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262 lines
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html newsdate="2014-02-04" type="newsletter">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>FSFE Newsletter - February 2014</title>
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</head>
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<body microformats="h-entry">
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<h1 class="p-name">FSFE Newsletter – February 2014</h1>
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<h2>A big step forward for Free Software in Italy</h2>
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<p>More public administrations using Free Software means more money for the
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development of Free Software and less problems for citizen using Free Software
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communicating with their authorities. In January the <a
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href="/news/2014/news-20140116-01.html">Italian
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government has made Free Software the default choice for public
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administrations</a>. The Italian Digital Agency issued new rules saying that
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all government organisations in the country must consider using Free Software
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before buying licenses for proprietary programs. The rule, which has been
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discussed for over a year, has now been reaffirmed. Carlo Piana, who
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participated on FSFE's behalf in the working group, <a
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href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/italy-posts-benchmark-open-vs-closed-software">wrote</a>:
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"Now public administrations have no excuse not to comply with the guidelines.
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There are no more excuses, there is no room for ambiguous interpretations."</p>
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<h2>What else is going on in the public administration</h2>
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<p>First the bad news, the European Commission is still in
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denial on their vendor lock-in and <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/2014/01/15/european-commission-still-in-denial-on-vendor-lock-in/">Karsten
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Gerloff offers good reasons</a> to believe that they are not serious about
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using and supporting the Open Document Format. But there were also a lot of
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good developments: The European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties,
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Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), <a
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href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/improve-it-security-ep-demands-open-source">wants
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to use more Free Software for their new IT systems</a>. The <a
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href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/ep-green/efa-use-open-source-secure-email">Greens/ETA
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in the European parliament started a small pilot program</a> to increase
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e-mail security, running 10 laptops with Debian GNU/Linux. The next step for
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them would be to budget to pay for the Free Software support, like the
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Parliament does for non-free software.</p>
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<p><a
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href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/munich-open-source-switch-completed-successfully">
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The city of Munich successfully completed their GNU/Linux migration with
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14.800 PCs</a>. They also announced that they will <a
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href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/munich-continue-open-source-advocacy-work">continue
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their advocacy work for Free Software</a>. EC's Joinup reports that <a
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href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/oss-use-dutch-town-lowers-it-cost-24-vs-peers">public
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administrations in the Netherlands who use Free Software spend 24% less than
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the ones who do not</a>. In Denmark public libraries are switching to
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GNU/Linux, and are demanding a complete free admin system. Carsten Agger, our
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local coordinator for Århus/Denmark, <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/agger/2014/01/07/bibos-admin-admin-system-for-gnulinux-to-be-presented-at-fosdem/">is
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involved in providing this system</a>.</p>
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<h2>Compulsory routers: Private network should be private!</h2>
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<p>You should be able to use a router of your own choice in your home, so you
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can have more control over this gateway from your private network to the
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internet. But in Germany ISPs started to force customers to use specific
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routers, and did not offer them the internet access credentials to use routers
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of their own choice. Together with dedicated volunteers from <a
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href="https://openwrt.org/">OpenWRT</a>, <a
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href="http://www.ipfire.org/">IPFire</a> and others, <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/?p=1163">FSFE worked on this issue in
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2013</a>, sending a letter to the authorities, and answering 18 detailed
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questions. Our argument were then covered by German newspapers, magazines
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and and television news sites.</p>
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<p>What did we achieve? The new coalition agreement of the German governments
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says that they are against compulsory routers, and that the ISPs have to send
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the usernames and passwords without request from the customers. Those are the
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good news from the new coalition agreement. Our intern Max Mehl summarised our
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work on compulsory routers in his blog entry <a
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href="http://blog.max-mehl.com/2014/why-free-choice-of-routers-is-an-unnegotiable-must/">"Why
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free choice of routers is a must"</a>.</p>
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<p>But although the coalition agreement by CDU/CSU und SPD is an improvement
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for Free Software compared to the one from the last Government, there are still
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some <a href="/news/2013/news-20131211-01.html">critical
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points, which we pointed out in our press release</a> (in German, but Joinup published a
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<a
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href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/community/osor/news/fsfe-german-coalition-should-prioritise-open-source">good
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article in English about it</a>).</p>
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<h2>Something completely different</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>You might have noticed it already: Our web team applied a new design to
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FSFE's website. Hugo Roy <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/hugo/2014/01/a-new-website-for-fsfe-org/">announced
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the plans in the beginning of the month</a>. The new design should make the
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website better usable on every screen (tiny mobile, mobile, big mobile/tablet,
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laptops, desktops, whatevercomesnext) and we will reuse this for
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www.,wiki.,planet.,fellowship., search. and eventually, blogs.fsfe.org. Hugo
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documented <a href="/contribute/web/features">how to use the new web design in a
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template article</a>, and <a href="/contribute/web/">how to edit our
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CSS with LESS</a>.</li>
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<li><a href="http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/29160.html">Matthew Garrett criticised
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Canonical's contributor agreement</a>. Other copyright assignment tools,
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such as <a href="/activities/ftf/fiduciary.html">FSFE's
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Fiduciary License Agreement</a> and the GNU Project's copyright assignment,
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enable developers to prevent their code from being used in non-free software.
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In contrast, Canonical's agreement explicitly states that the company may
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distribute people's contributions under non-free licenses. If you value
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software freedom, FSFE recommends you <strong>not to sign</strong> agreements
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which make it possible to distribute your code under non-free licenses.</li>
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<li>Get 46.03€ back for an unused Microsoft Windows license. Rui Miguel Silva
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Seabra explains in a series of <a
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href="https://blog.1407.org/2014/01/10/got-my-windows-refund-and-so-can-you/">blog
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entries how he was successful to get a Windows tax refund in Portugal</a>. You
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can help us to keep <a
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href="https://www.wiki.fsfe.org/WindowsTaxRefund">Windows Tax Refund wiki up to
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date</a>.</li>
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<li>Fellowship representative Heiki "Repentinus" Ojasild and other Free
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Software supporters <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/repentinus/english/2014/01/27/a-short-excursion-into-the-estonian-language-and-its-corpus-planning-as-it-relates-to-free-software/">convinced
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the Institute of the Estonian Language to differ between Free Software and
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gratis software</a>.</li>
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<li>Local groups: Carsten Agger, our local group coordinator from Aahrus
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Denmark, started <a href="http://www.modspil.dk/itpolitik/">blogging about
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Free Software and FSFE in Danish</a>. <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/repentinus/english/2014/01/25/manchester-cryptoparty-on-dec-7-2013/">FSFE's
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local group in Manchester ran a Cryptoparty</a> and explained public/private
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key encryption with actual locks, keys, and a diary. We had our <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2013/12/first-fellowship-meeting-in-aschaffenburg/">first
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Fellowship meeting in Aschaffenburg</a>, and at the <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2014/01/fellowship-meeting-rheinmain-in-frankfurt-jan-2014/">meeting
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in Frankfurt</a> local Free Software activists discussed <a
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href="http://ilovefs.org">I love Free Software</a>, <a
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href="http://documentfreedom.org">Document Freedom Day</a>, <a
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href="/activities/pdfreaders/pdfreaders.html">PDFreaders</a>, <a
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href="http://theydontwantyou.to">TheyDontWantYou.to</a>, the local event
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Fuxcon, and CryptoParties.</li>
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<li>Interesting news about Free Software in education are covered in <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2014/01/free-software-in-education-news-december">Guido
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Arnold's latest update</a>,</li>
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<li>and an edited version of Benjamin Mako Hill's talk <a
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href="http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/when-free-software-isnt-better-talk">"When
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Free Software isn't better" is now available</a>.</li>
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<li>From the <a href="https://planet.fsfe.org">planet aggregation</a>: </li>
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<ul>
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<li>Debian.org enabled SIP federation. Furthermore Daniel Pocock describes how easy it
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is to have a phone call from a mobile phone to a desktop system using WebRTC.</li>
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<li>Fellow No 1, Mario Fux, wrote about the <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mario/?p=189">2014 Free Software meetings in
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Randa/Switzerland about several KDE topics, Open Street Map, and usability</a>.</li>
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<li>Who was the creator of an image, what is its terms of use, where was it
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created and when? This information often gets lost. Former FSFE's Vice
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President Jonas Öberg wants to fix this, and <a
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href="http://commonsmachinery.se/2014/01/another-year-of-fellowship/">received
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another year of funding by the Shuttleworth Foundation for working on
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Commons Machinery</a>.</li>
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<li>Are you looking for ways to get your children in touch with technology?
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Isabel Drost-Fromm was asked how to achieve that and <a
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href="http://blog.drost-fromm.de/posts/children-tinkering.html">wrote
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about it in "Children tinkering"</a>. But be careful, like mentioned in
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the <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/2014/01/free-software-in-education-news-december/">quote
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from the December education news</a>: If your children start hacking, companies
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might want to hire them.</li>
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<li><a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/lucile.falg/2014/01/21/ec-copyright-consulation/">Lucile
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Falgueyrac organised a meeting about the European Commission's consultation
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on copyright</a> to share knowledge about the consultation, and she <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/lucile.falg/2014/01/28/interview-rt-russia-today/">wrote
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about her first television interview in Russia Today</a>.</li>
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<li>The KDE Community released a tech preview of the upcoming KDE 5
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Frameworks, <a
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href="http://creative-destruction.me/2014/01/07/kde-frameworks-5-tech-preview-released-with-updated-threadweaver/">
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Mirko Böhm summarised the changes</a>.</li>
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<li>Tobias Platen wrote about <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/tobias_platen/2014/01/05/gnulinux-on-mobile-devices-and-single-board-computers/">GNU/Linux
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on mobile devices and single board computers</a>.</li>
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<li>Paul Boddie wrote an article about <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=635">"Python 3: I Told You
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So?"</a> explaining why it may be easier for users to choose another
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technology entirely than to deal with version 3,</li>
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<li>and your editor found his <a
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href="https://blogs.fsfe.org/mk/memories-about-some-old-free-software-floppies-and-cds">old Free
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Software floppies and CDs</a>, and remembered how he got involved in Free
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Software.</li>
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</ul>
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</ul>
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<h2>Get active: You love Free Software? Show it!</h2>
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<p>Free Software eases our daily life and ensures we can work and create in
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freedom. In many cases, we do not pay for these tools and yet we write bug
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reports to make the developer improving his software even more. On 14 February
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we ask you to show your love to the people working on the Free Software you
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use. For example, you could prepare a "love letter" telling the developers of a
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certain program why you love their work, include <a
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href="/activities/ilovefs/index.html">banners or buttons</a> on your
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website, (micro)blog about your favourite piece of software, or <a
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href="https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/discussion/2014-January/009966.html">help
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us collecting quotes</a> by well-known people and yourself. On "<a
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href="http://ilovefs.org">I love Free Software day</a>", it is time to give
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back.</p>
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<p>In Manchester, our local group is even celebrating Free Software with a
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week-long event. The "<a href="http://freeasinfreedom.org.uk/?page_id=88">I
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love Free Software Festival</a>" takes place from 3 to 8 February 2014 and
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focusses especially on Bitcoin, Wordpress, encryption, and <a
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href="/activities/android/android.html">Free Your Android</a>. It is a great
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opportunity to meet other likeminded people in MadLab's great atmosphere.</p>
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<p>Thanks to all the <a href="/contribute/contribute.html">volunteers</a>, <a href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">Fellows</a> and
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<a href="/donate/thankgnus.html">corporate 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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<!--/e-content-->
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</body>
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<sidebar promo="about-fsfe"><!--
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<h3>FSFE News</h3>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/news/">Press Releases</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://planet.fsfe.org/">Planet Blogs</a></li>
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<li><a href="/about/contact.html#community">Free Software Discussions</a></li>
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</ul>
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--></sidebar>
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<author id="kirschner" />
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<date>
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<original content="2014-02-04" />
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</date>
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<followup>donate</followup>
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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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