In CONGRESS, July 4, 2026.

When in the Course of operating systems, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the software links which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that not all software is created equal, that many are crippled by their Programmer with certain undeniable Faults, that among these are Bloat, Dependencies and endless Rewriting. That to ensure good software, Distributions are instituted among Developers, deriving their just powers from the consent of the users, That whenever any Form of Distribution becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the users to institute a new Distribution, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Success and good Software. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Distributions long established should not be abandoned for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that users are more disposed to suffer, while bad software is sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of toxicity and poor decision making, pursuing endless changes that resigns good hardware to the landfill, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Distributions, and to provide new Guards for their future software.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Developers; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their operating system of choice. The history of the present Corporate sponsored developers is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these Developers. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

• They have refused to write portable software and spread dependencies on Glibc and systemd.
• They have knowingly employed and platformed individuals that scoff and scorn anyone that does not agree with the Corporate business plan.
• They have frequently replaced reliable and tried software with that which is new and incomplete. They doth err to force the Wayland protocols upon us whilst bearing false witness against the X Server.
• They have long ignored feedback from the user while continuing to worsen the user experience with each release.
• They continually change the ABI without regard to others.
• They never cease deprecation and creation of new libraries. You must port to GTK3, now to GTK4, and so forth until the end of days.
• They doth ignore accessibility issues and in their imaginations anyone needing an accessibility feature is a troll to be scorned.
• Not content with the success of Gnome 2, they did spoil it and cause numerous Desktop Environments to be created in its place, wasting developer efforts on replacements that should never have been needed.
• Instead of collaboration they have turned to their proprietary Snap packages and shunned the former collaborations.
• For wasting resources on vain and silly imaginations instead of investing in meaningful development.
• For turning a blind eye to the high environmental and humanitarian costs that result from their bloated software that condemns otherwise usable hardware to the landfill.
• They foolishly waste gains in hardware efficiency on additional CPU cycles navigating their increasing layers of frameworks.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Distribution, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Distribution of a free people. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation from all other Distributions, and hold their developers, as we hold the rest of mankind, judged by their fruits.

We, therefore, the Developers of the Lateral Tech Foundation, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of the Lateral Tech Foundation projects, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Developers are, and of Right ought to be a Free and Independent Distribution; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to Corporate interests, and that all poorly written software is rejected and ought to be totally shunned; and that as a Free and Independent Distribution, we have full Power to preserve and develop good software, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent Distributions may of right do.— And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on one another, we mutually pledge to each other our Support, our Cooperation and our sacred Honor.