The Programmer's Fulcrum: 13 February, 2026
Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum.
It's your weekly review of the essential news in the Open Media Network and Fediverse development communities with a focus on devastating big tech via Techno Anarchism. We aim to provide actionable content you can use to destroy Techno Feudalism each week. It has the additional benefit of weakening authoritarianism.
IMHO, the best way to do that is to use tools from the Techno Anarchist Manifesto to build your own site(s) to participate in the Open Media Network. Then you should share it (them) via Real Simple Syndication (RSS), the Fediverse, and possibly a newsletter or podcast. This approach is similar to what some call the IndieWeb and its POSSE philosophy.
The second best strategy is to have accounts on the Fediverse and use the hell out of them.
We publish TPF on Fridays so you can enjoy it over your weekend.
There's good stuff in all of our categories, so please take the time to enjoy and bookmark the items most relevant to your goals. We hope you are inspired to create new ones.
Or you can jump straight to your favorite section.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And may involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ´em.
Follow us on the Fediverse
Featured Item(s)
Hamish Campbell writes:
What can grassroots openweb people actually do when the EU is building alternatives to dotcons, but with very real risks of recreating European versions of the same problems?
This is a historic moment, for the first time in decades public funding is flowing toward digital commons and infrastructure sovereignty is being taken seriously.
But alongside this opportunity comes an obvious risk, that they replace Californian platform capitalism with European platform capitalism.
The EU opportunity and danger, what grassroots projects can offer
And he has this as one option:
An affinity group is not just “a group of people who agree”
Good Internet Magazine shares:
One could argue that the modern web has become a Rube Goldberg machine of sorts, where instead of deliberate inefficiency, it has been inflicted accidentally.
Pointless bloat brought on by tracking scripts, analytics, and optimization tools that serve no real purpose to the user and even prove disruptive to the provider in some cases. In the unrelenting pursuit of maximum efficiency and conversion, we've created the most inefficient systems imaginable.
In spite of this, there is a counter-movement of sorts. Digital creators embracing the philosophy of Harold Harold and building websites that serve no corporate purpose. People creating interactive experiences that generate no revenue and crafting digital art that exists purely for the joy of creation and discovery.
Be sure to buy an edition from them. And join the OMN with a useful or unuseful website.
Open Media Network Site CMSs
Simon Repp shares:
Another early Faircamp 2.0 teaser
WordPress
Make WordPress has:
What’s new in Gutenberg 22.5? (04 February)
WordPress Playground has:
wp-env now runs WordPress with Playground runtime
This is simpler for simpler sites.
Groundworx explains:
Why I Choose Gutenberg Over Elementor
The Repository reports:
WordPress Meetup Organizers Back Revamp Plans, but Warn Infrastructure Must Catch Up
WordPress AI Client Proposal Prompts Debate Ahead of Planned Core Merge in 7.0
Well, fuck.
Mullenweg Calls for Markdown Endpoints on WordPress.org as He Pushes “Web OS” Vision
Matt Mullenweg: Global Sponsors’ Products Should Be “Fair Game” For WordCamp Talks
More on Automattic's enshitification.
Learn WP Theme Dev continues a series:
Building a Custom Block Part 5: Adding Block Styles
Delicious Brains explores:
The Art of the WordPress Transient: Performance, Persistence, and Database Bloat
WP Editor and Blocks examines:
Client-Side Navigation with the Interactivity API Router
Ghost
Ghost has:
Micro.blog
Micro announces an:
Updated text editor with full-screen mode and editing improvements
Write.as
Write.as announces:
Introducing Write.as Memberships
If you are interested, now would be a good time to commit for $3 a month. See below.
Celebrating 11 Years on the Web!
Back to top 👆🏼
Techno Anarchist / OMN Tools
Picalilli shares:
Some good stuff here.
Murena announces:
Chat
Signal has:
New Signal updates for Android, iOS, and Desktop bring mostly behind-the-scenes improvements
Signal raises limit for audio and video calls to 75 participants
Browsers
FOSS Force says:
Get Your Zen on With Zen Browser
Fair warning, you might want to view this in reader mode.
Igalia has:
Interop 2026 Focus Areas Announced
Cloud
Nextcloud has:
February maintenance updates before Nextcloud Hub 26 Winter release
Writing
Joplin announces:
Joplin will come preloaded on the HMD Terra M
Creative
Linuxiac reports:
GIMP 3.0.8 Delivers Bug Fixes Across Core, Tools, and Plugins
KdenLive shares:
Parametrized Keyframes - Status Report, February 2026
Linux
Igalia reports:
TecMint lists:
10 Tools to Make Bootable USB Drive from ISO in 2026
We all know Linux is a pain in the ass to install. But, here are some tools to help.
LineageOS announces:
Dominik Chrastecky shares:
Patch what Android thinks is the installer of the given app
This week's featured OMN tool
Publii
Our retirement site, Les Chroniques de Walker is built with Publii. I've grown to like it.
With the Publii app, you can create a beautiful, safe, and privacy-friendly website.
Back to top 👆🏼
OMN Programming
Good Internet Magazine looks at:
Unlocking a better future with old computers
Seth Larson shows us:
How to disable Copilot in GitHub?
Better yet, don’t use GitHub.
Mark Sample announces:
HTMX
OpenRelay explores:
Building Infinite Scroll with HTMX
CSS
Always Twisted examines:
A good review.
Frontend Masters has:
Background Patterns with CSS corner-radius
An Over-The-Top Spoiler Design with the Details Element
Web Components
Igalia looks at:
Reference Target: having your encapsulation and eating it too
JavaScript
Roberto Butti reviews:
State of JS 2025: Popular Syntax Features Explained with PHP Equivalents
David Duymelinck says:
Javascript has a Typescript problem
AI
Local Ghost says to:
Stop generating, start thinking
Other
Larvitz Blog reports:
Podman 5.8: Quadlet Multi-File Install, Automatic SQLite Migration, and the Road to 6.0
This week's featured programming tool
Penpot
Penpot is the web-based open-source design tool that bridges the gap between designers and developers.
Back to top 👆🏼
ActivityPub
ActivityPub Space shares:
ActivityPub Trust & Safety Taskforce forum
ActivityPub for WordPress announces its:
Roadmap 2026 — Charting the stars of the open social web
Great stuff coming. I wish I could say the same for Ghost.
This week's featured ActivityPub featured tool
ActivityPub Rocks
This site is maintained by the current steward of the ActivityPub stack of standards.
Back to top 👆🏼
Fediverse
I ran across this tool:
Holos has:
Deeply mixed feelings about #ActivityPub's adoption of JSON-LD
Holos 1.0.0-rc-2 has been published
Connected Places has:
FR152 – The DSA Needs Big Tech
ToToSocial announces:
v0.21.0-rc1 Sacrilegious Sloth
Mastodon has:
Thankfully Mastodon has picked up its game in the last year.
Stefan Bohacek created a:
Bridgy Fed bookmarklet for Mastodon
Back to top 👆🏼
More
The Register reports:
Matrix is quietly becoming the chat layer for governments chasing digital sovereignty
Fabio Manganiello prepares:
Webmentions with batteries included
Absolutely awesome.
RSS
NetNewWire reports:
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
Roost announces:
A New Social announces:
Launch: Interact with Unbridged Replies & Mentions
eMail / Newsletters
Tuta shows us:
How to disable Gemini on Android, Gmail, Chrome, Photos, & Google apps. Opt out of AI tracking now!
Ghost updates:
CTAs
- That’s it for this week. Please share The Programmer's Fulcrum.
- Follow us on Flipboard or at @[email protected] on the Fediverse for daily coverage.
- Read, live, and share The Techno Anarchist Manifesto!
And please build something for a community!
Blasts from the past
Previous Symfony Station Posts