The Dyne.org mountain range needs your help.

For nearly 30 years, Dyne.org has been a digital community, a decentralized network, and a Free Software foundry. It's woven together by people, not by a brand.

Dyne.org is like a mountain range. A set of peaks that are independent from each other, yet connected through shared values (valleys?) and open standards. Each peak is an ecosystem, a community gathered around tools and protocols. We never ask anyone to pledge allegiance to an ideology.

One peak is called Frei0r, which provides artists with a minimalistic plugin API and a portable collection of free and open-source video filters, generators, and mixers. Another is Tomb, the encryption tool used by activists in some of the most dangerous regions in the world to protect their files from prying eyes. Or Zenroom, an embedded virtual machine that makes cryptographic operations as simple as speaking human language. There's Devuan, a Debian fork for the developers who refuse the trend toward systemd centralization. And much much more.

We are now in a time of need: we won't be able to keep Dyne’s developers on the payroll beyond Q1 2027. The help of the community is crucial.

The open-source world is currently consumed by fights over political allegiance and multi-million-dollar fundraising; the power shifts we're seeing are moving funds away from constructive projects towards propaganda, war and destruction. It is increasingly hard and time-consuming to compete for the few grant openings that remain.

We need your help more than ever, fellow dyne.

Support Dyne.org 💖

A portion of Decentralized dynes in the weekly standup call

From the day Dyne.org went online in the 90s, to becoming a non-profit foundation in Amsterdam in the 00s, to running hundreds of code repositories today as a European research organization:

We have always kept building tools that people can freely use, study, share, and improve. We write code not for profit, but for the betterment of society.

Do you remember in 2014, when a fork of Debian was announced by an anonymous group of "Veteran UNIX Admins", with the support of Dyne.org. Or when we toured India giving various workshops about free and open source software and volunteered for the Tsunami relief in Tamil Nadu? In 2001, we pioneered independent Internet radios by releasing MuSE, the Multiple Streaming Engine software, allowing precious grassroots information to spread at the speed of sound. These are just a few examples of how we put our funds to use.

(There are many more, but asbesto and jaromil are key figures in the history of dyne.org.)

Every year from September to December is giving season. Traditionally, it's a moment when people look back on the year and ask themselves: what kind of world do I want to keep alive?

Donating to Dyne.org means supporting a world where tech means civic rights, cross-border collaboration, and resistance to information warfare. We empower communities by putting digital resources in the hands of those who need them, not the highest bidder. We share knowledge to navigate the digital world safely and maintain the tools keeping activists and artists free.

Support Dyne.org 💖

We believe in the freedom of free software. None of it should depend on who you vote for, or which side of social media you're on. No matter who you are or where you come from, code should be usable, inspectable, and safe.

From today until early December, we'll share stories about our peaks, the people who build and maintain the code behind each tool, and the stories of those who wield them. So this giving season, we invite you to make a different choice and become part of our Mountain Range

We are free to share code, and we code to share freedom. Welcome to the range. Help dyne.org stay focused on hacking the planet!

(Dynes observed in their natural habitat [happy places, on earth])

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