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