Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 50,367 other activists. That's 2856 more than last month!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Nominations close soon for the 14th annual Free Software Awards
- FSF calls for signatures to stop computers from becoming Windows-only
- Ada Lovelace Day: Karen Sandler
- GNU PDF project leaves High Priority Projects list: mission complete!
- GNU/Linux Inside stickers are back and better than ever!
- Behind the scenes of the new Free Software Directory
- Introducing Andrew, FSF campaigns intern
- LibrePlanet featured resource: Free VPS
- GNU spotlight with Karl Berry
- Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
- Take action with the FSF!
Nominations close soon for the 14th annual Free Software Awards
Time is running out for you to send your nominations for our annual Award for the Advancement of Free Software and Award for Projects of Social Benefit. Each year, we recognize the winners at the free software activism conference LibrePlanet tentatively scheduled for March 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Get your nomination in by Monday, November 7th, 2011!
FSF calls for signatures to stop computers from becoming Windows-only
In a response to Microsoft's announcement about "Secure Boot", the FSF has issued a statement that warned against the danger that, if done wrong, this system would have to be called Restricted Boot, because it could make computers incapable of running anything but Windows.
Please sign our statement to show your support for the freedom of installing free software operating system! Over 18,000 people have added their support so far... with your help we can push it over 30,000!
- http://www.fsf.org/news/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot-in-windows-8
- http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/
Ada Lovelace Day: Karen Sandler
October 7th was Ada Lovelace Day, a day in which we share stories about women in science and technology who have influenced us. FSF executive director, John Sullivan, took the chance to thank Karen Sandler for all the help she had provided to the free software community.
Karen worked for several years as a lawyer at the Software Freedom Law Center. She also co-hosts Free as in Freedom podcast and more recently she became the executive director at the GNOME Foundation.
GNU PDF project leaves FSF High Priority Projects list!
We are pleased to announce that another project can be removed from our list of high priority free software projects: GNU PDF.
libpoppler, the most common PDF library on GNU/Linux, has matured its support for many of modern PDF features -- a move that means every free software user can have PDF software with capabilities that were until recently exclusive to proprietary software.
GNU/Linux Inside stickers are back and better than ever!
We are proud to reintroduce our popular GNU/Linux Inside stickers. The new sticker features the same artwork as the classic GNU/Linux Inside sticker but is now on a much more durable sticker backing, perfect for putting on your phone or laptop.
In addition to that, we only have a limited supply of our classic stuffed gnu in stock. As they are no longer being manufactured, once these classic gnus are gone, they are gone!
Behind the scenes of the new Free Software Directory
Our press release covered the basics about why we have re-launched the Free Software Directory, and why people might want to both use it and help build it, but in this post, we explain in detail why we view the Directory as an important component of our strategy to promote free software.
Introducing Andrew, FSF campaigns intern
In this post, our Fall campaigns intern introduces himself to the free software community and writes about his internship plans.
LibrePlanet featured resource: Free VPS
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 FreeVPS group, which provide information about virtual private servers that can run a free distribution of GNU/Linux. You are invited to adopt, spread and improve this important resource.
Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us know at campaigns@fsf.org.
GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry
GNU releases this month:
- archimedes-2.0.0
- cflow-1.4
- coreutils-8.14
- denemo-0.9.2
- electric-9.01
- freedink-data-1.08.20111016
- freeipmi-1.0.8
- gcc-4.6.2
- glibc-2.14.1
- global-6.1
- gnufdisk-2.0.0a
- gnutls-2.12.12
- gnutls-3.0.5
- guile-2.0.3
- gworkspace-0.9.0
- health-1.4.0
- icecat-7.0.1
- libcdio-0.83
- libmicrohttpd-0.9.15
- libosip2-3.6.0
- libtasn1-2.10
- libtool-2.4.2
- liquidwar6-0.0.11beta
- mediagoblin-0.0.5
- mit-scheme-9.1
- mpfr-3.1.0
- octave-3.4.3
- parallel-20111022
- sipwitch-1.1.2
- solfege-3.20.4
- tramp-2.2.3
- ucommon-5.0.6
- xboard-4.5.3a
- xorriso-1.1.6
- zile-2.4.2
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.
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@gnu.org, with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.
Richard Stallman's speaking schedule
- 2011-11-02 A Free Digital Society London, United Kingdom -- http://www.fsf.org/events/20111102-fds-london
- 2011-11-03 It's Free Software and It Gives You Freedom London, United Kingdom -- http://www.fsf.org/events/20111103-fs-london
- 2011-11-04 A Free Digital Society Oxford, United Kingdom -- http://www.fsf.org/events/20111104-fds-oxford
- 2011-11-08 Free Software and Your Freedom Stockholm, Sweden -- http://www.fsf.org/events/20111108-fs-stockholm
- 2011-11-21 Copyright vs. Community Newark, DE -- http://www.fsf.org/events/20111121-cvc-newark
- 2011-11-30 For a Free Digital Society Moscow, Russia -- http://www.fsf.org/events/20111130-fds-moscow
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.
The Free Software Supporter is edited by FSF volunteer Osama Khalid.
Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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