Nimo
daniel:// stenberg://The Python Software Foundation shows more spine than every single tech giant in just one single decision.
> Diversity, equity, and inclusion are core to the PSF’s values
https://pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-funding-statement.html
Corsac@bagder I wonder if @sovtechfund could step-in
i. celeste aurora 
[witchzard]Diversity, equity, and inclusion are core to the PSF’s values, as committed to in our mission statement:
The mission of the Python Software Foundation is to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers.
Given the value of the grant to the community and the PSF, we did our utmost to get clarity on the terms and to find a way to move forward in concert with our values. We consulted our NSF contacts and reviewed decisions made by other organizations in similar circumstances, particularly The Carpentries.
In the end, however, the PSF simply can’t agree to a statement that we won’t operate any programs that “advance or promote” diversity, equity, and inclusion, as it would be a betrayal of our mission and our community.
We’re disappointed to have been put in the position where we had to make this decision, because we believe our proposed project would offer invaluable advances to the Python and greater open source community, protecting millions of PyPI users from attempted supply-chain attacks. The proposed project would create new tools for automated proactive review of all packages uploaded to PyPI, rather than the current process of reactive-only review. These novel tools would rely on capability analysis, designed based on a dataset of known malware. Beyond just protecting PyPI users, the outputs of this work could be transferable for all open source software package registries, such as NPM and Crates.io, improving security across multiple open source ecosystems.
In addition to the security benefits, the grant funds would have made a big difference to the PSF’s budget. The PSF is a relatively small organization, operating with an annual budget of around $5 million per year, with a staff of just 14. $1.5 million over two years would have been quite a lot of money for us, and easily the largest grant we’d ever received. Ultimately, however, the value of the work and the size of the grant were not more important than practicing our values and retaining the freedom to support every part of our community. The PSF Board voted unanimously to withdraw our application.
Thank you, PSF! 🙏🙇
Wilfried Klaebe@frameworkcomputer - this is the way!
MeaningfulBits@bagder it always seems like pragmatic, well organized, and beautifully written and managed projects understand the DEI is important and not just some political buzzword.
Kevin Karhan 
@MeaningfulBits @bagder exactly that!
Rasmus Lindegaard@bagder while, after using Python for 3 years I find it to be a mess of a language, it's nice to see the foundation has a spine, that is really awesome.
Mr. Lance E Sloan (IRL) 👤@sloanlance @rasmus91 @bagder @ThePSF nodds in agreement
What I do have to applaud #Python beyond this clear sign of #integrity since their languague is basically the "modern #BASIC" and it gets things done quickly without headaches and clusterfucks.
- I.e. wanting to do pull - #backups from a remite server via SSH by opening a connection, stopping services, doing a transfer, restarting services, closing the connection and then deduplicate & compress files.
Which is a pain in the ass in #bash…
@rasmus91 @sloanlance @bagder @ThePSF and sometimes a reliable tool that gets most things done easily is oftentimes better than the perfect tool that requires decades of mastering.
And #Python does just that…
@kkarhan @rasmus91 @bagder @ThePSF
I like the comparison of #Python with #BASIC. There are no similarities in terms of flexibility, but they are each the beginners' programming language of their time.
I remember learning BASIC when I was 11 years old, reading the manual of my father's brand new #Commodore VIC-20. I've been programming ever since then.
@sloanlance @rasmus91 @bagder @ThePSF OFC the comparison is oversimplified, but when you look at it from the surface, the #RaspberryPi #Pi400 is basically the modern interpretation of the concepts we saw with #ZXspectrum, #VIC20 and other #8bit systems.
- Just with modern specs and interfaces...
And #Python makes it easy to "make stuff go brrr!" and the @RaspberryPi / @raspberry_pi / #RaspberryPiFoundation and their excellent guide which is free to download as PDF and included in the #Kits for Pi400 & #Pi500 makes it easy to do things and overcome any problems along the way, reducing frustration and increasing happyness for beginners with easy to follow step-by-step guides.
- And #Python is at the hard of that!
ChucklesThere's a link on the PSF to become a member or make a donation. Always support organizations that do the right thing.
Loren@EUCommission the Python language is the most popular computer language and the most important language for AI. They've had to decline US government funding in order to remain true to principles of diversity and inclusion. Can't Europe step in? Surely on a matter of basic defense it interests us to maintain availability of security updates, performance increases and new features that developers need to build software for all those datacenters that Europe is building? @lorenipsum
🐀 ␆@bagder The PSF's commendable action aside, it is interesting that the US government is implicitly saying that they *want to* surrender open source security safety, security, for attacks on DEI. That means they figure that less ethical organizations will fill the gap, or they dont really care about security, etc in the first place.
Pēteris Krišjānis@walshman23 @bagder this admin cares very little about anything that cruel score settling.
@walshman23 @bagder EXACTLY THAT is the correct interpretation!
- Or as one may say: Attempted corruption if not blackmail…
Apollo@walshman23 @bagder did the Trump administration ever cared? They have their agenda. They are hateful against anything they don't like.
Julia Clement@bagder I hope it doesn't happen, but I can see someone using this as an excuse for creating a short lived fork of Python.
KielKontrovers Blog@juliaclement @bagder and then take out all security out of Python. because security is only for the weak? real men dont use passwords or TLS. they trust never ever will anything will happen to them. Or maybe use Perl.
Seth Larson@bagder Thanks so much for the support Daniel 💜
David Zaslavsky
Tekknovator
Marek@tekknovator @bagder May I ask about the context? I may not be up to date on this.
kenan@ingenieur @tekknovator @bagder Thanks for pointing that out! However, I would like to note that Ruby is not just about Rails (Which, of course, doesn't make the problem any better or anything).
@mark22k @tekknovator @bagder For sure. I guess the problem is that his power and influence on the general Ruby community. Together with his friends like the guy from Shopify.
joosteto
Newk@bagder I always really enjoyed Python for many reasons.
Now I have even more reasons. That is strong show of force of maturity in the world where lack of principles is regular.
Will consider automated payment 🙂
Now I have even more reasons. That is strong show of force of maturity in the world where lack of principles is regular.
Will consider automated payment 🙂
@peteriskrisjanis thank you, Pēteris, the support really means a lot!
Guilhem Saurel
@lorenipsum thanks 🥳
Jim FullerWhen did large companies ever do the right thing - at anytime - for anything ? It is the responsibility of the individual to speak up before its too late to speak.
Workshopshed@bagder its not a million dollars but have sent my donation over
@Workshopshed thank you! honestly, the community support since the announcement has been making a big difference for us, plus the support just means a lot after a tough decision
Holger@bagder
Thanks for the pointer.
I donated a bit.
A delight to see some organisations still have a moral compass and a spine.
Luna chan@bagder why does that make me so angry?
PirjaPaa
Cegorachwell yes, but it's "only" about $1.5 million
while tech giants gamble about billions on a daily basis
IDK what PSF would have done if there were billions involved… maybe the same thing, maybe something completely different?
I mean… even "just take the money and spend most of it on DEI" becomes more viable with $1.5 billion?
It's a good thing they did what they did and they sure deserve to get double of those funds simply for that… only I wouldn't try to compare it that directly.
Jef
Jan Wedel@stealthmusic @bagder thank you!!!
UBps11@bagder Thank you!!!
Loren (@[email protected])
@[email protected] @ThePSF That's the thing about snakes...we're basically ALL backbone 🐍
Doug Cuff