[Ossm-members] Fwd: [FSF] Free Software Supporter -- Issue 13, April 2009

Thu Apr 16 06:17:09 UTC 2009

# Free Software Supporter
Issue 13, April 2009

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's
monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 18153
other activists.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

* Version 2.2 of gNewSense released
* FSF releases audio recording of LibrePlanet conference
* Winners of the annual free software awards announced!
* Help spring the Javascript Trap
* European Elections and the Free Software Pact
* Can you help the Open Graphics Project?
* Nintendo DSi: Defective by DESiGN
* Join Amazon authors' "drmfree" effort
* Introduction to the GNU/Linux command line
* The Digital Tipping Point: A free film made with free tools
* GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry
* Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
* Take action with the FSF!

## Version 2.2 of gNewSense released

This release features the return of 3D acceleration -- as free
software. The gNewSense project today announced version 2.2 of its
free GNU/Linux distribution. This is the second point update to the
release codenamed 'deltah'.

We're especially excited to see that, as a result of the cooperation
between SGI and the FSF to relicense the core 3D library code as free
software, today's release re-introduces GLX. This means that hardware
acceleration is enabled by default, so applications like Compiz and 3D
games will work again.

 * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnewsense-2.2-released>

## FSF releases audio recording of LibrePlanet conference

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today released the complete audio
recordings from the first day of the LibrePlanet GNU/Linux conference,
held on March 21, 2009, in Cambridge, MA.

 * <http://www.fsf.org/associate/meetings/2009/>

## Winners of the annual free software awards announced!

Creative Commons was honored with the Award for Projects of Social
Benefit, and Wietse Venema was honored with the Award for the
Advancement of Free Software.

Presenting the awards was FSF founder and president Richard Stallman.

 * <http://www.fsf.org/news/2008_free_software_awards>

## Help spring the Javascript Trap

On Saturday, March 21, during the LibrePlanet conference, FSF
president Richard Stallman announced a plan of action for addressing
the problem of non-free Javascript, Flash and Silverlight programs. He
highlighted the danger posed to user freedom by the way these
nontrivial programs are silently run in browsers with no opportunity
for users to view or modify unobfuscated source code.

 * <http://www.fsf.org/news/javascript-trap>

## European Elections and the Free Software Pact

Free Software advocacy associations April (France/Belgium) and
Associazione per il software libero (Italy) have launched a joint
campaign aimed at the European Parliament elections in early June. The
campaign invites citizens to ask candidates to sign the Free Software
Pact.

 * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/free-software-pact>

## Can you help the Open Graphics Project?

It's a big project and there are many different ways to help, but the
immediate need is for someone to clean up the text on their wiki, both
to improve the organization of the information there and to make sure
that the language used represents the project goals accurately by
emphasizing free software values rather than just open source
development.

 * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/help-the-open-graphics-project>

## Nintendo DSi: Defective by DESiGN

In November, Nintendo released the DSi console in Japan. Next month,
the rest of the world will be hit by this console. Similar to the
previous Nintendo DS and DS Lite consoles, the DSi has two screens and
the ability to access WiFi networks. However, in an effort to heavily
control what gamers can do with their consoles, Nintendo has chosen to
encumber this new version with Digital Restrictions Management (DRM).

 * <http://www.defectivebydesign.org/nintendo-dsi-infected-with-drm>

## Join Amazon authors' "drmfree" effort

DefectiveByDesign activists have been tireless in finding and labeling
DRM-infected products on Amazon with tags like "defectivebydesign" and
"drm". There's another new tag to watch for when you're shopping,
"drmfree". The use of the tag is obvious but the story behind it is
important -- it's being applied and promoted by authors who want to
advertise the fact that they don't like Digital Restrictions
Management and don't want it applied to their works.

 * <http://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/1240>

## Introduction to the GNU/Linux command line

This manual was initially written at LibrePlanet, the GNU/Linux
conference hosted at the Harvard Science Center, Cambridge, MA, on
March 21, 22 2009.  LibrePlanet was sponsored by the Free Software
Foundation (FSF) and organized into three tracks, free software
activism, freedom for network services, and high priority free
software projects.

Copies of the manual can be ordered online for $20.

 * <http://shop.fsf.org/product/Introduction_to_Command_Line/>

## The Digital Tipping Point: Free film made with free tools

Christian Einfeldt is producing a documentary movie called the Digital
Tipping Point about how free software is changing global culture. He
is releasing all of his footage under a free license, and is inviting
participants to grab the video and use it to tell stories about how
free software has changed their lives. He also wants the film to be
produced using only free software tools.

 * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/digital-tipping-point>

## GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry

Here are the recent GNU software releases:

bash-3.2.48         coreutils-7.2 dico-2.0      freeipmi-0.7.7
global-5.7.5        glpk-4.37     gnuspool-1.5  gsasl-1.1
gv-3.6.7            libgsasl-1.1  libiconv-1.13 libidn-1.14
libmicrohttpd-0.4.1 m4-1.4.13     octave-3.0.5  sipwitch-0.5.3
solfege-3.14.1      zile-2.3.6

See the packages' announcements, web pages
(http://www.gnu.org/software/PKGNAME) or the distributions themselves
for details.  Nearly all are available from <http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/>,
or preferably one of its mirrors (<http://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html>).

To get announcements of most new GNU packages, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list (<http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu>), which is
publicly archived (<http://lists.gnu.org/pipermail/info-gnu>).

I'd like to give a warm welcome to Chris Bryant, redubbed maintainer
of vmslib, and Troy Will, the new maintainer of stow.

For this issue of the FSS, I'd like to especially point out GNU gv, a
PS/PDF previewer that works as a front end to Ghostscript.  It has a
long history, starting with Tim Theisen's Ghostview (almost
contemporaneous with Ghostscript itself), and continuing under the
name gv with much additional work by Johannes Plass.  It has been
rejuvenated by its new (as of last year) maintainer Markus Steinborn,
who has released several updates and continues active work.  See
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gv/> for downloads, documentation, and
the usual information.

Several GNU packages 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 GNU,
see <http://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html>.

As always, please feel free to write to me, <karl at gnu.org>, with any
GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

## Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events

  * Free Software in Ethics and in Practice

          San Antonio, TX, 2009-04-20

  * GNU General Public License: What We've Changed in Version 3 and Why

          Austin, TX, 2009-04-23

  * Copyright vs. Community

          Austin, TX, 2009-04-24

  * The Ultimate Emacs Course

          Ourense, Spain, 2009-04-27

 * <http://www.fsf.org/events/all.html>

### 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.

###

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No
Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this
license, visit <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/> or
send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San
Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

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