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Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2021/april

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 224,567 other activists. That's 789 more than last month!

Ongoing work to improve governance at the FSF

From March 29th

Since the announcement that FSF founder Richard Matthew Stallman (RMS) was returning to the FSF board of directors, the board has been working hard on efforts to make the FSF more transparent and responsive to the needs of the free software community. The changes in the operations and leadership of the FSF are still ongoing as of this writing, and new announcements will continue to be released over the coming weeks; please watch https://www.fsf.org/news and FSF social media accounts for continued updates. Changes to the FSF's bylaws and structure need to be done with great care, but the board is moving with urgency. We do read all of the feedback sent to us at [email protected].

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Free Software Awards winners announced: CiviCRM, Bradley Kuhn, and Alyssa Rosenzweig
  • LibrePlanet 2021 day one: Taking action to empower users
  • LibrePlanet day two: Empowering users in real and virtual space
  • GNOME 40 release
  • MediaGoblin 0.11.0: Punky Magmalian
  • FSFE launches the Router Freedom Activity Package
  • Refund of pre-installed Windows: Lenovo must pay 20,000 euros in damages
  • Introducing Ingestum
  • GNU Mes 0.23 released
  • March GNU Emacs news
  • Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
  • LibrePlanet featured resource: Hardware/Reverse Engineering
  • GNU Spotlight with Mike Gerwitz: 14 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/2021/april

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


Free Software Awards winners announced: CiviCRM, Bradley Kuhn, and Alyssa Rosenzweig

From March 20th

At the end of day one of the LibrePlanet conference, the FSF announced the recipients of the 2020 Free Software Awards, which are given annually to groups and individuals in the free software community who have made significant contributions to the cause for software freedom. This year's recipients of the awards are CiviCRM, Bradley Kuhn, and Alyssa Rosenzweig. As the ceremony was conducted virtually this year, each winner selected the person they wished to present them the award.

LibrePlanet 2021 day one: Taking action to empower users

From March 20th

Part of the purpose, and the joy, of a yearly conference is the opportunity to create and reinforce personal connections across the free software community. Lasting friendships and professional relationships are born in conference hallways, and these relationships are part of what has caused the free software movement to grow and thrive over the last four decades. This is why, prior to 2020, we always emphasized in-person attendance, and why it was crucial to add social elements to the 2021 conference.

That’s why the 2021 conference included a new space called LibreAdventure. Made using a fork of the most recent free version of the WorkAdventure program, LibreAdventure provided virtual physical session rooms and “hallway space,” as well as an exhibitor hall, which popped up video chat when your adorable avatar bumps into another avatar onscreen. Roaming the verdant little islands floating in space, you might bump into the last person whose talk inspired you, or make a new friend.

LibrePlanet day two: Empowering users in real and virtual space

From March 21st

LibrePlanet 2021 got over 1,250 registrations, welcomed at least 450 attendees at once at the highest point, and saw up to 350 different explorers in LibreAdventure alone. We also have some impressive Minetest artworks to commemorate the experience. We owe tremendous thanks to all of our attendees, our speakers, and our generous sponsors and exhibitors.

Videos from LibrePlanet will be posted on our GNU MediaGoblin and PeerTube pages at some point in the next few weeks.

GNOME 40 release

From March 24th by the GNOME Project

We are proud to announce the release of GNOME 40. This release is the first to follow our new versioning scheme. It brings a new design for the Activities overview and improved support for input with Compose sequences and keyboard shortcuts, among many other things. Improvements to core GNOME applications include a redesigned Weather application, information popups in Maps, better tabs in Web, and many more.

MediaGoblin 0.11.0: Punky Magmalian

From March 10th by Ben Sturmfels

This release of MediaGoblin removes support for Python 2 and marks the end of five years of concurrent support for both Python 2 and Python 3. That’s a major achievement, so congratulations to everyone who contributed.

FSFE launches the Router Freedom Activity Package

From March 30th by Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)

In the context of reform of telecommunication laws, European Union member states are currently implementing legislation with direct impact on router freedom. The FSFE has launched an activity package for organizations and individuals to raise awareness and empower them to advocate for users' device sovereignty in their countries.

Refund of pre-installed Windows: Lenovo must pay 20,000 euros in damages

From March 3rd by FSFE

In a historic judgment in Italy, in a case initiated by FSFE supporter Luca Bonissi, Lenovo was ordered to pay 20,000 euros in damages for abusive behavior in denying a refund of the price of a pre-installed Windows license.

Introducing Ingestum

From March 21st by Sorcero

At the LibrePlanet conference on Sunday, Sorcero announced their unified text ingestion framework that supports sourcing and transformation of a wide variety of data and document types into a uniform document format. Written in Python and built around reusable, programmable pipelines, Ingestum is largely agnostic of both source and output formats and is designed to be extended through the use of plugins; it can be deployed as a command line tool or as a Web service. Ingestion of content from a variety formats is a challenge the Ingestum framework meets: it is methodical, reusable, extensible, and scalable.

GNU Mes 0.23 released

From March 14th by Jan Nieuwenhuizen

We are happy to announce the release of GNU Mes 0.23, representing 125 commits over one year by four people. Mes was ported to ARM, and can now be used in the GNU Guix Reduced Binary Seed bootstrap as described here: https://guix.gnu.org/blog/2020/guix-further-reduces-bootstrap-seed-to-25/.

March GNU Emacs news

From March 29th by Sacha Chua

In these issues: Emacs init performance analysis; the ins and outs of setf; how to create your own color theme; evil motion training; a short write up on 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 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 9, from 12pm to 3pm EST (16:00 to 19:00 UTC). Details here:

LibrePlanet featured resource: Hardware/Reverse Engineering

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 Hardware/Reverse Engineering, which provides information about hardware that must be reverse-engineered in order to be liberated. 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: 14 new GNU releases!

14 new GNU releases in the last month (as of March 25, 2021):

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.

FSF and other free software events

  • July 21-25, 2021, online, GUADEC

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:

  • Adam Oberbeck
  • Alan Stein
  • Amir Taaki
  • Andy Kopra
  • Daniel de Vries
  • David Lecompte
  • Dmitrii Kashin
  • Edgar Dragon
  • James Wilson
  • Jan Huwald
  • Johannes Truschnigg
  • Michael Taht
  • Ole Tange
  • Theodore Bugnet
  • Yuchen Pei

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:

  • Anand Tamariya (Emacs)
  • Andrew Whatson (Guile)
  • Brian Cully (Emacs)
  • Carlos Morales Socorro (Gnuastro)
  • Miha Rihtarsic (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: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2021/abril-s

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=241f20cf01d07787dbc4a286c278f588_1617673086_168

Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la version française cliquez ici: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2021/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=241f20cf01d07787dbc4a286c278f588_1617673086_168

O Free Software Supporter está disponível em português. Para ver a versão em português, clique aqui: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2021/abril-p

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=241f20cf01d07787dbc4a286c278f588_1617673086_168

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.

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Copyright © 2021 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/.