Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update -- being read
by you and 231,852 other activists.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
April FSF40 challenge: RSVP to a LibreLocal meetup
GNU Project changes mascot to baby gnu
FSF defends user freedom in amicus brief submitted in Neo4j v. Suhy
"Free" filing should be free as in freedom
Meet Abelujo, a free software solution for managing bookstores
GNU Head and other free software memorabilia auctioned off to free software community members
Amazon tightens the digital handcuffs
Policy and EU: Router freedom in the EU
GIMP 3.0 released
Starting last week, everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon
Zoë Kooyman on post-Stallman changes at the Free Software Foundation
March GNU Emacs news
Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
LibrePlanet featured resource: Activism_Guide
March GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali: Eighteen new GNU releases!
Want to read this newsletter translated into another language? Scroll
to the end to read the Supporter in French or Spanish.
April FSF40 challenge: RSVP to a LibreLocal meetup
Almost every month during our fortieth anniversary year, we're
inviting free software supporters everywhere to join us in celebrating
FSF40. For this month's challenge, we're asking you to RSVP to a
LibreLocal meetup near you. If there isn't one happening near
you, grab a friend and host one! It can be as simple as meeting
other free software supporters at a coffee shop for an hour or two. If
you can't take part in this #FSF40Challenge, fear not -- we've got
eight more coming.
If you feel comfortable disclosing which meetup you're attending, tag
#FSF40 on social media and let us know!
Have an idea for a challenge? Send us a message at
[email protected]!
Instead of hosting a single LibrePlanet conference, we're making 2025
a libre year! Check back often for more details about what we're doing
to honor forty years of fighting for user freedom.
GNU Project changes mascot to baby gnu
From April 1
After decades of using the Bold GNU Head as its emblem, the GNU
Project has announced plans to change their mascot to the baby gnu.
Read about what the GNU Project hopes will follow with this shift in
appearances.
FSF defends user freedom in amicus brief submitted in Neo4j v. Suhy
From March 3
In early March, the FSF announced that it submitted an amicus brief in
the case entitled Neo4j, Inc., et al. v. Suhy, et al., Case No.
24-5538 in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The amicus brief addresses various misstatements and baseless
assertions regarding the FSF and the GNU Affero General Public License
Version 3 (AGPLv3) -- the license at issue in the case -- found in a
pleading filed by Neo4j. You can read about the amicus brief
highlights in the corresponding news article.
Unfortunately for US taxpayers, there has never been a way to
electronically file taxes in freedom. In 2023, we called on the IRS
during Direct File's development phase to build a freedom-respecting
website for filing tax returns. When the pilot website Direct File was
released in 2024, it became apparent that it continued the precedent
of requiring taxpayers to hand over their freedoms if they wanted to
file electronically. While it is a step in the right direction for
many in that Direct File only gives taxpayer information to the IRS
instead of the IRS and a nonfree third-party company, there are many
reasons that taxpayers should be able to electronically file their
taxes in freedom. You can use some of the reasons listed in the
article below (maybe even all of them!) to craft your letter to the
IRS to demand that the version of Direct File available in all fifty
states respects user freedom.
Meet Abelujo, a free software solution for managing bookstores
From March 25
FSF copyright & licensing associate Craig Topham interviewed the
founder of Abelujo, the only free software program for bookstores as
of March 2025. It is a web-based application that helps booksellers
register new stock and sell books that has been used since 2020 by
professional bookstores and associations in Europe, South America, and
maybe elsewhere! Whether you have experience in bookselling or are
simply a fan of books, we think you'll enjoy learning more about this
useful program and its backstory.
GNU Head, among other free software memorabilia, auctioned off to free software community members
From March 24
In a two-part auction held in honor of its fortieth anniversary, the
FSF auctioned off a variety of free software historical memorabilia,
including three especially recognizable artifacts: the Internet Hall
of Fame medal awarded to the FSF's founder, Richard M. Stallman, in
2013; Stallman's legendary katana; and the original GNU Head drawing
by Etienne Suvasa (1992). You can get caught up on the proceedings of
the live and silent auctions from mid-March below.
At the end of February, Amazon announced that it would strip older
Kindles of the ability to transfer e-books to their devices via USB.
As the oldest models of the devices don't have wireless cards, this
was the only officially supported method of transferring new books
over to these devices. This change has effectively rendered these
older devices nearly useless. If you or someone you know uses a
Kindle (older or newer) and aren't familiar with all the ways that
Amazon controls Kindle users and their devices, you can learn more in
our recent blog post.
Earlier this year, Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) achieved a
major win in Germany for router freedom, the right to use any device
to connect to the internet. In their most recent Software Freedom
Podcast episode, Bonnie Mehring, Alexander Sander, and Lucas Lasota
talk about router freedom and the FSFE's work to protect freedom of
choice regarding internet devices.
After seven years of development, GIMP 3.0 (the well-known
cross-platform image editor) was released at the beginning of March
under a GPLv3 or later license. This very exciting release for graphic
designers, illustrators, scientists, and others has a lot of great new
features, including: layer filters, color management updates, and
more! These changes and others are explained in detail in this review,
as well as a small update about GIMP's possible future name change.
New and experienced GIMP users are encouraged to check out the newest
version of GIMP and share their experiences.
Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28
From March 14 by Scharon Harding
The Amazon Echo comes with many hidden costs and increasingly fewer
choices for users. At the end of March, users no longer have the
choice not to send voice recordings of commands spoken to their Echo
speakers directly to Amazon's cloud. In other words, the private words
of Echo users are playable again and again by Amazon employees. The
only way for users to avoid Amazon storing private voice requests --
stop using their otherwise-functional Echo. If you or someone you know
has an Echo in your home, you will want to consider exactly what you
say in listening distance of your Echo, and switch to a more
freedom-respecting device.
Zoë Kooyman on post-Stallman changes at the Free Software Foundation
From March 11 by Bruce Byfield
In the first part of an interview between FOSS Force and FSF executive
director Zoë Kooyman, Kooyman covered changes at the FSF since Richard
Stallman stepped down as president in 2019, the difference between the
terms "free software" and "open source," and what issues machine
learning can bring up for freedom-loving tech users. In the second
part of the interview, Kooyman discussed innovations that the FSF has
made to remain resilient and grounded in its mission to promote
computer user freedom.
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!
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 Activism_Guide, which provides
information about how to advocate for free software and free
standards. It doesn't focus on the what but rather on the how. You are
invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource.
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.
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.
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:
Collin Funk (GNU Cppi)
Yue Yi (GNU Emacs)
Wojciech Siewierski (GNU Emacs)
Rongzhao Yan (GNU Emacs)
Paolo De Santis (GNU Wget)
Maximilian Küffner (GNU Emacs)
David Pernía (GNU Emacs)
Spyridon Roumeliotis (GNU Emacs)
Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your
copyright to the FSF.
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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
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