GNU News: What's New in GNU
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-19 19:50:29 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-19 19:50:29 UTC
Software Freedom
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Tonight, Dr. Richard Stallman is presenting a talk titled A Free Digital Society. Dr. Stallman will address the many threats to freedom in our digital society. He'll focus on issues of digital surveillance that undermine the foundations of democracy, including massive surveillance, censorship, digital handcuffs, non-free software that controls users, and the ‘War on Sharing’.
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In September 1983, the GNU Project was born. GNU was to be a new kind of operating system: the first one with an explicit ethical goal.
Perhaps a little background is needed. GNU stands for “GNU’s Not Unix.” Unix was an operating system (OS) that was in common use at the time, and the recursive acronym is a bit of programmers’ humour. The project emerged from the hacker culture at MIT, which had collapsed at the end of the 1970s when a technology company hired all but a few of the programmers.
Last week, I was writing about MediaGoblin when I was struck by a sudden realization: the project was not about code for its own sake. Instead it was about the sort of vision that seems to be disappearing recently from free and open source software (FOSS).
What makes MediaGoblin stand out is not just the idea of an all-in-one file-sharer, as convenient as that might be. Rather, the code is an explicit critique of centralized web services like Instagram, which require users to communicate through a single web site rather than directly with each other. As events of the past few years have proved, such centralization threatens privacy and makes surveillance all too easy.
FSF Internal
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The Free Software Foundation, a Boston-based 501(c)(3) charity with a worldwide mission to protect freedoms critical to the computer-using public, seeks a Boston-based individual to be its full-time Web Developer.
The theme of "Free Software, Free Society" will be explored at the LibrePlanet 2014 conference, to be held in Cambridge, MA at the Stata Center at MIT on March 22 and 23, 2014, by the Free Software Foundation in collaboration with MIT's Student Information Processing Board.
GNU GPL
In this edition, we conducted an email-based interview with Roman Telezhinsky, the lead developer of Valentina, a free software pattern making program, which is licensed under the GNU GPL version 3 (or any later version).
The Free Software Foundation will be providing a half-day legal seminar titled "GPL Enforcement and Legal Ethics", taking place on Monday, March 24 at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. Anyone can register to attend the seminar, though it is aimed particularly at practicing lawyers and law students. For practicing lawyers in the US, continuing legal education (CLE) credits are expected to be available for many states.
Popular GNU Programs
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The GNU Guix package manager / distribution system is still active in development and the developers have planned a road-map to reaching version 1.0.
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As some other good news for GNU Hurd, around 79% of the Debian archive is now building for GNU Hurd, including the Xfce desktop and Firefox web-browser. Future work planned for this GNU project is Xen PVH support, working x86_64 support, language bindings for translators, read-ahead, HDD/Sound/USB DDE support, and having a full GNU system with Hurd.
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That would be the oddly-named GIMP (acronym for: GNU Image Manipulation Program), an open source, high-end image editing and creation alternative to Adobe’s Photoshop and its now open-ended, monthly wallet-siphoning distribution mode for tasks like photo retouching, image editing and composition, and image authoring.
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The split was the result of GIMP’s concern over policies at SourceForge, primarily SourceForge’s use of DevShare, an installer for Windows that bundles third party software offers with FOSS downloads. In addition, the GIMP folks had reservations about potentially deceptive “download here” buttons on ads being served by the likes of Google’s AdSense.
Out this Sunday is a major update to GNU ease.js, which relicenses this JavaScript framework to the GPLv3 and has several other changes. GNU ease.js helps the Free Software Foundation's case for the "importance of free JavaScript" on the web.
Compilers
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For any students looking to get involved with this year's Google Summer of Code, the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) has several interesting projects that are looking to be tackled.
While GCC 4.9 is running behind schedule compared to where GCC 4.8 was at this time last year, open-source developers banding together still might get out the GNU Compiler Collection 4.9 release in early April with its many new compiler features.
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Samsung is still working towards bringing OpenACC support to GCC. We've seen Samsung developers working on OpenACC for GCC over the past several months -- along with other OpenACC initiatives out of CodeSourcery, etc -- and now there's some new OpenACC GCC Fortran patches.
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This testing is quite simple and straightforward as it's intended to just complement the AMD A10-7850K compiler benchmarks of the previous days. The processor being used this time around was the Intel Core i5 4670 that is a true quad-core CPU with a 3.4GHz base frequency and 3.8GHz Turbo Frequency. Being a Haswell CPU, it supports SSE 4.2, AVX 2.0, and all of the other latest-generation Intel extensions.
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Renato Golin of Linaro volleyed an interesting message to the GCC mailing list on Friday about "LLVM collaboration?" While controversial, he suggested LLVM and GCC developers begin collaborating due to an "unnecessary fence" between the competing compilers and decisions that need to be shared. He acknowledges while there's licensing differences (GPL vs. UIUC / BSD) there's differences between the compilers and their stacks that really shouldn't exist as it hinders the users and developers.
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Most people know I'm a fan of RMS' writing about Free Software and I agree with most (but not all) of his beliefs about software freedom politics and strategy. I was delighted to read RMS' post about LLVM on the GCC mailing list on Friday. It's clear and concise, and, as usual, I agree with most (but not all) of it, and I encourage people to read it. Meanwhile, upon reading comments on LWN on this post, I felt the need to add a few points to the discussion.
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Intel's Beignet open-source OpenCL implementation for their Linux graphics driver now switches to LLVM/Clang 3.5 as its preferred version.
Hardware
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The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to the TAZ 3, the fifth model in the LulzBot line of 3D printers by Aleph Objects, Inc. The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control over the product, and privacy.
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Lenovo's X230 is an "ultraportable business laptop" with 12.5-inch display, 2.96lb weight, and other modern features while boasting an Intel Core i5 series processor.
Privacy
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As consumers living in a post-Edward Snowden world, we should remain aware of what cryptography applications are out there, and how we can utilize them to keep our information (and thus, ourselves) safer. This article is intended to discuss some of the more practical usages of cryptography in modern computing, including PGP/GPG encryption, encrypted chat programs such as Cryptocat, the anonymous Tor browser, and will touch on a major buzz item of 2013, Bitcoin.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Microsoft's Windows Falls to All-Time Low and Layoffs Reported by Managers in the Windows Division
- One manager probably broke an NDA or two when he spoke about it in social control media
- Inclusion of Dissent and Diversity of Views (Opinions, Interpretations, Scenarios)
- Stand for freedom of expression as much as you insist on software freedom
- Jonathan Cohen, Charles Fussell & Debian embezzlement
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- GNU/Linux Continues to Get More Prevalent Worldwide (Also on the Desktop)
- Desktops (or laptops) aren't everything, but...
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- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 17/04/2024: "Failure Is An Option", Profectus Alpha 0.5 From a Microsofter Trying to Dethrone Gemini
- Links for the day
- How does unpaid Debian work impact our families?
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- When you give money to Debian, where does it go?
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- How do teams work in Debian?
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Joint Authors & Debian Family Legitimate Interests
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Bad faith: Debian logo and theme use authorized
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Links 17/04/2024: TikTok Killing Youth, More Layoff Rounds
- Links for the day
- Jack Wallen Has Been Assigned by ZDNet to Write Fake (Sponsored) 'Reviews'
- Wallen is selling out. Shilling for the corporations, not the community.
- Links 17/04/2024: SAP, Kwalee, and Take-Two Layoffs
- Links for the day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 16, 2024
- IRC logs for Tuesday, April 16, 2024
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- Examining Code of Conduct violations
- Reprinted with permission from the Free Software Fellowship
- Ruben Schade's Story Shows the Toxicity of Social Control Media, Not GNU/Linux
- The issue here is Social Control Media [sic], which unlike the media rewards people for brigading otherwise OK or reasonable people
- Upgrading IRCd
- We use the latest Debian BTW
- The Free Software Community is Under Attack (Waged Mostly by Lawyers, Not Developers)
- Licensing and legalese may seem "boring" or "complicated" (depending on where one stands w.r.t. development), but it matters a great deal
- Grasping at Straws in IBM (Red Hat Layoff Rumours in 2024)
- researching rumours around Red Hat layoffs
- Who is a real Debian Developer?
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Links 16/04/2024: Many More Layoffs, Broadcom/VMware Probed (Antitrust)
- Links for the day
- Links 16/04/2024: Second Sunday After Easter and "Re-inventing the Wheel"
- Links for the day
- Upcoming Themes and Articles in Techrights
- we expect to have already caught up with most of the administrivia and hopefully we'll be back to the prior pace some time later this week
- Links 16/04/2024: Levente "anthraxx" Polyák as Arch Linux 2024 Leader, openSUSE Leap Micro 6 Now Alpha, Facebook Blocking News
- Links for the day
- Where is the copyright notice and license for Debian GNU/Linux itself?
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Halász Dávid & IBM Red Hat, OSCAL, Albania dating
- Reprinted with permission from the Free Software Fellowship
- Apology & Correction: Daniele Scasciafratte & Mozilla, OSCAL, Albania dating
- Reprinted with permission from the Free Software Fellowship
- Next Week Marks a Year Since Red Hat Mass Layoffs, Another Round Would be "Consistent With Other Layoffs at IBM."
- "From anon: Global D&I team has been cut in half."
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 15, 2024
- IRC logs for Monday, April 15, 2024
- Links 15/04/2024: Navartis, AWS and Tesla Layoffs
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 15/04/2024: YAML Issues and Gemtext Specification 0.24.0
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman to Give Public Talk in Portugal on Wednesday
- new addition to his page
- Richard Stallman's Hair Has Grown Back and He Does Not Talk About Cancer
- May he live a long and happy life
- New Video of Richard Stallman's Talk in Italy (Delivered a Week Ago)
- a working copy of the video
- Microsoft Windows Falling to New Lows in the United Kingdom and Worldwide
- What's noteworthy here is that there's no sign at all of a Windows rebound
- [Meme] Quantity of European Patents
- they've rigged the system to make more money
- Why do free software organizations eliminate community representatives?
- Reprinted with permission from the Free Software Fellowship
- [Teaser] Freenode LTD: What Happened
- Upcoming series based on insiders' account with evidence
- Links 15/04/2024: Signs of Desperation at Microsoft and Tesla Employees Brace for Mass Layoffs (Update: Yes, Over 10% at Tesla Laid Off)
- Links for the day
- Matthias Kirschner & FSFE People Trafficking, coercion of volunteers
- Reprinted with permission from the Free Software Fellowship
- Gemini Links 15/04/2024: Profectus Alpha 0.4 and RPG of One Capsule Progress
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 14, 2024
- IRC logs for Sunday, April 14, 2024
- Oceania: GNU/Linux Measured at Lower Than the International Average (4% or 7% Including ChromeOS)
- statCounter's data
- Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) Does Not Wish to Become an Instrument of Cost-Free Harassment or 'Cheap Revenge', It Says "Justice is Not Free. Quite the Contrary. Justice is Expensive."
- Long story short, there is no lawsuit, there is a just a hateful, lying idiot abusing "the system" (which this idiot rejects entirely)