Free Software Linux

How good to see one of “us brits” over there… BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Tuesday, September 2, 2008 — The GNU operating system is turning 25 this year, and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has kicked off its month-long celebration of the anniversary by releasing “Happy Birthday to GNU,” a short film featuring the English humorist, actor, novelist and film maker Stephen Fry. This is a great introduction to Free Software - one that your mum, dad and other friends & relies can understand.

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"..RMS’s other mission here is to promote the Free Software Movement. The creator of the GPL...is at pains to correct misunderstandings of what the term free software means and to draw a distinction between it and the open source movement. read more

After years of hostility towards Free Software Foundation (FSF) licensing (here and here) Microsoft has announced the first in a series of PHP patches - and it's using an FSF license. read more

This morning David Recordon formally announced the Open Web Foundation in a morning keynote at OSCON. (The shorter url openweb.org will come at somepoint). The OWF tagline / elevator statement is “The Open Web Foundation is an independent non-profit dedicated to the development and protection of open, non-proprietary specifications for web technologies.” The OWF goals, from their home page: Following the open source model similar to the Apache Software Foundation, the foundation is aimed at building a lightweight framework to help communities deal with the legal requirements necessary to create successful and widely adopted specification.

"For many people, the Internet legend, Richard Stallman needs no introduction [...] Any yep - he is coming to Auckland, and will be speaking at Auckland University. The details : ..." AdvertisementYour ad here!

One thing about the Free Software Foundation: there's seldom any doubt where they stand. Take the blog entry they recently posted: "5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G." You can't come away from it thinking that there are pros and cons to the iPhone. Rather, if you agree with them, you shouldn't even consider putting an iPhone in your pocket. But how well do their arguments stack up?

Nobody knows yet what the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will consist of, but the few available indications are so ominous that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has started a campaign to raise public awareness of the possibilities.

"... When the name is GNU, you should hear, «This system exists because of people who care about freedom. Join us, value your freedom, and together we can preserve it.» [...] Those companies that suppress the GNU name from their distributions are some of the worst offenders in not only distributing proprietary software, but also openly developing, promoting, and encouraging its proliferation. read more

– ## In this issue * It's not the Gates, it's the bars * Act on ACTA! * Fight the Canadian DMCA! * Rhapsody and Naxos go DRM free * Refusing Digital Monitoring Policies * 5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G * autonomo.us activist group to focus on freedom in network services * identi.ca is autonomo.us * GNU spotlight with Karl Berry * Richard Stallman's speaking schedule * Take action! AdvertisementYour ad here!

"...The current generation of network services or Software as a Service can provide advantages over traditional, locally installed software in ease of deployment, collaboration, and data aggregation. Many users have begun to rely on such services in preference to software provisioned by themselves or their organizations. read more

"BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA—Monday, July 14, 2008— A new activist group called autonomo.us has launched an online presence to focus on issues of software freedom in network services..."

ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is a proposed enforcement treaty between United States, the European Community, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand and Mexico, with Canada set to join any day now.

"... While these environmental consequences alone are sufficient reason for many to reject Vista, the disposable computer mentality is a symptom of a larger problem—one that should concern all social activists. That problem is the dependency of activists on software owned and exclusively controlled by entities that design their software in ways directly opposed to grassroots social change. read more

A campaign has been launched against the Orwellian ACTA.