Bonum Certa Men Certa

Linux-libre Turns 15!

Linux-libre turns 15!



It was February 2008 when Jeff Moe announced Linux-libre, a project to share the efforts that freedom-respecting distros had to undertake to drop the nonfree bits distributed as part of the kernel Linux.

https://web.archive.org/web/1/lists.autistici.org/message/20080221.002845.467ba592.en.html

"For fifteen years, the Linux-libre project has remained dedicated to providing a kernel that respects everyone's freedom and has become an essential part of the free software movement. Linux-libre is widely used by those who value their freedom to use, study, change, and share software without restrictions or limitations. These freedoms are essential to creating a just society." -- Jason Self


Since around 1996, Linux has carried sourceless firmware encoded as sequences of numbers disguised as source code. UTUTO and gNewSense pioneered the efforts of removing them. Cleaning Linux up is a substantial amount of work, so the existence of Linux-libre has alleviated one of the main difficulties in maintaining GNU+Linux distros that abide by the GNU Free Software Distribution Guidelines. The Linux-libre compiled kernel distributions maintained by Jason Self, Freesh (.deb), liberRTy (low-latency .deb) and RPMFreedom (.rpm), make it easy for users of other GNU+Linux distros to take a step towards freedom when their hardware is not too user-hostile.

"Thanks to Linux-libre, we have entirely libre GNU+Linux distros. Thanks to Linux-libre, people like me who are not kernel hackers can install one of those distros and have a computer which never runs a nonfree program on the CPU. (Provided we use LibreJS as well to reject nonfree Javascript programs that web sites send us.)" -- Richard Stallman


Early pieces of firmware in Linux ran peripheral devices, but some of the blobs loaded by Linux nowadays reconfigure the primary central processing units and others contain an entire operating system for the peripherals' CPUs, including a copy of the kernel Linux itself and several other freedom-depriving programs!

After years of our denouncing the social, technical, and legal risks out of Linux's misbehavior, most of the blobs got moved to separate files, still part of the kernel Linux, and then to separate packages, which mitigates some of the legal risks, but the problem keeps growing: more and more devices depend on nonfree firmware and thus remain under exclusive and proprietary control by their suppliers.

Challenge



For 27 years, the nonfree versions of Linux have shown that tolerating blobs and making it easy for users to install and accept them makes users increasingly dependent on user-hostile, blob-requiring devices for their computing. Refusing to give these devices' suppliers what they wish, namely your money and control over your computing, is more likely to succeed at changing their practices if more users refuse.

If you're the kind of software freedom supporter who demands respect for your freedom, keep on enjoying the instant gratification that GNU Linux-libre affords you, and supporting (or being!) those who refurbish old computers and build new ones to respect our autonomy.

However, if you're of the kind for whom last-generation computers are hard to resist, even though you'd prefer if they were more respectful of your freedom, you may wish to consider a delayed gratification challenge: if you and your friends resist hostile computers now, you may get more respectful ones later, for yourselves and for all of us; if you don't, the next generations will likely be even more hostile. Are you up for the challenge? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_gratification

Present and Future



GNU Linux-libre releases are currently prepared with scripts that automate the cleaning-up and part of the verification. For each upstream major and stable release, we run the scripts, updating them as needed, and publish them, along with the cleaning-up logs and the cleaned-up sources, in a git repository. Each source release is an independent tag, as in, there are no branches for cleaned-up sources. This is so we can quickly retract releases if freedom bugs are found.

We have plans to change the cleaning-up process and the repository structure in the future: we're (slowly) preparing to move to a rewritten git repository, in which, for each commit in upstream Linux main and stable repositories, there will be a corresponding cleaned-up commit in ours. Undesirable bits are going to be cleaned up at the commit corresponding to the one in which upstream introduced or modified them, and other modifications will be checked and integrated unchanged, mirroring the upstream commit graph, with "git replace" mappings for individual commits and, perhaps, also for cleaned-up files.

This is expected to enable us to track upstream development very closely, to get stable and major releases out nearly instantly and often automatically and to enable Linux developers to clone our freed repository instead of our upstream to write and test their changes. The same techniques used to create the cleaned-up repository can be used to fix freedom bugs in it.

Artwork



Jason Self has made several beautiful pictures of his version of Freedo, our light-blue penguin mascot, and we've used them for our recent releases.

Marking the beginning of the week in which we celebrate 15 years of Linux-libre, we had the pleasure of publishing a major release, 6.2-gnu, codenamed "la quinceañera", with a picture of Freedo dressed up for the occasion. https://www.fsfla.org/pipermail/linux-libre/2023-February/003502.html

But there's more! He also made a commemorative black-and-white wallpaper with classic Freedo, also dressed up for the occasion. Check them out, and feel free to tune the colors to your liking! https://linux-libre.fsfla.org/#news

He also modeled a 3D Freedo in Blender, and we're looking for someone who could 3D-print it and get it to the FSF office in time for the LibrePlanet conference. Rumor has it that Richard Stallman is going to auction it off to raise funds for the FSF! Can you help?



https://libreplanet.org/2023/




About GNU Linux-libre



GNU Linux-libre is a GNU package maintained by Alexandre Oliva, on behalf of FSFLA, and by Jason Self. It releases cleaned-up versions of Linux, suitable for use in distributions that comply with the Free Software Distribution Guidelines published by the GNU project, and by users who wish to run Free versions of Linux on their GNU systems. The project offers cleaning-up scripts, Free sources, binaries for some GNU+Linux distributions, and artwork with GNU and the Linux-libre mascot: Freedo, the clean, Free and user-friendly light-blue penguin. Visit our web site and Be Free! http://linux-libre.fsfla.org/ http://www.gnu.org/distros/

About the GNU Operating System and Linux



Richard Stallman announced in September 1983 the plan to develop a Free Software Unix-like operating system called GNU. GNU is the only operating system developed specifically for the sake of users' freedom. http://www.gnu.org/ http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html

In 1992, the essential components of GNU were complete, except for one, the kernel. When in 1992 the kernel Linux was re-released under the GNU GPL, making it Free Software, the combination of GNU and Linux formed a complete Free operating system, which made it possible for the first time to run a PC without non-Free Software. This combination is the GNU+Linux system. http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html

About FSFLA



Free Software Foundation Latin America joined in 2005 the international FSF network, previously formed by Free Software Foundations in the United States, in Europe and in India. These sister organizations work in their corresponding geographies towards promoting the same Free Software ideals and defending the same freedoms for software users and developers, working locally but cooperating globally. http://www.fsfla.org/




Copyright 2023 FSFLA

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this entire document without royalty, provided the copyright notice, the document's official URL, and this permission notice are preserved.

Permission is also granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of individual sections of this document worldwide without royalty provided the copyright notice and the permission notice above are preserved, and the document's official URL is preserved or replaced by the individual section's official URL.

http://www.fsfla.org/anuncio/2023-02-Linux-libre-15

Recent Techrights' Posts

Despite Its Severe Financial Problems Gnome Foundation Inc Paid Rosanna Yuen Over 100,000 Dollars Last Year
maybe relocation should be considered
The "Left" and the Right"
It poisons everything
Mozilla and Rust Are Not Leftists
they're part of the mass consumerism machine
Disposable to Microsoft
There is an extensive set of people who got used by Microsoft, only to be thrown away a month later or a year later or a decade later
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VII - This Coming Week Many PCs Will Refuse to Boot "Linux" (Because of Microsoft's Expired Certificate)
The real solution is, disable "secure boot" or "SecureBoot" while it's still possible. [...] Just like submarine patents, a lot of this problem was "hibernating" for a while
The Thing Nobody in Red Hat Wants to Talk About Openly
There is a real sentiment or worry among Red Hatters, Europeans and Americans in particulars (because of higher salary expectations)
Slopwatch: Small Parade of Fake News About "Linux" and Scams Borrowing the Name (or Word) "Linux"
In practice, LLMs are a risk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 05, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 05, 2025
Genini Links 05/09/2025: Community, ROOPHLOCH, and PITkit
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Vaccine Sceptics Poison the Well, Two Exploited Vulnerabilities Patched in Android
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/09/2025: Logitech Lift and DIY Gemini Servers
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Sainsbury's Caught Spying on In-Store Shoppers and Microsoft "OpenAI is Using Legal Threats to Harass its Critics"
Links for the day
BASIC Predates Microsoft by Over a Decade, Microsoft-Controlled Sites Like The Register MS Don't Want You to Know This
The state of the media is really bad when it relies a lot on oligarchs' money and is appointing editors who are working for oligarchs
Analogies for "Memory Safety" in Rust
Don't worry, it's Rust! It can do anything!
Brian Kernighan, "Only Third to Dennis Richie and Ken Thompson" (UNIX), Agreed With Someone Who Said Rust Was Just Hype, Should Not Replace C
17 hours ago
Reminder: Microsoft's "Secure Boot" Certificate for "Linux" Will be Expired in One Week
Many PCs won't manage to 'rotate' to another certificate
"Many of the Red Hat Employees Are Still Looking for Work"
Shame on IBM's CEO
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 04, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 04, 2025
Microsoft Started With Code Literally From The Trash, Nothing Has Improved Since
The reality is, there are systems and code that are reliable. But they're not Microsoft's.
Hypothesis That New McKinsey/Microsoft Executive Inside Red Hat Will Outsource Research and Development Operations to India (Like They Do in IBM)
IBM is floundering
Slopwatch: Scams, Fake Articles About "Linux", Plagiarism, and Worse
Perhaps some time soon the LLMs or the "Big LLMs" will run out of money (to borrow) and go offline, leaving those slopfarms in a tough place
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Means of Production and Rusting Out
Links for the day
Links 04/09/2025: Science, Hardware, and Eyes on China
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Digital Minimalism and Social Control Media
Links for the day
IBM's GNU/Linux Divestment, Based on Hard But Anecdotal Evidence (IBM Fails to Recognise How Much Money It Made and Can Still Make From "Linux")
Love us or hate us, a lot of what we've been saying about Red Hat under IBM turns out to be rather accurate
Links 04/09/2025: Massive Microsoft Staff Cuts (Barely Reported), "Strange Conspiracy Theory Is Reportedly Spreading Inside OpenAI"
Links for the day
Activists Can Win, But Keep an Eye on the Ball and on the Trophy
GitHub is dying, it was a loss-making trap, not free hosting
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Katrina Remembered, Distracted Driving, and Virtual Economics
Links for the day
At This Point It's No Longer Matthew Garrett But People Who Fund Matthew Garrett (or Companies That Fund His SLAPPs Against My Wife and I)
The only thing worse than misogynists are misogynists who fail to respect other people's right to go on holiday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 03, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 03, 2025
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VI - This Serious Harm Was Planned for Over a Decade, Not an Accident or Merely Some Misfortune
The term "Serious Harm" is legally meaningful here
GNOME Unfit for Diversity and Inclusion
GNOME's leadership is using "bad words"
Brodie Robertson Addressing the Recently-Discovered Comments
Most people probably knew nothing about this until he wrote a response
Red Hat QA Team "Had Shrunk by Half Over the Past Year." (After IBM Divestment)
If Red Hat's workforce is being moved to the East, then RHEL can become a national security problem
Slopwatch: "Open Source" and "Linux" News Faked, Made by Bots and Entered Into Google News
Spam combined with slop about "Linux" has entered Google News