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Drew DeVault's blog

Blog by the creator of Sourcehut.

openai employees… are you okay?

what's up with futo?

cloudflare bankrolls fascists

a better future for javascript that won't happen

embedding wren in hare

what's new with himitsu 0.9?

just speak the truth

unionize or die

the british airways position on various border disputes

resistance from the tech sector

a firefox addon for putting prices into perspective

using linkhut to signal-boost my bookmarks

please stop externalizing your costs directly into my face

a holistic perspective on intellectual property, part 1

join us to discuss transparency and governance at fosdem '25

fosdem '25 protest

no billionares at fosdem

neurodivergence and accountability in free software

rust for linux revisited

so you want to compete with or replace open source

writing a unix clone in about a month

copyleft licenses are not “restrictive”

fdo's conduct enforcement actions regarding vaxry

why prusa is floundering, and how you can avoid their fate

richard stallman's political discourse on sex

can i be on your podcast?

on "real name" policies

going off-script

the forbidden topics

hyprland is a toxic community

hello from ares!

the rc shell and its excellent handling of whitespace

alpine linux does not make the news

seriously, don't sign a cla

social media and "parasocial media"

burnout and the quiet failures of the hacker community

reforming the free software message

throwing in the towel on mobile linux

how to go to war with your employer

who should lead us?

rc: a new shell for unix

the free software foundation is dying

writing helios drivers in the mercury driver environment

when to comment that code

porting helios to aarch64 for my fosdem talk, part one

should private platforms engage in censorship?

my plans at fosdem: sourcehut, hare, and helios

setting a new focus for my blog

i shall toil at a reduced volume

codegen in hare v2

in praise of plan 9

notes from kernel hacking in hare, part 3: serial driver

totp for 2fa is incredibly easy to implement. so what's your excuse?

status update, october 2022

in praise of ffmpeg

does rust belong in the linux kernel?

notes from kernel hacking in hare, part 2: multi-threading

the phrase "open source" (still) matters

status update, september 2022

notes from kernel hacking in hare, part 1

in praise of qemu

powerctl: a small case study in hare for systems programming

a review of postmarketos on the xiaomi poco f1

pine64 has let its community down

status update, august 2022

how i wish i could organize my thoughts

code review at the speed of email

the past and future of open hardware

status update, july 2022

the fediverse can be pretty toxic

porting doom to helios

github copilot and open source laundering

introducing the himitsu keyring & password manager for unix

status update, june 2022

the helios microkernel

google has been ddosing sourcehut for over a year

status update, may 2022

a hare code generator for finding ioctl numbers

when will we learn?

implementing an ssh agent in hare

announcing the hare programming language

status update, april 2022

announcing git snail-mail

it is important for free software to use free software infrastructure

the netherlands so far

status update, march 2022

it takes a village

why am i building a programming language in private?

open source is defined by the osi's open source definition

plaid is an evil nightmare product from security hell

status update, february 2022

framing accessibility in broader terms

free software licenses explained: mit

implementing a mime database in xxxx

pine64 should re-evaluate their community priorities

status update, january 2022

the risc-v experience

breaking down a small language design proposal

please don't use discord for foss projects

please use me as a resource

sustainable creativity in a world without copyright

on commercial forks of foss projects

status update, december 2021

impressions of linux mint & elementary os

how new linux users can increase their odds of success

what desktop linux needs to succeed in the mainstream

postmarketos revolutionizes smartphone hacking

my philosophy for productive instant messaging

i will pay you cash to delete your npm module

python: please stop screwing over linux distros

status update, november 2021

breaking down apollo federation's anti-foss corporate gaslighting

github stale bot considered harmful

how smartereveryday's 4privacy can, and cannot, meet its goals

software developers have stopped caring about reliability

status update, october 2021

how reflection works in ****

developers: let distros do their job

nitter and other internet reclamation projects

status update, september 2021

visurf, a web browser based on netsurf

status update, august 2021

tips for debugging your new programming language

police to begin regular, warrant-free searches of homes for child abuse material

proxy.golang.org allows many go packages to be silently broken

in praise of postgresql

my wish-list for the next yaml

status update, july 2021

is github a derivative work of gpl'd software?

how does irc's federation model compare to activitypub?

you can't capture the nuance of my form fields

a finger client

status update, june 2021

provided "as is", without warranty of any kind

i will be moving to the netherlands

build your project in our new language

using io_uring to make a high-performance... finger server

how to write release notes

aerc, mbsync, and postfix for maximum comfy offline email

status update, may 2021

pinebook pro review

i try not to make unlikable software (and features)

godocs.io six months later

in praise of alpine linux

cryptocurrency is an abject disaster

recommended read: why lichess will always be free

parsers all the way down: writing a self-hosting parser

status update, april 2021

the developer certificate of origin is a great alternative to a cla

what should the next chat app look like?

go is a great programming language

the world's stupidest irc bot

the complete guide for open sourcing video games

we are building a new systems programming language

status update, march 2021

the corporate surveillance machine is killing people

to make money in foss, build a business first

gmail is a huge source of spam

a great alternative is rarely fatter than what it aims to replace

status update, february 2021

how to make your downstream users happy

use open platforms — or else

open source means surrendering your monopoly over commercial exploitation

elasticsearch does not belong to elastic

spooky action at a distance

status update, january 2021

history will not remember us fondly

fostering a culture that values stability and reliability

a megacorp is not your dream job

how to design a new programming language from scratch

godocs.io is now available

status update, december 2020

become shell literate

web analytics should at least meet the standards of informed consent

a few ways to make money in foss

we can do better than duckduckgo

status update, november 2020

utility vs usability

what is this gemini thing anyway, and why am i excited about it?

i'm handing over maintenance of wlroots and sway to simon ser

firefox: the jewel^wembarassment of open source

status update, october 2020

four principles of software engineering

a tale of two libcs

tofu recommendations for gemini

the unrealized potential of federation

status update, september 2020

linux development is distributed - profoundly so

embrace, extend, and finally extinguish - microsoft plays their hand

alice in wonderland and the theft of the public domain

software engineers solve problems

status update, august 2020

web browsers need to stop

i want to contribute to your project, how do i start?

pkg.go.dev is more concerned with google's interests than good engineering

the falsehoods of anti-agpl propaganda

status update, july 2020

march 2nd, 1943

general-purpose os, special-purpose os, and now: vendor-purpose os

introducing the bare message encoding

status update, june 2020

can we talk about client-side certificates?

add a "contrib" directory to your projects

status update, may 2020

we are complicit in our employer's deeds

how to store data forever

configuring aerc for git via email

status update, april 2020

my unorthodox, branchless git workflow

designing and 3d printing a new part for my truck

the reckless, infinite scope of web browsers

github's new notifications: a case of regressive design

an open letter to senator bob casey on end-to-end encryption

thoughts on performance & optimization

fucking laptops

status update, february 2020

dependencies and maintainers

knightos was an interesting operating system

the happinesses and stresses of full-time foss work

a philosophy of project governance

status update, january 2020

following up on "hello world"

managing my dotfiles as a git repository

pinephone review

status update, december 2019

developers shouldn't distribute their own software

take action to save .org and prosecute those who sold out the internet

software developers should avoid traumatic changes

status update, november 2019

an old-school shell hack on a line printer

status update, october 2019

how to fuck up software releases

raptorcs's redemption: the power9 machine works

why collabora really added digital restrictions management to weston

raptorcs power9 blackbird pc review

don't sacrifice the right ideas to win the right words

status update, september 2019

how i decide between many programming languages

building interactive ssh applications

shell access for builds.sr.ht ci

status update, august 2019

drm leasing: vr for wayland

foss contributor tracks

status update, july 2019

announcing code annotations for sourcehut

absence of certain features in irc considered a feature

status update, june 2019

my personal journey from mit to gpl

initial pre-release of aerc: an email client for your terminal

what is a fork, really, and how github changed its meaning

status update, may 2019

webcast: reviewing git & mercurial patches with email

calculating your donation's value following patreon's fee changes

announcing wio: a clone of plan 9's rio for wayland

the "shut up and get back to work" coding style guide

using cage for a seamless remote wayland session

choosing a vpn service is a serious decision

announcing first-class mercurial support on sourcehut

status update, april 2019

newpipe represents the best of foss

rust is not a good c replacement

status update, march 2019

announcing the release of sway 1.0

sourcehut's spartan approach to web design

tips for a disciplined git workflow

generics aren't ready for go

wayland misconceptions debunked

my experiences at fosdem 2019

why i chose flask to build sr.ht's mini-services

why i use old hardware

i'm going to work full-time on free software

backups & redundancy at sr.ht

patches welcome

anatomy of a shell

porting alpine linux to risc-v

how to abandon a floss project

sr.ht, the hacker's forge, now open for public alpha

it's not okay to pretend your software is open source

how does virtual memory work?

sway 1.0-beta.1 release highlights

go 1.11 got me to stop ignoring go

don't sign a cla

sway & wlroots at xdc 2018

getting started with qemu

conservative web development

how to make a self-hosted video livestream

the commons clause will destroy open source

i don't trust signal

setting up a local dev mail server

writing a wayland compositor with wlroots: shells

git is already federated & decentralized

input handling in wlroots

simple, correct, fast: in that order

the advantages of an email-driven git workflow

a quick review of my let's encrypt setup

should you move from github to sr.ht

how i maintain foss projects

embedding files in c programs with koio

why did we replace wlc?

introducing scdoc, a man page generator

redirecting stderr of a running process

google embraces, extends, and extinguishes

sway reporting in from kde's berlin development sprint

achtung! decentralize, decentralize, decentralize!

hack everything without fear

how to write an irc bot

writing a wayland compositor, part 3: rendering a window

the path to sustainably working on foss full-time

writing a wayland compositor, part 2: rigging up the server

writing a wayland compositor, part 1: hello wlroots

introduction to posix shell

sway and client side decorations

fee breakdown for various donation platforms

learn about your package manager

fork is not my favorite syscall

wlroots whitepaper available

firefox is on a slippery slope

a history of emergent intelligence

on taking good care of your phone

portability matters

nvidia sucks and i'm sick of it

the future of wayland, and sway's role in it

analyzing hn moderation & censorship

killing ants with nuclear weapons

when not to use a regex

state of sway august 2017

archive it or you will miss it

an introduction to wayland

limited "generics" in c without macros or ub

rotating passwords in bulk in the wake of security events

building a "real" linux distro

state of sway april 2017

msg_peek is pretty common, cve-2016-10229 is worse than you think

principles for c programming

compiler devnotes: machine specs

lessons to learn from c

the only problem with python 3's str is that you don't grok it

actually, you can do it

state of sway december 2016 - secure your wayland desktop, get paid to work on sway

a broad intro to networking

electron considered harmful

getting on without google

i'm losing faith in america

using the right tool for the job

what motivates the authors of the software you use?

[video] arch linux with full disk encryption in (about) 15 minutes

sway 0.9 & one year of sway

using -wl,--wrap for mocking in c

life, liberty, and the pursuit of privacy

understanding pointers

in memoriam - mozilla

state of sway - april 2016

how to write a better bloom filter in c

please use text/plain for email

integrating a vt220 into my life

state of sway - december 2015

bring more tor into your life

please don't use slack for foss projects

a practical understanding of flux

osu!web - webgl & web audio

hooks - running stuff on github hooks

porting an assembler, debugger, and more to webassembly

on the profitability of image hosting websites

process scheduling and multitasking in knightos

python's datetime sucks

go's error handling doesn't sit right with me

hacking on your ti calculator

the bug that hides from breakpoints

custom music syncing on android

you don't need jquery