*Please consider adding <[email protected]> to your address book, which
will ensure that our messages reach you and not your spam box.*

*Read and share online: <[link removed]>*

Welcome to the *Free Software Supporter*, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update -- being read
by you and 231,427 other activists.

## TABLE OF CONTENTS

* Alyssa Rosenzweig, who spearheaded the reverse-engineering of Apple's GPU, to keynote LibrePlanet
* Welcome attendees, get to know speakers first hand, and make LibrePlanet a unique experience
* The shop is open! Get your LibrePlanet 2024 T-shirt and our newest swag!
* Dynebolic 4.0.0 beta released
* Let’s advocate together for free software in the European elections
* Tell Congress: We can't afford software patents
* Recent French translations of GNU articles
* Tell Congress: The answer to corporations which violate our right to privacy is free software
* *Right to Repair Act* passed Oregon legislature
* Test launch of reward program for free software developers
* March GNU Emacs news
* Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
* LibrePlanet featured resource: Lightning talks at the 2024 LibrePlanet conference
* March GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Sixteen 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: <[link removed]>

Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by
adding our subscriber widget to your website.

* Subscribe: <[link removed]>
* Widget: <[link removed]>

Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at
<[link removed]>.

Want to read this newsletter translated into another language? Scroll
to the end to read the *Supporter* in French, Spanish, or Portuguese.

### Alyssa Rosenzweig, who spearheaded the reverse-engineering of Apple's GPU, to keynote LibrePlanet

*From March 27*

Companies like Apple make software freedom hard to achieve. One major
obstacle is their graphics hardware, which often ships without public
specifications, free drivers, or native support for free operating systems
such as GNU/Linux. Apple's drivers are even worse, as they are not
conformant to any industry standard. Luckily, there are free software
projects like Panfrost, which brave these companies and build a graphics
stack, that respects the users' freedom. Alyssa Rosenzweig, who
spearheaded the reverse-engineering of the M1 Apple GPU, will keynote
LibrePlanet 2024 and explain how the conformant OpenGL® 4.6 support
beats Apple and thereby protects software freedom.

* <[link removed]>
* <[link removed]>
* **Register to the in-person event:** <[link removed]>
* **Register to the online event:** <[link removed]>

### Welcome attendees, get to know speakers first hand, and make LibrePlanet a unique experience

*From March 7*

We need your help to make the world's premier gathering of free software
enthusiasts a success. Would you like to volunteer at LibrePlanet 2024
and play an important part in making the conference a unique experience?
Write to <[email protected]>. We'll provide you with a very handsome
LibrePlanet 2024 shirt in your size in addition to free admission to the
entire conference and lunch -- and the community's eternal gratitude.

* <[link removed]>

### The shop is open! Get your LibrePlanet 2024 T-shirt and our newest swag!

*From March 5*

The GNU Press shop is open! You can order items like the popular baby
gnu, the "Emacs deLuxe" bundle, and our latest DRM-free living T-shirt
again. In addition, you can now order: the LibrePlanet 2024: Cultivating
Community T-shirt, a "Fight for your user rights" drawstring bag, and
wooden GNU head stickers.

* <[link removed]>
* <[link removed]>

### Dynebolic 4.0.0 beta released

*From March 20 by Set Hallström aka Setto Sakrecoer*

The Dyne.org foundation announced the release of Dynebolic 4.0.0 BETA.
Dynebolic is a 100% free GNU/Linux distribution for multimedia production
endorsed by the FSF. Famous for its interoperability and innovative
nomadic build, Dynebolic has been a gateway to software freedom for
creatives from all over the world. The Dyne.org foundation is looking for
developers, testers and creatives of all azimuths for the push towards the
4.0.0 release.

* <[link removed]>
* <[link removed]>

### Let’s advocate together for free software in the European elections

*From March 21 by Free Software Foundation Europe*

Together, let's ensure software freedom is part of the political debate
around the European elections, which will take place from June 6 to 9,
2024. In this article, you will find practical tips on how you can get
active and advocate for free software in the coming months.

* <[link removed]>

### Tell Congress: We can't afford software patents

*From March 20 by Joe Mullin*

The US Congress is debating two bills that would revive formerly banned
patents and feed patent trolls: the *Patent Eligibility Restoration Act
(PERA)*, S. 2140 and the *PREVAIL Act*, S. 2220. Joe Mullin published a
call to tell Congress that "we can't afford more bad patents." While we
agree that we need to stop these bills, we disagree with the reason. It's
not about bad patents, we can't afford *any* software patents. Tell
Congress: abolish software patents instead of pushing bills that will
benefit patent trolls!

* <[link removed]>
* <[link removed]>

### Recent French translations of GNU articles

*From March 16 by April*

Every month, members of April's trad-gnu mailing list gather to
translate the new issue of the *Free Software Supporter* to French (see
the Translations section below), but this team was originally created (in
1996!) to translate philosophy articles on gnu.org, and keep the French
translations up to date. Check out the new ones: *Morale et légalité* and
*Les Blu-ray UHD piétinent votre liberté.*

#### The moral and the legal

This article by Richard Stallman points out how every legal issue about
libre software is at root a moral issue and explains why the moral level
is what matters most.

* English version: <[link removed]>
* French translation: <[link removed]>

#### UHD Blu-ray Denies Your Freedom

This article explains the restrictions which the UHD (Ultra High Definition,
also known as 4K) Blu-ray standard involves and which make "legitimate"
playback of UHD Blu-ray media impossible on a PC with libre software.

* English version: <[link removed]>
* French translation: <[link removed]>

### Tell Congress: The answer to corporations which violate our right to privacy is free software

*From March 13 by Jason Kelley*

The US Congress is launching a bill called *Protecting Americans from
Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act* to give the president the
power to ban TikTok in the US. Tell Congress: the answer to corporations
which violate our right to privacy is free software, not banning corporations
under the influence of foreign governments. You can use the sample message
of the Electronic Frontier Foundation for inspiration but we recommend
emphasizing the need for free software, which is necessary to protecting users
from any government spying on them. Contact details of your representative are
available on the websites of the House and the Senate. To learn more about
how free software protects your privacy check out the surveillance campaign
section at fsf.org.

* <[link removed]>
* <[link removed]>
* <[link removed]>
* <[link removed]>

### *Right to Repair Act* passed Oregon legislature

*From March 6 by Alma McCarty*

Good news: in the first week of March, a right to repair bill, which had
been in the making for several years, passed the legislature in Oregon.
As we can only repair technology relying on software if the user is free to
do so, the right to repair and software freedom go hand in hand. You can
learn more about the FSF's work on right to repair and free software in the
fight to repair campaign section at fsf.org and on the LibrePlanet wiki.

* <[link removed]>
* <[link removed]>
* <[link removed]>

### Test launch of reward program for free software developers

*From March 4 by Tim Anderson*

On February 21, the TEA project launched a test of its decentralized
protocol, which was developed to help fund the work of free software
developers via a blockchain-based algorithm. The test launch was clouded
by a repository spam attack, which the project now aims to fix by adding
verification steps. While we disagree with the terminology used in this
article, because "open source" misses the point of software freedom,
the report of the test launch may be of interest to you.

* <[link removed]>
* <[link removed]>

### March GNU Emacs news

*From March 25 by Sacha Chua*

In these issues: demonstration of vulnerability, Emacs 29.3 release, learn Emacs Lisp in thirty minutes, consistent technical documents using Emacs and Org Mode and more!

* [2024-03-25]([link removed])
* [2024-03-18]([link removed])
* [2024-03-11]([link removed])
* [2024-03-04]([link removed])

### 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 Libera.Chat, and usually include a handful of
regulars as well as newcomers. Libera.Chat is accessible from any IRC
client -- Everyone's welcome!

The next meeting is Friday, April 5 from 12:00 to 15:00 EDT (16:00
to 19:00 UTC). Details here:

* <[link removed]>

### LibrePlanet featured resource: Lightning talks at the 2024 LibrePlanet conference

Every month on [the LibrePlanet
wiki]([link removed]), we highlight one
resource that is interesting and useful -- often one that could use
your help.

For this month, we are highlighting lightning talks at the 2024
LibrePlanet conference. Lightning talks are five-minute presentations
given by conference attendees on free software topics they're
passionate about. You are invited to add a talk and/or watch the talks
listed on this page on May 5, 2024.

* <[link removed]>

Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us
know at <[email protected]>.

### March GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Sixteen new GNU releases!

Sixteen new GNU releases in the last month (as of March 29, 2024):

* [a2ps-4.15.6]([link removed])
* [coreutils-9.5]([link removed])
* [emacs-29.3]([link removed])
* [gama-2.30]([link removed])
* [gdb-14.2]([link removed])
* [global-6.6.12]([link removed])
* [gnunet-0.21.1]([link removed])
* [gnutls-3.8.4]([link removed])
* [hyperbole-9.0.1]([link removed])
* [jami-20240325.0]([link removed])
* [linux-libre-6.8-gnu]([link removed])
* [mygnuhealth-2.0.2]([link removed])
* [octave-9.1.0]([link removed])
* [pspp-2.0.1]([link removed])
* [taler-0.9.4]([link removed])
* [wget-1.24.5]([link removed])

*For a full list with descriptions, please see: <[link removed]>*

For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: <[link removed]>.

To download: nearly all GNU software is available most reliably from
<[link removed]>. Optionally, you may find faster download
speeds at a mirror located geographically closer to you by choosing
from the list of mirrors published at
<[link removed]>, or you may use
<[link removed]> 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
<[link removed]> if you'd like to
help. The general page on how to help GNU is at
<[link removed]>.

If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like
to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see
<[link removed]>.

As always, please feel free to write to me, <[email protected]>,
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

### FSF and other free software events

* April 12-13, 2024, Austin, TX, [TXLF]([link removed])
* April 16-18, 2024, Seattle, WA, [OSSNA]([link removed])
* April 26-28, 2024, Bellingham Technical College, Bellingham, WA, [LFNW]([link removed])
* May 4-5, 2024, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, MA, [LibrePlanet 2024]([link removed])
* June 7-9, 2024, Sheraton Charlotte Airport, Charlotte, NC, [SELF]([link removed])
* July 12-14, 2024, St. John's University, Queens, New York City, [HOPE XV]([link removed])

### 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.

* <[link removed]>

This month, a big Thank GNU to:

* Ada Avery
* Adam Oberbeck
* Andy Kopra
* Arthur Barlow and Judith Jonas
* František Kučera
* Fredrick Brennan
* Joseph Pingenot
* Kevin Runner
* Raffael Stocker
* R Scott Belford
* Stéphane Bortzmeyer
* Stephen Monslow
* Tomas Stary
* Uko Kokņevičs
* Water Chika

You can add your name to this list by donating at
<[link removed]>.

### 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 Kozhevnikov (GNU Emacs)
* Ankit Raj Pandey (GNU Emacs)
* Artem Iurchenko (GNU Auctex, GNU Emacs)
* Felix Lechner (GNU Emacs)
* Giacomo Lorenzetti (GNU Astro)
* Loïc Lemaître (GNU Emacs)
* Toshihiro Umehara (GNU Emacs)
* Zebbediah Beck (GNU Bash)

Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your
copyright to the FSF.

* <[link removed]>

### Translations of the *Free Software Supporter*

El *Free Software Supporter* está disponible en español. Para ver la
versión en español haz click aquí:
<[link removed]>

**Para cambiar las preferencias de usuario y recibir los próximos
números del *Supporter* en español, haz click aquí:**
<[link removed]>

Le *Free Software Supporter* est disponible en français. Pour voir la
version française cliquez ici:
<[link removed]>

**Pour modifier vos préférences et recevoir les prochaines
publications du *Supporter* en français, cliquez ici:**
<[link removed]>

*Free Software Supporter* está disponível em português. Para ver a
versão em português, clique aqui: <[link removed]>

**Para alterar as preferências do usuário e receber as próximas
edições do *Supporter* em português, clique aqui:**
<[link removed]>

### Take action with the FSF!

Contributions from thousands of individual associate members enable
the FSF's work. You can contribute by joining at
<[link removed]>. 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!
> <[link removed]>

The FSF is always looking for
[volunteers]([link removed]). 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]([link removed]) and [take action on software
patents]([link removed]), [Digital Restrictions
Management]([link removed]), [free
software]([link removed]) adoption,
[OpenDocument]([link removed]),
and more.

**Do you read and write Portuguese and English?** The FSF is looking
for translators for the *Free Software Supporter*. Please send an
email to <[email protected]> with your interest and a list of your
experience and qualifications.

***

Copyright © 2024 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
<[link removed]>.

--
Interested in helping us expand our reach?

* Follow us on Mastodon at <[link removed]> and PeerTube at <[link removed]>, showing your support for federated social networks.
* Get active on the LibrePlanet wiki: <[link removed]>
* Share on your blog or [social network]([link removed]) that you support us, and why you do so.
* Subscribe to our RSS feeds: <[link removed]>
* Join us as an associate member: <[link removed]>; and display your membership button (<[link removed]>) on your website.

Read our Privacy Policy: <[link removed]>

Sent from the Free Software Foundation,

51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor
Boston, Massachusetts 02110-1335
United States


You can unsubscribe from this mailing list by visiting

[link removed].

To stop all email from the Free Software Foundation, including Defective by Design,
and the Free Software Supporter newsletter, visit

[link removed].