:
Iframes that finally fit their content
A quick HTML and accessibility tip: if you put your headline in the header image you still need to add it as an H1 in your text or via your CMS's title field.
CSS
Cyd Stumpel shares:
And Eric Meyer shares:
Web Components
Aaron Gustafson looks at:
Tabbed Interface: The Web Component
AI
deadSimpleTech says:
There's little that's "inevitable" about AI
And Iris is 100% correct.
Other
OpenProject shares:
The open source alternative to Jira
This week's featured programming tool
Codeberg
A community-led effort that provides Git hosting for free/open source projects.
ActivityPub
Projets Libres shares:
#76 – (Fediverse) WordPress, ta maison dans le web social décentralisé
Note the last avatar on the reposts in the “Reactions to a post on Jeremy's blog” image. ;)
Dr. Fed announces:
DrFed 0.1.0: Our first release
The Real Grunfink announces:
Terence Eden has:
Some quick thoughts on Unit Testing ActivityPub
PieFed demonstrates:
This week's featured ActivityPub featured tool
LittleFedi
A lightweight, efficient and Mastodon-compatible home for the Fediverse. Your server. Your community. Your Fediverse.
Permanent aside here (unfortunately)
This is a perpetual pet peeve because many people aren't able to comprehend ⬇️:
- The Fediverse is for communities (private, semi-private, formal, informal, or otherwise)
- and the Atmosphere is for the masses (unwashed, washed, or otherwise).
- and corporate social media is for naive fools and intentional techcunts.
So, recognize their natures and don't ask the two protocols to go against them. This is also why we have accounts on both platforms and use them differently.
Fediverse
Lowkey Party explores The Forkiverse fiasco:
10k users... and how many Moderators?
Speaking as a journalist, journalists are just as stupid as any other humans. And even more tech illiterate. So, they probably shouldn't spin up Fediverse instances.
Heisse reports on:
Age verification in the Fediverse: How the KIDS Act challenges Mastodon
The University of Innsbruck introduces:
Social Media: Mastodon für alle Studierenden
Matthias Pfefferle launches:
a landing page on WordPress.com and video series with that explains the Fediverse
I was not aware of the Federated Reply WP block which is a useful one for interacting with the wider Fediverse. And this all works via the ActivityPub plugin if you self-host WP, which you should.
Platform for Social Apps announces:
There is an ActivityPub integration available for your Elgg instances
Bonfire
Public Spaces reports:
Mentaal.nl test Bonfire voor community’s in de ggz
More
IFTAS releases the:
2026 Social Web Annual Survey & Needs Assessment Report Now Available
Truffle Culture opines:
Culture Is Abandoning the Public Feed
Great stuff and why our original mission for Manade was important.
European Trends has:
The Great Unfollow: How Europe is Rewriting the Social Contract
This is a bit optimistic for now, but let's hope it blossoms.
Brennen Day shares:
Old but vital.
ATProto
ATProto explores:
Developer Experience Goals for Atproto Spaces
at:// pizza thoughts examines:
Jola.dev has:
Making your own atproto backlink index
Boris Mann Tech Blog connects:
LaSuite Apps + Atmosphere Accounts
Tres cool.
Atmosphere
Tierney Cyren shares:
What is the Atmosphere: An Untech Introduction
Skyreader announces:
Skyreader update - Newsletters and Search
Aiueo has:
“European public voices choosing W” — But are they?
W Don't Have Time asks:
On a related note, MeTacheles has:
W Social: Verifiziert heisst veroeffentlicht
Elena Rossini covers the douchebaggery in detail:
Public by Design: How W Social Makes Their Verified Users’ Personal Details Visible on the Open Web
Matthew's Newsletter covers:
If you don't know by now, W Social is a corporate grift targeting gullible marks. It's a shady organization that's a stain on the Atmosphere. At least (almost as shitty) Bluesky is honest about their commercial intentions and the very public nature of any information you provide them.
Meanwhile, Eurosky announces:
The Eurosky Identity Platform is now a Digital Public Good
P2P
Meshtastic says:
RSS
Robert Alexander looks at:
Matrix
Tesseract announces:
CTAs
- That’s it for this week. Please share The Programmer's Fulcrum.
- Follow us on Surf or at @thefulcrum@thefulcrum.dev on the Fediverse or at @thefulcrum.eurosky.social on the Atmosphere for daily coverage.
- Read, live, and share The Techno Anarchist Manifesto!
- Escape techshit with the LESS Stack.
And please build something for a community! We're promoting the LESS stack via our Manade project.
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