MOFO Linux

The MOFO Linux Project is being archived. Due to declining user interest in the MOFO Linux and increasingly unfavorable news, social media, and legislative environments, I have decided to get rid of the domain and wind down the project. It is an untenable situation and I am done with offering liberation to people who don't want it, and in an information environment completely enshittified by right wing techno fascists and Nazis.

When I first started bulding Linux systems with integrated anti-censorship and anti-surveillance tools, there were actually platforms and news sources worthy of the effort. I could enter a censored environment, easily break out, and have no limits on my access to social media platforms, news sites, or other gathering places.

Now, in the spring of 2026, the platforms themselves are the problems. Social media platforms, search engines, and news sites are all closing off to usage by people connecting through anonymity or censorship circumvention tools. Worse, the escape from one disinformaion-infested environment merely leads to the arrival in another one. Yesterday, I literally found both NPR and the BBC repeating far-right lies told by a head of state. On top of that, Linux distributions are caving to government pressure against anonymity on the internet. How often do I need to repeat that some things are no one else's business (NOYFB)?

As many distributions as there are, Linux is still too centralized. As with Microsoft, Apple, and Google, governments can take aim at distributions, or individual maintainers, then pressure them to install backdoors or surveillance. Operating system age verification is exactly that. Don't ever be dismissive about it; age verification is an opener into further intrusions. You may call it governance; I call it a game of "just the tip." Once you accept the tip, you become a player, sooner or later to take the whole length and girth.

The well-being of kids is just a pretext! Otherwise, something would have been done long ago to curb gun deaths of children. Or hunger. Or abuse. The real issues in contention are anonymity and governability of computer users. As Bruce Lee once said, "Be like water."

Fuck all of the KYC being implemented against internet users. I will not use any Linux which obstructs my anonymity or freedom of use, nor will I ask you to use a compromized operating system. I will burn it all down before giving in. Rather than risk fines and prosecution from multiple formerly free countries, I am freezing MOFO Linux on SourceForge at its most recent release.

Bear in mind that recent MOFO Linux releases contain the Linux-Respinner scripts with which enable you, if you desire, to unpack the iso images, chroot into the filesystems, and do your own modifications. You can update to current Debian software packages and rebuild the iso images and continue using them.

I have a better suggestion: abandon conventional Linux and start using image-based distributions, such as Bluefin, Bazzite, Vanilla OS, or Nitrux. Install Tor, I2P, and Sshuttle, then whatever apps you prefer, for whatever purpose. You can do anything, and I mean ANYTHING, with Flatpaks, AppImages, and Docker containers.

In closing, let me say this: Linux needs to decentralize more if it is to remain free as in freedom. Governments are putting on pressure, down to the level of people who share distros, respins, apps, and users. Linux needs to be like water, my friends. You and I need to be like water too, or we are all done.

Thank you for riding along on this trip. Good luck and hang tough.

Cheers,

Posted to the MOFO Linux Project Page (Sourceforge, 2025/08/19)

Friends,

Censorship has existed as long as communication and authoritarians have existed in the same space. People in power have always had a narrative about their existence and why their world was the way it was. Censorship was as simple as forbidding expression which challenged power and its narratives. With every advance in communication between humans, the information space grew in volume. We began by speaking person to person, creating sculptures, and drawing on caves. Then orators would speak to groups of assembled persons, or write texts by hand and distribute them. Then came the printing press, telegraphy, and the various forms of electronic communication.

Censorship evolved with every advance in communication, to resist the sharing of ideas which challenged power. With the word "ideas," I refer to not only creations spun up in the mind of a creative storyteller or artist, but also the people of science, mathematics, philosophy, law, religion, and politics, who attempt to understand our world and share what they have found. In democratic societies, it is the people who decide where to draw the line between what expression is permissible and what is considered harmful and warranting restriction. Authoritarian societies organize around obedience to leadership and restrict expression which is non compliant. Think of how the Catholic church fought the discovery of heliocentrism. Consider how puritanical and cultish people in the United States fought (and continue to fight) the teaching of evolution or genetics. It has been a century since the Scopes trial and a half century since the West Virginia School Book War, and tens of millions of people still cling to extreme religious ideas which we know are mythical.

Worse, yet, so-called democracies such as the UK and USA are mandating draconian measures against online anonymity and secure communications. American "red states" are foolhardily mandating restrictions against access to websites containing information about contraception, reproductive health, and options for pregnant people. They should know better, but they do not, as the lawmakers appear to have minimal awareness of facts associated with censorship. LOL, I guess they didn't read my entertaining yet hard hitting book, Censorship's Grave.

Censorship is dead. As mass communication advanced, so did the tools of censorship, such that for every measure, came a countermeasure. For every countermeasure, came a new advancement against censorship. We have paper and ink documents which are waterproof. We have optical and spinning-rust disks which can survive if an office or data center is flooded or burned down. We have encrypted communications which will are as likely to yield Shakespeare as to give up their true contents. We have vaults and online libraries progressing toward offering every work which has ever been published. In a real sense, censorship is dead and we are free - if it is our choice to be free.

Dictatorships are enraged and frightened by unhampered communications. They have learned to track internet usage and block websites and VPN protocols. They interfere with DNS queries. They choke crossborder connectivity until broadband becomes a trickle. Circumventionists figured out how to evade every, I repeat, EVERY form of internet censorship, save for cutting cables. I have personally experienced blocked and throttled "normal" internet while visiting countries considered to be non-free. In those same places, I have used encryption and multithreaded connections to enjoy blazingly fast file downloads, peer to peer file sharing, and media streaming. Everything the dictators can do to limit assembly and expression FAILS, as no barrier is perfect. Except for cutting the cables. MOFO Linux is my version of a toolset for exploiting flaws in censorship barriers and accessing online media. Yet now, the media does not want certain people to access it. There is a voice out there saying, in effect, "We don't serve your kind here."

There is a way to censor, which makes useless every circumvention method: self-censorship! All of the circumvention technology is useless if one party to an act of assembly or expression opts out. That means Tor is useless if you don't use it. Tor is also useless if your forums or media platforms block it. VPNs and SSH tunnels are useless if the platform will not allow you to use it because you arrive from a known server address. I have seen these things happen in 2025, and the trend is increasing. Twitter / X, YouTube, Reddit, and various adult entertainment sites, are rolling out age verification systems which eliminate anonymous access to their content. It is getting down to a self-censorship where people cannot break out of a restricted internet bubble and use the large platforms because the tools which liberate at the origin are also the tools which provoke blocking at the destination. You can leave home, but you are welcome nowhere! If you have a server farm's IP address, please go away!

Platforms which surrender to authoritarian lawmakers and block access to people using circumvention tools will kill what remains of the internet we had a decade ago. They are going to screw it up for everyone, and why? Cowardice! Because they lack the spine to say no to authoritarians.

None of this dumbassery will solve any problems with obscene content or its access by minors. To stop that problem, parents need to do better in raising children who grow up with healthier minds. I mean this in all seriousness, that we worry about what our kids eat, or that they follow safe practices when crossing streets. But not enough care that they develop healthy minds, learn to handle stresses of life, and have a respect for other people and living things. It is the job of parents, not legislators, to make it so. Addictions, substance abuse, violence and abuse against people and creatures ALL have something in common, and it will never be solved with censorship.

Anti-censorship operating systems will always exist, one way or another. It is a silly fantasy to think a day will come when Tails, Qubes, or MOFO Linux will be unavailable. It is true that Twitter / X, YouTube, Instagram, or the many adult content sites may close down. However, they will be replaced by alternative services which meet the demands of internet users. Until internet users are no longer interested in such services. Because it is the users, not the dictators, which control the bottom line.

I wouldn't know, as I use circumvention methods to access online libraries which don't abide by book bans. Friends, learn how to circumvent the bans of books, no matter the format. In 2024, there is no reason to be hurt by the bans; you can find whatever you want if you go to the right sources.

Autocrats and straight-up dictators are having nightmares because the nightmare scenario is happening. They have lost control of the internet. Too many circumvention tools and encrypted chat apps actually work! Read the book "Censorship's Grave" to learn more.

You might think it is hackers who are evading national censorship barriers. Nope. Regular people are using onion sites, connecting through various cypher spaces, or simply finding apps which "jump the walls"

Censorship and surveillance interfere with freedom of access to podcasts and other media. We are talking about where TF we will go as a world of people. Don't be cut out of the conversation.

MOFO Linux 8.3.0 is released! The boot drive for accessing unblocked media.

Broadband is useless if censorship reduces the flow of information to a trickle - to what we had before broadband arrived. Likewise, if the billionaires and other autocrats continue to flood the media with disinformation, broadband is useless.

Just pick a city, then a receiver site and enjoy the signals. It is real radio - crackles, fades, and all. If you live someplace where the streams are blocked, try these internet WebSDRs. Get some free, unblocked, and realtime access to the world.

I was looking down the road into setting up the next big iteration of MOFO Linux, when it became clear that a rapid update would help the distro's users stay ahead of a tightening wave of censorship as we begin 2023. Here it is! With additional tools for getting connected to VPNs or Tor, with some V2Ray also, MOFO Linux 8.2 is available.