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Read and share online:
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/replicant-needs-your-help-to-liberate-android-in-2020
Dear Free Software Supporter,
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) supports the work of several
important free software projects through fiscal sponsorship in a
program we call Working Together for Free Software.
Donations to any of the Working Together for Free Software
projects directly benefit the work that can be done. Too often, these
projects are underfunded and developers are putting in a lot of
personal time and effort to keep the project moving forward. Because
of the FSF fiscal sponsorship, they can receive donations and apply
for funding.
Below is an update from developer Denis "GNUtoo" Carikli, who is one
of three people on the "steering committee" of Replicant: a fully
free Android distribution running on several devices. It is a free
software mobile operating system putting the emphasis on freedom,
privacy, and security.
Mobile devices such as phones and tablets are becoming an increasingly
important part in our computing, hence they are particularly subject
to freedom and security concerns. These devices aren't simply "phones"
or "tablets." They are full computers with powerful hardware, running
complete operating systems that allow for updates, software changes,
and installable applications. This makes it feasible to run free
software on them. Thus, it is possible to choose a device that runs a
free bootloader and free mobile operating system -- Replicant -- as
well as fully free apps for the user. You can read more about privacy
and security on mobile phones and the solutions that Replicant offers,
as well as learn some valuable lessons on how better to protect your
freedom on mobile devices on the Replicant Web site.
Replicant is currently steered by a team of three people: Fil Bergamo,
Joonas Kylmälä (Putti), and myself. At the beginning of this year, we
successfully applied for funding from a program from the European
Union called Next Generation Internet. We also received a
sizeable donation from Handshake, which allowed us to make some
significant investments.
The most notable changes we are working on are building a new version
of Replicant based on Android 9, which will enable a wider range of
users to use a fully free Android distribution for the first time. We
are also reducing maintenance costs to increase sustainability. The
Replicant project is now using an unmodified "mainline" kernel with
very few patches, and we contribute patches upstream as well. This
means we send our work back to the main developers of the kernel Linux
so that everyone can benefit. This allows us to create a virtuous
circle that makes Replicant benefit kernel development and kernel
development benefit from Replicant. Working with upstream would not be
possible without funding, as it requires a lot more work than what we
used to do with previous Replicant versions.
Getting people more acquainted with the work we do helps us source new
contributors, as well as convince people to use Replicant. This year,
we managed to travel to a few important conferences, as well as
organize our own Replicant conference. A full report of the
conference is available, along with slides, videos, and a summary of
the discussions that took place. The conference allowed us to bring
together the people who care about Replicant and who understand the
importance of the work we do. Watching these presentations can help
any new Replicant developers to contribute to the project, as they
explain a lot about our architecture, our history, and how to begin
making a version of Replicant for newer devices and Android versions.
Being awarded a large grant is a highly competitive process, which
means we cannot rely on that for continuous funding to pay for all of
our work, so we choose to spend money on tasks that have a long-term
impact. These include completing the library that communicates with
the Samsung IPC modem protocol (libsamsung-ipc), which enables
other Android distributions to use it and share the changes they make
with us. It also helps us to continue our work on free WiFi firmware
and finalizing a new Replicant 6 release. These investments will
ensure that developers can continue to maintain Replicant even when
larger donations are not available.
Projects like Replicant rely on individual donations like yours to
continue their work independent of large donations and funding. They
can always use your help, whether that help is financial or provided
in time and effort. To further assist them, you can use Replicant and
become part of the project's community by using its forums,
contributing to its wiki, and submitting any bugs you
discover.
Our annual fundraiser is happening right now. If you're able to,
please consider making a donation to Replicant through
their dedicated sponsorship page. Every dollar you contribute helps
this inspiring project work towards a freer mobile future.
If you can go the extra mile and support other free software work in
addition to Replicant, please become an associate member to help
us strengthen our ability to help other free software projects like
Replicant! As a special bonus, all new and renewing annual associate
members ($120+) can choose to receive one of our exclusive year-end
gifts.
Sincerely,
Zoë Kooyman
Program Manager |
