LinuxExpert.org now installs and updates its WordPress plugins and themes through the FAIR Package Manager, a project the Linux Foundation announced on June 6.
What FAIR is
FAIR stands for Federated And Independent Repositories. Today, nearly every WordPress site gets its plugins, themes and updates from one place: WordPress.org. That single directory is run by a single organization, and the last year showed what that means. In a commercial dispute, a major hosting company's access to it was cut off, and a popular plugin was taken over and re-released under a new name.
FAIR replaces that one source with many. Packages can be served from several mirrors run by different operators, and a site can pull from whichever it trusts. Packages are signed, so a site can check that what it installs is what the author published, whichever mirror it came from. It's run under the Linux Foundation, so no single company controls it.
Why we switched
For a site like ours, it comes down to three things:
- Integrity. We can verify that the code we install is what its author published.
- Independence. Our updates no longer depend on one organization staying online, neutral and on good terms with everyone.
- Openness. FAIR is open source, governed in the open, and anyone can run a mirror.
It's early, and FAIR will have rough edges. But supply chain security for websites matters as much as it does for servers, and we'd rather help a good project grow than wait for it to be finished.
You can read the Linux Foundation's announcement here.
Since then
Added October 2026. LinuxExpert.org isn't a WordPress site anymore. The domain now runs a Mastodon server, and its articles moved here to jcoffey.dev, which is built with HotDog CMS and served as plain static pages. See LINUXexpert.org Is Now a Mastodon Server.