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Home , Alexandre Oliva, Defective by Design, FLOSS Manuals, GNewSense, GNU Debugger, Savane (software)

Copyright 2009 Foundation How to Contribute 51 Franklin Street, 5th Floor Boston, MA 02110-1301 Associate Membership: (617)542-5942 Become an associate member of [email protected] the FSF. Members will receive http://www.fsf.org/ a bootable USB card and e-mail Issue 14 Bulletin June 2009 forwarding. To sign-up or get This bulletin was produced using more information, visit member. only free software. fsf.org or write to membership@ to make a political and ethical choice fsf.org. Contents asserting the right to learn, and share The articles in this bulletin are what we learn with others, where free individually licensed under the Online: Use your credit card or Spreading software 1 software can be the foundation of a Attribu- PayPal account to make a dona- freedom worldwide learning society — where we share tion No Derivative Works tion at donate.fsf.org or con- Compliance Lab: Trip 2 our knowledge in ways that others can 3.0 United States License. tact [email protected] for more to Korea build upon and enjoy. To view a copy of this license, information on supporting the : 4 This brings me to news of the re- visit http://creativecommons. FSF. Don’t get swindled lease of our latest textbook, Introduc- org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/ Jobs: List your job offers on our New free network 6 tion to the Command Line. It is now or send a letter to Creative Com- jobs page. See fsf.org/jobs for services available for download or as a printed mons, 171 Second Street, Suite details. Associate membership: 7 book from the GNU Press for $20 at 300, San Francisco, California, we’re coming to your shop.fsf.org. The book is released 94105, USA. United Way: As a 501(c)(3) town under the GNU Free Documentation tax-exempt organization, the Free BIOS: Coreboot 8 License. FSF is eligible to receive United LibrePlanet 2009 9 I realized from my involvement in Way funds. See fsf.org/uw for conference the planning for this book — from more information. Volunteer Spotlight: 10 planning the book sprint organized by : Rob Savoye Adam Hyde of FLOSS Manuals, to Browse and download from thou- -libre: Creating a 11 the subsequent editing and production sands of different free software free kernel package — that we must all take responsibil- projects! directory.fsf.org FSF France: Wecena 12 ity for learning, understanding and us- Free software laptops 13 ing the command line as an extension Volunteer: To learn more, visit How you can fight 14 of our support for free software. We fsf.org/volunteer. software patents today must ourselves know how to work from the command line, understanding it as Free Software Supporter: a right and a political necessity. We Make sure you’re getting all the must be able to review and compile very latest news from the FSF at Spreading software shop.fsf.org source code and be able to encrypt our fsf.org/fss. freedom worldwide data and correspondence. This kind of LibrePlanet: Find local groups widespread literacy is an antidote to by Peter Brown in your area or start your own at . Executive Director libreplanet.org! Having easier and less powerful n introducing people to the con- graphical user interfaces is absolutely Icepts behind free software, we use fine, but we should see it only as a step- the analogy that to use free software is ping stone towards empowering our-

16 1 selves to use the same set of tools distinguish the important or reusable which the gathered information gath- that a developer would use — tools points? Hopefully the swpat.org doc- ers dust, websites disappear, and moti- that give us individually more power umentation will make that easier, and vated people don’t find any active cam- and freedom on our own computers. the coming debate in New Zealand paigns they can put their energy into. The great news is, thanks to the no- will surely generate more information By adding an ongoing documentation nonsense examples given in this book, which swpat.org will in turn try to project, we can reduce the amount of it is now much less daunting for new- help make accessible to the rest of the knowledge lost. bies to learn than I had previously world. So, what can you do right now to imagined. Please help spread this The target audience of swpat.org help fight software patents? Take a book, help translate this book, and en- is thus people who want to start or look at swpat.org and add your fa- courage people to learn the command participate in campaigns against soft- vorite argument, add a link to that line as an extension of their support for ware patents. swpat.org won’t tell interesting article you remember see- free software. people which are the best arguments. ing last year, send a link to a local In this issue of the FSF Bulletin, Instead, swpat.org will document the software group and ask them if they we have expanded the number of pages whole range of arguments, and will at- can add information about legislation to give more space to free software ac- tach all the evidence we can find from or court cases in your country or re- tivists campaigning around the world. Compliance Lab: studies, statements, and press articles. gion. Writing articles isn’t necessary. The power of the Internet means that The decision of which arguments are A good is built sentence by sen- free software activism has no borders Trip to Korea best is a decision to be taken locally tence, link by link. and we can work as a global com- by each specific campaign. The Bilski court case and the re- munity and aid each other in the ac- by Brett Smith Another motivation behind this cent consultation by the European tions we take locally. LibrePlanet. Licensing Compliance Engineer project is to increase the continuity Patent Office are two good examples org is our contribution at attempt- Oftentimes, the work we do at the and coordination among anti-swpat of sources of information to be mined. ing to connect all the users, develop- Compliance Lab that gets the campaigns in general. Existing anti- Dozens of organizations submitted am- ers and activists working on important most attention revolves around the vi- swpat campaigns focus on particular icus briefs summarizing their best ar- campaigns, to empower them and raise olations we address. That’s easier to regions. It would be useful to coordi- guments and legal justifications for their profile. We are also collecting see, and it’s more exciting for other nate at the global level — you can bet their pro- or anti-swpat positions. Un- links to all the important free software people to talk about—all the news the big patent owners have been doing like press statements where companies resources we can find and we are en- about our recent case against Cisco is so for a long time. When some peo- try to be vague and offend no one, in couraging the formation of local and a good example of this. However, the ple think of coordination, they think these briefs everyone lays their cards regional free software activist groups work we do to educate people about of a coordinator, but that’s not swpat. on the table and states their position. to take political action in support of the licenses and help them comply is org’s approach. Instead, coordination So these briefs contain all the details, free software. We hope that in build- just as important, if not more so: it will be helped by making the work of if someone would just read them and ing LibrePlanet, we can learn impor- prevents violations from occurring in each campaign more transparent and make notes. tant lessons and improve our own out- the first place, instead of addressing clear. Then each campaign can follow There’s also awareness work and reach efforts. them after the fact. or ignore the work of each other cam- pressure campaigns which are useful This summer, why not spend some In April I attended a conference paign. regardless of whether the procedures time helping to expand LibrePlanet. about free software licensing issues in Continuity will be increased be- are accepting input, but this work too org and dip a toe into free software South Korea, organized by the Korea cause as campaigns start and stop, and needs preparation and coordination to activism? Software Copyright Committee (SO- individuals come and go, the infor- be effective. World Day Against Soft- COP). This government agency was mation on swpat.org will always in- ware Patents, September 24th, is one originally created to help settle licens- crease. This is particularly necessary such good initiative. ing disputes between proprietary soft- in political campaigns because work- ware vendors and South Korean indus- ing within the rigid procedures of gov- try. However, as more of the compa- ernment institutions leads to bursts of nies there have started relying on free work followed by quiet periods, during

2 15 On a hardware level, if you can, use How you can fight software for their business, using it in to start building a compliance network coreboot on systems instead of software patents today a wide and growing variety of different to share information between these the typical proprietary BIOS, and help devices, SOCOP has begun working to groups—learning about what compli- the coreboot project support more x86 by Ciaran O’Riordan help these companies understand and ance issues companies are struggling hardware. Director, End Software Patents comply with free software licenses as with, and helping them develop best On an level, use he newly launched swpat.org wiki well. practices to handle them. The whole one of the free GNU/Linux variants, Tis an effort to build the case To be honest, as I prepared my pre- community will benefit from this work: such as gNewSense or . If you against software patents and to make sentation for the conference, I wasn’t companies won’t have to spend time need a newer kernel in order to sup- the work of previous and existing cam- completely sure what to expect. Based fixing violations after the fact, users port freedom-respecting devices such paigns understandable and reusable to on the organizers’ recommendations, I will get more free software and hear as ath9k wifi, the Linux-libre project outsiders and newcomers. By using a gave a short speech about how our li- about their rights to share and change distributes up-to-date versions of the public wiki, swpat.org also provides censes work on a fundamental level— it, and developers will have easier ac- kernel Linux with all nonfree software an answer to the always-difficult ques- explaining how they all provide a com- cess to the changes these companies are removed. tion: “What can I do right now to fight mon set of permissions to share and making. It’s a win-win situation for There is also still some work to do software patents?” modify the software, and only have dif- everybody, and the Compliance Lab to reach a completely hackable laptop. The wiki approach was chosen be- ferent sets of conditions for these activ- is in a unique position to help see it The software that is on hard drives cause in a field this vast, no one knows ities. through. (both magnetic and solid state) can be everything but everyone knows some- However, when I started fielding updated by the user, and is nonfree. thing. There are two types of informa- questions about our licenses later in This software is usually used for things tion to gather. First is the press arti- the day, I started to wonder whether like making sure no parts of the disk cles, studies, statements from experts, that speech was too simple. These wear out, but could also be used to do and statements from interest groups. questions were not the kinds of ques- things you could not detect and would These are too numerous for anyone to tions that people ask when they’re not like, such as making a copy of data have a global overview of, and the im- just starting to learn about the GPL written to it in an area not detectable portance of each depends and the pol- and other free software licenses. In- by software not running on the drive itics, economy, and culture of each re- stead they were questions that clearly itself. gion. showed that the askers had a good un- But the Yeeloong is the The second type of information is derstanding of the licenses, and were most free laptop that has ever been the high-quality output of previous trying to figure out how the terms ap- available, and we would like to thank anti-swpat campaigns. Previous cam- plied to their specific situations. all those who made it possible, espe- paigns have done great work on mak- SOCOP itself is already doing a cially Robert Millan for doing the ing the case against software patents lot to help South Korean companies bulk of the gNewSense port, and many to judges, patent offices, and politi- comply with free software licenses too. Lemote employees for their answers to cians. Interacting with these institu- This was the first conference they’ve our questions and willingness to work tions requires using specific jargon, so organized on this subject, and it was with us towards freedom and control these documents are written to be un- very productive and well-run. They over the computing hardware that we derstandable by an expert in a specific are also working to roll out a free soft- purchase from them; we all should de- institution in a specific country or re- ware portal where companies can learn mand no less from all of the vendors gion. about what free software can meet that we buy hardware from! There’s a new debate about patent their needs, what licensing terms ap- legislation in New Zealand. How much ply to it, and get together to discuss effort would it take for someone in best practices for compliance. New Zealand to find the documents We want to help SOCOP—and produced by the campaigns in the other organizations around the world European Union and the USA and doing similar work—help the compa- nies it talks to. To do that, we plan

14 3 Defective by Design: this case, it’s ’s secret software important tax savings to SSII (Soci- ries, including those that control the Don’t get swindled that makes the law. ete de Services en Ingenierie Informa- boot-up process (often called firmware, This action sparked a backlash that tique — information technology con- somewhat like the BIOS in most com- by John Sullivan is still gaining momentum. Blind sulting companies) and to consulting puters) and wireless card, have corre- Operations Manager people have been protesting in large firms that accept to offer their services sponding source code that is free soft- roprietary software and propri- numbers, because the TTS feature to nonprofits free of charge. ware. Petary formats are vehicles for the is incredibly useful to them. Their FSF France houses numerous free RMS by chance met someone from exercise of power by some over oth- point is powerful — taking it further, software projects under the umbrella Lemote during his travels, and found ers. Companies that claim ownership we should not be content with case- of GNA. GNA, like GNU Savannah, him and others at Lemote to be over the software and formats involved specific exemptions. The problem isn’t hosts many free software projects, in- interested in the GNU philosophy. in the delivery of information become that Amazon and the publishers don’t cluding Xenomai, Decade, Savane, and RMS and the FSF have worked with gatekeepers determining who can and use the power properly, it’s that they PyVot. These programs could bene- Lemote and interested hackers to pro- cannot access that information. The have it at all. In this case, they used fit from the support of Wecena and duce a port of gNewSense, a fully point isn’t whether the people who it in a manner that disproportionately thereby from the skills of engineers be- free distribution of GNU/Linux. Most claim such power — and are granted it impacted blind users, and that was tween contracts. GNU/Linux distributions incorporate by our legal system — use it for good or wrong. But if they retain the power, The latter could also contribute to nonfree software, such as device driver bad. The point is that they shouldn’t they will be able to use it later against the maintenance, administration, and binary blobs with explictly nonfree have it at all. But as it turns out any- someone else. exploitation of GNA. For instance, an licenses or no source code at all, way, they generally use it for bad. This has not been the only such in- engineer specialized in development of but gNewSense contains only software The Amazon Kindle (more ap- stance. Earlier this year, DefectiveBy- embedded software — like the soft- which is completely free. propriately known as the “Swindle”), Design supporters sent Amazon CEO ware in wireless access points — could The -mipsel-l port runs which uses proprietary software to dis- Jeff Bezos jars of peach baby food — contribute his/her expertise to unlock on the Yeeloong laptop, which uses a tribute ebooks in proprietary formats a reference to an episode of Seinfeld the technological bolts of the Xeno- MIPS64 compatible CPU, the Loong- within a Digital Restrictions Manage- where Kramer is banned from his fa- mai project, or a writer could fill in son 2f; PMON 2000, a free software ment (DRM) scheme, is an example of vorite fruit market for attempting to the gaps for the documentation of Sa- boot loader; and the RTL8187b wifi a company claiming and being granted return a peach — to call attention to vane, which is essential for the emer- chipset. It seems to be as usable as power they shouldn’t have over books Amazon’s ban of a user for returning gence of new methods of collaborative the current generation of less free, in- and the terms under which we can ac- too many Amazon purchases; a ban work. All skills have a place in free expensive x86-based laptops, which are cess them. which prevented the user not only from software. often also called netbooks. Amazon’s speedy move to shut off purchasing any ebooks for his Kin- FSF France therefore encourages The current lack of a supplier pre- dle but also from accessing ebooks he all companies interested in the de- installing the Yeeloong with gNewSense the Kindle’s text-to-speech (TTS) ca- 1 pabilities in response to complaints by had already purchased. Though the velopment of their employees between does make it harder to set up initially the Authors Guild was a clear demon- ban was rescinded after the outcry, the contracts to contact Jean Millerat, so- than less free netbooks running less stration of this power. Authors Guild leopard had shown its spots. cial entrepreneur and Wecena initiator free GNU/Linux distributions. How- president Roy Blount, Jr. borrowed Amazon spokeswoman Cinthia Por- “so that this intelligence mine might ever the gNewSense team and often our “Kindle Swindle” monicker as the tugal told Wired that “Amazon is ag- be exploited to the fullest.” FSF Systems Team are very active in headline for his New York Times op- nostic when it comes to DRM with helping people via IRC, mailing lists, ebooks,” and that they “give content and web sites. From personal experi- ed piece complaining that the TTS fea- Free software laptops ture infringed on authors’ rights. Ama- owners the choice.” While Amazon ence we can say that the thrill of us- has been a positive force in the world ing a computer so close to our ideals is zon twiddled some bits and suddenly by Danny Clark of DRM-free music, they are anything worth the relatively trivial time com- all Kindles refused to read certain ti- FSF Systems Team but a neutral party in the ebook world. mitment involved in getting it up and tles aloud. It’s still a mystery why ichard M. Stallman is one of They control the format, the device, running. a computerized voice reading a book Rthe first users of the most hack- But what can you do to move to- aloud to you in your home is infringe- 1defectivebydesign.org/ able laptop currently in existence, the wards freedom if you do not have ment on any author’s right — but in impeach-jeff-bezos-for-kindle-swindle Lemote Yeeloong. Its modifiable bina- around $400 to spend on a Yeeloong?

4 13 and Dragora started in Argentina, a requirement for learning to value and the store where the media for ative Commons licenses sensibly pro- whereas dyne:bolic and Trisquel have one’s own freedom, and to respect oth- the device is purchased. If all they hibit DRM, so look for books under their roots in Italy and Spain, respec- ers’, for then there’s hope some day we wanted to do was “give content owners licenses like CC-BY-ND, CC-BY and tively. Furthermore, it appears that can all “Be Free!” the choice,” then why did they send CC-BY-SA. Another group of authors there’s soon to be a new entrant from a DMCA takedown notice to a site is working to tag all of their own DRM- Venezuela. hosting a tool which facilitated load- free ebooks with “drmfree” on Ama- There must be more than Latino ing books from other companies onto zon. You can help by supporting their blood to it. An average Brazilian the Kindle?2 work and by helping in the tagging ef- might be tempted to credit the nearly- Statements like Portugal’s show fort.3 dominant presence of Argentina in the Amazon’s strategy: Don’t look behind Insist that Amazon start being list to gaucho pride, but that would the curtain. Trying to get an exact honest about their DRM. Write be inappropriate and most certainly description of what the DRM on the to Amazon asking them to answer au- wrong. It is not hard to notice how im- Kindle does is impossible. DRM is not thor Cory Doctorow’s questions about portant freedom is for the Argentinian even mentioned much less explained — DRM — and publish your letter on- people in general, even more so in the outside of user-contributed reviews — line.4 If Amazon is just doing what free software communities there. on the purchase page for the Kindle. the authors want, then why aren’t they It may have to do with their having And yet, while the Kindle already does answering him? got out of a particularly nasty military support some DRM-free formats, ac- Hand out copies of “The Right to Read” 5 dictatorship not too long ago. This Freedo, the mascot of Linux-libre cess to the restricted Kindle store is . ’s short can’t be all, for a number of other the feature being marketed most heav- story illustrates the kind of world we Latin American countries also got out ily by Amazon. can expect if we buy into propri- of military dictatorships just as re- Whatever happens with the Kindle, etary devices, proprietary formats, and cently, and their peoples don’t set out FSF France: Wecena we need to work to eliminate DRM on DRM for our ebooks. to create free system distributions as all ebooks. Here are some things you Review Amazon on Amazon. often. by Loic Dachary can do to protest these restrictions and This worked to call attention to DRM Nevertheless, fighting dictatorships President, FSF France promote DRM-free ebooks: on video games, when many people re- certainly changes the social fabric in a SF France and Wecena have signed Don’t get swindled. Other viewed Spore negatively for its DRM. significant way for free software: peo- Fa collaboration agreement, the goal portable devices can both run free The same can be done with the Kindle. ple deprived of something as important of which is to find companies which software and read DRM-free ebooks. Take a few minutes to write your own as freedom are more likely to value it in would be ready to benefit the associa- FBReader is free software that runs review of the Kindle, emphasizing the its various dimensions. And then, the tion, and the scientific and educational on Android mobile devices, the Open- problems with DRM. dictatorships were long preceded by projects it supports, through voluntary Moko FreeRunner, and other systems Review the Reviewers. Write to colonization and slavery-based econ- service involving the labor of its em- running GNU/Linux. The Bebook e- tech reviewers and point out that they omy, and the echoes of the struggles ployees between contracts. ink device publishes their reader soft- failed to mention the Kindle or other for sovereignty, independence and re- Wecena reduces the “numerical ware as free software under the GNU device’s DRM restrictions in their re- spect for human rights and essential fracture of skills” which separates General Public License (GPL). As of view. Some reviewers wield a lot of in- freedoms can still be perceived. the nonprofit world from the busi- this writing, the Bebook still includes a fluence — people like David Pogue of Some kind of social conscience and ness world. It allows partnerships and proprietary module for DRM support, the New York Times. It’s mystifying seems to have come out of this non-government organizations working but maybe if enough people request it, that they exclude such an important misery, which explains why free soft- in the educational, charity, or public they will offer a completely DRM-free misfeature when they review devices in ware is making such inroads into gov- health sectors to benefit from the work version. this genre. ernments in so many countries in this of computer engineers and consultants Support authors who offer 3defectivebydesign.org/blog/1240 region. After all, sovereignty and inde- between contracts at their companies. their ebooks without DRM. Cre- 4boingboing.net/2009/05/14/ pendence are nothing but freedom ap- The latter thus commit themselves to 2 kindle-owners-start.html. news.cnet.com/8301-13578\ 5 plied to countries and peoples. a form of pro bono work at minimal _3-10196424-38.html http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ Let’s hope that social misery is not cost since the French tax system grants right-to-read.html

12 5 Please do write to us at info@ Since then, a number of free net- We’re still trying to raise the fund- fortunately, just removing those was defectivebydesign.org about any- work services have arrived. Previously, ing it needs to get started. The plan not viable, because one of them was thing you do to protest ebook DRM, we spoke about Identi.ca. The founder now is to fundraise all summer, and the non-free kernel Linux. and use the LibrePlanet wiki at of Identi.ca, Evan Prodromou, came hopefully launch this in the fall — bet- We realized that, in order to enable libreplanet.org to share the texts to Boston for our LibrePlanet 2009 ter late than never, right? But every people to “Be Free!” without aban- and reading lists you’ve created. To- conference and spoke about some of single organization that has promised doning the communities and the dis- gether we can achieve the same in the the challenges in building the system. funding has backed out — they’re too tributions they were fond of, it would arena of ebooks that we have achieved Here’s an update on a few more ser- scared, and too many big budget cuts be useful to offer them free kernels. in music — a widespread recognition vices that have sprung up since then: recently. Distributions don’t want to So, building upon the work started in that people will no longer tolerate Libre.fm: Spurred on by a dis- contribute. I’ve talked to all the major gNewSense and expanded by BLAG, DRM. cussion at the conference, I and a few distros lawyers. They all blessed our FSFLA took over the maintainership other free software hackers have been proposal, then the companies still go, of Linux-libre, a free distribution of the working on a free software replacement “we have no budget for this.” kernel Linux, aimed at free system dis- for another of these Web 2.0 sites. Li- tributions and free human beings. bre.fm, a free software replacement for Nowadays, we maintain and pub- the music site Last.fm, was born at the Linux-libre: Creating a lish free source releases based on vari- very end of March 2009. In the last free kernel package ous non-free Linux releases, along with two months, we’ve provided a scrap- programs we wrote to automate their ing tool for users to get their data by cleaning up. Furthermore, in a server out of Last.fm, as well as replacements FSF Latin America kindly offered by the FSF, we main- for both the server and Web compo- ack in early 2005, a group from tain, host, and encourage the Linux- nents. At the time of writing, Libre.fm Bthe deep south of South America libre community to maintain binaries has just under 9 million tracks in its set out to create the youngest mem- of Linux-libre that can be used as drop- database, of which approximiately 1.5 ber of the FSF Network. After a few in substitutes for the non-free Linux million are unique. All this, from just false starts, we have managed to form binaries offered by various GNU/Linux under 11,000 users in a little over 8 a growing team of software freedom ac- distributions, and as the kernels offered weeks. (www.libre.fm) tivists from all over Latin America. by GNU/Linux-libre free system distri- Identi.ca: After continuing suc- butions. “This peach is sub-par” After the realization that promot- cess with Identi.ca, Evan has raised ing free software and its use is much Maintaining freed distributions of funding for the project and has hired narrower than our goal of promot- Linux based on its various releases some developers to work on the service. ing software freedom, we adopted the seems to have been key for its wide New free (www.identi.ca) motto “Be Free!”, and a very social adoption among free system distribu- Filmaster: Filmaster is a new so- conscience-oriented discourse and be- tions. Once this was done, it didn’t network services cial network for movie fans featuring havior. Nearly all of our actions gravi- take long for all of the free GNU/Linux personalized content and recommenda- tate around enabling software users to distributions, recommended by the by Matt Lee tions. Filmaster allows you to run your be free, and educating them to seek GNU Project for their commitment Campaigns Manager own movie blog, rate movies and talk freedom. to software freedom, to adopt Linux- o recap: In March 2008, some about movies with people whose opin- One of our first realizations in the libre, and for a number of new free Tof our associate members met up ions you care about. They’ve created “Be Free!” mindset was that, while GNU/Linux-libre distributions to ap- during our conference and spoke about a place for real movie freaks — peo- there were a number of free system pear. what free network services would look ple for whom film is not just entertain- GNU/Linux distributions, the largest It is telling that, aside from like. They came up with a docu- ment. (www.filmaster.com) free software communities were around gNewSense and BLAG, all the rec- ment for discussion, the Franklin Street We hope to have a full interview distributions that did not qualify as ommended Free GNU/Linux-libre dis- Statement, named after the street ad- with the developers of Filmaster in the free system distributions, but that con- tributions were created by Latin de- dress of the FSF offices, here in Boston. next issue of the Bulletin. tained few non-free components. Un- velopers, most of them from Latin America. , Musix GNU+Linux

6 11 We couldn’t afford enough licenses for One thing I hear from a lot the 27th. the SPARC from Sun, then of people, is that they are un- Late July sees us in San Jose, right I discovered the beginnings of the willing to use , because it in the heart of Silicon Valley. I’m look- GCC port to the SPARC. I was al- doesn’t work on some of the sites ing forward to seeing our many mem- ready maintaining our existing com- they use. How can people who bers and activists, but especially those pilers, so it wasn’t a difficult switch. don’t have the skills to cut their who helped out at our table during the As I changed jobs when that startup teeth on the Gnash codebase get recent MySQL Conference. We’ll be in died, and then another, and another, I involved and help out? San Jose from July 21st through the wound up maintaining GCC for every- We find good bug reports very use- 24th. one I worked for. ful, especially if they’ve tried with a Our next stop is DEFCON in Las You’ve worked on many GNU recent version of Gnash, compared the Vegas. We’re looking forward to talk- projects over the years, but output from other non-free Flash play- ing with hackers and free software ac- mostly programming tools. How ers, etc. . . Then as we ask the questions tivists and folks who not only under- does working on a more user- we need to figure out the bug, hanging stand exactly what could be going on orientated project like Gnash feel in there with us and responding to the inside your machine when you aren’t compared to say, GDB or GCC? email helps too. Other than that, we the one in control, they’re taking steps The bug reports are very different! can always use editing of our wiki, info Associate membership: to stay in control. We’ll be in Las Most GCC and GDB bugs I dealt with added to our documentation, that kind Vegas from July 30th through August were very low-level stuff, and were pri- of thing. we’re coming to 2nd. marily reported by engineers. With What features does Gnash your town Then it’s back out to the West Gnash, we have a much wider target have that Flash is lacking? I know Coast to commune with our Bay Area audience, and bug reports are often you recently released a media ser- by Deborah Nicholson compatriots. We’re hoping to set up more like “YouTube stopped working!” ver, Cygnal. How does Cygnal Membership Coordinator a nice informal gathering for members How did Gnash come about? take advantage of Gnash? lthough the Free Software Founda- and activists while we’re in town. Let I originally wrote Gnash as the Gnash is still lacking solid SWF Ation’s headquarters is in Boston, us know if you’ve got any ideas or ac- graphics layer for a digital stereo sys- v9/10 compatibility. Improving that is we like to meet, greet and conspire cess to a space! We’ll be in San Fran- tem. The was written in the goal of our summer project. Cyg- with our members and activists from cisco from August 11th through the Flash. After that I didn’t think about nal and Gnash have special functional- all over the world. Summer brings a lot 14th. Flash much till John Gilmore called ity that only works when using both. of opportunities to do just that, and so Our next stop is Columbus, Ohio, me up, and talked me into turning my Things like using 100% free codecs for by fall our virtual suitcase will be cov- a place we haven’t been able to send standalone Flash player into a plugin all multimedia. There is other func- ered in stickers. We hope to see you in anyone to in a few years. We know for , which I did. Then the FSF tionality on the roadmap for Gnash our travels! there are lots of GNU/Linux users out made Gnash a high-priority project, I & Cygnal, like server side support for For our first stop, campaigns man- there in the Heartland, and we can’t attracted more developers, and off we editing videos, stuff like that. ager Matt Lee and I are heading down wait to meet them and catch up. We’ll went. . . You’ve worked with John to Porto Alegre, Brazil for FISL. This be in Ohio on September 25th through Most of the phones being sold Gilmore recently on a project to will be FISL’s 10th year, GNU’s 25th, the 26th. today have Web browsers and bust patents on media codecs. and we’ll be joined by Richard Stall- Our last membership outreach stop even Wi-Fi, yet they lack a Flash What’s the goal of the project? man at this event. Matt and I want for the year will be in Baltimore, Mary- player. Is this an area where To develop a legally redistributable to meet lots of members and free soft- land, which is just an hour away from Gnash can shine? version of ffmpeg. ware activists who can tell us more the US capital, Washington, DC. We We believe so. We pay more atten- How is that going? about their experiences. Free software look forward to chatting with peo- tion to things like the footprint, and We need a minimum of $50k to re- is in wide use in South America and ple about government adoption of free performance, than Adobe does. Plus ally do the 3 month project plan. We we hope to come away inspired and software, the political implications of Gnash is much more portable, and runs have people lined up, but right now invigorated by our visit. We’ll be in free formats and grassroots organizing on more processors and operating sys- we can barely pay our bills — it’s go- Porto Alegre from June 24th through with free software tools. We’ll be in tems than the non-free players. ing nowhere due to lack of funding. Baltimore in early November.

10 7 Please let us know if we can come very well with coreboot. It makes core- and Xen, and more will be deployed in on, one room housed a much quieter sit in on your free software user group boot behave more like a traditional the future as we continue our efforts to group who were busy writing a book. meeting while we’re in your town. If BIOS, in the sense that it provides the retire old hardware and replace it with The crew from FLOSS Manuals were the timing isn’t good, we’re also up for BIOS services that some legacy boot- systems that run coreboot. running a textbook sprint with on-site more informal meetings with local free loaders and kernels still require (the and remote contributors all weekend. software activists, like lunch or coffee, kernel Linux and grub2 bootloaders do They produced an amazing text book etc. If you’re interested in rustling up not, but the GRUB bootloader does, LibrePlanet titled Introduction to the Command a few people, email us at membership@ for instance). Seabios gives users an 2009 conference Line, aimed at GNU/Linux gnubies. fsf.org or come visit #fsf-members easier upgrade path from the propri- The book is available now for reading on irc..org. etary BIOS. by Matt Lee or download on the FLOSS Manuals There will be lots of opportunities What Seabios does not have yet Campaigns Manager website or you can help us fund the for conversations, for volunteering and is complete USB support. However, n March 21st and 22nd 2009, next book sprint by buying a printed for giving us valuable feedback about coreboot got four students allocated in Othe held copy. the struggle for free software in your ’s 2009 Summer of Code. Two the first LibrePlanet conference, Libre- The venue itself was nothing short community. So don’t be shy, drop us a of them are working on adding full Planet 2009, at the Harvard Science of amazing, and the wonderful sup- note or visit us online! USB support to Seabios. This will Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. port from Harvard University allowed make it possible to use a USB key- Over the next two days, we covered us to have the audio recordings avail- board during boot, and to boot from a range of free software activism top- able within days, instead of weeks, and USB drives. Another student is work- ics, with the first day of the conference encoded directly from the original au- ing on putting coreboot plus a minimal dedicated to a traditional, formal con- dio CDs to the free software Ogg virtualization hypervisor in ROM. The ference style. format, a free variation of Ogg Vorbis last student is developing a free soft- Talks from Jeremy Allison, Bradley designed for speech. ware VGA BIOS for Geode hardware, Kuhn, Ryan Bagueros, Evan Prodro- based on the work already done as part mou and Rob Savoye kept the crowd 6 of the vgabios project — a codebase entertained and informed on the first Volunteer Spotlight: which emulates a VGA bios for use in day, with updates and insights from Rob Savoye Bochs and Qemu. their various projects, while Brian Ultimately, the FSF would like Gough, Mako Hill, Alex Oliva and Cia- by Matt Lee to see a free software VGA BIOS ran O’Riordan talked about the work Campaigns Manager that supports many different graphics of the GNU Project and the Free Soft- ob Sayove is the founder and lead adapters, and this is a good first step. ware Foundation around the world. Rdeveloper of Gnash, the GNU Incidentally, a couple of coreboot de- Richard Stallman finished the day with Flash Player. In the past, he has velopers have been working on a sim- the presentation of his article, “The worked on The GNU Compiler Collec- ilar VGA rom replacement for VIA’s JavaScript Trap,” and the presenta- tion, GNU , and the Free BIOS: Coreboot K8M890 chipset. tion ceremony of the 2009 Free Soft- DejaGNU testing framework. He re- The FSF recently worked with ware Awards. cently spoke at the LibrePlanet 2009 by Ward Vandewege Marc Jones, a freelance coreboot con- Day two was a new kind of con- conference, here in Boston, and I FSF Systems Team sultant and developer, to add a core- ference for us at the FSF, with my- caught up with him to ask a few ques- lot has happened in coreboot de- boot port for the supermicro H8DME self, GNU chief webmaster Rob My- tions. Avelopment in the past six months. motherboard. This board is a server ers, and FSF membership coordinator When did you first get in- Some major progress has been made board that can take up to two AMD Deborah Nicholson, leading the ses- volved with the GNU Project? on an ACPI framework for the code, Opteron CPUs and up to 64GB of ram. sions for Free Network Services, Ac- I was working for a small start-up which makes it a lot easier to add We have purchased and deployed one tivism, and High Priority Projects re- in the 1980s building massively paral- ACPI support to supported main- H8DME-based system with coreboot spectively, and last but certainly not lel super computers, and we decided boards. On the payload front, an em- 6nongnu.org/vgabios least, while all this talking was going to switch processors to the SPARC. ulation layer called Seabios now works

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