Thursday, October 31, 2013

Free Software Supporter - Issue 67, October 2013

Free Software Supporter

Issue 67, October 2013

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 71,727 other activists. That's 1,011 more than last month!

View this issue online here: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2013/october

Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by adding our subscriber widget to your web site.

Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.

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El Free Software Supporter está disponible en español. Para ver la versión en español haz click aqui: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2013/octubre

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Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la version française cliquez ici: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2013/octobre

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Free Software Foundation opens nominations for the 16th annual Free Software Awards
  • LibrePlanet 2014: Calling all presenters, volunteers, and exhibitors
  • Global celebration for the GNU System's 30th anniversary
  • FSF joins thousands in DC to tell NSA: "Stop Watching Us!"
  • Interview with Andrew Ziem of BleachBit
  • Introducing Ben, the licensing team's fall intern
  • Introducing the Licensing and Compliance Lab's fall intern: Albert Sten-Clanton
  • Recognizing an inspiring woman for Ada Lovelace Day: Audrey Tang
  • LibreJS reaches version 5.4
  • Introduction to the Command Line restocked!
  • Cambridge, MA Software Freedom Day recap
  • September 2013 - Biot, France - RMS at Sophia Antipolis
  • How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?
  • Help plan next year's LibrePlanet conference by joining the LP2014 planning committee!
  • Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before
  • GNU Guix: The most important free software project you've never heard of
  • GNU's novel proposal: putting privacy first
  • GNU Octave – a great time saver
  • GNU MediaGoblin summer of awesome wrapup
  • Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
  • LibrePlanet featured resource: LibrePlanet 2014 conference brainstorm
  • GNU Toolchain Update
  • Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
  • Thank GNUs!
  • Take action with the FSF!

Free Software Foundation opens nominations for the 16th annual Free Software Awards

From October 3rd

Is there someone who you think has advanced the progress of free software, someone you think of as a free software hero? How about a great project that uses free software principles, like copyleft or free culture, to benefit society? Now is your chance to nominate them for a Free Software Award. Nominations are due on November 6.

Press release:

LibrePlanet 2014: Calling all presenters, volunteers, and exhibitors

From October 18th

If you're passionate about free software, the Free Software Foundation wants you to be a part of LibrePlanet 2014. We're excited to announce three new ways to get involved in next year's conference: answerour Call for Sessions, apply to join our Exhibit Hall, or join our new Volunteer Committee.

Press release:

Global celebration for the GNU System's 30th anniversary

From October 1st

GNU supporters around the world gathered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the GNU System's initial announcement on September 27th, 1983. In a livestream watched by hundreds of people, GNU founder Richard Stallman announced protecting privacy and security -- minimizing the harm done to users as they interact over a network -- as one of the GNU System's new priorities. In total, twenty-one groups held events in Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, and the United States.

FSF joins thousands in DC to tell NSA: "Stop Watching Us!"

From October 28th

On Saturday, October 26, 2013, the FSF joined more than three thousand privacy advocates in Washington, DC, to call for an end to mass surveillance conducted by the NSA.

Interview with Andrew Ziem of BleachBit

From October 29th

This is the latest installment of our Licensing and Compliance Lab's series on free software developers who choose GNU licenses for their works. In this edition, we conducted an email-based interview with Andrew Ziem, the lead developer of BleachBit -- free software designed to help you free disk space and guard your privacy.

Introducing Ben, the licensing team's fall intern

From October 8th

Ben recently started working at the FSF as this fall's licensing intern. In this post, he writes about what brought him to free software and his interest in copyleft.

Introducing the Licensing and Compliance Lab's fall intern: Albert Sten-Clanton

From October 16th

Al recently started working at the FSF as this fall's licensing intern. In this post, he writes about his experiences with software freedom and accessibility software.

Recognizing an inspiring woman for Ada Lovelace Day: Audrey Tang

From October 15th

To celebrate Ada Lovelace Day, FSF campaigns organizer Kẏra writes about Audrey Tang, a Haskell hacker and personal inspiration.

Help plan next year's LibrePlanet conference by joining the LP2014 planning committee!

From October 16th

LibrePlanet is an annual conference of the Free Software Foundation, and we rely heavily on the support of volunteers to help plan the conference and get the word out, both online and through word of mouth.

LibreJS reaches version 5.4

From October 23rd

GNU LibreJS, a Web browser extension that protects users by identifying proprietary JavaScript and encourages people to write to Web masters about free JavaScript, has reached version 5.4.

Introduction to the Command Line restocked!

From October 30th

By popular demand, we have restocked Introduction to the Command Line. This manual introduces new users to free software, by encouraging them to play with the command line. The book was written during the 2009 LibrePlanet conference in collaboration with FLOSS Manuals.

Cambridge, MA Software Freedom Day recap

From October 11th

Software Freedom Day organizer Deb Nicholson shares pictures from SFD 2013 in Cambridge, MA, and explains why it was the best SFD event yet.

September 2013 - Biot, France - RMS at Sophia Antipolis

From October 11th

RMS was at the Sophia Antipolis technological campus, in Biot, on September 19, to deliver his speech "a free digital society" to a diverse audience of students, local government officials, engineers, and researchers.

How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?

From October 14th

In his latest Wired article, Richard Stallman discusses the relationship between surveillance and modern democracies, and calls for us to "reduce the surveillance capacity of the systems we use."

Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before

From September 28th

Richard Stallman took the GNU system's 30th anniversary celebrations as an opportunity to warn us how, in spite of the great advances made by the free software movement, computer-user freedom is today under greater and more varied threats. In his article, he reminds us of what is at stake, and calls on individuals and institutions alike to do right by themselves and society, by choosing free software.

GNU Guix: The most important free software project you've never heard of

By Russell James at examiner.com, from October 1st

Popular GNU/Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Red Hat get all the attention, while Guix, the more important (for freedom lovers) new package manager and associated free software distribution of the GNU system, is virtually unknown -- even among enthusiasts.

GNU's novel proposal: putting privacy first

By Simon Phipps at InfoWorld, from October 11th

Simon Phipps and FSF executive director John Sullivan discuss software freedom and the future of GNU.

GNU Octave – a great time saver

By Adam Carlson from October 25th

Design engineer Adam Calson writes about his experiences with GNU Octave and how it makes his job easier. The FSF supports the work of GNU Octave through its Working Together for Free Software Fund. Please consider donating below.

Donation link:

Article:

GNU MediaGoblin summer of awesome wrapup

By Christopher Allan Webber, from October 6th

Chris Webber writes about the progress made by GNU MediaGoblin contributors from the Outreach Program for Women and Google Summer of Code programs.

Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory

From October 30th

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions to version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing. The Free Software Directory has been a great resource to software users over the past decade, but it needs your help staying up-to-date with new and exciting free software projects.

To help, join our weekly IRC meetings on Fridays. Meetings take place in the #fsf channel on irc.gnu.org, and usually include a handful of regulars as well as newcomers. Everyone's welcome.

The next meeting is Friday, November 1 from 2pm to 5pm EDT (18:00 to 21:00 UTC). Details here:

After this meeting, you can check https://www.fsf.org/events to see the rest of November's weekly meetings as they are scheduled.

LibrePlanet featured resource: LibrePlanet 2014 conference brainstorm

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 LibrePlanet 2014 brainstorm page, which collects ideas for workshops, topics, or speakers for next year's conference. 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 Toolchain update

From October 21st

The GNU toolchain refers to the part of the GNU system which is used for building programs. These components of GNU are together often on other systems and for compiling programs for other platforms.

This month features improvements to support for ARM and MIPS architectures.

Richard Stallman's speaking schedule

For event details, as well as to sign-up to be notified for future events in your area, please visit https://www.fsf.org/events.

So far, Richard Stallman has the following events in November:

Other FSF and free software events

Thank GNUs!

We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation, but we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have donated $500 or more in the last month.

This month, a big Thank GNU to:

  • Kailash Balnac
  • Jesse Noller
  • Laurent Watteau
  • Philipp Weis
  • Lukasz Milewski
  • Edward Fahner

You can add your name to this list by donating at https://donate.fsf.org.

Take action with the FSF

Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF's work. You can contribute by joining at https://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! https://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=2442

The FSF is also always looking for volunteers (https://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 (https://www.fsf.org/campaigns) and take action on software patents, DRM, free software adoption, OpenDocument, RIAA and more.

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Copyright © 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.


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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Who takes free software to new heights?

Dear ,

Is there someone who you think has advanced the progress of free software, someone you think of as a free software hero? How about a great project that uses free software principles, like copyleft or free culture, to benefit society? Now is your chance to nominate them for a Free Software Award.

Don't delay, nominations are due on November 6. To nominate an individual for the Award for the Advancement of Free Software or a project for the Award for Projects of Social Benefit, send your nomination along with a description of the project or individual to award-nominations@gnu.org.

The free software movement is powered by dedicated individuals and has fostered many incredible projects that are making a difference in the world with the help of free software tools and principles. You can read more about the awards and past winners in our official announcement.

What are you waiting for? Take a few minutes to give props to people and projects that have changed the world. Your nominations will be reviewed by our awards committee and the winners will be announced at LibrePlanet 2014.

Award for the Advancement of Free Software

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.

Award for Projects of Social Benefit

Nominations are also open for the 2013 Award for Projects of Social Benefit.

This award is presented to the project or team responsible for applying free software, or the ideas of the free software movement, to a project that intentionally and significantly benefits society in other aspects of life.

We look to recognize projects or teams that encourage collaboration to accomplish social tasks. A long-term commitment to one's project (or the potential for a long-term commitment) is crucial to this end.

This award stresses the use of free software in the service of humanity. We have deliberately chosen this broad criterion so that many different areas of activity can be considered. However, one area that is not included is that of free software itself. Projects with a primary goal of promoting or advancing free software are not eligible for this award, though we honor those projects with our annual Award for the Advancement of Free Software.

We will consider any project or team that uses free software or the philosophy of software freedom to address a goal important to society. To qualify, a project must use free software, produce free documentation, or use the idea of free software as defined in the Free Software Definition. Work done commercially is eligible, but we will give this award to the project or team that best utilizes resources for society's greater benefit.

Nomination Requirements

In the case of both awards, previous winners are not eligible for nomination, but renomination of other previous nominees is encouraged. Only individuals are eligible for nomination for the Advancement of Free Software Award, and only projects can be nominated for the Social Benefit Award.

Award recipients will be chosen by a committee of previous winners and FSF president Richard Stallman.

Please send your nominations to award-nominations@gnu.org, no later than Wednesday, November 6, 2013. Please submit nominations in the following format:

  • In the email message subject line, either put the name of the person you are nominating for the Award for Advancement of Free Software, or put the name of the project for the Award for Projects of Social Benefit.

  • Please include, in the body of your message, an explanation (forty lines or less) of the work done and why you think it is especially important to the advancement of free software or how it benefits society, respectively.

  • Please state, in the body of your message, where to find the materials (e.g., software, manuals, or writing) which your nomination is based on.

Information about the previous awards can be found at https://www.fsf.org/awards. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the LibrePlanet conference, tentatively scheduled for March 2014, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Sincerely,

Libby Reinish
Campaigns Manager


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Saturday, October 19, 2013

LibrePlanet 2014: Calling all presenters, volunteers, and exhibitors!

LibrePlanet 2013 photo

Dear ,

If you're passionate about free software, the Free Software Foundation wants you to be a part of LibrePlanet 2014. We're excited to announce three new ways to get involved in next year's conference: answer our Call for Sessions, apply to join our Exhibit Hall, or join our new Volunteer Committee. We are now accepting applications for each one of these exciting ways to be a part of this annual gathering for free software advocates, contributors, and users.

LibrePlanet is the annual conference of the Free Software Foundation and will be held in March 2014 in Cambridge, MA. This year, the theme of LibrePlanet is "Free Software, Free Society." How can free software protect journalists, whistleblowers, activists, and regular computer users from government and corporate surveillance? How can free software, or free software values like copyleft, community development, and transparency, be used by people fighting to create free societies around the world? What challenges are standing between us and our goal of free software ubiquity? With your help, we'll tackle these questions and more at LibrePlanet 2014.

All associate members of the FSF may attend LibrePlanet gratis. Be sure to join our announcement list to be the first to know when the conference dates and venue are officially announced!

Call for Sessions

We invite presenters of all kinds and experience levels to submit applications during our call for sessions; you don't have to be a coder to speak at the annual conference of the Free Software Foundation. Free software users, activists, academics, policymakers, developers, and others are all encouraged to help us build our most vibrant program yet.

Applications are due by 22:00 UTC (17:00 Eastern time) on November 15, 2013.

The 2014 conference will be held thirty years after the launch of the GNU System. This is the perfect opportunity to take stock of where we've been and where we're headed as a community. We're looking for session proposals that build on the Free Software, Free Society theme by:

  • Sharing a story of how free software has been applied for social benefit

  • Tackling a threat or organizing challenge facing the free software movement, or a threat to free society that can be addressed by free software

  • Demonstrating a new and exciting piece of software or development within an existing software project

  • Engaging youth, the future of free software. We're looking for proposals for all age groups, from young children, to high school age, to college students

  • Thinking critically about challenges and opportunities facing the movement, and charting a path to victory

  • Bringing a key part of free software history to life

  • Giving newcomers a way to learn about free software principles and philosophy, and/or giving newcomers a way to start switching to free software in their daily lives

There are four types of sessions: Solo presentations, panels, workshops, and strategic action sessions. Details about the different types of sessions can be found in the application form.

There is also a place on the proposal form to indicate if you would like to participate in the conference in other ways – by framing and moderating a panel, facilitating a caucus space, sharing media-making skills, or blogging about the conference. Please let us know about the community-building skills you have to share!

Finally, if you are not interested in submitting a proposal, but would like to share a quick idea for a workshop, topic, or a speaker you’d like to see at LibrePlanet, please let us know your thoughts on our conference brainstorm page.

Remember, submissions are due by November 15! Submit yours today!

Volunteer Committee

Another first this year is a formal volunteer planning committee for LibrePlanet. This conference is about celebrating a movement built by dedicated volunteers, and we feel that our community should also have a hand in developing the conference program, logistics, social events, and outreach. The LibrePlanet volunteer committee will meet approximately monthly between now and LibrePlanet and will assist FSF staff in many aspects of conference planning. If you have ideas or skills that you think would help make LibrePlanet even better, consider joining us! Sign up today, and join us for the first meeting on Monday, October 21, 2013 at 6:30pm (22:30 UTC) in the FSF office (51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA).

Applications for the volunteer committee are due by 22:00 UTC (17:00 Eastern time) on November 15, 2013.

Promotional Opportunities at LibrePlanet

LibrePlanet is the perfect place to spread the word about your organization to an inspired and engaged audience. We have two kinds of promotional opportunities for LibrePlanet 2014: exhibit tables and sponsorships. Exhibit tables will be located in a highly visible primary thoroughfare. Your table and program ads will reach hundreds of software developers, free software activists, academics, students, and computer users.

Here is a list of the kinds of groups that might exhibit at our conference:

  • Free software related organizations
  • Free, GNU GPL licensed software projects
  • Businesses offering hardware that the FSF endorses or certifies
  • Companies that provide free software services
  • Colleges and universities

The deadline to apply for an exhibit table is 22:00 UTC (17:00 Eastern time) on January 31, 2014. To inquire about sponsorship opportunities, including mention in our online and print program as well as a verbal thank you at the event, please contact campaigns@fsf.org.

What makes LibrePlanet so special is the amazing contributions from our speakers, exhibitors, and volunteers. We can't wait to hear your ideas!

Sincerely,

Libby Reinish
Campaigns Manager

This post can be viewed online at https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/libreplanet-2014-calling-all-presenters-volunteers-and-exhibitors.


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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Free Software Supporter - Issue 66, September 2013

Free Software Supporter

Issue 66, September 2013

Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software Foundation's monthly news digest and action update -- being read by you and 70,716 other activists. That's 1,090 more than last month!

View this issue online here: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2013/september

Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by adding our subscriber widget to your web site.

Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.

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El Free Software Supporter está disponible en español. Para ver la versión en español haz click aqui: https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2013/septiembre

Para cambiar las preferencias de usuario y recibir los próximos números del Supporter en castellano, haz click aquí: https://crm.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=34&reset=1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • FSF seeks full-time senior GNU/Linux systems administrator
  • Questions about DRM? Visit our new FAQ
  • GNU's big "three-o"
  • New iPhones put more polish on Apple's restrictions
  • Interview with Caleb James DeLisle of cjdns
  • Recap of New Haven Software Freedom Day Cryptoparty
  • June 2013 - Torreón, Mexico - RMS at the Museo Arocena
  • Show your allegiance to GNU at the office with this GNU polo shirt!
  • Celebrate GNU's 30th birthday with this commemorative mug!
  • Twenty-one organizations ask Italian Data Protection Authority to publish readable documents
  • Jamaica Ministry of Health adopts GNU Health
  • LibreOffice migration in Valencia, Spain complete
  • MediaGoblin 0.5.0: Goblin Force
  • LibrePlanet featured resource: GNU 30th media
  • GNU Spotlight with Karl Berry: 23 new GNU releases!
  • GNU Toolchain Update
  • Richard Stallman's speaking schedule and other FSF events
  • Thank GNUs!
  • Take action with the FSF!

FSF seeks full-time senior GNU/Linux systems administrator

From September 24th

The FSF seeks a full-time senior systems administrator. The ideal candidate will be a well-rounded GNU/Linux systems administrator who enjoys learning and problem-solving. (S)he will be familiar with the free software community and how it works, and will be more interested in making a substantial contribution to software freedom and having employment consistent with ethical ideals than obtaining the highest salary.

Questions about DRM? Visit our new FAQ

From September 9th

The anti-DRM team at Defective by Design has compiled a Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) FAQ, or "Frequently Asked Questions" list, to address the most common misconceptions regarding DRM.

Celebrate GNU's big "three-o"

From September 6th

This past weekend, the FSF celebrated thirty years of GNU with free software supporters around from the world at our event in Cambridge, MA and at satellite events being held in eighteen different cities.

New iPhones put more polish on Apple's restrictions

From September 10th

As with previous iPhones, apps and devices come with a kill switch, third party peripherals are arbitrarily restricted, books and other media purchased from iTunes come with DRM, and all software must be cryptographically signed and approved by Apple. The iPhone 5s and 5c succeed in leaving their users at the mercy of Apple.

FSF statement on new iPhone models:

Interview with Caleb James DeLisle of cjdns

From September 25th

This is the latest installment of our Licensing and Compliance Lab's series on free software developers who choose GNU licenses for their works. In this edition, we talk to Caleb James DeLisle of cjdns, a mesh networking application.

Recap of New Haven Software Freedom Day Cryptoparty

From September 26th

Joshua Gay, FSF licensing and compliance manager, helped host and run a Software Freedom Day event in New Haven, Connecticut where he currently lives and works.

June 2013 - Torreón, Mexico - RMS at the Museo Arocena

From September 25th

On June 13th, 2013, RMS was at the Museo Arocena, in Torreón, Mexico, to give a speech hosted by the GULAG (the La Laguna GNU/Linux User Group) for their seventh Free Software Conference, to students, professors, and the general public.

Show your allegiance to GNU at the office with this GNU polo shirt!

From September 26th

Polo shirts featuring the new GNU head logo are now available in the GNU Press store for $35. Also available are limited edition GNU 30th anniversary travel mugs for $25.

Celebrate GNU's 30th birthday with this commemorative mug!

From September 27th

Celebrate the 30th anniversary of GNU with this limited edition commemorative travel mug. The side of the cup features the outline of the new GNU mascot logo in front of a rising yellow sun, and the lid is blue.

Twenty-one organizations ask Italian Data Protection Authority to publish readable documents

By FSF Europe, from September 21st

The Free Software Foundation Europe and twenty Italian civil society organizations wrote a letter to the President of the Authority for the Protection of Personal Data, asking the agency to ensure that all documents published on its website can be read and used with Free Software programs.

Jamaica Ministry of Health adopts GNU Health

By GNU Health, from September 21st

The Jamaica Ministry of Health and GNU Solidario have signed an agreement to cooperate in the implementation of GNU Health as the Free Health and Hospital Information System in this country.

LibreOffice migration in Valencia, Spain complete

By Joinup, from August 22nd

The Valencia autonomous region government expects to save around 1.5 million euro per year on proprietary software licenses since having finished the migration to LibreOffice on all 120,000 desktop PCs of the administration which includes schools and courts. More important than the money, they have made a great advance toward user freedom.

MediaGoblin 0.5.0: Goblin Force

By Deb Nicholson, from September 6th

GNU MediaGoblin 0.5.0 has been released and boasts multiple bugfixes and new features, such as Mozilla Persona integration.

Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory

From September 30th

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions to version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing. The Free Software Directory has been a great resource to software users over the past decade, but it needs your help staying up-to-date with new and exciting free software projects.

To help, join our weekly IRC meetings on Fridays. Meetings take place in the #fsf channel on irc.gnu.org, and usually include a handful of regulars as well as newcomers. Everyone's welcome.

The next meeting is Friday, October 4th, from 2pm to 5pm EDT (18:00 to 21:00 UTC). Details here:

After this meeting, you can check https://www.fsf.org/events to see the rest of October's weekly meetings as they are scheduled.

LibrePlanet featured resource: GNU 30th media

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 GNU 30th media, which is a collection of videos and photos from GNU 30th celebrations. You are invited to adapt, 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: 23 new GNU releases!

26 new GNU releases this month (as of September 29, 2013):

To get announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu. Nearly all GNU software is available from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors (https://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.

This month we welcome Juergen Sauermann as the author and maintainer of the new GNU APL package, a full APL interpreter, and Brian Tiffin, Simon Sobisch, and Bernard Giroud as the maintainers of the new GNU Cobol package.

Also welcome to Ludovic Courtes as the new maintainer of DMD, in addition to his existing work on many other packages, notably Guile (the GNU extension language) and GUIX (a functional package manager for GNU). Although technically still an alpha release, GUIX 0.4 was released as part of the GNU 30th birthday celebration, https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/. A new version of GNU HURD (the GNU kernel) and related packages was also released for the celebration, https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/.

A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance. Please see https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html. To submit new packages to the GNU operating system, see https://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.

GNU Toolchain update

From September 23rd

The GNU toolchain refers to the part of the GNU system which is used for building programs. These components of GNU are together often on other systems and for compiling programs for other platforms.

This month features improvements to binutils, GCC, and other programs.

Richard Stallman's speaking schedule

For event details, as well as to sign-up to be notified for future events in your area, please visit https://www.fsf.org/events.

So far, Richard Stallman has the following events in October:

Other FSF and free software events

Thank GNUs!

We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation, but we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have donated $500 or more in the last month.

This month, a big Thank GNU to:

  • Stephen Koermer
  • Patric Buskas
  • Mark Clarke
  • Calum Robert Slee
  • Carina Buskas
  • Stephan Szabo
  • Daniel Watson

You can add your name to this list by donating at https://donate.fsf.org.

Take action with the FSF

Contributions from thousands of individual members enable the FSF's work. You can contribute by joining at https://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! https://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=2442

The FSF is also always looking for volunteers (https://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 (https://www.fsf.org/campaigns) and take action on software patents, DRM, free software adoption, OpenDocument, RIAA and more.

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Copyright © 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.


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