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Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/april
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: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/april
Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by
adding our subscriber widget to your website.
Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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:
LibrePlanet featured resource: Lightning talks at the 2024 LibrePlanet conference
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 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.
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):
For a full list with descriptions, please see: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/march-gnu-spotlight-with-amin-bandali-sixteen-new-gnu-releases
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 most reliably from
https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/. Optionally, you may find faster download
speeds at a mirror located geographically closer to you by choosing
from the list of mirrors published at
https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html, or you may use
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 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
- April 16-18, 2024, Seattle, WA, OSSNA
- April 26-28, 2024, Bellingham Technical College, Bellingham, WA, LFNW
- May 4-5, 2024, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, MA, LibrePlanet 2024
- June 7-9, 2024, Sheraton Charlotte Airport, Charlotte, NC, SELF
- July 12-14, 2024, St. John's University, Queens, New York City, HOPE XV
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:
- 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
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 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.
Translations of the Free Software Supporter
El Free Software Supporter está disponible en español. Para ver la
versión en español haz click aquí:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/abril
Para cambiar las preferencias de usuario y recibir los próximos
números del Supporter en español, haz click aquí:
https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=34&id=3095323&cs=461adc06a7777c45071570e50f219040_1712101201_168
Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la
version française cliquez ici:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/avril
Pour modifier vos préférences et recevoir les prochaines
publications du Supporter en français, cliquez ici:
https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=34&id=3095323&cs=461adc06a7777c45071570e50f219040_1712101201_168
Free Software Supporter está disponível em português. Para ver a
versão em português, clique aqui: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2024/abril-pt
Para alterar as preferências do usuário e receber as próximas
edições do Supporter em português, clique aqui:
https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=34&id=3095323&cs=461adc06a7777c45071570e50f219040_1712101201_168
Take action with the FSF!
Contributions from thousands of individual associate 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. 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 and take action on software
patents, Digital Restrictions
Management, free
software adoption,
OpenDocument,
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
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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