Free Software Foundation Blogs

This is a wise choice for the space station, and a high-profile victory for software freedom. It brings good publicity for free software, demonstrating its respected position in the world of science and technology.

While "use it on a space station" wasn't listed as one of RMS's "Measures Governments Can Use to Promote Free Software", the announcement that the International Space Station is switching its laptops from Windows XP to GNU/Linux is exciting news. It's especially important for governments to use free software, because everything they do is paid for by the citizens of their countries. To ask citizens to pay for software that they cannot use, study and modify is especially unjust.

Along with increased reliability, NASA said they chose GNU/Linux because they could modify it to fit their needs. This is one of the core ideas behind free software, and we're glad the space agency values it.

Unfortunately, both NASA and the media writing about the decision have been calling the operating system "Linux" instead of "GNU/Linux." The kernel Linux is an important part of the operating system known as GNU/Linux, but the vision of the system and the framework on which the system is made were developed by the GNU Project, a community of developers that care deeply about free software ideas. Because of this, it is inaccurate to refer to the OS as "Linux," and doing so covers up the fact that this space-worthy operating system is the result of a decades-long commitment to ethical values.

That's why we ask that, when you talk or write about the operating system (in space or otherwise), you help us by referring to it as "GNU/Linux," and encourage your friends to do the same. There are gnus up there in space, along with the penguins.

Ironically, even though NASA calls the operating system by a misleading name, the distribution they chose, Debian, gets this right -- its official name is Debian GNU/Linux.

To learn more about this naming problem, see "Linux and GNU", the GNU/Linux FAQ or the history of the GNU Project on GNU.org.

We are happy to announce the seventh GNU Hackers Meeting, which will take place from August 22 to August 25 2013 in Paris, France.

We are happy to announce the seventh GNU Hackers Meeting, which will take place from August 22 to August 25 2013 in Paris, France.

The GNU Hackers Meetings are a friendly and informal venue to discuss technical, social and organizational issues concerning GNU and free software.

Following the success of the 2011 edition, we will be again generously hosted by IRILL (http://www.irill.org), the Center for Research and Innovation in Free Software. We have set up an official meeting page containing practical information at http://www.gnu.org/ghm/2013/paris/.

As we are still in the process of defining the program, we welcome your talk proposals. We are particularly interested in new GNU programs and recent developments in existing packages, plus any related topic. In our experience the audience tends to be technically competent, so feel free to propose very technical topics as well; we will try to schedule all such talks together in the same morning or afternoon session, for the public’s sake.

Registration is free of charge, but in case you want to contribute to the organization of future meetings, we are glad to accept a small donation.

The FSF has kindly set up a small fund to help finance (documented) travel expenses for GNU maintainers and contributors, past and present. In case you qualify and you need financial assistance to attend, please mention this fact in your registration e-mail, along with all the relevant details including the minimum amount that would permit you to attend the event, no later than June 24 2013.

You are welcome to join the public mailing list ghm-discuss@gnu.org (https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/ghm-discuss). Talk proposals and registration e-mails should also be directed to the public list ghm-discuss@gnu.org, or directly to Luca Saiu's personal address positron@gnu.org.

It can be a good thing, "when the use of the nonfree software aims directly at putting an end to the use of that very same nonfree software."

In his latest article, Richard Stallman discusses the one instance in which using nonfree software is a good thing, and cautions us to "resist stretching [the exception] further [than its limits], lest it turn into an all-purpose excuse for any profitable activity with nonfree software."

Join the FSF and friends on Friday, May 17th, from 2pm to 5pm EDT (19:00 to 22:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today!

Do you believe that control over our computers is important to a free society? Do you want to help people learn why proprietary software and Digital Restrictions Management are harmful? Do you want to fight for software freedom?

The Free Software Foundation is looking for a summer intern to work with the campaigns team to promote and defend free software. As an intern, you'll develop your own unique project that matches your skills and interests to complete during the internship. You will also have opportunities to participate in online outreach, grassroots organizing, communications, Web development, and event planning alongside the campaigns team.

Interns will end the summer knowing what it's like to run issue advocacy campaigns, from the planning stage through creative petition delivery.

Summer internships begin on or about June 4th and run through August 31st. We prefer candidates who can work out of our offices in Boston, MA. The deadline to apply for a summer internship at the Free Software Foundation has been extended to May 15th.

To apply, send a letter of interest and resume with two references by email to hiring@fsf.org. Make sure that your materials are in free software-friendly formats (PDF, ODT and plain text work well), and include "Internship" in your subject line. If you can, please include links to sites you've worked on (personal blogs are okay!) designs or code you've done, and--most of all--things you've written. Please include these as URLs, though email attachments in free formats are acceptable too. More information is available on fsf.org.

Please direct any questions about the program to info@fsf.org.

35 new GNU releases this month (as of April 30, 2013)

• archimedes-2.0.1
• autoconf-archive-2013.04.06
• autogen-5.17.3
• barcode-0.99
• binutils-2.23.2
• bison-2.7.1
• dbuskit-0.1.1
• denemo-1.0.0
• diffutils-3.3
• ed-1.8
• freeipmi-1.2.6
• gcal-3.6.3
• gcc-4.7.3
• gdb-7.6
• glpk-4.49
• gnu-linux-libre-3.9-gnu
• gprolog-1.4.4
• gsrc-2013.04.06
• guile-2.0.9
• guile-ncurses-1.4
• guile-sdl-0.4.3
• help2man-1.41.2
• hyperbole-5.0.4
• libcdio-paranoia-10.2+0.90+1
• libmicrohttpd-0.9.26
• libtasn1-3.3
• macchanger-1.6.0
• nettle-2.7
• parallel-20130422
• pyconfigure-0.2
• rcs-5.8.2
• serveez-0.2.1
• sharutils-4.13.5
• shishi-1.0.2
• smalltalk-3.2.5

To get announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu. Nearly all GNU software is available from http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors (http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html). You can use the url http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.

This month, we welcome Arjun E as the new co-maintainer of GNU Ferret, H.S. Rai as the new maintainer of libredwg, and Jeffrin Jose as the author and maintainer of the new package GNU guile-sdl (in addition to already maintaining GNU rcs and GNU alive).

A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance. Please see http://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html. To submit new packages to the GNU operating system, see http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.

As always, please feel free to write to me, karl@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

Join the FSF and friends on Friday, May 3rd, from 2pm to 5pm EDT (19:00 to 22:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today!

The World Wide Web consortium is considering a proposal to specify standards for HTML extensions to implement Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). The proposal is supported by Netflix, Microsoft, Google and the BBC.

HTML was initially designed to describe the semantics of text and give control to the browser over how to present it. Since it became common for companies to have web sites, they have steered the development of HTML towards precise control over what the user sees and the behavior of the page -- arguably going in the wrong direction, but not an injustice ... until now.

Of course, the W3C cannot prevent companies from grafting DRM onto HTML. They do this through nonfree plug-ins such as Flash, and with nonfree Javascript code, thus showing that we need control over the Javascript code we run and over the C code we run.

However, where the W3C stands is tremendously important for the battle to eliminate DRM. On a practical level, standardizing DRM would make it more convenient, in a very shallow sense. This could influence people who think only of short-term convenience to think of DRM as acceptable, which could in turn encourage more sites to use DRM.

On the political level, making room for DRM in the specifications of the World Wide Web would constitute an endorsement in principle of DRM by the W3C. Standardization by the W3C could facilitate DRM that is harder for users to break than DRM implemented in Javascript code. If the DRM is implemented in the operating system, this could result in distribution of works that can't be played at all on a free operating system such as GNU/Linux.

The arguments for standardizing DRM aim to avoid hypothetical minor inconveniences. For instance, some say that not standardizing DRM would result in putting more data and works in formats that cannot be searched. I doubt that claim; video sites that use Flash have plenty of information in searchable HTML about the videos. Standardized DRM could just as easily harm searchability, if it leads to more use of DRM. However, the main point is that that's a side issue either way. It is insignificant compared with the importance of discouraging DRM.

Another argument is that the W3C needs to obey the wishes of these companies to remain "relevant" -- in other words, to be in a position to influence events. However, it makes no sense to preserve that influence for some later decision that will be less important than this one. And is it even real influence? "Influence" maintained by obeying a master is more self-delusion than reality. Now is when the W3C should use the influence it has built up, saying, "DRM: Not in our name!"

Proprietary software is an injustice since users can't control it, and it commonly carries other injustices with it. The proprietary plugins or kernels required to view media under this standard, like proprietary software in general, could never merit users' trust. Once they harbor one malicious functionality, the digital handcuffs of DRM, there is no reason to suppose they won't have back doors and spyware as well.

Existing HTML features are already employed in various ways to mistreat users — for example, sites use cookies and third-party images for surveillance, and employ Javascript to disable normal browser functionality. Indeed, we are modifying a browser to block these forms of mistreatment.

However, these Web page features were not added for the sake of abuse, and they do have legitimate uses. The W3C is now considering a proposal that would, for the first time, standardize a feature intended solely and explicitly for mistreatment of users.

We therefore call on the W3C to reject any and all proposals for catering to DRM in World Wide Web standards. Please sign the petition at http://www.defectivebydesign.org/no-drm-in-html5 to join us.

Join the FSF and friends on Friday, April 26th, from 2:00pm to 5pm EDT (19:00 to 22:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today!

Hi, I'm Saurabh. I'm working as an intern with the campaigns team during the spring semester.

I worked with Mozilla when I was in college as a Campus Rep and as a Rep later. I'm also a member of Greenpeace and have done a little online activism with DemandProgress, SumOfUs, etc. Since college, I've been working as a professional web developer for the past two years, and I love my job. My areas of interest include accessible technical documentation, standardization, realtime communication technologies and freedom. I blog sometimes at rebugged.com and write pretty obsolete and useless code for my own entertainment by the name jsx. You can also find me on Freenode by that name.

I'm a huge fan and follower of the free culture. I believe that freedom -- whether digital or otherwise -- is a fundamental right of everyone. This includes all kinds of freedoms: freedom to live, learn, express and share. Even when you 'buy' software from Microsoft (or the like), you don't own it in reality. And the overpriced shiny Apple gadget that you bought is no different, if not worse. What kind of freedom is it when the program you are supposed to "own" doesn't allow you to modify it or let you learn how it works, or even share it with your grandmother? How can we say that we are living in a free society when we are not allowed to install programs on our mobile phone that are not pre-approved by the device manufacturer? I, like many others, dream of a world where we control the devices we use and where information is a shared wealth that's accessible to all. I believe that free software and software freedom are the way to that goal.

When it comes to digital freedom, we often overlook how far away we are from being "free." We adjust with the way things are just because we don't think it's worth fighting it. Organizations like the FSF, EFF, etc. are our last resistance against this corporate control. We take these guardians and their efforts for granted and don't realize or acknowledge how they are making the world a better place until one day they are gone -- until the day no one else is left fighting for us. I don't know what more to say. I'm so proud and excited that I got this chance to work with the FSF. Everyone I've met here so far is really nice and I look forward to working with them. I know I won't be changing the world overnight, but I do believe I can do something that amounts to something.

GNU Press has restocked all of your favorite shirts!

If the shop was missing your shirt size, come check it out again! We have restocked a number of our designs: Happy Hacking, GNU Head, Live the Dream, Free Software Free Society, Anti-DRM, ThankGNU, and GPLv3. We also have added a shirt commemorating LibrePlanet 2013.

If you can't find something in the store but think we should offer it, please add your suggestion to our Ideas page. And remember, associate members of the Free Software Foundation get a 20% discount on all purchases made through the GNU Press store, so if you are not a member already, join today!

To keep up with announcements about new products available in the GNU Press store, subscribe to the mailing list.

We want to commend Google for doing the right thing.

by John Sullivan, Executive Director, and Ward Vandewege, CTO

We reported a few weeks ago that Google had started blocking invites sent from non-Google Jabber servers.

This was done as a crude anti-spam measure.

We are happy to report that Google has since rolled out proper antispam filtering for its Jabber service, and has removed the invite block. This was announced a few days ago in another public mailing list post.

This means that users of Jabber servers like the one we provide for our members will once again be able to fully communicate with Google users.

We want to commend Google for doing the right thing and respecting the importance of full federation.

Join the FSF and friends on Friday, April 19th, from 2:00pm to 5pm EDT (19:00 to 22:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today!

Thank you to everyone for thinking of us at the Free Software Foundation office in downtown Boston as yesterday's terrible news unfolded. We appreciate all the concerned emails and queries.

Our office was officially closed during the attack, in observance of the Patriots' Day holiday. The bombs went off about a mile away from our location, so we were not at risk. Today, all of our staff and interns are safe and accounted for.

Our hearts are with those who were injured and the loved ones of those who died.

There has already been a tremendous outpouring of support from Boston residents and businesses offering hospitality and help to visitors who have been displaced. Let me add our small contribution -- as always, anyone visiting Boston is welcome in our office; we can at least offer wifi, coffee, and good company.

Sometimes, proprietary software actually helps us fight for freedom. Windows 8 is so bad it's almost funny--it's not only proprietary software full of spyware and security vulnerabilities, but it's also confusing for would-be users. Lucky for us, Microsoft's spectacular failure is the perfect time to help people switch to free software.

Today, we're launching a new infographic to encourage everyone to close Windows and open the door to software freedom. Windows 8 is so ripe for parody, we just couldn't resist. Check it out:

Upgrading to free software can be daunting for some people. That's why we need you, the free software experts, to lend a helping hand.

Take our pledge to help a friend or family member upgrade from Windows

Then, share this infographic with every Windows user you know. When your friends or family see the infographic and want to switch, set a date to help them do it. You'd be surprised what a difference a few hours of your time can make in someone else's life.

So, what are you waiting for? Take the pledge and liberate someone from Microsoft's shackles today.

With recent improvements to the Free Software Directory server software, editing is now easier than ever!

Join the FSF and friends on Friday, April 12th, from 3pm to 6pm EDT (20:00 to 23:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today!

The involvement and energy of the free software community make LibrePlanet what it is: brilliant and passionate people coming together around software freedom, drinking lots of coffee and forging the future of our movement. This year, we particularly appreciated your contributions to the theme of "Commit Change": a focus on making connections to other movements and building diversity within free software.

We've posted our photographs from the conference on a wiki page. If you have photos from the conference, please link to them from the page! Soon we'll also have video of the sessions hosted on our site.

To celebrate the success of the conference, we'd like to share some numbers:

• More than 150 attendees
• 35 talks, workshops and events
• 40% of sessions with at least one woman presenter (a new record for LibrePlanet!)
• 30% of speakers were women
• More than 29 hours of video
• Pretty successful live streaming in all three rooms, using only free software
• 16 lightning talks delivered by passionate attendees
• 64 LibrePlanet 2013 t-shirts sold or given to volunteers (Missed your chance to get one? Pick one up at our shop.)

If you can, please make a donation to the FSF to help us recoup the cost of the conference. If you aren't currently a member, the best way to do this is to join, because then you'll get gratis admission to the next LibrePlanet!

Last but not least, we'd like to thank all of the dedicated volunteers that made this conference possible. Much appreciation to Robert Call, Tristan Chambers, George Chriss, Ian Denhardt, Andrew Engelbrecht, Patrick Engelman, Luke Faraone, Daniel Fitzmartin, Ian Gustafson, Michael Haendler, Brendan Kidwell, Jon Littlefield, Stan Livitski, Peter Loshin, Adelaida McIntire, Emily O'Leary, Martin Owens, Ash Saraga, Jason Self, Kyle Walters and Chris Williams. It was fun and rewarding to have your help with the conference.

That's all for now! We hope that you'll join us at LibrePlanet 2014 (spoiler alert: we're going to announce the theme soon).

Este mes (al 24 de marzo) 29 nuevas publicaciones de GNU.

• acct-6.6.1
• gnuchess-6.0.3
• mpfr-3.1.2
• cppi-1.18
• gnuedma-0.18.6
• nano-2.3.2
• dejagnu-1.5.1
• gnuhealth-1.8.1
• texinfo-5.1
• emacs-24.3
• gv-3.7.4
• thales-1.1.1
• freeipmi-1.2.5
• libgcrypt-1.5.1
• tramp-2.2.7
• gcc-4.8.0
• librejs-4.9.3
• trueprint-5.4
• gecb-0.8.4
• marst-2.7
• vc-dwim-1.7
• gettext-0.18.2.1
• maverik-6.5
• wdiff-1.2.1
• gidfwizard-0.6.4
• mcsim-5.5.0
• xorriso-1.2.8
• global-6.2.8
• moe-1.5

Para recibir avisos de las publicaciones más recientes de GNU, suscríbete a la lista de correo info-gnu: http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu. Casi todo el software GNU está disponible en http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, o preferiblemente en una de las réplicas (http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html). Puedes usar la URL http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ para ser automáticamente redirecionado (con suerte) a la réplica más cercana y actualizada.

Este mes, damos la bienvenida a Cynthia Rempel como nueva mantenedora del document pgccfd y a Jeffrin Jose como el nuevo mantenedor de GNU dap (ademas de ser mantenedor de GNU trueprint con una nueva version este mes)

Una cantidad de paquetes GNU, así como el sistema operativo GNU en si, están buscando mantendores u otro tipo de ayuda. Por favor visita http://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint si te gustaría ayudar. La página general de cómo ayudar a GNU está en: http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html. Para enviar un nuevos paquetes para el sistema operativo GNU, visita: http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.

Como siempre, por favor siéntete libre de escribirme, karl@gnu.org, con cualquier pregunta o sugerencia sobre asuntos de GNU para futuros fascículos.

With recent improvements to the Free Software Directory server software, editing is now easier than ever!

Join the FSF and friends on Friday, April 5th, from 2:00pm to 5pm EDT (19:00 to 22:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

If you are eager to help and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today!

29 new GNU releases this month (as of March 24, 2013):

• acct-6.6.1
• gnuchess-6.0.3
• mpfr-3.1.2
• cppi-1.18
• gnuedma-0.18.6
• nano-2.3.2
• dejagnu-1.5.1
• gnuhealth-1.8.1
• texinfo-5.1
• emacs-24.3
• gv-3.7.4
• thales-1.1.1
• freeipmi-1.2.5
• libgcrypt-1.5.1
• tramp-2.2.7
• gcc-4.8.0
• librejs-4.9.3
• trueprint-5.4
• gecb-0.8.4
• marst-2.7
• vc-dwim-1.7
• gettext-0.18.2.1
• maverik-6.5
• wdiff-1.2.1
• gidfwizard-0.6.4
• mcsim-5.5.0
• xorriso-1.2.8
• global-6.2.8
• moe-1.5

To get announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu. Nearly all GNU software is available from http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors (http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html). You can use the url http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.

This month, we welcome Cynthia Rempel as the new maintainer of the pgccfd document and Jeffrin Jose as the new maintainer of GNU dap (in addition to already maintaining GNU trueprint, with a new release this month).

A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance. Please see http://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html. To submit new packages to the GNU operating system, see http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.

As always, please feel free to write to me, karl@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.