The Programmer's Fulcrum: 06 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.

• Website CMSs
• Tools
• Programming
• ActivityPub
• Fediverse
• More

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)

This what I mean when I encourage you to join the Open Media Network. 😈

Melanie Cat purrs:

Oh nice social media account, did your Zuckerberg give it to you? Aww, how cute. Now grow the fuck up and get your own fucking website.

Make a Fucking Website

I am pretty sure she is a black cat. IYKYK 🐈‍⬛

---

Open Media Network Site CMSs

Jannis Fedoruk-Betschki looks at:

The Weight of the Good Days

We love you Jannis. Keep at it.

TechDirt reports:

Whoops, Websites Realize That Killing Their Comment Sections Was A Mistake

WordPress

Make WordPress has:

WordPress 6.9.1 RC1 is now available

Call for Testing – Customizable Navigation (“Mobile”) Overlays

Anne McCarthy is:

Exploring work in progress for WordPress 7.0

HeroPress explains:

How Art School Led Me To Web Design

Great DIY story.

FAIR shares its:

2025 FAIR Recap

Varun Dubey explores:

Gutenberg Blocks in 2026: WordPress Development in the AI Era

The Repository reports:

WP Engine Launches Newsroom, a Publishing Platform Built on Big Bite’s Newsroom Expertise

Ghost

Magic Pages shares a:

Post-Mortem on 29 January 2026 Outage

Drupal CMS

Drupal has:

Inside Drupal CMS 2.0: Q&A with Product Owner Pam Barone

Drupalize Me announces:

Release Day: The Drupal Recipes API

Back to top 👆🏼

---

Techno Anarchist / OMN Tools

Hamish Campbell examines:

The uncomfortable path

Collabra announces:

A Faster Friendlier Collabora Online – Part III

Rebel Tech Alliance looks at:

The Big Tech Walkout 2026

Framasoft has:

Retravaillez vos PDFs sans crainte

Chat

Signal announces:

Signal Desktop now available in the Microsoft Store

Zulip announces:

Zulip Server 11.5 security release

Browsers

Adam Varn says:

I just want a browser

TechCrunch reports:

Firefox will soon let you block all of of its generative AI features

Or better yet, use Zen, LibreWolf, or Waterfox.

Speaking of, LibreWolf announces:

LibreWolf bsys6 Release v147.0.3-2

Cloud

Nextcloud has:

Top 10 easy sharing tips with your SharePoint alternative: Nextcloud Files

A new data access architecture for Nextcloud: introducing the ADA engine

Nextcloud recognized as a Digital Public Good

Writing

LibreOffice announces:

LibreOffice 26.2 is here: a faster, more polished office suite that you control

I put this here because they have improved markdown support, which is great.

Creative

Linuxiac reports:

Kdenlive 25.12.1 Brings Welcome Screen Polishing and Audio Fixes

Linux

The Linux Foundation Europe shares:

Linux Foundation Europe 2025: Milestones, Momentum, and What’s Next

The Linux Journal looks:

Inside the Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG): A New Layer of Kernel Integrity Protection

This week's featured OMN tool

Want to publish something like a fanzine? Check out Scribus:

Scribus is the go-to Libre Desktop Publishing Application.

Scribus

Back to top 👆🏼

---

OMN Programming

Derick Rethans shares:

FOSDEM 2026 Reflections

404 Media reports:

Vibe Coding Is Killing Open Source Software, Researchers Argue

HTML

Mike Matuzović has an:

Introduction to the new HTML element

Frontend Masters demonstrates:

Performance-Optimized Video Embeds with Zero JavaScript

CSS Tricks has:

I Learned The First Rule of ARIA the Hard Way

Evil Martians updates a classic:

How to Favicon in 2026: Three files that fit most needs

One to bookmark.

CSS

Smashing Magazine explores:

Unstacking CSS Stacking Contexts

Groundworx says:

Stop Fighting Your Layouts: The Real Power of CSS Grid

Web Components

Heydon Works shows us:

How To Dynamically Install Custom Elements

JavaScript

AI

Internet Exchange reports on:

Getting Bots to Respect Boundaries

Other

OpenProject shows us:

How to work with project templates

Linuxiac reports:

Forgejo 14.0 Arrives With New Web Editor, Smarter Search

DDEV announces:

Release Notes for XWiki 17.4.9

XWiki announces:

Release Notes for XWiki 17.4.9

This week's featured programming tool

HTML, master it.

HTML is for people

Back to top 👆🏼

---

ActivityPub

ActivityPub for WordPress has:

7.9.0 — Spring Cleaning

Swentel works on the:

ActivityPub module for Drupal

NodeBB shares:

FEP-4f05: Soft Deletion

This is interesting.

This week's featured ActivityPub featured tool

ActivityPub Book

Written by Evan Prodromou, the coauthor of the ActivityPub protocol and the Activity Streams 2.0 data format, this is the ActivityPub handbook that every social software hacker needs.

I have it and am slowly reading it.

Back to top 👆🏼

---

Fediverse

The Guardian shares:

How the left can win back the internet – and rise again

He's right about competition among the left, but perhaps this fucker has never heard of the Fediverse.

Hamish Campbell explains:

How our “mainstreaming” people understand what they’re doing

InterLedger announces:

Interledger Foundation awards $200,000 to Social Web Foundation to support decentralized social media

Speaking of, the Social Web Foundation shares its:

EU Open Source Policy Feedback

Stefan Bohacek provides:

Fediverse: An overview for community organizers

IFTAS shares:

IFTAS Response to the European Commission’s Call for Evidence “Towards European open digital ecosystems”

Castopod is:

Introducing the Castopod Installation Script

Bonfire

Elixir has:

Type inference of all constructs and the next 15 months

This week's featured Fediverse Platform/Tool/Resource

There was a rare Castopod article so let's feature it.

Castopod is an open-source server made for podcasters who want engage and interact with their audience.

Castopod

Back to top 👆🏼

---

More

Other Slightly Federated Social Media

Blacksky announces:

Money for mutual resilience: Introducing Blacksky Cash

Stefan Bohacek reports:

Eurosky is making progress as they roll out their own PDS

Anuj Ahooja examines:

The Everything Account

eMail Newsletters

Tuta looks at:

DeGoogle list with best private alternatives | 2026

Buttondown announces:

Public descriptions for tags

---

Sign up for The Fulcrum

Developers defending democracy! We cover items and ideas in Battalion's Techno Anarchist Manifesto that relate to development.

Subscribe

Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

CTAs

• That’s it for this week. Please share The Programmer's Fulcrum.
• Follow us on Flipboard or at @thefulcrum@thefulcrum.dev on the Fediverse for daily coverage.
• Read, live, and share The Techno Anarchist Manifesto!

And please build something for a community!

Share on Open Social Media

---

Blasts from the past

Previous Battalion Posts

Previous Symfony Station Posts