Notices by Gina (gina@fosstodon.org)

Sigh it's so grey and depressing in the Netherlands today that I'm looking at places to move to again. Suggestions welcome as usual.

My boomer parents after explaining to them for the 60.428th time what I do for work: "...and Gina works with computers." ✨️

If the earth was flat, cats would have knocked everything off it by now.

I'm honoured to have been elected to the Board of Directors of @fdroidorg , the most well-known #opensource alternative to Google's Play Store. :fdroid:

Imagine Microsoft deciding from now on what you can install on your laptop. No internet, you can only download things through the MS app store. Apps that MS has approved. Who wouldn't find that suffocating? Yet that is what Google wants to do on our Android phones (and what Apple already has - a closed ecosystem).

https://f-droid.org/en/2026/04/28/board-appointments-2026.html

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Today we launched https://code.overheid.nl: the NL government-wide code platform 🥳🥳

Code.overheid.nl is a pilot in which we are going to test @forgejo; an open source and sovereign alternative to GitHub/GitLab.

This is an initiative of @BZKopensource, in collaboration with our friends from team DAWO (SSC-ICT), @opensource , @developer , and a number of participating government orgs. 🤝

@tomootes from developer.overheid wrote a nice piece about it: https://developer.overheid.nl/blog/2026/04/24/we-gaan-samen-code-overheid-bouwen

@bo @johan @marlenabcn

Vandaag hebben we https://code.overheid.nl gelanceerd: hét overheidsbrede codeplatform 🥳🥳

Code.overheid.nl is een pilot waarin we @forgejo gaan beproeven; een open source en soeverein alternatief voor Github/Gitlab.

Dit is een initiatief van het @BZKopensource , in samenwerking met onze vrienden van DAWO (SSC-ICT), developer.overheid.nl, en een aantal deelnemende overheidsorgs. 🤝

@tomootes van developer.overheid schreef er een mooi stuk over: https://developer.overheid.nl/blog/2026/04/24/we-gaan-samen-code-overheid-bouwen

@bo @johan @marlenabcn

It's SO REFRESHING to hear Marietje Schaake (former EU MP 🇪🇺) make the case for #digitalsovereignty and #opensource EU-based alternatives NOT JUST to protect European interests and European data, but also to protect human rights in the US and abroad.

The best thing about being alive is that sometimes there's a cat. #CatsOfMastodon #Greece #CaturdayEveryday

Inspired by Germany's #DiDay ("digital independence day") and the Danish #DanmarkSkifter, the Netherlands now has #DoeiDag ("bye day"), every first Sunday of the month. 🔥🇳🇱

DoeiDag is a montly day to say goodbye to big tech and to try open alternatives. It's organized by the good folks of @doeidag

More info: https://doeidag.nl

#TheNetherlands #opensource #foss

Me after being in Greece for 2 seconds 😻🇬🇷 #Greece #CatsofMastodon #Caturday

@JakeKb I'd recommend #Jitsi for individual users.

Well, this is unfortunate.

"Proton built Proton Meet to escape the CLOUD Act. They built it on CLOUD Act infrastructure. Their website promises "not even government agencies" can access your calls. The company routing them hands your call records to the [US] government when asked. Proton hid them from their privacy policy."

#proton #protonmail #digitalsovereigty #opensource

https://www.sambent.com/proton-meet-isnt-what-they-told-you/

@GossiTheDog jesus, 124 billion dollars in debt.

Do you work with/for an opensource project and would you like to share your technical life lessons at a large international conference on June 10th in Amsterdam? 🔥

My colleague @tomootes is looking for speakers for FOST 2026: https://tinyurl.com/3jtx4kph

Travel costs etc will be reimbursed! Boosting is appreciated <3

#FOST2026 #FOSS #opensource

The trigger was a statement by Prabhat Agrawal, the EU Commission's lead Digital Services Act (DSA) enforcer, who told civil society groups in February that his colleagues had switched from email to Signal under US pressure, with messages set to auto-delete.

The Judiciary Committee states that its earlier subpoenas cover auto-deleted messages as well, and demands full compliance.

This is why we have to choose #opensource, European alternatives. 🇪🇺

#eupolicy #digitalsovereignty #usfascism

The US Congress Judiciary Committee is pushing US tech companies, such as Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and X, to provide access to ALL communications with European Commission officials that relate to the enforcement of EU digital rules, in letters sent Monday. 🚨🇪🇺

The committee said its subpoenas require that documents are not deleted or modified, and that it expects “full compliance.”

Behold, the CLOUD act in practice.

https://www.politico.eu/article/us-congress-judiciary-committee-big-tech-private-communication-eu-officials/

#digitalsovereignty #usfascism #eupolicy

It's ridiculous that we basically have two mobile 'options', both with restrictive, proprietary app stores (see also https://keepandroidopen.org/).

If Europe values digital sovereignty, then it needs to invest more in open hardware, open source OS's, and alternative app stores. 🇪🇺

@Fairphone
@jolla
@LineageOS
@sailfishosnews
@ubports
@GrapheneOS
@postmarketOS
@e_mydata
@murena
@fdroidorg
@IzzyOnDroid

#opensource #digitalsovereignty #foss

I'm glad that we're finally realizing that we need open source alternatives for the desktop and our apps, but can we also focus on mobile devices now?

Another day, another futile attempt at finding an email in MS Outlook.

Nah way #TheNetherlands is in the top 3 most depressed countries in the world, I can't believe it wow. /s 🇳🇱

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/depression-rates-by-country