WASHINGTON — In a move that sent shockwaves through the tech industry, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order today declaring all open-source code “un-American” and making its creation, distribution, or use punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison. “Nobody knew code could be free. It’s terrible, folks. Terrible,” Trump declared from his Mar-a-Lago residence. “Real Americans pay for their software, and they pay big league. That’s what made this country great.” The controversial order, scrawled in gold Sharpie on the back of a McDonald’s receipt, specifically targets what Trump called “socialist programmer communes” like GitHub and Linux. It requires all software to be developed behind closed doors and sold at “whatever price the market can bear, plus 50%.” Tech industry leaders were quick to respond, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reportedly doing backflips in his office while shouting “Windows forever!” Meanwhile, Linux creator Linus Torvalds was last seen attempting to seek political asylum in Finland, muttering something about “git push” and “force shutdown -h now.” The order has created particular confusion in the government sector, where thousands of federal websites running on open-source software suddenly became illegal. The White House’s own website temporarily displayed a blue screen of death with the message “ERROR: FREEDOM.EXE NOT FOUND.” “This is a great day for American software,” said Trump’s newly appointed Chief of Proprietary Code Enforcement, a sentient copy of Windows Vista. “We’re going to make coding great again by putting it behind the biggest, most beautiful paywalls you’ve ever seen.” At press time, a underground resistance movement of developers had already formed, sharing code snippets via an elaborate network of Morse code signals sent through reprogrammed coffee makers.

    • Sceptiksky
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      718 hours ago

      It’s just an error on the date, just wait a few weeks

      • @Hackworth
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        618 hours ago

        At this point, I think it’s the Onion’s active strategy. Release the news a month in advance and hope it’ll prevent it from happening somehow.

    • @[email protected]
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      418 hours ago

      Same, first time I was tricked by one of these headlines this year. I had to recheck the source because it sounded real for a minute.

    • @DarkFuture
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      218 hours ago

      Because we live in the stupidest of timelines. Courtesy of your average stupid as fuck American voter and non-voter.

      • @[email protected]
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        118 hours ago

        Not to mention the “good” party who couldn’t even be bothered to pretend to be leftists this time around

  • @assassinatedbyCIA
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    2118 hours ago

    I fully ate the onion on this one. 100% believable headline.

    • @[email protected]
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      255 minutes ago

      I would’ve if the logo wasn’t on the posts, super noticeable. I might miss the community name just written out but that logo ruins any chance I could eat the onion on here.

    • Johanno
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      719 hours ago

      Same. It took me a bit too long to realise the satire.

      What world do we live in where we actually think this is possible!?!

  • @[email protected]
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    2120 hours ago

    The tell on this joke (aside from it being the onion community) was trump actually knowing or caring about open source.

  • @[email protected]
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    420 hours ago

    Y’all breathing a sigh of relief, but it’s too early.

    All it would take is for someone to mention this to him, and it got people flustered.

    • NostraDavid
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      319 hours ago

      Either Altman or Musk are going to mention it because of Deepseek R1 fucking them over…

  • @[email protected]
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    421 hours ago

    Totally not believable since President Musk’s companies often depend on it so he would never allow his Vice President to sign such an executive order.

    • @[email protected]
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      220 hours ago

      I wouldn’t be surprised at all if an executive order comes along that allows “Federal Contractors” such as em’s companies to have exclusive right to things forbidden to the open market.

  • @bfg9k
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    542 days ago

    Fucking Onion headline got me again, I legitimately believed this until I saw where it was posted haha

    • @glitchdx
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      91 day ago

      same. I don’t like that reality is that level of insanity.

  • @Feathercrown
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    271 day ago

    Holy shit I didn’t see the onion logo for a sec, don’t DO that to me lmao

  • @Nedlymandico
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    982 days ago

    Fuck guys you got me. I read half that before I saw it was the onion.

    • @Frigid
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      142 days ago

      I don’t laugh at the Onion anymore sadly, I only let out a sigh of relief.

    • @[email protected]
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      82 days ago

      We live in such a post-satire world now, this felt totally realistic. Got me too for a second.

  • @Vytle
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    131 day ago

    Brooo, i cant even share this with my friends; its too believable