Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation’s monthly news digest and action update — being read by you and 67,117 other activists. That’s 801 more than last month!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Will you be at LibrePlanet? Register today for March 23-24
- Mako Hill remembers Aaron Swartz
- Only Gandalf can protect Europe from the unitary patent
- Winners announced for free software gaming’s highest honor, the Liberated Pixel Cup
- Announcing the Empowermentors Collective: a group for women of color and queer people of color
- GNU Press discounts Bison Manual!
- FSFE asks you to show your love for free software!
- Keep the pressure on the White House and US Copyright Office to fix anti-circumvention provisions
- Announcing status.fsf.org: Our new home for microblogging
- FSF licensing team: What we did in 2012 and why it matters for 2013
- Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
- LibrePlanet featured resource: Coreboot installation party at LibrePlanet 2013
- GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 19 new GNU releases!
- GNU Toolchain update
- Other FSF and free software events
- Thank GNUs!
- Take action with the FSF
Will you be at LibrePlanet? Register today for March 23-24
LibrePlanet is a yearly conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, where the global free software community comes together to learn from each other, face challenges and welcome newcomers.
If you’re interested in technology’s role in struggles for justice, community, and freedom, then you will find a lot to be excited about at LibrePlanet. Sign up by March 6th if you’d like a LibrePlanet 2013 t-shirt.
Our blog posts about LibrePlanet:
- http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/will-you-be-at-libreplanet-register-today-for-march-23-24
- http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/excitement-building-for-libreplanet-sign-up-before-it-fills-up
Mako Hill remembers Aaron Swartz
By Benjamin Mako Hill, from January 24th
Mako writes: « I have spent hours (days?) reading and thinking about Aaron over the last two weeks. Although I suspect I may never feel ready, there are several things I want to say about Aaron’s death, about Aaron’s work, and about what Aaron means to me. »
Only Gandalf can protect Europe from the unitary patent
By Gérald Sédrati-Dinet, from February 24th
Now that, despite all legal, political and economic issues, the European Parliament has approved the regulation on the unitary patent, it is time to move away from the legislative battle. It is time now to see whether and how Gandalf’s magical powers can overcome dark forces of Mordor.
Winners announced for free software gaming’s highest honor, the Liberated Pixel Cup
From February 22nd
We’re proud to announce the completion of the first LPC, a design competition of free software video games using only freely licensed art and media. Thank you to the donors who gave to the FSF to support this effort!
See more details in our press release:
Announcing the Empowermentors Collective: a group for women of color and queer people of color
From January 31st
If you are a woman of color or queer person of color in the free software or free culture community and are interested in being a part of the Empowermentors Collective, please join the mailing list and the #empowermentors IRC channel on freenode. If you are an ally to these issues, please help spread the word!
The Empowermentors Collective is holding a social dinner for members at LibrePlanet 2013. The dinner will take place on Saturday, March 23rd after the conference closes for the day. Find out more and RSVP:
GNU Press discounts Bison Manual!
From February 19th
To make room for the updated version, GNU Press is slashing the price of the Bison Manual, version 1.875, by nearly 50%! The manual is great for C programmers or students interested in learning about and implementing a wide variety of language parsers.
FSFE asks you to show your love for free software!
From February 14th
On February 14th, Free Software Foundation Europe asks all free software users to show their appreciation for free software. FSFE suggests you take this day as an opportunity to say « thank you » to one of the dedicated, hard-working people in the free software community. At the FSF, we displayed a giant heart on our front page and individual staff thanked some of their favorite developers.
Keep the pressure on the White House and US Copyright Office to fix anti-circumvention provisions
From February 13th
When the Copyright Office announced its updated DMCA exemptions list, we were saddened to find that the office had abdicated its duty on multiple fronts. While that sad result was announced back in October, the downgraded exemptions list has just now come into effect. To resist this, you can sign the petition to reinstate the right to unlock phones.
Announcing status.fsf.org: Our new home for microblogging
From February 7th
StatusNet is free software microblogging, similar to Twitter but without requiring nonfree JavaScript or trust in a single Web site. The FSF is excited to be microblogging from our own StatusNet instance, from now on.
FSF licensing team: What we did in 2012 and why it matters for 2013
By Joshua Gay, from January 31st
The past nine months have been an awesome and gratifying experience of doing important, specialized work defending free software. In order to continue this work and meet the many other goals we have set for ourselves, we need your support.
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 from 2:00pm to 5:00pm EST (19:00 to 22:00 UTC) . Meetings take place in the #fsf channel on irc.gnu.org, and usually include a handful of regulars as well as newcomers. Everyone’s welcome.
LibrePlanet featured resource: Coreboot installation party at LibrePlanet 2013
Every month on LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is interesting and useful — often one that could use your help.
For this month, we are highlighting the page for the Coreboot install party at the LibrePlanet 2013 conference on March 23-24. Coreboot is a free software boot firmware replacement that we’re very excited about, because it makes it possible for many machines to run with 100% free software, all the way down to the firmware level.
At the install party, experts will guide you in installing Coreboot with all-free firmware on your machines. Make sure to read the page if you plan to attend the install party, because only a few types of machines will be supported. Even if you can’t make it to the conference, you’ll find it to be a useful resource about Coreboot.
Do you have a suggestion for next month’s featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org.
GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 19 new GNU releases!
19 new GNU releases as of February 25th:
- autoconf-archive-2013.02.02
- gnunet-0.9.5a
- pycdio-0.19
- autogen-5.17.2
- groff-1.22.2
- serveez-0.2.0
- coreutils-8.21
- libmicrohttpd-0.9.25
- texinfo-5.0
- glpk-4.48
- linux-libre-3.8
- unrtf-0.21.3
- gmp-5.1.1
- mdk-1.2.7
- xboard-4.7.0
- gnubatch-1.7
- octave-3.6.4
- gnuhealth-1.8.0
- parallel-20130222
To get announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu. Nearly all GNU software is available from http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors (http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html). You can use the url http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.
This month, we welcome Mark Veltzer as a new co-maintainer of GNU grep.
I’d like to specially mention Texinfo 5.0, the first release in Texinfo in too many years. It is a complete reimplementation of makeinfo, merging in texi2html features and more, while retaining practical compatibility, primarily thanks to the efforts of Patrice Dumas. The Texinfo home page is http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo.
A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance. Please see http://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you’d like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html. To submit new packages to the GNU operating system, see http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.
As always, please feel free to write to me, karl@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.
GNU Toolchain update
By Nick Clifton, from February 24th
The GNU toolchain refers to the part of the GNU system which is used for building programs. These components of GNU are together often on other systems and for compiling programs for other platforms.
The GCC sources are closed to new features at the moment, but there are a few new things to report.
Richard Stallman’s speaking schedule
For event details, as well as to sign-up to be notified for future events in your area, please visit www.fsf.org/events.
So far, Richard Stallman has the following events in March:
- March 01, 2013, 05:00 PM, Oslo, Norway, « Free software—Defending your freedom »
- March 05, 2013, 04:30 PM, Tromsø, Norway, « Free software—Defending your freedom »
- March 10, 2013, 01:30 PM, Leicester, United Kingdom, « A free digital society »
- March 11, 2013, 07:00 PM, Nottingham, United Kingdom, « Copyright vs. community »
- March 13, 2013, 12:00 PM, Warsaw, Poland, « A free digital society »
- March 15, 2013, 05:30 PM, Krakow, Poland, « Free software and your freedom »
- March 18, 2013, 03:00 PM, Poitiers, France, « The free software movement »
- March 19, 2013, 07:30 PM, Niort, France, « A free digital society »
- March 21, 2013, 06:00 PM, Bath, United Kingdom, « Copyright vs. community »
Other FSF and free software events
- March 16-17, 2013, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Northeast GNU/Linux Fest
- March 23-24, 2013, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, LibrePlanet 2013: Commit Change
Thank GNUs!
We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation, but we’d like to give special recognition to the folks who have donated $500 or more in the last few months.
This month, a big Thank GNU to:
- Michael and Amy Tiemann
- Daniel Kahn Gillmor
- Dave Beckett
- David Axmark
- David Ayers
- Travis G Russo
- David Bruce
- David Caldwell
- David Hampton
- David Johnson
- David Klann
- David Owen
- Orlando
- Ed Price
- Deke K. Clinger
- Jason Compton
- Mikiya Okuno
- Dennis W. Tokarski
- Diego Sarmentero
- Doyle Myers
- Elyse M Grasso
- Eric Moore
- Flemming Richter Mikkelsen
- Frank J. Niertit
- Geoffrey S. Knauth
- Georges Sancosme
- Gregory Maxwell
- Gopinath Sankar
- Andrew V. Belousoff
- Mario Cupelli
- Hal Lewis
- Manuel Velado
- I-Lun Tseng
- Iñaki Arenaza
- iFixit
- Inouye Satoru
- Jelte van der Hoek
- James A Cole
- Jesper Dahlberg
- James E Wilson
- Jean-Francois Blavier
- Markus Schaldach
- Marinos J. Yannikos
- Shinichiro Hamaji
- Jason Compton
- Ron McCall
- Li-Yi Chen
- Mario Lardieri
- James E. Bennett
- James H. McConville
You can add your name to this list by donating at https://donate.fsf.org.
Take action with the FSF
Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF’s work. You can contribute by joining at http://www.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! http://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=2442
The FSF is also always looking for volunteers (http://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 campaign section (http://www.fsf.org/campaigns) and take action on software patents, DRM, free software adoption, OpenDocument, RIAA and more.
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Copyright © 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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