Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one
Joined Aug 2019
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Tech firms are spending more than ever on #lobbying the #EU amid mounting opposition to the bloc’s digital rules, according to @corporateeurope.
The 733 digital #industry groups registered in #Brussels now spend €151 million a year pushing their interests, up from €113 million 2 years ago.
Meta is the overall largest lobby spender in the EU (€10 million).
There are now an estimated 890 lobbyists working to shape the tech agenda, up from 699 in 2023.
https://corporateeurope.org/en/2025/10/big-tech-lobby-budgets-hit-record-levels
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
#Google trips over its own words, when they sell you #Android it's the best computing device in the world that does everything. After you bought it Google doesn't let you do anything *you* want to.
#Sideload is a made-up term. Putting software on your computer is simply called “installing”, regardless of whether that computer is in your pocket or on your desk.
What Do You Talk About When You Talk About Sideloading?
What does Google?
Here's #FDroid: https://f-droid.org/2025/10/28/sideloading.html
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
@ret @eighthave Now, following that, the legal post pertains to any #FDroid repository in general, but we can only speak for "f-droid.org repo" since this is the one we admin, is currently the biggest (by volume) and users usually refer to it by saying "F-Droid".
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
@ret @eighthave F-Droid (the word) is many things: a repo client, a repo software, a repomaker and an actual apps repo. The "f-droid.org repo" is centralized (w/ mirrors), yes, by its nature of being controlled by the repo admin.
When we say decentralized we mean that: you can use any F-Droid client with any F-Droid app repository out there.
Users are fed the notion of "there can be only one app store", be it from Apple or Google, and find it hard to grasp the idea of what #FDroid can do.
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
🏛️ We have just arrived at @Curia!
💼 Today, our lawyer, Dr. Martin Husovec, will explain to the court why #DMA #interoperability should apply to #Apple in full extent!
👀 Stay tuned for updates! And if you need a quick recap of what's at stake for #FreeSoftware in this case, have a read here: https://fsfe.org/news/2025/news-20251015-01.en.html
Do you write #Python programs that use #Git? Would you like a dead simple method for fetching public untrusted git repos in the most secure method possible? That's what we've put together in this pull request:
https://github.com/gitpython-developers/GitPython/pull/2029
If that is interesting to you, please try it out, give feedback, give it a thumbs up, etc.
@ret @fdroidorg We have never even tried to please everyone because it is clearly impossible. Thinking about the user helps deal with the world as it is. Let's take your example to show how difficult and gray this is: clearly the LGBTQ users in Saudi want privacy. If Saudi bans F-Droid and arrests users because of that app, did we best serve your example user? If F-Droid has a neutral reputation, provides strong privacy and decentralized access to apps, would your example user be better served?
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
What time it is? It's 5 o'clock... somewhere. So here comes the fifth #FDroid legal post.
It's all about content, transparency, and user protections. It features strong tags like #OnlineSafetyAct #Ofcom #DSA and #DMA and how these shape our own policies.
Will this break some prejudice? One way to find out: https://f-droid.org/2025/10/21/navigating-the-digital-markets-act-digital-services-act-and-the-online-safety-act.html
@muntashir @Epic_Null @emaksovalec @IzzyOnDroid You're right, F-Droid does really need to think about the definition of users we use and stick to it. It turns out, we have been doing a lot of that since the beginning. We do it in public and welcome all constructive engagement. For example, on the topic of app inclusion:
For discussions, check the currently active https://forum.f-droid.org or https://gitlab.com/fdroid or even archive, like from 2012 https://f-droid.org/forums/post/1301/index.html
@Epic_Null @muntashir @emaksovalec wow you really nailed it! Thanks for this, it gave me quite a needed boost to continue working on F-Droid.
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
@nobody The FSF is a fiscal sponsor of the Guix project, together with Guix Foundation, but the FSF does not contribute per se to Guix development (even less so now that the project no longer uses FSF infra).
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
I'm glad it was AWS that was down and not a sovereign cloud, imagine the consequences.
@cryptax 🤣 😭 here's an insane visual to your post:
@cryptax yeah, I have that feeling too, and I'm a Debian Developer even. Its a tricky balance. Debian takes a free-software-first stance and tries to push all work upstream as much as possible. That means in the short term, many devices are less polished. Ubuntu and Mint put a lot of effort to polish their own releases by including customizations and quirks in their forks. That means they have more polish, but means wasted effort in the long term. It is a tricky thing to balance.
@nobody @signalapp GNU is still central to GNU/Linux and GNU/Linux is central to building Android, GrapheneOS, Debian, Tails, Qubes, etc. Even macOS ships GNU. Maintenance counts. Don't forget maintenance.
Then like you said GNU Guix is leading the charge on strictly bootstrapable systems. And GNU Taler is leading the charge on privacy-respecting digital currencies, like real ones that aren't based on scams.
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
Hans-Christoph Steiner
boosted
🔞 Platforms have no excuse to continue practices that put children at risk.
We’ve asked Snapchat, YouTube, Apple App Store and Google Play for more information on the measures they have in place to protect minors.
This is the first investigatory step after the adoption of the Guidelines on the Protection of Minors, now also available in all EU languages and in a child- and parent-friendly version.
@nobody @signalapp
They said "GNU and FSF promote a bunch of highly insecure operating systems and products which causes real harm to users"
Without GNU and FSF's decades long fight for real free software, we'd be stuck with Microsoft and Apple for our "secure" options. GNU made Linux possible, made Android possible, made Qubes and Tails possible, etc. If you care about getting to real security, where everything is free software that can be inspected, then supporting efforts like FSF is key
@nobody @signalapp It happened because GrapheneOS claims to do everything for security, but then, dismisses projects that aim to replace binary blobs with free software. So perhaps they did not literally say what I wrote, but that's my synopsis of their logic, as far as I can follow it. I know of no standard to audit binary blobs with any reliability. Moxie was also never a believer in free software, his hand was forced by OTF to make Signal free. It was a requirement to receive funding.
I think words are not my native language. People often ask me, what language do I dream in. I just realized: not words. Imagery, emotions, feelings, sounds, actions.
I have the feeling I'm permanently lost in translation 😉
Joined Aug 2019
