The Programmer's Fulcrum: 17 April, 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. And do the same with a RSS feed reader.
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
Follow us on Eurosky
Featured Item(s)
Jan Wildeboer has:
Conway: Think Networks First, Actors Second
Or why we need to work together to find the right language, terms, tools to understand what is happening and how to fix it in better ways. Together, not as lone geniuses.
It’s an invitation to think and discuss. To agree on a framework to help us all progress, The Open Way.
Alexi asks us to:
Go create a website, start blogging, sign up to an independent forum, maybe create your own forum, or support those that do any of the above. Of course this is a bit of an ask, you'll have to learn quite a few things if you are intending to run something of your own, but my goal isn't to convince everyone.
I am just trying to convince some people to help their community local or not and to eventually help the independent web thrive.
More of the internet has to be independently run again if we want to stand any chance of regaining what we've lost. Create a space that you own, where you can display what you want, how you want. Link it up to other people using webrings and buttons. Just have fun!
Great advice.
Conjure Utopia has a review:
Cables of Resistance: the numbers don't add up
In a good way!
Open Media Network - Site/Blog/CMS
Joost de Valk opines:
Defending the open web is not enough
Personally, I view the Small Web, Indie Web, TAM, and OMN as Foundationesque efforts for a future after the techno fall or similar to the role of Islamic scholars preserving the knowledge that allowed the renaissance. The hard part will be open hardware. And electricity.
Speaking of, DevShrine explores:
Pika announces:
Micropub API with iA Writer and Drafts Support
PureBlog explores:
Jim Nielsen shares:
Fewer Computers, Fewer Problems: Going Local With Builds & Deployments
This is DIY. :)
I ran across Faircamp this week:
If you are a muscian or band with recordings you may want to check into it.
Bear
Field Notes examines:
Integrating Bubbles with BearBlog
Here’s how to add it universally:
Ghost
Murat Corlu built the:
Useful.
Right on cue Magic Pages announces:
Edit your theme directly in Ghost Admin
Although, it looks like you have to upgrade from the Starter to Pro plan to use this (as you will now have a "custom theme"). Disappointing.
Publii
Matt Sayar explains:
Cutting GitHub from my site's deployment workflow
Micro.blog
MicroBlog announces:
Back to top 👆🏼
Techno Anarchist / OMN Tools
France announces:
Souveraineté numérique : l'État accélère la réduction de ses dépendances extra-européennes
The Guardian reports:
Now you can break up with big tech at a bar: ‘cybersecurity disguised as a party’
The Open Shelf reports:
Dries Buyaert asks:
What does 'Buy European' even mean?
Small Web
Here are a few curation resources I ran across recently:
I found these via Kagi’s Small Web app which is a great source on its own.
Chat
XWIKI has a case study:
ChatEurope: trusted news via collaboration software and chatbot integration
Browsers
Servo announces:
Servo is now available on crates.io
Matt Smith reviews:
Kagi – a paid search engine that supports the small web
I have been using Kagi for search, translation, and browsing the small web for awhile. It's worth the small amount of money to remove a lot of bullshit from your life.
Mohamed Alashri says:
JSON formatting in browser is useful
Cloud
Nextcloud has:
Nextcloud Ethical AI rating: A transparent approach to privacy-first AI
Of course, you can be 1,000% private, ethical, and moral by not using it.
Dutch education system and municipalities strive for digital sovereignty
Tuta announces:
Writing
Toni Notes notes:
A small publication needs an operating model, not just good posts
Creative
Scribus announces:
I just ran across this:
Linux/Open Android
Linux announces:
The 7.0 kernel has been released
Linuxiac reports:
This is looking more and more likely to be my next phone.
Hackster reports:
MNT Research Brings the Open-Hardware Reform to a Whole New Form Factor: Ultra-Slim Desktops
And this could be my next "desktop".
9to5Linux reports:
Zorin OS 18.1 Boosts Windows App Support by 40%, Improves Window Tiling
Zorin is the distribution I use as it's the only one I've ever been able to install. It's on an old iMac.
Linux Mint Will Adopt a Longer Development Cycle Starting with Linux Mint 23
Linuxiac reports:
France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins
Tres, tres bon!
This week's featured OMN tool
Inkscape
Inkscape is a Free and open source vector graphics editor.
Back to top 👆🏼
OMN Programming
Git
Schalk Neethling explores:
Pushing to GitHub and Codeberg Simultaneously with Git
Henry Catalini Smith examines:
Lessons learned from the Forgejo v15 release blocker
Speaking of, Forgejo announces:
Markdown
Axolotl Thoughts looks at:
HTML
Accessibility is Political has:
Old advice – Hiding Content Has No Effect on Accessible Name or Description Calculation
Squarespace Engineering shows us:
How To Use Standard HTML Video & Audio Lazy-Loading on the Web Today
CSS
Karl Koch explores:
CSSence examines:
Witty blog name.
CSS Tricks looks at:
7 View Transitions Recipes to Try
I like most of these. Of course, it may because I'm also a video editor.
Frontend Masters explores:
Building a UI Without Breakpoints
Webkit examines:
Name-only @container queries: a solution to the naming wars
Web Components
Mozilla looks:
Under the hood of MDN's new frontend
AKA reason 9,768 that React is absolute shit.
Schalk Neethling is:
Introducing masonry-gridlanes-wc: A Native-First Masonry Web Component
AI
The Komoy Noise Research Unit advises:
This is the same reason I went through the pain of coding bootcamp as a journalist/content creator.
NerdyDev explains:
To be fair, most “programmers” suck at frontend and most frontend frameworks are shit. And AI’s building off the garbage it stole from them.
This week's featured programming tool
Pears
Unleash the Power of P2P.
Back to top 👆🏼
ActivityPub
Ben Werdmuller notes::
One size fits none: let communities build for themselves
Yep.
Dominik Chrástecký opines:
ActivityPub: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
ActivityPub for WordPress announces:
8.0.0 — Smash That Like Button
WordPress is making better progress on ActivityPub integration than Ghost is.
Ben W is:
Shipping v0.1.0 for bookwyrm.koplugin!
David Revoy explores:
Unified Vs Split-panels: experimenting with publishing digital comics on the Fediverse
This week's featured ActivityPub featured tool
Platform 6
It's more of a resource this week, but Platform 6 supports crowdsourcing for co-operative development.
Back to top 👆🏼
Fediverse
Hamish Campbell shares:
Paths and Patches announces:
Apps for Change: four flavours
This is a great service for non-profits and more organized communities.
Technically Good has:
A Blast from the Past: "Looks just aren't as Important Online as IRL"
Holos has:
Federation & Moderation Policy
Holos will update its E2EE model to align with the shared spec
FediLab announces:
Fedilab 3.38.1 has been published!
HolosDiscover now uses IFTAS denylists for moderation
Speaking of, IFTAS exposes:
Suspected Portal Kombat Accounts
Mastodon has:
90,000 of this will go to efforts with other ActivityPub platforms.
Connected Places has more:
FR159 – Sovereign Tech Agency funds Mastodon
Kelson Reviews Stuff reviews:
Back to top 👆🏼
More
Matrix shares:
This Week in Matrix 2026-04-10
RSS
ReadBeanIceCream has:
Manage Your Own Attention with RSS
RSS Gets You Off the Platform; Curation Gets You Off the Drug
Matt Duggan notes:
You can absolutely have an RSS dependent website in 2026
Absolutely true.
Ale Hsu says:
Your RSS posts might only live half as long as everyone else's
Death and Gravity announce:
Reader 3.22 released – new web app
Other Federated Social Media
Euronews reports:
Eurosky: Europe aims to rival Big Tech with its own social media ecosystem
Eurosky is:
It's great that you no longer have to go through Bluesky!
Connected Places reports:
On ATProto's verification and coordination authority
Underreacted shares:
ATProto made simple: granular permissions
Steve Simkins examines:
A Warm Space explains:
Nick Gerakines is:
Introducing attested.network: Proof of Payment for ATProtocol
Steve Woodson looks at:
Adding Bluesky Activity to an Eleventy Blog
Democracy Tech
Free Knowledge has:
Democratic Technology: Building Alternatives to Techno-Authoritarianism
eMail / Newsletters
Ghost announces:
Good stuff and we've updated ours.
Spectral Web Services is:
Introducing the newsletter digest builder!
CTAs
- That’s it for this week. Please share The Programmer's Fulcrum.
- Follow us on Flipboard or at @[email protected] on the Fediverse or at thefulcrum.eurosky.social 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