The Programmer's Fulcrum 18 September, 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.
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.
Two notes for this week:
1. I'm attending WordCamp Bretagne this week so coverage of some of Friday's happenings will slip to next week.
2. We switched and customized our theme to make our home page a little more accessible.
Featured Item(s)
Smashing Frames writes:
Omarchy should not matter. But sadly it does. As a power grab.
(It) is part of the new fascism. But it's also a good case study about how little political resilience is built into FLOSS. The libertarian roots have not only made the whole movement ready for the taking by corporations but also by fascists.
And sadly many influential organizations in that space are not up to the task of putting their foot down.
They also write:
There has been this shift towards equating “progress” with “technological innovation and development”: society is moving forward if tech produces more shit. You might have picked up on me mentioning that today’s vision of the future is just a thinner iPad every few months.
But if “progress” – which is a political term about values that one aims to manifest or express or expand in the world – is just replaced with following PR messages about whatever tech wants to sell next, that does not only make the space of possible futures paperthin, it also puts massive amounts of power into tech’s hands.
And I don’t just mean economic and political power (which is also true and needs to change massively, rapidly and aggressively). In this context I mean narrative power.
CMSs
Patrick Brosset says:
This is why the Servo project is so important.
404 Media reports:
‘Doom Loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft Admits LLMs Are Destroying the Web and Built on Theft
There’s a 100% Chance AI Agents Are Already Ruining the Internet
Meanwhile Tech Policy Press reports:
Millions of Volunteers Are Keeping the Internet Human. For Now.
The first thing the author needs to do is get the fuck off Reddit.
Terence Eden shows us:
How to get a DOI for your blog posts
For you researchers out there.
Candost opines:
Magazines are superior products to newsletters
They are certainly more enjoyable.
Alex Hoyau has an update on:
My work on Silex Desktop to make it forge-agnostic
I will be attending Alex's presentation at Le Capitole du Libre. It about de-clusterfuckifying WordPress by using Silex as a decoupled frontend.
WordPress
TechCrunch reports:
Sources say Automattic’s board is out after failed attempt to oust CEO Matt Mullenweg
On a more joyous note, WordCamp Bretagne shares:
Découvrez Gwen, le Wapuu officiel du WordCamp Bretagne 2026
Yes, WordPress is a clusterfuck. But at least it's cute.
On a non-cute note, Internet Exchange explains:
What It Means to Lose Autistici/Inventati and NoBlogs
Tools
Bastian Greshake Tzovaras has a great book review:
On building Digital Solidarity
The day it’s available in English or French, I’m buying.
About Signal reports:
Signal registration without a phone number now available in Android beta
Browsers
Servo has:
Servo had a busy end of August and start to September
Your Donations at Work: One Year of Sponsored Servo Development
Waterfox announces:
6.7.3 — Auto-hide vertical tabs and appearance fixes
Where Waterfox stands on AI and LLMs
I think most "anti-AI" positions are really anti-GenAI slop positions. As the author notes machine learning etc. has been around for decades. Still, modern "AI" is intentionally labor weakening fascist techshit based on theft and created by and for techbros. But perfection is not possible and this shit is unavoidable, so keep it as local and open source as possible and minimize your use of LLMs. Avoid LLM-built tools as best you can. The environment is already fucked.
Writing
LibreOffice has:
LibreOffice 26.8 and the languages for which nobody is paid
New “LibreOffice Expert 2026/2027” magazines available for schools and local communities
If you want a personal copy, you can buy one from the publisher.
LibreOffice 26.8 and interoperability: preserving what cannot yet be read
Nextcloud announces:
Collabora: Landlock adds a third, tougher sandbox tier
Nextcloud Hub 26 Summer: Autonomy for Teams, Office on desktop, a fresh take on Photos
There are some good Markdown improvements in Nextcloud Text.
Cryptpad reveals its:
They are doing good work in the government tech sphere.
Scribus has:
Added a Scribus 1.6.x quick tour on the main menu
Joplin announces:
Your notes and AI: privacy first
If you have to use AI (and you shouldn't) this is the way to do it. At least you can use an open model and keep it local with only your data and the individual tools you select.
Creative
The Counterforce shows us:
Punk A.I. Artists are on the Rise: How to Suffocate the Slop in Your Scene
9to5Linux reports:
Shotwell 0.33 Open-Source Image Viewer for GNOME Is Here with GTK4 Port
Linux / Open Android
9to5Linux reports:
Linux Mint Devs Introduce New EPUB Reader and Calendar Apps
Jolla announces:
Change on Jolla Phone memory configurations going forward
LINux on Mobile explores:
MCF20: Flatpak support, sorta, kinda
It's important for Linux Phones to become a thing. More so than with desktops.
F-Droid has its weekly update:
Gina Plat notes:
European governments are starting to support alternative mobile app stores
Digital sovereignty is good. Digital solidarity and Techno Anarchism are better.
Hosting / Serving
The Association for Progressive Communications reports:
This week's featured OMN tool
OmniTools' PDF Tools
Boost your productivity with OmniTools, the ultimate toolkit for getting things done quickly!
Programming
NLnet Labs explores:
Maintaining the love for coding in the time of AI
If your proposed contribution to an opensource project was mainly developed with AI, you may think you're a developer. But, you're not. You're a cunt.
David O'Brien says:
Users of assistive technologies need to know the names of interactive elements on the web
The Open Media Network explains how:
The deathcult is selling the future as techshit
Andy Bell has a rake on the CSS situation:
You’ll miss publishers when they’re gone
Git
Gina Plat also notes:
Sweden is choosing Forgejo for their digitally sovereign government code platform
Markdown
Random Thoughts on Leadership and Technology shares:
HTML
Fractal Interests examines:
CSS
Always Twisted has:
... And That's My Rank! 2027 Edition
Master.dev says:
It’s All About The Permissions Recovery
Vale notes:
It was doomed the day Digital Ocean acquired it. And it’s been dying a slow death since.
In effect the Master.dev blog has taken the CSS-Tricks role.
The Jacobin asks:
Is There a Way Out of AI Doomerism?
Taggart Tech says:
Everone Is Lying To You For Money
And Connected Places says:
AI watermarking has a decentralisation problem
Other
OpenProject is:
Training the next generation of IT specialists: Using OpenProject at the Gutjahr Vocational School
XWiki announces:
XWiki 18.8.0RC1 has been release!
This week's featured programming tool
XWiki
XWiki innovates with "Structured Wiki" and delivers high knowledge features.
XWiki is a little much for us. But, I did manage to get DocuWiki added to our Manade project this week. ;)
ActivityPub
Terence Eden shows us:
How to send an updated user profile to Mastodon and the Fediverse
IFTAS shares a fix for:
The GoActivityPub Library is working on:
The vocabulary/lexicon generation
Vlac Log shares:
A couple quick notes on ActivityPub
This week's featured ActivityPub featured tool
Fedify
Fedify is a Typescript framework that lets you build for the Fediverse but skip the boilerplate.
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 cunts.
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
Roel Roscam Abbing has:
Nobody's fault, everyone's problem?
If you run a public instance, you have a responsibility to your users and the wider Fediverse. Provide robust moderation. At least against spam.
Fedilab Apps shares the:
Experience of building FediHood
Magic Pages explains:
Why your Ghost site's old posts don't show up on Mastodon
Also, your main Fediverse account should not be Ghost-based as their implementation is mediocre at best. Self-hosted or Go To Social are better bets. Maybe even a Mastodon account. 😱
PeerTube announces:
Framablog has:
reseauCulture.fr : le monde de la culture s’organise sur le fediverse
More
ATProto
ATProto France shows us:
Comment utiliser une app Atproto en sécurité
Building [at] Habitat shares:
Habitat's road to release: 06 commenting
Graham Marlow looks at:
Decentralized identity and ATProto
Atmosphere
Discord alternative, Roomy announces:
Skyreader has:
Skyreader update - Reading Rooms
Jacky Alciné shares:
Great stuff.
RSS
Two Waves and a Dot opines:
RSS has a business problem, not a technical one
XMPP
XMPP shares its:
The XMPP Newsletter August 2026
Matrix
AdullAct reports:
Local governments are regaining control over their digital communications with Matrix (image pdf)
Democracy Tech
I began reading the book, Decidm, a Techno Political Network for Participatory Democracy: Philosophy, Practice, and Autonomy of a Collective Platform in the Age of Digital Intelligence, this week.
Decidm is a quasi implementation of both the Open Media Network and Techno Anarchism but from a more formal governing practice. It is a democratic tool for participatory democracies like a city, NGO, or a collective.
You can learn more about Decidm here.
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!
And please build something for a community! We're painfully nurturing Manade.