What unites all FLOSS licences? Their negation of care and responsibility. "NO WARRANTY", they say in capital letters. But what if this (originally merely a legal precaution) has cast a way longer shadow than we thought? What is FLOSS software, if not a work of care? Maybe "FLOSS" isn't what we thought it was? ATTENDING Open to anyone, technical or not, whether a free software expert or newbie. Just follow this videocall link [https://meet.floxford.org/]; no registration required! SHARING We welcome you to share this page, our Mastodon/Fediverse post [https://mastodon.me.uk/@floxford/117575096087694308], and/or our Bluesky/ATProto post [https://bsky.app/profile/floxford.org/post/3mzpunnnr7i32]. SPEAKER BIO tante/Jürgen Geuter [https://tante.cc] studied computer science and philosophy at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg [https://uol.de/en/] and worked there for a while as a researcher and teacher. After working for a few years as project manager and consultant for a software company working on industrial maintenance and production systems, he now works as the Research Director for the spatial new media studio ART+COM [https://artcom.de] in Berlin. Besides his work in and with tech he’s been a writer and freelance consultant since the beginning of the 2000s writing about the social, political and structural impact of the way tech is implemented, conceptualized and talked about starting with issues around privacy and data usage and work on “AI”. In 2018 he was a founding member of the interdisciplinary Otherwise Network [https://ownw.de]. In recent years he’s been known for his work on criticism of technological hypes and their reception and built-in politics for example on Blockchain/Web3, Metaverse and “AI”. ATTRIBUTION Bio modified from https://tante.cc/about/ [https://tante.cc/about/], CC-BY-SA-4.0 [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode] tante (Jürgen Geuter). Cover Photo: Hands modified from "Abramowski-braterstwo-solidarnosc-wspoldzialanie-okladka.png" [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abramowski-braterstwo-solidarnosc-wspoldzialanie-okladka.png], CC-BY-SA-3.0-PL [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/pl/deed.en] © Magda Warszawa via Wikimedia Commons. Uncopyrightable quantities of text in background from MIT, GPL-3.0, MPL-2.0, new and old BSD licences.
The Free-Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS) License Slide
There are a large number of Free-Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS) licenses, but only a few are widely used. The widely-used licenses tend to be compatible, i.e., the software can be combined to produce a larger work. The following “license slide” figure makes it easy to see when common licenses can be combined:
FOSS funding, co-operation, and the Digital Life Collective
Free open-source software (FOSS) is the bedrock of our digital world. This is a story about getting funding for FOSS engineering…
Histomat of F/OSS: We should reclaim LLMs, not reject them
A few days ago, I came across a blog post titled On FLOSS and training LLMs that articulates a growing frustration within the free and open source software…
What is “openwashing” (in software)?
“Openwashing” is a term used by proponents of community open-source software against commercial open source companies. The goal is to shame the companies into changing their business mo…
My FOSS Story - Andrew Gallant's Blog
I’d like to break from my normal tradition of focusing almost strictly on technical content and share a bit of my own personal relationship with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). While everyone is different, my hope is that sharing my perspective will help build understanding, empathy and trust.
the power of software compels you! - n8
most people do not care about the atproto moral claim
Ten FOSS Development Fallacies For User Facing Software
This is a list, inspired by the Five Geek Social Fallacies, of common patterns or behaviours that developers of free/open source software (FOSS) fall into when they try to develop software for users who are not technical, or for whom non-technical users would be the most obvious userbase. Hopefully writing these down (which frankly is cathartic more than anything) is helpful to some in recognising these thought patterns and avoiding them when developing software - I’ve got some of my own thoughts on this at the bottom.
“They had no concept of a duty of care to their users.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
FairOSS: A brand for Open Source Sustainability — FairOSS
Open source software isn't a natural resource; neither is it finite nor used up. It may, however, be abandoned in an ever-changing technology landscape. Production of open source software starts with the investment of people's time, a scarce resource. Sustainability is about incentivizing people to invest their time in open source so that everyone can benefit from what they create. When you factor out time for life's necessities, a person's capacity to produce open source software is finite.
Don't Take the Black Pill - Andrew Kelley | SSW 2026
Dentists forgot to study flossing for a century, recommended it anyway
Federal health experts dropped it from health guidelines due to lack of research.
Pluralistic: The (other) problem with automatic conversion of free software to proprietary software (23 Apr 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Here's an interesting stunt: a project called Malus.sh will take your money, and in exchange, it will ingest any free/open source code you want, refactor that code using an LLM, and spit out a "clean room" version that is freed from all the obligations imposed by the original project's software license:
Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS, FOSS, or FLOSS)? Look at the Numbers!
This paper provides quantitative data that, in many cases, open source software / free software is equal to or superior to their proprietary competition. The paper examines market share, reliability, performance, scalability, scaleability, security, and total cost of ownership; it also comments on non-quantitative issues and unnecessary fears.
Sorting out the Ethical Licensing Mess
Software developers who give the world, for free, usage rights to the code they write often use open source licenses to make this gift legally explicit. These free usage rights (and then some) are …
