The biggest question our man in Italy has about Linux distros and other open source software projects taking political stances is: do they do more harm than good?
More than twenty years ago, I co-founded the RULE — Run Up-to-Date Linux Everywhere project because “we didn’t like the tendency of GNU/Linux systems to become (in 2002!) fatter and slower on the same hardware at every release.”
RULE never had the resources to make that dream come true, but my dislike for bloated Free Software never faded. That’s why last month I was really happy to find, here on FOSS Force, the review of a modern, actively maintained Linux distribution that is equally suitable for old and new computers.
At the same time, however, both the review and the distro itself have confused and still worry me. I say so because the review is titled “antiX Linux: A ‘Proudly Anti-Fascist’ Distro That’s Suitable for Old and New Computers,” but all I found about that proud stance were three sentences in the review:
- “…antiX Linux centers its identity on an antifascist stance—surprisingly refreshing!”
- “…there’s definitely a left-wing vibe to this Greek distro, politically speaking.”
- “…the project was founded by someone who goes by the nom-de-guerre anticapitalista…”
And two banners on the antiX home page and forum:
- Home page: “Proudly anti-fascist ‘antiX Magic’ in an environment suitable for old and new computers.”
- antiX forum banner: “Forum for users of antiX Linux. Mean and Lean and Proudly anti-fascist.”
Hmm… OK. So what?
As of June 2025, there is nothing else at all about fascism and antifascism on the antiX Linux FAQ, main forum, other forum, Reddit, old wiki, and Facebook page, other than three old discussions that confirm my point.
So, what do all those declarations accomplish? Nothing, of course. That is, nothing concrete or positive. The review itself implicitly acknowledges this (emphasis mine):
“On the whole, antiX gets high marks across the board for providing a solid and usable Linux distribution to a wide range of hardware, as well as to a wide range of users.”
Translation: the only concrete value of antiX Linux — and the only thing worth knowing and flaunting about it — is how good this distribution is for everybody, fascists included.
The reason is obvious: there is nothing anti-fascist that antiX Linux the distribution (or any other operating system, of course) can do.
Nothing at all.
- The antiX Linux installer cannot detect fascists, or refuse to run on their computers — the latter is even built into open source.
- antiX Linux and its developers cannot prevent antiX Linux being used to write and promote Holocaust negationism, hate speech, etc. — also protected by the open source definition.
The same applies to the antiX Linux community: can it really prevent fascists, possibly with fake identities, from joining the forum and get technical support? Also, what’s unique in those banners? Don’t other Linux distributions have Codes of Conduct that explicitly forbid fascist or otherwise politically extreme activism?
At the end of the day, all the anti-fascism inside the antiX software really amounts to is that it was developed and packaged by anti-fascists. Philosophically, that makes sense, to the extent that every human product, being the result of the specific ideas and needs of its inventors, is never truly neutral. In practice, those claims are worth just as much as the claims that GNU software is anticapitalist because Stallman himself never liked fascist-friendly capitalist corporations. I mean, we all know GNU software is never used or usable by fascist-friendly corporations, right?
That’s why I’m confused and worried. The technical side of antiX Linux looks great. Seriously, I’m going to try it the next time I’ll have to resurrect some friend’s obsolete computer. But the “anti” part is half pointless and half harmful. The only concrete results that unenforceable home page banners like those may ever achieve are:
- They will be completely ignored by half the visitors.
- They’ll stave off actual fascists (yeah, right–no way), as well as many anti-fascist users and developers who don’t have the time or inclination to mix software with online political discussions.
- Eventually, they’ll bring more polarization in a world that really doesn’t need it.
Fifteen years ago, I felt compelled to write “Enough With This ‘Free Software Is Communist’ Myth! Please!” Today, I am concerned that a great Linux distribution is shooting itself in the foot, just when increasing inequality—coupled with tariffs that will make computers more expensive—would make it much more relevant for everyone.
Assuming the “Year of Linux Desktop” is still needed, it will never come if desktop Linux distros keep irritating potential users for no real reason or benefit.
Hopefully totally obvious—yet still unavoidable—disclaimer: it’s not the anti-fascism to which I object, only the attitude. Had antiX Linux been “proudly anti-communist,” I would have written exactly the same words.
Marco Fioretti is an aspiring polymath and idealist without illusions based in Rome, Italy. Marco met Linux, Free as in Freedom Software, and the Web pre-1.0 back in the ’90s while working as an ASIC/FPGA designer in Italy, Sweden, and Silicon Valley. This led to tech writing, including but not limited to hundreds of Free/Open Source tutorials. Over time, this odd combination of experiences has made Marco think way too much about the intersection of tech, ethics, and common sense, turning him into an independent scholar of “Human/digital studies” who yearns for a world with less, but much better, much more open and much more sensible tech than we have today.
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