Re: <nettime> Strom vs Morozov: knockdown punch

[Jaromil <jaromil@dyne.org>]

dear Brian, Felix and nettime readers,

coincidentally, let me share some recent news, small but relevant to complete the analysis:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Lennart-Poettering-Out-Red-Hat

let me complete with what this magazine (historically pro-systemd and aggressively posed against all critics) is perhaps afraid to tell: the master of systemd now works for Micro$oft. https://twitter.com/jaromil/status/1544618996833583104 I hope you don't mind me per-using your quote Brian.

On Sun, 03 Jul 2022, Brian Holmes wrote:

> This is totally on point, Jaromil. The tech industry has always been able to think cybernetically - it has to, in order to handle interactive networks with millions of users - but what you're pointing out, in a very specific situation, is how it's now able to carry out integrated strategies affecting entire fields or "modes of practice." In your example, it means reshaping all the factors that condition the software development process, including institutional ones such as the literature on standards and the processes for their validation.
> 
> On the global level both Google and Microsoft are notorious for transforming governance through the introduction of particular types of software and information-processing services that reshape the activity of corporate officials and bureaucrats, and in that way, affect entire societies. However I had never considered that Red Hat would be doing the same within social-democratic spheres where FOSS development is supported by public money. It's somewhat depressing news, because FOSS development for public use is really one of the few places where the social-steering capacities of Silicon Valley are challenged... I don't have the expertise to fully evaluate what you're saying (although I have read about Devuan and the systemd controversies!) - but anyway, yes, I think we are talking about exactly the same thing here.

I love how the research and works by Florian Gottke remind us about the importance of topping statues, an act operating through the language of liturgy, and firmly preluding radical changes in governance.

And so there is a symbolic event last year worth mentioning: the topping of RMS from his role as prophet: we wrote about it here https://medium.com/think-do-tank/open-letter-to-the-free-software-movement-7ddc7429b474 - an open letter written together with Christina Derazenski, a big loss as I believe she'd be able to describe much better than me what is happening and through the lenses of feminism.

Today we have the not-so-symbolic event of Linux development being steered by Micro$oft, with all implications enounced in this thread.

So now let me once again use nettime to mark an event in time - this list is the best literary blockchain around! :^D

Today we witness the epilogue of what was the F/OSS movement with all its dreams of glory and democracy or do-ocracy or whatever fascinated our friend Biella so much when describing Debian. Today we observe what you mention as a "classic cybernetic takeover" vastly overlooked by academic literature about governance and free software.

I am fascinated by all this, but somehow relieved there will be no more a global F/OSS movement, just pockets of resistance.

Foucault, Deleuze, Caronia... they have seen all this already.

And they were right: being and becoming marginal, feels good.

Also some security experts were right from the beginning, about using OpenBSD.

ciao

-- 

  Denis "Jaromil" Roio      https://Dyne.org think &do tank
  Ph.D, CTO & co-founder    software to empower communities
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