02.26.23
Posted in Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Kernel at 12:54 am by Guest Editorial Team
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
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01.23.23
Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, Kernel at 5:29 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The so-called ‘Linux’ Foundation is reducing its focus on Linux and is instead busy promoting Microsoft, Facebook, and other interests that GNU/Linux users strongly dislike
AS per today’s puff piece, as Facebook is failing it’s openwashing time at the so-called ‘Linux’ Foundation; recently, this corrupt organisation (whose leaders seem to be dying young and very frequently) set up a front for Microsoft and for Microsoft ally Facebook, in order to help them compete with Google.
Zemlin has auctioned Linux. He put the brand on sale. He sold several seats to Microsoft and several seats to Facebook. The Board (and the bosses of Linus Torvalds) now works for interests that aren't Linux. Some are openly anti-Linux.
Lunduke, a former Microsoft employee, isn’t happy about this. The other day he noted that “Linux Foundation decreased Linux spending to 3.2% in 2022.”
“Need it be mentioned that this foundation is connected to securities fraud?”To quote: “I’m not going to sugar coat this… it is absolutely ridiculous. The highlight? Funding for the Linux kernel, in 2022, dropped to a measly 3.2% of the foundation’s total revenue of $243 Million dollars. Down from the — already absurdly low — 3.4% from 2021. Considering the name of the foundation… that is, needless to say, highly amusing. Or infuriating. Possibly concerning. Likely all three. Let’s dive into the details and try to figure out why this is happening.”
In another post on this subject he said “Linux Foundation, bored with Linux, launches Open Metaverse Foundation” (some people came to IRC to tell us about this absurdity, which we had seen already).
To quote: “In 2021, The Linux Foundation decided to branch out from their core business (“Linux”) to create an entire foundation focused on “Health” and, specifically, creating vaccine passports. Was it weird that The Linux Foundation was now in the vaccine business? Yes. Yes, it was. Well, it appears that someone has dared Jim Zemlin — the head of The Linux Foundation — to keep making new projects and sub-foundations that make absolutely no sense. Perhaps, even, double-dog dared him. Because yesterday — January 18th, 2023 — The Linux Foundation unveiled their latest attempt to do absolutely anything other than Linux. For that matter, will “The Linux Foundation” keep their name? How long before they re-brand… removing the word “Linux” entirely?”
What’s noteworthy here is that more people speak about the corruption of the ‘Linux’ Foundation and along with it… the Linux brand. Need it be mentioned that this foundation is connected to securities fraud? █
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12.18.22
Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, Kernel, Microsoft at 12:57 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link | md5sum e76bf04a018fc14e649df5eb0f66efc4
LF Monopolies
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: The Linux Foundation continues to privatise the Commons or basically turn community-developed work into corporate “assets”
THE vast majority of the public does not understand that “Linux Foundation” has very little to do with Linux (a very minuscule portion of its budget is in fact devoted to Linux). Put another way, Linux Foundation just exploits the powerful Linux brand to sell its openwashing (PR) services.
The Linux Foundation is hardly new to us. We’ve been covering it since its birth in 2007 (not 2000 as Wikipedia erroneously claims) and wrote about 500 articles about it. In more recent years things got a lot worse. The Foundation was actively helping Microsoft against Linux and against activists for patent reform (e.g. abolishing software patents). This Foundation is financially connected to Microsoft also through the Zemlin family, which engages in fraud [1, 2, 3].
Over the past couple of days we’ve gathered nearly a dozen headlines and articles about a new Microsoft-, Facebook-, and Amazon-led front group. It’s being falsely described in the media as “Linux” and TomTom is only sometimes mentioned as a participant. The “journalism” about this has been so shallow (it boils down to parroting really) that it can easily qualify as misinformation, as the video above explains. As Ryan said in IRC a few moments ago (in reference to this shoddy ‘journalism’): “An operating system kernel teams up with its partners to kill Google Maps!” MinceR said that “someone suggested that this might be aimed at killing OSM [OpenStreetMap] [...] knowing the “Linux” Foundation, it sounds entirely plausible.” He called it “Alliance of Monopolists in the Defense of Monopoly”.
A rename of the Linux Foundation is long overdue. The same is true for FSFE.
“The “journalism” about this has been so shallow (it boils down to parroting really) that it can easily qualify as misinformation, as the video above explains.”The video reminds people what the OSI’s cofounder Bruce Perens said about the Linux Foundation — a trade association that shuns the community (people who built GNU/Linux) whilst proactively wooing Microsoft.
Nowadays, in this age of “Microsoft loves Linux” (lie) the misinformation writes itself and then reposts itself across the Web. We’ve found many headlines that say “Linux” instead of Linux Foundation and we need “to correct those headlines,” an associate has remarked. “The Linux Foundation, despite the name, does not represent or advance Linux but instead represents corporate interests inside Linux. It has had a hostile, antagonistic relation with the community since disposing of community representation back in 2016,” this associate has noted. It “then gave a voice to Linux’s most aggressive competitor *on the board of directors*” (we covered this before). █
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12.13.22
Posted in FUD, GNU/Linux, Kernel, Microsoft at 9:30 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
He has done this many times in the past, as occasionally documented in our wiki
Shown above is the current headline and the previous headline (that we captured in Daily Links yesterday)
Summary: ZDNet covered a banal Linux release using unnecessary drama from Liam Tung (taking about a future release in an overly sensationalist fashion for FUD’s worth). The original headline was hostile: “Linux 6.1 stable lands as Linus Torvalds frets over a frantic pre-holidays 6.2 merge”; but they’ve since changed the title to “Open source: Linux 6.1 stable lands, here’s what you need to know”; Microsoft’s longterm media mole, Liam Tung, uses a negative twist to cover a Linux release. As usual in his case. ZDNet just cannot help trolling releases of Linux. There has been much coverage about the release, but this one was by far the worst, especially the original headline.
THIS may be difficult to dissect due to a lack of transparency (ZDNet does not publish IRC logs or equivalent/s), but maybe the editor stepped in or someone complained (we did within hours), whereupon they belatedly rectified only the clickbait headline.
Liam Tung’s anti-Linux FUD isn’t unprecedented to say the least; most of his ‘articles’ are/were Microsoft ads. He really should stay out of covering Linux because he works for a company that hates and attacks Linux. █
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11.14.22
Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Kernel at 2:04 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link | md5sum 9ba1a626422cdfb106fd96a2e006bf1a
Linux Revisionism
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: Free-as-in-freedom software is more important than ever before; when companies like Intel speak about “Linux”, however, what they have in mind is UEFI and Microsoft remotely controlling it (akin to a back door)
THIS morning we had clipped and then shared a new Linus Torvalds video where he avoids talking about Software Freedom and instead speaks of “Open Source” in reference to an era that predates that term by as much as 7 years.
“Software Freedom is crucial and it is being crushed along with general-purpose and/or open-ended devices (programmable, configurable computers).”Just over a decade ago Torvalds made it crystal clear that choosing the GPL (copyleft) was one of the most important decisions he had made. This is why GNU/Linux succeeded. Of course Torvalds does not like to talk much about GNU, either. That sort of changes how people understand history — a subject also remarked on in the video above.
Software Freedom is crucial and it is being crushed along with general-purpose and/or open-ended devices (programmable, configurable computers). Git is being attacked by GitHub (proprietary and Microsoft-controlled) along with the software that’s in there; that too is under attack and Microsoft has just been sued for the GPL violation it is not only facilitating but actively encouraging for profit.
The way we see it, Torvalds ought to speak more about Software Freedom; we don’t expect him to do so (the Linux Foundation probably wouldn’t permit this either), so instead we might see Linux becoming a legacy brand. As an associate put it today: “It’s rather important to note that Torvalds still refers to freedom and reciprocity despite using the phrase “open source”. So while he is definitely for backing the f-word [freedom] up with deeds, he remains very reluctant to say it out loud.” █
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