Fascism Arch Linux gets more funding.
Omarchy has been on something of a roll now. Funding for its foundation has been climbing fast, from an $8 million launch to $10 million a few weeks later, and now crossing $13 million with the most recent pledge.
What’s drawn my attention are the first two Corporate Patrons, 1Password and 37signals, both of whom have decided to pitch $100,000 a year for the next three years. Now, 37signals I get; DHH is heavily involved there, but 1Password was a surprise entry.
Naturally, not everyone’s onboard with their pledge.
Signs of disagreement
This has not gone well with employees working at 1Password, with company leadership having to take certain damage control measures to assure their staff.
An internal Slack message has surfaced (courtesy of The Verge), which shows cofounder Roustem Karimov downplaying the criticism, telling team members that:
people have different personal opinions. You believe in your heart that DHH is evil, that you have the moral high ground, and that nothing will change your mind.
However, not everyone believes that. It is not fair to claim a monopoly and ostracize team members who might disagree with you. There are people who are afraid to speak up simply because they will be personally attacked.
CEO David Faugno responded on a different note, telling employees the company doesn’t endorse DHH’s views, while also noting that Omarchy is the second most used Linux distribution among 1Password’s own users. Why the backlash?
DHH is known to be someone who firmly falls on the “right” side of the political spectrum, someone who doesn’t shy away from putting his opinions in public view.
He regularly posts blogs that show where he stands on certain societal issues, and some of his recent writeups are what’s fueling this particular backlash.
His recent July post, titled “Wolves, sheep, and gypsies,” compares Denmark’s wolf population with the Romani people camping in Copenhagen parks, where he argues: “When gypsies take over public spaces, you deport them.”
Then there’s “As I remember London” from September 2025, where he laments about London losing its native Brit majority and a nod of approval for a Tommy Robinson march.
Of course, these aren’t the only factors behind his disapproval, but you get the gist of it, right?
Users could jump ship
If you search for the terms “1Password” and “Omarchy” right now, you are bound to run into the many comments made by disgruntled 1Password users on Reddit and Hacker News.
They are calling the choice tone-deaf, given how many smaller open source projects could’ve benefited from the money. Some are already jumping to alternatives like Bitwarden, while others suggest self-hosting Vaultwarden or going with KeePass and its forks instead.
I see the issue compounding too. Back in February, 1Password raised subscription prices, taking effect at renewals from March 27. Individual plans went up 33 percent from $35.88 to $47.88 a year, and family plans went up 20 percent from $59.88 to $71.88.
Its community forum already has a long thread full of longtime users saying they were leaving over it. If 1Password continues playing with its users’ trust like this, who knows what kind of exodus it will see next?
Let’s call it what it is in tech right now; it’s a supply chain attack against the whole industry. We’re being told to grab a bowl of this shit stew of venture capital, solidified grifts, and xenophobia with a side of Elon styled political activism.
These fascists have bought, bullied, or got backing from fellow fascists to coopt the F/OSS community with sums of money not commonly used in this space. Elon bought a whole social media platform to craft it into a fascist/Nazi hellscape, strictly to sway public opinion.
These guys are taking it even further; the very tools and means of production are being setup as a deeper rot in tech.
The same fuckheads in DHH’s orbit are only a few contacts away from Elon himself. We developers of all stripes need to move our projects off of corpo services. Self host your repo, partner up with like minded devs, make software for the people who need it.
I (don’t) like how this comment completely dismisses and bulldozes through everything Karimov said, which was brilliant by the way, and is a sentiment sorely missing from the majority of comments in all this drama.
Oh yes, won’t somebody think of the poor CEOs feeling discriminated when people point out they’re wasting money on shitty projects and suspecting there’s an agenda. Brilliant stuff indeed, and not at all transparent concern-trolling.
I kinda expect the guys who are investing in something they hope to see a positive return on to try to calm everyone down. That’s why I don’t give a shit what either of them said; its predictable and they don’t like the internal disruption. It costs company time/money money to put out that fire. Their priorities dont align with the staff.
My comment was aimed at the tech industry as a whole.
Just because it’s a for-profit operation doesn’t mean they’re wrong, though.
IMO Being open to the idea that multiple valid perspectives can exist simultaneously, is a much more reasoned and intelligent position than “I don’t give a shit what either of them said.”
If you yourself are open to multiple perspectives coexisting, then you should have a problem with DHH’s exclusionary philosophies.
Have you read anything he’s written?
What is the other Perspective again that is now platformed again and that you so vigorously defend?
This is like saying only certain people should have free speech. My argument was not about any particular perspective.
Really? But the whole discussion is about one very particular perspective.
And this particular perspective is just as valid as any other perspective and for some magical reason can exist simultaniously.
Please tell us which perspective do you think can validly exist besides tolerance and being Open to multiple ways of Life and perspectives? Tell us what perspectives you are ultimately defending.
Yes, your argument was cowardly since you are actively avoiding acknowledging what specific perspective you’re playing defense for.
There’s no good reason to hold strong principles vaguely except obfuscation.
Go ahead and explain why you think far right, xenophobic, and racist perspectives need to be given a platform.
I’m not playing defense for any particular perspective, I just try to understand all sides and get other people to see different perspectives before forming their own opinions.
As a rule, strong feelings about issues do not emerge from deep understanding.
If you can’t argue your position without attacking a person’s character, you already lost the argument.
You’re doing a pretty bad job understanding the non-fascist side tbh. I think you’re trying to smokescreen your personal opinion behind the guise of “trying to” understand DHH.
You’re not trying to understand all sides by telling people they should entertain far right, xenophobic, and racist perspectives while doing your best to not acknowledge that that’s what the perspective is. You’re basically trying to shame people into tolerating the intolerant by vaguely gesturing at a blunt virtue.
Don’t pretend like you’re here trying to convince someone who is against considering a stream of ontology because they prefer a different branch of it. We’re talking about not entertaining DHH’s specific values. If you can’t even admit what those values are when you’re trying to tell people they should respect them, then you must know it’s wrong.
Principles. Not feelings.
Is your argument on this matter your entire character? Because I clearly called your argument cowardly.
I haven’t once said anyone was wrong. What they said is immaterial to what I was originally talking about. I was pointing critique/concerns/feelings towards the present day tech industry as a whole.
Then why say it in that way if you don’t disagree? To me it sounds like you’re specifically trying to paint the company in a bad light.
Perhaps they simply disagree with the staff? Again that doesn’t make them wrong. It’s possible the staff are simply misinformed on the real intent of what he was trying to say.
Of course Brits don’t want to become a minority in their home country… who would? We all know how badly they are treated.
Just because someone can’t articulate their thoughts in the friendliest way, doesn’t mean they deserve to be hanged. And just like what Karimov said, no single person gets to be the arbiter of what everyone else’s priorities should be.
Absolutely wild comment.