[FSF] Free Software Supporter - Issue 19, October 2009

[Holmes Wilson]

# Free Software Supporter
Issue 19, October 2009

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

* New bounty program for finding nonfree works in free distributions
* Wrapping up the 25th anniversary of GNU
* Get involved with the Windows 7 Sins campaign!
* Software Freedom Day 2009: Thanks for coming to celebrate with us!
* Women in Free Software Summit
* Mac OS X mistakes and malfeatures
* Xander Vedejas is the GNU Generation member of the month!
* Lest CodePlex perplex
* Submit your nominations for the 2009 Free Software Awards
* Sugar Labs and FSF join efforts promote children's learning platform
* FSF files brief in Supreme Court case to eliminate software patents
* GNU spotlight with Karl Berry
* Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
* Take action with the FSF!


## FSF announces new bounty program, offering "GNU Bucks" for finding
nonfree works in free distributions

The Free Software Foundation will begin rewarding those who find and
report any nonfree components in free software operating system
distributions with public recognition and "GNU Bucks." Those
qualifying for the award will receive a "GNU Buck" bank note, in the
amount of pi and signed by Free Software Foundation president and
"Chief GNUisance" Richard Stallman.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/news/gnu-bucks>

## 25 years of GNU - support software freedom!

Are you a member of the FSF? We mark the end of our year-long
celebration of the 25th anniversary of the GNU Project with an appeal
for new members.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/25-years-of-gnu>

## Get involved with the Windows 7 Sins campaign!

Some ways you can help with the Windows 7 Sins campaign, even if you
have just 5 minutes.

  * <http://meta.windows7sins.org/>

## Software Freedom Day 2009: Thanks for coming to celebrate with us!

It was a nice, crisp fall day outside, but we had a great group of
people gathered inside Encuentro 5 in Chinatown for Boston's Software
Freedom Day. There were talks on hacking your blog, women in free
software, free software on mobile devices, and how free software
economics works.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/postsfd2009>

## Women in Free Software Summit: One giant step for free software
womankind!

Just a month ago we announced our intent to hold a summit to talk
about the very important issue of increasing women's participation in
free software.  The mini-summit was also a kick-off for us here at the
FSF to start building a campaign program that brings more women into
the community.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/minisummitnotes>

## Mac OS X mistakes and malfeatures

While Apple has not, it seems, imposed changes by force, it has a
record of making users install harmful changes on pain of losing
functionality, and misleading users about what these changes do.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/mac-osx-mistakes-and-malfeatures>

## Xander Vedejas is the GNU Generation member of the month!

Xander has primarily been working on Valix, a new operating system
with a simple and integrated approach. Working in assembler and C, he
has begun creating an operating system that already has an integrated
graphics system and a programming language in the works.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gg-sep2009>

## Lest CodePlex perplex

Many in our community are suspicious of the CodePlex Foundation.
Someday we will be able to judge the organization by its actions
(including its public relations). Today we can only try to anticipate
what it will do, based on its statements and Microsoft's statements.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/microsoft-codeplex-foundation>

## Submit your nominations for the 2009 Free Software Awards

Nominations are requested by 31 October 2009.

The Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free
Software is presented annually by FSF president Richard Stallman to an
individual who has made a great contribution to the progress and
development of free software, through activities that accord with the
spirit of free software.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/news/2009FSAwardsCall>

## Sugar Labs and FSF announce joint efforts to promote learning
platform for children

The FSF has upgraded its hosting services support of Sugar Labs to
keep pace with its growth. As part of the ongoing relationship,
Bernardo Innocenti, a member of the Sugar Labs Oversight Board, is
working at the FSF offices.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/news/sugar-labs>

## FSF files brief in Bilski case calling on the Supreme Court to
eliminate software patents

The Free Software Foundation submitted an amicus curiae brief calling
on the Supreme Court to affirm that software ideas are not patentable.
After outlining the positive impact that the free software movement
and the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) have had on computer use,
the brief explains how software patents are an obstacle and a danger
to software developers.

  * <http://www.fsf.org/news/bilski-supreme-court-brief>

## GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry

Here are the recent GNU software releases:

coreutils-7.6    dfarc-3.4              freedink-1.08.20090918
freeipmi-0.7.13  gengen-1.4.1           gengetopt-2.22.3
global-5.7.6     gnash-0.8.6            gnutls-2.8.4
gxmessage-2.12.4 gzip-1.3.13            icecat-3.5.3
ignuit-0.0.15    mailutils-2.1          octave-3.2.3
pem-0.7.8        pexec-1.0rc8           plotutils-2.6
solfege-3.14.8   source-highlight-3.1.1 wget-1.12
zile-2.3.12

I'd like to specially note the first new release of gzip (the
longstanding GNU compression package) in many years.  Thanks to the
new co-maintainer, Jim Meyering, for reviving this.  And thanks also
to Jim for actively maintaining GNU coreutils and other fundamental
GNU packages for many years.

To get announcements of most new GNU packages, 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>).

This month we welcome Jean-Michel Sellier's new package dionysus,
intended to provide access to scientific constants.  Jean-Michel also
maintains the GNU packages archimedes and aeneas for submicron
semiconductor design.

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, <address@hidden>, with any
GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.

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

* 2009-10-08 | The Danger of Software Patents -- Wellington, New
Zealand - Victoria University of Wellington, RHLT 2, in the Rutherford
House on the Pipitea Campus. Richard Stallman will explain how
software  patents obstruct software development.

    * <http://www.fsf.org/events/20091008wellington>

* 2009-10-09 | A Free Digital Society -- Wellington, New Zealand -
HULT 220, Hunter Building, Kelburn Parade. Richard Stallman speech.
To make a digital society worthy of being included in, we must
overcome six menaces to freedom: surveillance, censorship, restricted
data formats, proprietary software, software as a service, and the War
 on Sharing.

    * <http://www.fsf.org/events/20091009wellington>

* 2009-10-12 | Copyright vs. Community -- Christchurch, New Zealand -
Christchurch Town Hall, 86-95 Kilmore Street. Richard Stallman speech.
Copyright developed in the age of the printing press, and was designed
to fit with the system of centralized copying imposed by the printing
press. But the copyright system does not fit well with computer
networks, and only draconian punishments can enforce it.

    * <http://www.fsf.org/events/20091012christchurch>

* 2009-10-25 | The Free Software Movement -- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -
Asia Pacific University College of Technology and Innovation (UCTI)
Malaysia, Lot 6, Technology Park Malaysia (TPM), Bukit Jalil
(http://foss.my/2009/venue/). Richard Stallman speech.

    * <http://www.fsf.org/events/20091025kualalumpur>

* 2009-10-28 | The Free (Bebas) Software Movement -- Jakarta,
Indonesia - BPPT Building II, M.H. Thamrin Street. Richard Stallman,
founder of the free software movement (gerakan perangkat lunak bebas)
and leader of development of the GNU operating system (with which the
kernel Linux is typically used) will give a speech to explain the
ethical and political ideas of free software, which differ from the
ideas of open source, and explain how GNU was developed to realize
these ethical goals. Registration is required.

    * <http://www.fsf.org/events/20091028jakarta>

### 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.

###

Copyright © 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No
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