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Dear Free Software Supporter,

**Staff seat board member and senior sysadmin Ian Kelling shares
his personal musings on the board process improvements, his
experience working at the Free Software Foundation (FSF), why
Service as a Software Substitute (SaaSS) should get more
attention, some lessons learned from the GNU Tools Cauldron,
FSF's legal defense of GCC, and why the FSF needs your financial
support.**

I recently wrote to you to update you on the [FSF tech team's work][1]
because I'm primarily a FSF tech team member, but noticed I had
more to share. I do more than just tech team work and today I want to
talk about that and explain why the FSF needs and is worthy of your
financial support.

[1]: [link removed]

I've been at the FSF for six and a half years now. It is a fun
and positive environment, and I feel grateful to be working
here. All of our eleven [staff][2] are doing great work, and I
have so much more I want to accomplish.

[2]: [link removed]

In 2021, I was elected as the [staff seat][3] to the FSF board of
Directors, for which I have volunteered since. The [FSF
board][4] is about to make it's first significant expansion of
directors in years as it draws to close a many months long
transparent [nomination and evaluation process][5]. I'm excited
about the FSF gaining more leadership, insight, and support from
its board, especially after the hundreds of hours the other board
members and I worked to [modernize and improve the board
governance][6].

[3]: [link removed]
[4]: [link removed]
[5]: [link removed]
[6]: [link removed]

Our mission will take a long time to fully achieve it, but every
year, we see free software usage growing, often under the label
of open source. This helps us, but the open source label [lacks a
guiding philosophy][7] of why free software is essential to a
free society and in our lives.

[7]: [link removed]

Over the years, I've read of some people dismissing the FSF or
the idea of software freedom. Often this dismissal is based in
assumptions about the world or the FSF which don't match up with
what I see or how I understand a given situation. I try to
remember the [KCD cartoon][8] about someone being wrong on the
internet, and hope for opportunities to have a dialog with people
who have an open mind.

[8]: [link removed]

I am also reminded of when FSFE president [Matthias Kirschner
said][9] that as the software freedom movement grows, we will
naturally face the situation of people who care about software
freedom disagreeing about things besides free software, and when
that happens we should try to still work together, be respectful, and
not get distracted by them. I don't always agree with Matthias,
but I agree on this point. I also really enjoy the [children's book][10]
he wrote on free software, and so have the kids I've given it to.

[9]: [link removed]
[10]: [link removed]

With this in mind, I traveled for the FSF several times, giving me the
opportunity to meet people after several years of pandemic. I went to
FOSDEM and [gave a talk][11] about [Service as a Software Substitute
(SaaSS)][12]. These are services which take away control of your
computing by doing it on someone else's computer where you don't control
the software being run. Common examples include modifying a photo,
translating text into another language, or running a database. The
amount of SaaSS has been growing, and I think partly because proprietary
software is easier to explain, SaaSS hasn't gotten enough attention. The
answer to both is running free software on a computer you control.

[11]: [link removed]
[12]: [link removed]

I also traveled to the GNU Tools Cauldron and met many wonderful
GNU developers. This conference primarily brings together
developers of the [GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)][13], the [GNU C
Library][14], the [GNU Debugger][15], and the [GNU Binary
Utilities][16] collection. It is inspiring to be amongst so many
people working successfully together on some of the most renowned
free software packages.

[13]: [link removed]
[14]: [link removed]
[15]: [link removed]
[16]: [link removed]

GCC is the compiler that serves as a great example of why copyleft
matters. It is licensed under the [GNU General Public License
(GPL)][17] version 3 or later, requiring anyone distributing an
improved version of GCC to contribute the code to the community.
[LLVM][18] is another popular free/libre compiler, but has no such
requirement and unfortunately, every free software contribution to
LLVM also becomes a proprietary contribution to proprietary LLVM-
based compilers maintained by Apple, NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, and
others, giving themselves unjust power over the users and owners
of the hardware those compilers are made for. We need a world
where our computers act in our interests, and that means we need
freedom-respecting operating systems, especially compilers.

[17]: [link removed]
[18]: [link removed]

I spoke to some GCC developers who saw the company they work for
paying different employees to separately work on three compilers: GCC,
LLVM, and a proprietary compiler based on LLVM. It is clear to them that
some LLVM free software contributions were a way to more efficiently
develop their proprietary compiler. Companies rarely talk about why they
make these decisions. The only thing we usually see is that they made their
company website only mention or recommend using their proprietary compiler.
When people defend the companies, they don't engage on the many [reasons
we insist on free software][19] and why everyone deserves software freedom.

[19]: [link removed]

The situation is different, but I'm always
reminded of Big Oil's advertisements about how they are really a
super green company that plants trees, followed by leaked
documents showing they really use this messaging only to fight
against climate change activism, not to actually make change. We
live in a world of many injustices, but I cannot believe that
proprietarization is "for the best" or that this is the best we can do.

When GCC developers meet, they are focused on making the best
compiler while having the confidence that companies will
redistribute their code in ways that respect users' freedom, and
that is a wonderful thing. But, that confidence depends on the
vigilance of a small charity that is focused on the interests of
computer users: the Free Software Foundation. Not too long ago,
we faced a challenging legal threat: A company claimed that code
in GCC, in which FSF holds the copyright, was violating that
company's copyright. They demanded that we put a stop to
publishing the code under the GPL and that we inform the public
they should do the same. I looked around and it seemed that the
code in question was the only free software code in the world which
fully accomplished a certain useful task.

We do not get to publish about this work much to avoid too much
detail, and we can't name the company on the chance that
publicity could help them (I'm reminded of [SCO receiving
millions of dollars from Microsoft][20]). This company wanted to
be the gatekeeper, dictating the terms of anyone in the world who
wanted that task done. We investigated and consulted lawyers to
assist us in fighting back, and it worked, that threat is gone.
We wrote recently about [our copyright handling][21], and this
case only enforces those points. Unlike the big tech companies,
we stand up for computer users freedom first, and [support from
companies][22] to do this kind of work is limited. The vast
majority of our funding comes from individual donors like you.

[20]: [link removed]
[21]: [link removed]
[22]: [link removed]

**If you want the GPL and GNU to continue to stand strong for freedom
in an increasingly user-hostile world, we need your help.** If every reader
of this email supports our efforts by [ensuring a contribution][23], we can
reach our [stretch goal of $425,000][25] and continue to defend software
freedom. If you donate $140 or more we'll send you an exclusive drawstring
bag to show off your support for user rights. The bag is black and reads
"Fight for your user rights." This is a conversation starter and a fantastic
opportunity to connect with like-minded people.

[23]: [link removed]
[25]: [link removed]

I do this work so that we may see a future in which free/libre software is the norm,
in which users control the software they use, rather than vice versa, and
we improve, study, and share the software we use together. Because everyone
deserves computer user freedom!

In freedom,

Ian Kelling
Board Member & Sysadmin


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