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Read and share online:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2021/june
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update -- being read
by you and 225,562 other activists. That's 467 more than last month!
Apply to be the FSF's next executive director
From May 25th
The FSF seeks a principled, compassionate, and capable leader to be
its new executive director. This position can be remote or based in
our Boston office.
The FSF is committed to the notion that users are entitled to control
their computing, individually and collectively, and therefore to
control the software that does that computing. The executive director
will work closely with the president, board of directors, and all
Foundation staff to achieve this goal. Please read the full job
listing for qualifications and instructions for applying for this
position.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Watch and share talks from LibrePlanet 2021: Empowering Users
- Community meeting on the future of our IRC presence
- Concluding my FSF internship, and the BTCPay extension
- Libreboot 20210522 released!
- Amazon’s Ring is the largest civilian surveillance network the US has ever seen
- Welcome to Inkscape 1.1!
- GNU Radio Conference 2021 in-person announcement
- Dutch digital autonomy must be based on free software
- GUADEC 2021 call for participation: BoFs, workshops, and lightning talks
- GCC 8.5 released
- May GNU Emacs news
- Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
- LibrePlanet featured resource: Free JavaScript Action Team
- GNU Spotlight with Mike Gerwitz: Eleven 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/june
Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by
adding our subscriber widget to your Web site.
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.
Watch and share talks from LibrePlanet 2021: Empowering Users
From May 5th
We're sorry for the delay in publishing the videos from LibrePlanet
2021 -- we faced some unexpected challenges immediately after the
event. But they're here now! We're incredibly proud of the two-day,
all-online conference, which was a showcase for the efforts of the
free software community, with talks ranging from technical how-tos to
personal reflections on activism. We’re proud to be able to share
those accomplishments and insights with you through the videos of the
LibrePlanet 2021 conference talks released last month on our GNU
MediaGoblin and
PeerTube pages.
Community meeting on the future of our IRC presence
From May 25th
In response to current events concerning the Freenode Internet Relay
Chat (IRC) network, the FSF held a community meeting on the future of
both the FSF and GNU's official IRC channels. The FSF is taking
community input into account, and will report on next steps soon.
Concluding my FSF internship, and the BTCPay extension
From May 7th by Kofi Oghenerukevwe (Rukky)
My internship with the Free Software Foundation has come to an end,
and it’s been an amazing experience. I was able to build, test, and
publish a CiviCRM extension that will help the FSF receive Bitcoin and
Litecoin payments on their platform by integrating with a self-hosted
BTCPay Server. I am very grateful to the FSF tech team -- Ian, Andrew,
Ruben, and Michael -- for supporting me and encouraging me to go as
far as I did with the extension.
Libreboot 20210522 released!
From May 22nd by Leah Rowe
Libreboot is free (as in freedom) boot firmware, which initializes the
hardware (e.g. memory controller, CPU, peripherals) in your computer
so that software can run. Libreboot then starts a bootloader to load
your operating system. It replaces the proprietary BIOS/UEFI firmware
typically found on a computer. Libreboot is compatible with specifical
computer models that use the Intel/AMD x86 architecture. Libreboot
works well with GNU+Linux and BSD operating systems.
The last Libreboot release, version 20160907, was released on
September 7th in 2016. This new release, Libreboot 20210522, is being
released today on May 22nd, 2021. This is a testing release, so expect
there to be some bugs. Every effort has been made to ensure
reliability on all boards, however.
Amazon’s Ring is the largest civilian surveillance network the US has ever seen
From May 18th by Lauren Bridges
Ring video doorbells, Amazon’s signature home security product, pose a
serious threat to a free and democratic society. Not only is Ring’s
surveillance network spreading rapidly, it is extending the reach of
law enforcement into private property and expanding the surveillance
of everyday life. What’s more, once Ring users agree to release video
content to law enforcement, there is no way to revoke access and few
limitations on how that content can be used or stored, or with whom it
can be shared.
Ring is effectively building the largest corporate-owned,
civilian-installed surveillance network that the US has ever seen. An
estimated 400,000 Ring devices were sold in December 2019 alone, and
that was before the across-the-board boom in online retail sales
during the pandemic. Amazon is cagey about how many Ring cameras are
active at any one point in time, but estimates drawn from Amazon’s
sales data place yearly sales in the hundreds of millions. The
always-on video surveillance network extends even further when you
consider the millions of users on Ring’s affiliated crime reporting
app, Neighbors, which allows people to upload video from Ring and
non-Ring devices.
As with any number of similar devices, the proprietary software on the
camera and the associated proprietary app mean that users can't verify
or control what these devices are doing. This makes them very much the
opposite of "security" devices.
Welcome to Inkscape 1.1!
From May 24th by Inkscape
Among the highlights in Inkscape 1.1 are a Welcome dialog, a Command
Palette, a revamped Dialog Docking System, and searchable preference
options, along with new formats for exporting your work.
Here at the Inkscape project, we're proud to have contributors from
around the world who invest their time, energy and skills towards
coding, debugging, translating, documenting and promoting the program.
Built mostly with the power of a team of volunteers, this free
software vector editor represents the work of many hearts and hands
from around the world, who ensure that Inkscape remains available free
for everyone to download and enjoy. Big thanks go to the 2020 cohort
of Google Summer of Code (GSoC) students (and their mentors) who
worked hard to deliver some of the features and bug fixes in 1.1.
GNU Radio Conference 2021 in-person announcement
From May 26th by GNU Radio Conference organizers
We are excited to announce that GNU Radio Conference 2021 (GRCon21)
will be running as an in-person event in Charlotte, North Carolina,
alongside a virtual component. Taking into account the current status
of COVID-19 in the US and our survey results, we have determined that
we can safely hold an in-person event. Attendance will be reduced, and
all GRCons going forward will continue to have a virtual component
including live streaming and virtual workshops. In addition, this year
we will also welcome virtual pre-recorded talks with live Q&A (similar
to GRCon20) for those who can’t travel, or who prefer not to.
Dutch digital autonomy must be based on free software
From May 18th by Rijk Ravestein
"The Netherlands is losing grip on Internet security, and is therefore
in danger of losing control over democracy, the rule of law, and the
economic innovation system." This warning comes from the Cyber
Security Council, a national and independent advisory body of the
Dutch government and business community, with members from the
government, industry, and academia. In the Cyber Security Council's
recent advice, they urge the Dutch Cabinet to take quick action to
prevent Dutch society and economy from becoming too dependent on
proprietary technology they cannot control.
GUADEC 2021 call for participation: BoFs, workshops, and lightning talks
From May 6th by the GNOME Project
We are happy to announce that we have officially opened the call for
workshops, BoFs and lightning talks. These sessions are a great way to
share your thoughts with others, discuss various topics, receive
feedback and help specific projects move forward. Bofs and Workshops
can be either one or two hours long, and lightning talks are ten
minutes. Each session is self-organized, and it is up to the hosts and
participants to decide if the session is to be loosely oriented around
a set of topics, or have a well-defined agenda. Lightning talks will
be scheduled by the organizing team. All requests are due by June 6th.
GCC 8.5 released
From May 14th by GCC developers
The GNU Project and the GCC developers are pleased to announce the
release of GCC 8.5.
This release is a bug-fix release, containing fixes for regressions in
GCC 8.4 relative to previous releases of GCC.
May GNU Emacs news
From May 27th by Sacha Chua
In these issues: why I fell in love with GNU Emacs; moving text around
in Emacs; eye-candy for package loading time; checkboxes in org-mode
headings; 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, June 4th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to
19:00 UTC). Details here:
LibrePlanet featured resource: Free JavaScript Action Team
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 the Free JavaScript Action Team
page, which provides information about how you can get involved in the
fight against proprietary JavaScript. 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: Eleven new GNU releases!
11 new GNU releases in the last month (as of May 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
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:
- Dario Armani
- David Klann
- Irene and Richard Van Slyke
- Jason Compton
- John Gilmore
- Michael Reed
- Nicholas Smith
- Ron Hume
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:
- Alyssa Ross (Emacs, glibc)
- Iñigo Serna (Emacs)
- Jens C. Jensen (Emacs)
- Juan Manuel Macias Chain (Emacs)
- Junya Takahashi (Emacs)
- Kota Nara (Emacs)
- Natáli Danilo Anzanello (Gnuastro)
- Omar Antolin Camarena (Emacs)
- Pedro Bruel (Emacs)
- Per Weijnitz (Emacs)
- Shingo Tanaka (Emacs)
- Valeriy Litkovskyy (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/junio
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=ea6e5f9d870e2cc8cb7aa88717e8ccdb_1622594842_168
Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la
version française cliquez ici:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2021/juin
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=ea6e5f9d870e2cc8cb7aa88717e8ccdb_1622594842_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/junho
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=ea6e5f9d870e2cc8cb7aa88717e8ccdb_1622594842_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.
#
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/. |
