Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update -- being read
by you and 227,223 other activists. That's 717 more than last month!
HACKERS and HOSPITALS: How you can help
From March 31st
Free software activists, as well as many scientists and medical
professionals, have long since realized that proprietary medical
software and devices are neither ethical nor adequate to our
needs. The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated some of these
shortcomings to a broader audience -- and has also given our community a
unique opportunity to offer real, material help at a difficult time.
We're putting together a plan to pitch in: check out the wiki page at
https://libreplanet.org/wiki/HACKERS_and_HOSPITALS, and if you
have expertise, 3D printers, or supplies to contribute, please contact
Michael via [email protected]. If you do not have the means to
produce medical gear and you still want to help, research can be done
from anywhere with only a computer and an Internet connection. Add any
projects that are freely licensed working towards helping with
COVID-19 to the wiki!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Hospitals need to repair ventilators. Manufacturers are making that impossible
- Software Freedom Conservancy's remote work tools
- "Freeware," free software and the coronavirus crisis: Choose your tools wisely!
- Looking back at LibrePlanet 2020: Freeing the future together
- LibrePlanet day 1: Can free software carry an entire online conference? Yes, it can!
- LibrePlanet 2020 online: Second day of the conference closes on a high note
- Young hackers to deliver opening keynote for LibrePlanet conference
- Let's Encrypt, Jim Meyering, and Clarissa Lima Borges receive FSF's 2019 Free Software Awards
- Celebrating women in free software for International Women’s Day
- Everything you need to know about LibrePlanet 2020, now fully online!
- Zoom iOS application sends data to Facebook even if you don’t have a Facebook account
- The EARN IT Bill is the US government’s plan to scan every message online
- GNOME 3.36 released
- Emacs 27.0.90 is out!
- GCC 9.3 released
- Modern GNU/Linux systems should run old games
- March GNU Emacs news
- Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
- LibrePlanet featured resource: HACKERS and HOSPITALS
- GNU Spotlight with Mike Gerwitz: 15 new GNU releases!
- FSF and other free software events
- Thank GNUs!
- GNU copyright contributions
- Translations of the Free Software Supporter
- Take action with the FSF!
View this issue online here:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2020/april
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to the end to read the Supporter in French, Spanish, or Portuguese.
Hospitals need to repair ventilators. Manufacturers are making that impossible
From March 18th by Jason Koebler
Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) on medical equipment has always
been a threat to human health and lives, as well as a violation of our
rights, and now DRM on ventilators may actually cost lives: the
software restrictions imposed by medical device companies are making
our response to the coronavirus pandemic harder.
The FSF is currently exploring ways to help spread knowledge about how
to make badly needed medical devices more available -- keep an eye on
our Web site for updates. In the meantime, learn more about the fight
against DRM at https://www.defectivebydesign.org/.
Software Freedom Conservancy's remote work tools
From March 17th by Deb Nicholson
Conservancy has been a 100% remote organization for over five years and
is now a remote organization by design. We are dedicated to empowering
users through software freedom, and we always use free software tools
to do our work wherever possible. As many folks are newly switching to
remote work or collaboration as part of "social distancing," it seems
like a good time to share the "free as in freedom" tools we use and
tell you how they work for us.
"Freeware," free software and the coronavirus crisis: Choose your tools wisely!
From March 30th by Free Software Foundation Europe
The software industry may appear to be trying to do its part to help
in the coronavirus crisis by giving users access to trial versions of
proprietary programs. But, before you go ahead and take advantage of
this generosity, you may want to read the fine print. What looks like
a great relief today might turn into a burden tomorrow.
You should be wary of offers coming from proprietary software
vendors. Among self-employed workers, home office programs (word
processors, spreadsheets, databases) are in great demand, for
example. But be careful with what you choose: Once the crisis is over,
you may wake up to a stringent vendor lock-in, with unexpected costs
and other problems attached. The same goes for companies asking
employees to work from home. The solutions they choose to overcome the
challenges of remote working can cause problems which will backfire in
the future, once the crisis has passed.
Looking back at LibrePlanet 2020: Freeing the future together
From March 26th
On March 14 and 15, the FSF held
LibrePlanet 2020: "Free the Future" online. The virtual edition of
LibrePlanet was nothing short of a success, and it was quite a journey
to get there.
Within the scope of five days, we were able to move the conference
from an in-person experience to a live streaming event, thanks to the
heroic efforts of our talented tech team, our volunteers, and the
flexibility and cooperation of our scheduled speakers, even some
previously unscheduled ones. We hosted three sessions at a time for
both days of the conference, bringing viewers thirty-five streamed
talks from forty-five speakers, as well as eight lightning
talks. Technical difficulties were few and far between, and when one
of our speakers asked how many nations were tuning in, within the span
of eighteen seconds, twelve countries were identified.
If you didn't get to participate, or want to check out the talks you
missed: video will be released soon at
https://media.libreplanet.org/.
LibrePlanet day 1: Can free software carry an entire online conference? Yes, it can!
From March 14th
Sometimes, all of your best-laid plans can go awry, and when COVID-19
collided with LibrePlanet 2020, the FSF staff and management had to
make an incredibly tough decision: how were we to weigh the risk of a
spreading pandemic against our most important yearly event?
Thankfully, free software activists aren't afraid of a little
adversity, and are accustomed to taking on challenges. In only a few
days, we fully shifted gears to deliver the LibrePlanet 2020 program
remotely, with online talks streaming in from all over the
world. We're so grateful to our speakers, who have been so flexible,
and to the last-minute benefactors that volunteered to help fill any
gaps that might ensue. All this allowed us to present you with a
nearly full program for the event!
LibrePlanet 2020 online: Second day of the conference closes on a high note
From March 15th
The second day of the unstoppable LibrePlanet 2020 conference
showcased more speakers and contributors making great strides in the
movement.
Young hackers to deliver opening keynote for LibrePlanet conference
From March 4th
The opening keynote for the LibrePlanet 2020 conference was a panel of
impressive young free software community members. The panelists were
Alyssa Rosenzweig, a free software hacker working at Collabora, Taowa,
a sysadmin, free software enthusiast, and the youngest (non-uploading)
Debian developer, and Erin Moon, whose free software work has focused
on federated social media software as a user, contributor, and
maintainer; the panel was hosted by Greg Farough, the FSF's campaigns
manager.
Let's Encrypt, Jim Meyering, and Clarissa Lima Borges receive FSF's 2019 Free Software Awards
From March 14th
This year's Free Software Award recipients are Let's Encrypt, Jim
Meyering, and Clarissa Lima Borges. As the ceremony was conducted
virtually this year, each winner selected the person to present them
the award.
Celebrating women in free software for International Women’s Day
From March 6th
International Women's Day was celebrated on Sunday, March 8 this year,
and in this blog, we honored some of the very impressive women slated
to participate in LibrePlanet 2020, including keynote speakers Shannon
Dosemagen and Alyssa Rosenzweig, as well as former keynote Micky Metts
and journalist Lucy Ingham.
Everything you need to know about LibrePlanet 2020, now fully online!
From March 12th
It was a bumpy road, but in just three days, FSF staff retooled the
LibrePlanet 2020 into our first-ever online-only conference, via a
fully-free streaming setup. In this post, we detailed some of the
changes and gave instructions on how to participate.
Zoom iOS application sends data to Facebook even if you don’t have a Facebook account
From March 26th by Joseph Cox
Zoom videoconferencing has become a very popular way for workplaces to
manage meetings in the era of COVID-19, as well as a way for people to
stay connected with loved ones. However, as with all proprietary
social software, this comes with major privacy tradeoffs: in this
case, the iOS version of the Zoom app is sending some analytics data
to Facebook, even if Zoom users don't have a Facebook account,
according to a Motherboard analysis of the app.
You deserve better from the software that you use to maintain your
work, your relationships, and your sanity during quarantine, and the
FSF will be releasing a guide to the best options currently available
shortly.
The EARN IT Bill is the US government’s plan to scan every message online
From March 12th by Joe Mullin
Imagine an Internet where the law required every message sent to be
read by government-approved scanning software. Companies that handle
such messages wouldn’t be allowed to securely encrypt them, or they’d
lose legal protections that allow them to operate.
That’s what the US Senate Judiciary Committee has proposed and hopes
to pass into law. The so-called EARN IT bill, sponsored by Senators
Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), will strip
Section 230 protections away from any Web site that doesn’t follow a
list of “best practices,” meaning those sites can be sued into
bankruptcy. The “best practices” list will be created by a government
commission, headed by Attorney General William Barr, who has made it
very
clear
he would like to ban encryption, and guarantee law enforcement “legal
access” to any digital message.
The FSF opposes bulk government surveillance of online communications
because of its chilling effects on whistleblowing and other kinds of
communications necessary for the free software movement. Read more at
https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/surveillance.
GNOME 3.36 released
From March 11 by the GNOME Project
We are pleased to announce the official release of GNOME 3.36:
“Gresik.” Version 3.36 contains six months of work by the GNOME
community and includes many improvements, performance enhancements,
and new features.
Emacs 27.0.90 is out!
From March 3rd by Nicolas Petton
The first pretest for Emacs version 27 has been released! Enter an
enchanted world of parenthetical wonderment -- and please report any
bugs to the maintainers!
GCC 9.3 released
From March 12th by the GCC developers
The GNU Project and the GCC developers are pleased to announce the
release of GCC 9.3. This release is a bug-fix release, containing
fixes for regressions in GCC 9.2 relative to previous releases of GCC.
Modern GNU/Linux systems should run old games
From March 26th by Shivam Gulati
In his talk at LibrePlanet 2020, developer Dennis Payne tried to look
back and pointed out that modern GNU/Linux no longer runs “older” free
software games. There are workarounds to play older games on the
modern GNU/Linux system, like installing the older version of the
library. However, this process usually consumes a lot of time, and
sometimes, it doesn’t even work.
March GNU Emacs news
From March 30th by Sacha Chua
In these issues: modern Emacs lisp libraries, exploring Org mode,
Starter Kits other than Spacemacs and Doom, and more!
Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
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 version
control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing. The Free Software
Directory has been a great resource to software users over the past
decade, but it needs your help staying up-to-date with new and
exciting free software projects.
To help, join our weekly IRC meetings on Fridays. Meetings take place
in the #fsf channel on irc.freenode.org, and usually include a handful
of regulars as well as newcomers. Freenode is accessible from any IRC
client -- Everyone's welcome!
The next meeting is Friday, April 3, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to
19:00 UTC). Details here:
LibrePlanet featured resource: HACKERS and HOSPITALS
Every month on the LibrePlanet
wiki, we highlight one
resource that is interesting and useful -- often one that could use
your help.
For this month, we are highlighting HACKERS and HOSPITALS, which
provides information about connecting healthcare professionals,
hackers, makers, engineers, biomedical innovators, and crafters to
help manufacture items needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. You are
invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource.
Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us
know at [email protected].
GNU Spotlight with Mike Gerwitz: 15 new GNU releases!
15 new GNU releases in the last month (as of March 26, 2020):
For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu.
To download: nearly all GNU software is available from
https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors from
https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html. You can use the URL
https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.
A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a
whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see
https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to
help. The general page on how to help GNU is at
https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html.
If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like to
offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see
https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.
As always, please feel free to write to us at [email protected]
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.
FSF and other free software events
Thank GNUs!
We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation,
and we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have
donated $500 or more in the last month.
This month, a big Thank GNU to:
- Alan Stein
- Ben Abrams
- Ed Price
- Nathan Boy
- Sven Wallage
You can add your name to this list by donating at
https://donate.fsf.org/.
GNU copyright contributions
Assigning your copyright to the Free Software Foundation helps us
defend the GNU GPL and keep software free. The following individuals
have assigned their copyright to the FSF (and allowed public
appreciation) in the past month:
- Alexander Eulenberg (Gnulib)
- Condition-ALPHA Digital Broadcast Technology Consulting (Emacs)
- Jaehwang Jung (Emacs)
- Michael de Lang (GCC)
- SunegKi Kim (Emacs)
Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your
copyright to the FSF.
Translations of the Free Software Supporter
El Free Software Supporter está disponible en español. Para ver la
versión en español haz click aqui:
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Para cambiar las preferencias de usuario y recibir los próximos
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Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la
version française cliquez ici:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2020/avril
Pour modifier vos préférences et recevoir les prochaines
publications du Supporter en français, cliquez ici:
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O Free Software Supporter está disponível em português. Para ver a
versão em português, clique aqui:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2020/abril-p
Para alterar as preferências do usuário e receber as próximas
edições do Supporter em português, clique aqui:
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Take action with the FSF!
Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF's
work. You can contribute by joining at https://my.fsf.org/join. If
you're already a member, you can help refer new members (and earn some
rewards) by adding a line with your member number to your email
signature like:
I'm an FSF member -- Help us support software freedom!
https://my.fsf.org/join
The FSF is always looking for volunteers
(https://www.fsf.org/volunteer). From rabble-rousing to hacking,
from issue coordination to envelope stuffing -- there's something here
for everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaigns section
(https://www.fsf.org/campaigns) and take action on software patents,
Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), free software adoption,
OpenDocument, and more.
#
Copyright © 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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