Open Source Projects Receive Funding to Reclaim the Public Internet

https://nlnet.nl/news/2025/20250422-announcement-grants-CommonsFund.html

by edent • 1 year ago

473 228 1 year ago

maelito2• 1 year ago

Motis (transit calculator), Clearance (OSM contribution analysis) and StreetComplete (OSM contribution gamified) : very important assets for the free mapping community. Good news !

felixguendling• 1 year ago

Thanks! Maintainer of MOTIS here. We're planning to bring support for NeTEx, SIRI and OJP to MOTIS and with those formats a lot of features that are only available with those formats but not with GTFS(-RT) (yet). But having them implemented will also help us to quickly activate them for GTFS(-RT) once GTFS(-RT) gains support.

constantcrying15• 1 year ago

The EU and member states are currently putting in quite a bit of money trying to limit their exposure to US tech companies.

Looking at the list of projects you can see that they support a huge variety of projects, with all kind of different scopes and intentions.

While I think that the overarching goal is good and I would like to see them succeed, I also think that they fail to address the single most important issue. Which is that Apple and Microsoft are the only real system vendors, corporations who can offer an entire integrated system and aren't just either single components or many different components packaged together, but without the interaction necessary to compete with Apple or Microsoft.

The funding goes to many, but small projects, but this means the single biggest issue, actually deploying an open source system over an entire organization remains unaddressed.

Deukhoofd• 1 year ago

Note that this funding round was from applications up to October last year. The last couple of months have really accelerated the desire of European states and organizations to decouple from US tech, so we might see very different funding rounds soon.

As for an entire integrated systems provider, I don't think it'd fit a funding round like this. It'd need stable and secure funding, and I think the only real way to do so is to start out either private with good backers, or public, with the EU directly funding it (and not through intermediate backers like NLNet, that's more for small but important projects).

constantcrying15• 1 year ago

As for an entire integrated systems provider, I don't think it'd fit a funding round like this.

I agree. But it is the single most important thing there is, if you want to limit exposure to US tech companies.

The EU has the monetary resources to fund this. But it obviously does not know how, so we have these distributed system, where funding trickles down through multiple layers into many different small projects, which then get some funding for some time.

I think the EU funding these many small projects is nice, but we should not pretend that distributed funding like this makes any meaningful difference, as long as most government and corporate institutions are running Microsoft products everywhere.

A new system vendor needs to be created, it needs to be well funded, it needs to attract really good people and it needs to be deployed, millions of people need to be trained to use it, EU wide. This is a decade long project, but it is the only way to create an EU independent of Microsoft.

47282847• 1 year ago

The current NGI program (“Next Generation Internet“), of which NLNet is a participant of, is part of the Horizon Europe EU level program with a (fixed) runtime from 2021-2027.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_Europe

maelito2• 1 year ago

Which is that Apple and Microsoft are the only real system vendors

Google's Android is the largest OS by usage.

But yes, you're right. When you try to use a non-US OS in France you end up buying US hardware and erasing your data on the next LineageOS release.

We need vendors.

constantcrying15• 1 year ago

Google's Android is the largest OS by usage.

I am primarily thinking about government institutions and corporations. There Microsoft is used almost everywhere.

Mobile phones are a secondary issue in my opinion, also because Android is already much more open than Windows.

pickledoyster2• 1 year ago

Which is that Apple and Microsoft are the only real system vendors, corporations who can offer an entire integrated system and aren't just either single components or many different components packaged together, but without the interaction necessary to compete with Apple or Microsoft.

This is just a thought that ignores all the economies of scale etc., but what if monopolistic tech conglomerates were seen as a negative vs interoperable, modular systems? If that were the case, simply repeating US tech's blunders wouldn't be a true alternative, just more of the same with garden walls made of a different material.

constantcrying15• 1 year ago

I think that is a question of architecture.

What is important that there is one company you can go to who does all of that for you. Running a government institution and having 20 different vendors to make your basic IT system work is a nightmare. That you can get all in one from Microsoft is one of their biggest strengths in the market and you must compete with that.

pydry2• 1 year ago

The EU could set up something publicly run at first, creating (software) contracts which let chunks of the system get run by small, focused, competitive European businesses who could focus on, say, running a data center in France, providing blob storage services, managed Postgres or whatever...

constantcrying15• 1 year ago

But the issue with many small corporations is that you can not run office IT like that. People buy from Microsoft because you can get all in one from them. If you do not compete with that, then you aren't competing at all.

jonathanstrange3• 1 year ago

There is still an application barrier. If you want to make a OS that becomes popular, it needs to have better applications than other operating systems. Making the OS compatible with existing ones is bound to fail and violate IP rights. Making it Linux-based doesn't help because existing Linux applications are not competitive enough. They could be improved with consistent OS-level services and APIs but that requires developers to actually use them.

Nobody is interested in an OS without killer applications.

constantcrying15• 1 year ago

I don't think administrative work needs any killer applications. You need a complete system which actually works together and can be sourced by a single vendor.

b112• 1 year ago

Microsoft's push to the cloud and subscriptions for core stuff... outlook, word, excel, is so bizarre and filled with hubris.

An org can now transition everything to Linux locally, and only be left with these fully functional blockers.

That's a good step. And a there are vendors supporting Linux.

You can be sure such vendors would firm that up with a government sized buy.

Linux support is flawless, as long as you select supported components. And a vendor can easily integrate and ship that.

constantcrying15• 1 year ago

An org can now transition everything to Linux locally, and only be left with these fully functional blockers.

No. There is no vendor for this. Such a vendor would need to offer and support everything that MS is offering and supporting.

And a vendor can easily integrate and ship that.

Integration is hard. It needs to work together. We all know that Linux has some rough edges (and so does Windows) and the vendor has to take care of it all and actually needs to fix it. A company like that has to suddenly do maintenance on many major open source projects.

KronisLV• 1 year ago

An org can now transition everything to Linux locally, and only be left with these fully functional blockers.

What are the equivalents of Active Directory and the likes of Group Policy? I've seen some compatible/similar tools (like FreeIPA), but they don't seem very popular.

Edit: that’s not a gotcha question or something, I’m genuinely curious about the experiences of people who’ve done deployments like that. I also remember trying to setup Samba to allow some Windows PCs to access storage shares on a Linux box and nothing wanted to work with no obvious error messages. Oh and I have no love for the likes of Kerberos either.

preisschild• 1 year ago

While I think that the overarching goal is good and I would like to see them succeed, I also think that they fail to address the single most important issue. Which is that Apple and Microsoft are the only real system vendors, corporations who can offer an entire integrated system and aren't just either single components or many different components packaged together, but without the interaction necessary to compete with Apple or Microsoft.

I think that's good. It prevents forming monopolies and makes use of open standards more often.

graemep7• 1 year ago

The EU and member states are currently putting in quite a bit of money trying to limit their exposure to US tech companies.

its also very little compared with how much they spend on US suppliers.

It also does not address the issue of private sector dependence on the US.

Which is that Apple and Microsoft are the only real system vendors, corporations who can offer an entire integrated system

What exactly do you mean by this? What do people need that Apple supplies as an integrated system that is hard to replace?

constantcrying15• 1 year ago

What exactly do you mean by this? What do people need that Apple supplies as an integrated system that is hard to replace?

The complete package. Hardware, software and ecosystem by a single company. Only Microsoft and Google have anything coming close to this.

cookiengineer• 1 year ago

Well, you could also decide to pay a linux distribution of your choice.

KDE is a German project, GNOME a French/German project, most of Debian's maintainers come from the EU, Manjaro is a German project, probably most Arch, NixOS and Alpine maintainers come from the EU as well...

The problem with open source projects is always "unopinionatism". The only project that comes to mind where the design language feels actually integrated are KDE Plasma (not before) and maybe elementaryOS.

But those projects need a lot of funding to come to feature parity with Microsoft's and Apple's alternatives. Especially in the enterprise/corporate product portfolio, and system landscape administration.

monade10• 1 year ago

KDE Plasma is actually in the list...

constantcrying15• 1 year ago

Again, none of these projects can solve the larger issue. KDE does not do what Microsoft does. You can not give 100M to KDE to have them setup and maintain your government infrastructure.

akudha• 1 year ago

They gotta start somewhere, no? It is going to be extremely difficult (maybe even close to impossible) to dislodge the incumbents, doesn't mean they shouldn't try

thmsths3• 1 year ago

Sounds like we need a European software agency then. While these projects are technically independent of the EU, Ariane and the A400M are great examples of European collaboration.

We need the same for software: create a company/agency/institute, fund them appropriately (the A400M had a development cost of over 20 billions to give a ballpark figure) and ask them to produce an OS, a browser and an office suite. Make sure it's done with a product mindset, that they have ownership of it. Pay market rate for the employees. And within a decade we could have a credible alternative to Apple/Microsoft, then we can mandate the different EU administrations to switch to this software stack.

The biggest road block I can foresee is the infighting about how to "fairly" distribute the jobs. My worry is that instead of having a couple of locations that can each focus on a key aspect of the project, we would end up with 27 offices, with all the siloing that it entails. Which is literally one of Ariane's greatest weaknesses...

dingnuts• 1 year ago

I'm sure a centrally planned initiative will beat the market and create a better product for you to use in Europe, just like Lada defeated Ford!

pabs36• 1 year ago

We already have all of those things as open source projects, just get them to fund the existing solutions to get them functionally better than Apple/Microsoft.

WhyNotHugo2• 1 year ago

I don't want a "European Microsoft", or to build an equivalent of Google, but in the EU. The whole idea of "one huge organisation to meet all your IT needs" is exactly what I dislike about that model. In fact, replacing these US organisations with EU-based equivalents is no more than nationalism without any realistic change.

I want to see an ecosystem where small businesses and organisations can thrive in the IT space, just like they do in the offline space.

To provide an analogy for this: a lot of areas in the US have only a huge Walmart where people do ALL their shopping. In NL we don't have a "Dutch Walmart"; instead each neighbourhood has a bakery, a fish shop, a cheese shop, etc. Cities are full or small restaurants and bars. Many of all these shops are operated by their owners.

I want to see the same in the IT space.

freedomben2• 1 year ago

I've long wished Red Hat would open some kind of consumer/business facing market. Fedora is already so damn close, it just needs a little bit more love. Red Hat could partner with Framework, or Lenovo, or Dell for the hardware. Red Hat is already so connected with various stakeholders (Linux Foundation, Gnome, etc) that they wouldn't even have the huge barrier-of-entry of herding all those cats.

The EU funding or putting out an RFP or something would be amazing.

pabs36• 1 year ago

The hardware vendors should just offer OS choice at checkout time, and revenue sharing for the resulting choices.

freetonik• 1 year ago

NLnet is a great initiative. Among the numerous projects they have supported is Marginalia [1] search engine.

1. https://www.marginalia.nu/

zoobab• 1 year ago

"NLnet is a great initiative"

Originally, NLNet was *private money* given by the founders of a dutch ISP¨.

Now that this private money run out, they made a partnership with the European Commission, which is *public money* and comes with more strings attached.

danparsonson• 1 year ago

That all sounds like it's meant to sound sinister, but why? Private individuals sometimes fund great initiatives, as do public organisations. What's your concern?

mprime1• 1 year ago

Mastodon is another one (ActivityPub / Feediverse)

https://nlnet.nl/project/Mastodon/

pickledoyster2• 1 year ago

Some great initiatives being funded, especially: >PeerTube for Institutions — Make PeerTube easier to manage and moderate at scale

I'd LOVE to see more institutions and NGOs move to PeerTube.

The only gripe I see is funding for Wiktionary, part of the well funded Wikimedia that spends over a quarter of its budget on "Building analytics and ML services" https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Annual_...

diggan2• 1 year ago

The only gripe I see is funding for Wiktionary

Seems like a well-specified and specific reason for the funding though, not just "do whatever you want":

This project will develop QA modules for Wiktionary, leading to easy parsing and processing of cross-linguistic data. This helps to unify data formats across Wiktionary, and improve the overall reliability of this invaluable resource.

Given that the EU has 24 official languages, I think it makes a lot of sense to try to contribute resources for improving cross-linguistic data, bonus points for funneling those resources to a relatively open platform.

rapnie• 1 year ago

TIL to my surprise that Wikimedia has an Enterprise, which serves big customers like Google. We monetise what you crowdsource to us.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation#Wikimedia...

asim• 1 year ago

Something I came across yesterday was OpenCloud. I think with many of these small projects being funded it's not clear there's a cohesive vision of how to reclaim the internet. I mean the browser itself is owned by big tech. I don't know whether you have to start again at the protocol level.

https://opencloud.eu/en

Edit: if I was to dig a little deeper. What you do need is an operating system for the cloud. Something anyone can run and adapt. With a clear service to service protocol (not http or grpc) and a base set of services that make it useful. Things like proton are nice and we can support them and they run and manage the service. But if you wanted to run that stack yourself, you couldn't. I don't think it's entirely open source. I don't think that's their goal, but you also just couldn't run it yourself. We need this sort of default open model while having a cohesive strategy around how you build something. That is a true alternative to big tech and cloud providers. We are nowhere close to that.

mixcocam3• 1 year ago

There is also a lot of indirect funding in the form of the governments purchasing habits: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2024/04/04/german-s...

In the EU the size of the state is often bigger than 50% of GDP. What the government buys is very important and means a lot of $$ for projects, consultants and the rest of the open source ecosystem.

rafaelmn3• 1 year ago

I like the publicly funded open source funding in theory, in practice I suspect these guys had to pay consultants to create a funding project application, that went through some arbitrary agency, and the money that got to the developers is probably less than half of the money that was spent in the process. And then if this becomes more widespread an the existing software companies that do business with government will start sucking money out of such grants and the government quality code.

If our governments had a way of funding quality software development we would not get the software that we get.

Every now and then they will strike gold with stuff like Blender funding, but even that is peanuts comparably, and only passes through the art/culture channels probably.

monade10• 1 year ago

Actually, the grant process at NLnet is supposed super light weight. It consists of a single short form (https://nlnet.nl/propose) with very little boilerplate. No consultants needed...

rambambram• 1 year ago

The application process is pretty easy. I applied a couple of years ago. I did take it seriously, but I probably should have put more time and effort into my message and presentation.

What I don't really get about NLNet is their page titles are all about the Public Nature of the Internet, but the granted projects are all over the place. Not a bad thing, and being overly vague is a necessity to not push projects a certain way, but it hinders clearer communication, I think.

mixcocam3• 1 year ago

I like the publicly funded open source funding in theory, in practice I suspect these guys had to pay consultants to create a funding project application, that went through some arbitrary agency, and the money that got to the developers is probably less than half of the money that was spent in the process. And then if this becomes more widespread an the existing software companies that do business with government will start sucking money out of such grants and the government quality code.

I agree that systems are far from perfect at the time. I also think that governments have been putting money into digital tech for much less time than private enterprise.

Regarding the money that gets to the developers, I added a comment on that here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43770310

kmacdough• 1 year ago

And then if this becomes more widespread an the existing software companies that do business with government will start sucking money out of such grants and the government quality code.

Agreed, but keep in mind this must be compared to the phenomenal inefficiency of the developing monopolist oligarchy to the end user. I find it interesting how much harsher people are when some fraction of government money is siphoned, when the current alternative is *most* of it being siphoned, albeit without passing through government first.

The implicit claim often seems to be that people see less value per dollar when money passes through the government. But this is pure nonsense, particularly when you compare things like the cost of healthcare in the US vs everywhere else. Or generally most cases where government managed services can be compared to consolidated markets.

Just because some government money is wasted in ways that are less applicable to private industry doesn't at all mean the private industry creates more value for the consumer.

fforflo• 1 year ago

Except for the fact that big consultancies who receive most of the government contracts, have zero contribution to the open source ecosystem.

mixcocam3• 1 year ago

When you pay 1000 USD to Microsoft to use o365, how much of that goes to the developers?

The argument of "but very little of that money will go to *actual* development" is not looking at the alternative being used now.

gadders• 1 year ago

>In the EU the size of the state is often bigger than 50% of GDP.

That's a terrifying statistic. It doesn't sound very sustainable.

npc_anon• 1 year ago

In the US it's 40%. The 10% difference is explained by the US having limited to no public healthcare or pensions. Those are largely paid for privately, which pretty much balances it out.

sylware• 1 year ago

One key element is noscript/basic (x)html interop for the web, where _reasonable_ of course. And tons of online services can be provided like that as they were a few years back. At least the critical/"very utility" online services (for instance online shopping) should have interop which is actually working and tested.

The benchmark is the critical/"very utility" online service should work with a noscript/basic (x)html text browser, then you could add a simple CSS stylesheet for the noscript/basic (x)html CSS renderer (for instance netsurf), then if it is really unreasonable to do otherwise <troll but not so much>you could have an wayland/alsa ELF RISC-V binary running on JSLinux itself running in apple/gogol Big Tech web engines</troll but not so much>.

Don't forget that developping the software of the public web site/online service is not the main activity, timewise... the main activity, and by far, is the permanent monitoring and related development, security wise, and availability wise (in the end, the really really hard part is manufacturing state-of-the-art silicon hardware :) ).

nextpaco3• 1 year ago

They applied in October 2024 and starting receiving funding (€ 50.000 max) in May 2025. This is beyond ridicoulness.

This is beyond ridiculousness.

An AI agent could make a far better job than many well-paid but extremely lazy european bureaurats.

Let alone the corruption, if they choose their friend projects.

I'm pro an unite Europe but current European Union is beyond shame.

edhelas• 1 year ago

What is your issue there ?

I'm currently working on integrating multi-participants video-conferencing in the Movim platform using the NLNet funding system https://nlnet.nl/project/Movim-E2EE-video/

Its super easy to apply and the people are super nice to work with. Also try to find a company that would be interested to implement those kind of features for 5-50K€, they'll laugh at you.

For a tiny bit of "public funding" you get many exciting features on many different open-source projects and initiatives that millions of users are using daily.$

Also NLNet is an independant non-profit organization. No "lazy-european-bureaucrats" there.

Wikipedia: The NLnet Foundation supports organizations and people that contribute to an open information society. It was influential in spreading the Internet throughout Europe in the 1980s. In 1997, the foundation sold off its commercial networking operations to UUNET (now part of Verizon), resulting in an endowment with which it makes grants.

nextpaco3• 1 year ago

What is your issue there ?

I applied to NGI Zero in December 2024, because it was promoted on European Union websites, and my application was rejected by the NLnet Foundation in April 2025.

After FOUR MONTHS instead of one as supposed. Without a decent explanation.

This is not the first time I have applied for a European grant. But got nothing till now.

Once I applied for another Cascade Funding Call, and I mentor was assigned to me. It was a lady from a non-European country who was ignorant about popular innovation projects. And she was supposed to assist me and even judge my project.

I, a European citizen without a job, should have been assisted by an ignorant non-European person paid with European funds. It was devastating for me.

Later, I also applied to be a mentor for the same program, but my application was rejected.

So, I can't help but think that corruption is real and rampant in European offices.

Even tho I demonstrated many times my skills, even winning some important competitions, I'm long-term unemployed.

I've been registered on EURES, the European Union job portal, for more than ten years. As well as on the job portal of my country of residence. No one contacted me to offer me a job. EVER.

That said, after seeing how disgusting the current European Union is, I have no choice but to support any movement in favor of dismantling it. I hope it happens as soon as possible.

ryao• 1 year ago

https://nlnet.nl/project/SSH-Stamp/

SSH Stamp looks very interesting at a glance, but there is no information about a project page or a developer. A search for it with DuckDuckGo does not find any information beyond that page. I wonder if this is real. If there is anything open source about this, it is nothing like the open source projects I know.

sigio• 1 year ago

I'm guessing there isn't anything yet besides the proposal. Since the project start is this month. Knowing NLnet, I think there should be something soon enough.

monade10• 1 year ago

There is now a link: https://github.com/brainstorm/ssh-stamp

hello_computer5• 1 year ago

Money down the toilet. Job #1 is to make a google replacement. Job #2, a domestic phone manufacturer (with its own plaftorm / appstore). These are the two primary portals to "The Internet". Without meaningful replacements, they're still on Uncle Sam's plantation. China figured that out a long time ago, and is in a far better position to digitally de-couple from the United States.

They are so far behind. Focus! Spitballing 42 random projects is a luxury Europe does not have.

monade10• 1 year ago

You didn't spot the open hardware tablet in there? There was another announcement made almost simultaneously about funding for a.o. F-Droid:

https://nlnet.nl/news/2025/20250421-project-selection-pilots...

There are many search projects you can find like marginalia.nu and Searx, just not in this call round.

hello_computer5• 1 year ago

If you are talking about the MNT reform, that is utterly fatuous. Same with f-droid. These are toys for IT fanboys--nothing that will significantly dislodge Europeans from the US tech teat. Europe needs iOS & Google-tier replacements ASAP. China has Huawei, Xiaomi, Baidu, Alibaba. Even Russia has Yandex & Telegram. Europe has zilch.

I figured that after we were caught bugging Merkel's telephone, Europe would have at least gotten started, but I figured wrong.

diggan2• 1 year ago

China figured that out a long time ago, and is in a far better position to digitally de-couple from the United States.

Ok, that's great and I'm happy for them, how does that help us in Europe though? No matter how decoupled other countries are, doesn't make it less important for others to also eventually get there.

hello_computer5• 1 year ago

China built-up actual companies in a strategic order. Do what they did, rather than throw peanuts at a grab-bag of foss shitware. They are showing you the recipe for free.

sidibe• 1 year ago

China got there by banning Google. I don't think Europe is willing or able to do that unless Trump antagonism continues for years. Practically noone who has a choice (people in Singapore and Taiwan) between them uses Baidu

bluGill9• 1 year ago

Trump has a 25% chance of dieing of old age before his term ends. It is unlikely that the US will relax the 2 terms max for president allowing him a second term. If Trump is your worry then you can just wait him out. The real question is will others like Trump get into power next or not, and if so how like Trump are they? (I cannot answer that)

thuanao• 1 year ago

Ban Google, make the internet a public utility, and fund a public search index.

tasn2• 1 year ago

I previously received funding from nlnet and they have been great to work with. I highly recommend working with them, and they have been supporting amazing projects!

AndrewKemendo2• 1 year ago

I’m curious what kind of strings came with the funding, and what kind of oversight contracts you had to sign.

tasn2• 1 year ago

No strings at all. Oversight: the way it worked is that you agree on a proposal and milestones. When a milestone is complete you present it to them and then they pay for that part of the agreement.

If memory serves making it easy and accessible was one of their main goals, and they indeed lived up to it.

zkmon• 1 year ago

Risk appetite, accountability and support. These go against open source. Gone are the days when businesses were desperate for some software that just works. During my days at apache, I have seen large businesses officially allowing their devs to contribute to opensource full time. IBM being a large contributor. Now people can only accept managed software and hardware. Even if it opensource, it should be managed. Cloud providers offer a lot of opensource as managed services. That sells. No more wild-west.

udev40963• 1 year ago

I see no mention of the core projects which have been maintained and being used for decades. xz, libexpat, openzfs, NetworkManager and way too many tiny projects which glue the entire linux system. That's how you start to reclaim the open internet. Where is pihole, who is trying to debloat the web? Where is dnsmasq, which is most widely used dns server?

Tepix• 1 year ago

The sovereign tech fund is doing precisely that: Funding critical infrastructure projects. NLnet is also helping in the effort as far as i'm aware, as are some other organizations. Even some companies are chipping in. There is of course always a lot left to do.

udev40963• 1 year ago

From the looks of it, it doesn't seem enough. EU just doesn't have enough money to make this all viable. US is the only country with enough funding resources for quite a lot of critical and over-looked projects

zo1• 1 year ago

Also: who is working to usurp the free web and bloat it further. Examples being: DoH, cert-pinning, VMs inside apps (TikTok) and those advertising ID things that Google and Mozilla pushed.

orthecreedence• 1 year ago

Cloudflare?

monade10• 1 year ago

They did provide funding to dnsmasq: https://nlnet.nl/bluehatsprize/2024/1.html

And DNSvizor: https://nlnet.nl/project/DNSvizor

jay-barronville• 1 year ago

They did provide funding to dnsmasq: https://nlnet.nl/bluehatsprize/2024/1.html

You just reminded me that I need to make a donation to `dnsmasq`. I rely on it every single day (including for a couple critical projects and it has never failed me) and I’ve yet to donate anything to the project. I feel a bit guilty about that!

berlinbrowndev• 1 year ago

I wish we could do something around cookies, trackers, ads,

Like a simpler web server for http that only supports certain.

MisterTea• 1 year ago

https://nlnet.nl/project/Ada-bootstrap/

This is something I would be interested in but there is no link to a project page. I sent a message alerting them in case it was accidentally left out.

b0dhimind• 1 year ago

Would be cool if a lot of these get added to PortableApps for easy install and updates...

wolvesechoes• 1 year ago

The issue is that it is not enough to throw money at random projects. There should be at least high-level plan and rather specific goals. Frankly, "reclaim public internet" is a nice slogan, but it is too abstract to be a good, meaningful goal.

Also money is but a one issue. Free software has a big problem with coordination of efforts. Though many claim it is its strength, it is a handicap when it comes to political action (and free software is a political action).

In short, what we need is an equivalent of grand industrial policies of the past, but this time for free software.

ozim• 1 year ago

Observations from CVE issue was showing exactly that - loads of people jumping out that they can pick it up and continue.

Would be fine only if they would look at what else is there like ENISA.

So like everyone would start doing something for themselves duplicating and wasting effort and money.

eichin2• 1 year ago

With a catchphrase like "reclaim the public internet" I expected they were funding Anubis https://xeiaso.net/blog/2025/anubis/ (don't get me wrong, they've got a neat list of projects, I'm just quibbling with what's "public internet" about solar powered motherboards or Ada bootstrapping.)

eadmund• 1 year ago

Anubis isn’t really about reclaiming the public internet, though: it’s about excluding some internet users. It has its reasons, of course, but it’s fundamentally about making the internet not a commons.

eichin2• 1 year ago

From my perspective, anubis (and iocaine etc) is about keeping misbehaving load generators from suppressing small-scale "classic internet" sites. So yeah, it's exclusionary, like keeping semi trucks from taking shortcuts through a schoolyard.

freddydumont• 1 year ago

While I get your point about Anubis excluding some users, its purpose is to protect the "commons" from those who would abuse and destroy them: big tech crawlers that do not respect robots.txt files.

hooverd2• 1 year ago

For the purposes of analogy, imagine the commons as a park where you can have a picnic or play frisbee, and AI crawlers are people ripping it rip on their dirt bikes.

xena• 1 year ago

I have NLNet on the TODO list, I just haven't had time for it yet :(

tekchip• 1 year ago

Seems like a lot of comments here are US centric. As if Canonical and Suse don't exist and aren't Europe based/focused?

Also a lot of arguments that MS provides some total package which is irreplaceable which just isn't true. That argument seems to conflate software dominance in the US (is that even true? Linux runs most back end) with some kind of hardware dominance. MS doesn't provide hardware beyond some limited set of desktop hardware which most businesses don't even use. Most business lease from the likes of Dell, HP, and Lenovo both front and back end. This should probably be the real discussion.

OsrsNeedsf2P• 1 year ago

nlnet are gamechangers. Without them we'd have no Lemmy, and I would still be on Reddit

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