🐧 Univeristy student keen to gain open source skills this summer? If you want to contribute to #Debian with Google's sponsorship, explore the #GSoC2026 project ideas now: wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode...
Applications open until end of March! Check project ideas this weekend!
#OpenSource #FOSS
🇪🇺 Naïve Europeans finally waking up to realize what is the difference between an ally and a master? We should aim for collaboration, not just one-way dependency.
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Is the #AI hype still on or have the models plateaued?
I tested 9 flagships (Claude 4.6, GPT-5.2, Gemini 3.1 Pro, Kimi K2.5, etc.) in my own mini-benchmark with novel tasks, web search disabled and zero training contamination and no cheating possible:
optimizedbyotto.com/post/ai-mode...
The #MySQL community manager since 10 years, Frederic Descamps , expains in lefred.be/content/i-jo... why he now quit Oracle and joined #MariaDB: more innovative, more features and most importantly welcomes #opensource contribitions.
I wouldn't be surprised to see multiple MySQL forks emerge in 2026, now that more people are realizing how bad Oracle has been as an open source project steward for MySQL.
VillageSQL.com screenshot
Check out @villagesql.bsky.social, the newest #MySQL fork: villagesql.com
It's an #OpenSource venture backed by $35M from Google Ventures among others. It's a drop-in replacement for MySQL with an extension architecture. See their native UUID extension with efficient 16-byte storage as an example.
Allekirjoitin!
From @digitaalinenitsenaisyys.fi:
Meta closed permanently Finnish citizen's initiative Threads page that promotes steering the critical national ICT infrastructure away from foreign [read: US] technologies. The support votes are pouring in in a record speeed.
#Trump #Meta #AWS #Azure
🐧#Linux is free as in free speech but most users assume it's also free of cost. However, users should consider paying for security assurance and fund software maintenance.
Check out my experience with Ubuntu Pro by @canonicalltd.bsky.social:
optimizedbyotto.com/post/ubuntu-...
I would be curious to see the visitor stats of @european-alternatives.eu in past week.. must be surging
Declining GitHub commit stats for MySQL
I posted this week about #MySQL's decline. Pecona also writes in www.percona.com/blog/analyzi...: "The overall trend since 2011 shows a sustained decline in the number of commits and a shrinking pool of unique contributors."
If you still use MySQL, probably time to switch..
#MySQL played a key role in the 1995-2010s Internet infrastructure. It has however declined in popularity since Oracle acquired it and many have said goodbye to it 👋👋
In 2026, anyone still using MySQL should plan to switch away from it.
➡️Read why at optimizedbyotto.com/post/reasons...
In case you are Czech, there is a translation at www.root.cz/clanky/prest...
Glad to see more translations show up!
Somebody posted this as a comment on this blog on the Fediverse, and it got 60 upvotes. I think this is the sentiment many shares in the software industry 🤣
Still using #MySQL? Stewarded by Oracle, MySQL has been in decline for years. Stop using it in 2026, especially if your care about the #opensource #FOSS methodology and not just the license.
👉 optimizedbyotto.com/post/reasons...
Perovskia solar panels are efficient enough to run on indoor light
Imagine a world where small devices run purely on ambient light and don't need any batteries, and large devices with batteries that charge in 5 minutes and last for a decade without degrading ☀️
Energy startups form Europe 🇪🇺 to follow:
- Donut Labs: first solid state batteries on market
- Perovskia: first perovskite solar panels on market
- Nordic Nano: soon first nano-carbon solar panels
Nice to see Donut Labs from Finland get so much visibility for their solid state battery at CES! 💪
Finally this superior #battery tech is available in an actual product!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGw-...
Check out OpenRouter's 2025 report on LLM usage stats, and in particular how many new open-weight #opensource #AI models rapidly gained massive popularity, diversifying the landscape: openrouter.ai/state-of-ai
Can stop-loss automation save your investment account if there is a stock market crash? Check out my latest post on experimenting with Python and YFinance to see if this strategy would have worked in past financial cycles.
optimizedbyotto.com/post/backtes...
Git is the industry standard for software development, but I thasn't been fully adopted in #Debian packaging yet. I believe that #Git workflows could enhance collaboration, transparency, and productivity for one of the world's most vital #opensource projects.
optimizedbyotto.com/post/debian-...
I had an interesting discussion about software supply-chain security with @josh.bressers.name in the Open Source Security podcast last week: opensourcesecurity.io/2025/2025-11...
#opensource #security
Subscribe to the Open Source Security podcast (opensourcesecurity.io) on your favorite platform and check out the latest episode where I am talking about how I did the XZ Utils analysis in Debian.
This became my second most popular post ever on HackerNews with 114+ upvotes: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4563...
Big shoutout to @anarazel.de for spotting the XZ backdoor in March of 2024! 🙌
My new post explores how the malicious changes showed up in Debian’s import of the upstream version and if the Debian maintainer could have seen them: optimizedbyotto.com/post/xz-back...
#Linux #OpenSource #Cybersecurity
#Ubuntu 25.10 “Questing Quokka” Is Now Available for Download, This Is What’s New 9to5linux.com/ubuntu-25-10...
#Linux #OpenSource
Awesome to see #Omarchy getting more visibility! 🔥 Fireship’s vid youtu.be/DC2p3kFjcK0 spreading the #Linux desktop to 500k+ viewers is huge!
I don't use this distro myself, but I still cheer for anything that helps motivate Windows users to make the switch.
Tired of wrestling with TLS certs and CAs for your database? MariaDB 11.8's zero-configuration TLS requires no manual setup 🚀
Check out security management tips at
optimizedbyotto.com/post/zero-co...
#MariaDB #DatabaseSecurity #OpenSource
Seems there are also www.opensourcealternative.to, euroalternative.co and european-alternatives.eu
