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222 lines
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html newsdate="2012-06-04" type="newsletter">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - June 2012</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>FSFE Newsletter - June 2012</h1>
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<h2>Free Software, Open Source, FOSS, FLOSS – Same same but different</h2>
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<p>There are two major terms connected to software that can
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be freely used, studied, shared and improved: Free Software and Open Source.
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You can also find different combinations and translations of those terms like FOSS, Libre
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Software, FLOSS and so on. Reading articles about Free Software or listening to
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people involved in Free Software often raises the question: Why do they use one
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term or another and how they differ from each other? </p>
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<p>Long time FSFE volunteer Björn Schiessle wrote <a
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href="http://blog.schiessle.org/2012/05/11/free-software-open-source-foss-floss-same-same-but-different/">a
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good article</a> about this topic, how to deal with the different
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terminology.</p>
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<h2>State neglected web standards, company now faces EUR 5600 in fines</h2>
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<p>In Slovakia, the state has mandated electronic means as the only way of
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fulfilling certain statutory obligations. However the dedicated web solution
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excludes some citizens from participating as it is not interoperable and runs only on the
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non-free software from one vendor. In absence of any non-electronic option, this means
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that the state mandates the use of a certain product from a certain
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vendor. People who did not own the copy, had to buy one. A Slovak textile importer
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deemed that the state should not force him to use a certain software for its
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business and fulfilled its legal obligation by paper. Now the company faces EUR
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5600 in fines.</p>
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<p>Current FSFE intern Martin Husovec decided this is not just and made it
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his internship project to change it: he is working on the case, reading
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court files, wrote <a
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href="/news/2012/news-20120509-01.html">FSFE's press release</a>, and an <a
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href="/news/2012/news-20120509-02.html">executive summary of the EURA
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case</a>. He is motivated to ensure that no one is forced to use certain
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non-free software in Slovakia just to fulfil the law, and will
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<a href="/news/news.html">keep you updated</a>.</p>
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<h2>Will the UK be lobbied into the FRAND trap?</h2>
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<p>Free Software could be blocked from the UK's public sector use if the new
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policy allow <a
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href="/freesoftware/standards/why-frand-is-bad-for-free-software.html">"FRAND" terms</a>
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within British standards. As recently revealed by
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<a href="http://www.freedomofinformationrequests.co.uk/" title="Freedom of Information Requests">
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Freedom of Information Requests</a>: Intensive lobbying efforts have focused on pressuring
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the Cabinet Office to back down on a strong definition of Open Standards over the past few
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months.</p>
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<p>FSFE is trying to counter this development. In May the <a
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href="/news/2012/news-20120528-01.html">FSFE asked North-West UK businesses
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to tell Government that Open Standards matter</a>, and we will continue to
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work on the case.</p>
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<h2>Democratic elections with non-free software?</h2>
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<p>In France, the <a href="/news/2012/news-20120525-01.html">
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FSFE has raised its concerns (French)</a> on the online voting process
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implemented for French electors registered abroad. FSFE strongly criticised the
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complete lack of precautions, the opacity of the voting process, and the
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request to use proprietary software to vote.</p>
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<h2>Something completely different</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>"My cooking can't be a copy of your cooking." Richard Stallman wrote a
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new article <a
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href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/network-services-arent-free-or-nonfree.html">"Network
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Services Aren't Free or Nonfree; They Raise Other Issues"</a>.</li>
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<li>This <a href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=590">month's
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Fellowship interview</a> is with Giacomo Poderi, member of FSFE's general
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assembly, has worked as a translator and editor for FSFE, as well as
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completing a masters degree in Philosophy. Currently he is working on a Ph.D
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in sociology, which looks at the user experience in Free Software Projects,
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focusing on the turn-based strategy game "The Battle for Wesnoth".</li>
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<li><a
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href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/spains-basque-countrys-administration-share-all-its-software">According
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to joinup</a>, software written by or for public authorities and public
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organisations in the Basque Country will by default be made available to
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others as Free Software starting this July.</li>
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<li>What happens with licenses when the licensor gets insolvent? <a
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href="http://www.ifross.org/artikel/vorschlag-des-ifross-insolvenzrechtlichen-fragen-bei-oss-lizenzen">
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IfrOSS wrote a proposal (German)</a> about insolvency questions with Free Software
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Licenses, which FSFE also supports.</li>
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<li>Open Standards: "How did we get to a point where we will pay for the
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'privilege' of having a vendor take our data and lock it up such that we have
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to pay them, again and again, to access it?" asks Jake Edge from LWN in his
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article <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/496418/">"Who owns your data?"</a>.
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Will you "rebel" at next year's <a href="http://documentfreedom.org">Document
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Freedom Day</a>?</li>
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<li>In the lawsuit Oracle vs. Google FSFE's <a
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href="http://piana.eu/java-verdict">Carlo Piana</a> and <a
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href="https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-statement-on-jurys-partial-verdict-in-oracle-v-google">FSF's
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John Sullivan</a> published articles covering the topic.</li>
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<li>A selection from the <a href="https://planet.fsfe.org">Fellowship blog
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aggregation</a>:
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<ul>
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<li>Fellowship representative <a
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href="http://roussos.cc/2012/05/14/liberate-your-cloud-data/">Nikos
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Roussos gave a speech</a> about Free Software solutions
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that can be used for self-hosted web services.</li>
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<li>Georg Greve does "not believe that Windows is the future of the Free Software
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desktop." Sounds obvious? Is it? Here is his blog article <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=505">"A bridge leading nowhere:
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Outlook-centric groupware"</a>.</li>
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<li>Clean, playful, wide use in Free Software, out-of-the-boxiness.
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Fellow Karl Beecher argues
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<a
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href="http://computerfloss.com/2012/05/why-choose-python-for-teaching/">why to
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choose Python for teaching</a> .</li>
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<li>FSFE's vice-president <a
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href="https://sandklef.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/examples-in-manuals-how-to-verify-test-them/">is
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hacking on Searduino</a>, a software to make it easy to program C/C++
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for Arduino. It is also a simulator for source level Arduino API so it is possible to
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directly test executable code without the Arduino board present, and it can even do more.</li>
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<li>Or are you looking for a good configuration for your tiling window manager?
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Fellows shared their configuration files for <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/h2/2012/05/05/my-awesome-wm-config/">Awesome</a>,
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and <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/thomaslocke/2012/05/05/my-xmonad-wm-config/">xmonad</a>.</li>
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<li>Beside that Hannes Hauswedell wrote about <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/h2/2012/05/12/improving-e-mail-privacy/">improving
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e-mail privacy</a> by removing header information when using GnuPG and
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Thunderbird, and</li>
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<li>Isabel Drost explains how to ruin software projects fast and rapidly. E.g. by referring
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developers as resources, not not investing in tooling, or <a
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href="http://blog.isabel-drost.de/index.php/archives/389/geecon-failing-software-projects-fast-and-rapidly">by other suggestions</a>.</li>
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<li>Finally, if you have the problem that one of your presentations is
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still too long, she also has suggestions <a
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href="http://blog.isabel-drost.de/index.php/archives/385/presentation-shortening">
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how to shorten it</a>. </li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>Get Active: PDFReaders 2.0 – Your help is needed!</h2>
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<p><a href="/activities/pdfreaders/petition.html">Our petition</a> is signed by
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72 organisations, 57 businesses, and 2327 individuals. The Green party filed an
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<a
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href="/activities/pdfreaders/parliamentary-questions-eu.html">oral request in
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the European Parliament</a> (5 questions) , and <a
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href="http://gruen-digital.de/2012/03/document-freedom-day-kleine-anfrage-laesst-bundes-cio-gegen-adobe-reader-werbung-taetig-werden-jetzt-mithelfen/">
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in the German Parliament </a> (18 questions with introduction). The German
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agency for IT security is recommending <a
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href="http://pdfreaders.org">pdfreaders.org</a> in their new migration guide
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and highlights that you should not advertise for non-free software readers. And
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539 public administrations removed the advertisement for non-free software,
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which is a success rate of 25%.</p>
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<p>After long discussions and considerations the PDF readers team is now
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preparing a major update to PDFReaders.org, adding: a more appealing and
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cleaner front-page, with one recommendation for the auto-detected platform;
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free pdf reader recommendations for mobile platforms; and free pdf browser
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plugin recommendations.</p>
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<p>Please have a look at the current <a
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href="https://wiki.fsfe.org/PDFreaders/todo2012/Overview-Page">reader
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overview and the TODOs there</a>, and <a
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href="mailto:feedback@pdfreaders.org">tell us</a> if you know any other free
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PDF reader that we have not listed, and which Android reader you would
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recommend.</p>
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<p>Thanks to all the <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">Fellows</a> and
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<a href="/donate/thankgnus.html">donors</a> who enable our work,<br/>
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<a href="/about/people/kirschner">Matthias Kirschner </a> - <a href="/index.html">FSFE</a></p>
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<p>-- <br />
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<a href="/index.html">Free Software Foundation Europe</a><br />
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<a href="/news/news.rss">FSFE News</a><br />
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<a href="/events/events.rss">Upcoming FSFE Events</a><br />
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<a href="https://planet.fsfe.org/en/rss20.xml">Fellowship Blog Aggregation</a><br />
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<a href="/about/contact.html#community">Free Software Discussions</a> </p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag key="newsletter"/>
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</tags>
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</html>
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