Free Software Foundation Plans Year of Celebrations For Its 40th Anniversary (fsf.org)
- Reference: 0175437891
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/11/09/0642203/free-software-foundation-plans-year-of-celebrations-for-its-40th-anniversary
- Source link: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/forty-years-of-commitment-to-software-freedom
> We wish we were celebrating the achievement of software freedom for all computer users, but we're not there yet. Until our mission becomes reality and we can retire, instead, we are celebrating forty years of activism, and all that we have achieved.
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> Since our founding in 1985, we laid out many stepping stones on the road to software freedom, and we're eager to continue building the road ahead. We will celebrate our fortieth in the spirit of bringing the international free software community together, discussing what we can do next to make the world freer, and celebrating how far we've come. We're aiming for a libre planet! Sounds familiar? Instead of hosting one [2]LibrePlanet conference in 2025, we're planning a jam-packed anniversary year, filled with several new and exciting activities!
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> We'll begin the anniversary year with an unprecedented memorabilia auction, starting as a silent auction on March 17, and culminating in a virtual live auction on March 23. By moving out of the FSF office, we got to sort through all the fun and historically important memorabilia and selected the best ones. This is your chance to get your very own personal souvenir of the FSF, from original GNU art to a famous katana and the very same VT220 that was standing on the FSF's front desk, and which people used to display ASCII art or to play free software games.
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> Let's claim the month of May as libre planet (or libre local) month! We're inviting free software supporters like you anywhere in the world, to organize an in-person community meetup in your area to bring people together. We're setting up a small fund for these local gatherings, can send stickers, flyers, ideas and tips, and you can invite an FSF staff member to give a talk or workshop during your event and of course, we'll help promote it...
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> Then, on the actual birthday of the FSF on October 4, 2025, there will be a big celebration in Boston, MA, and the entire free software community is invited... These are just some of the big ticket items we have worked out, but there is more! Keep an eye out on the FSF's pages, we'll be posting exact information on everything upcoming.
They're looking for volunteers — and they also suggest organizing a community meetup in your area. Plus, there's also an FSF Anniversary Logo Contest. "We would like to source the fortieth anniversary logo design directly from a free software supporter. Everyone is welcome to submit a design (or even multiple designs) no matter your previous experience in design."
The winning design "will be chosen by the community and ultimately immortalized in the history of the FSF," according to the announcement — displayed on the FSF homepage, printed on all celebration materials, "and possibly even stamped on some merchandise." But of course, the [3]contest's requirements include respecting everyone's freedoms:
> - The logo must be produced using exclusively free software editing tools, such as GIMP, Krita, or Inkscape;
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> - Any fonts used in the design must be under the SIL Open Font license or another free license...
"The final logo will be released under CC BY, attributed to the FSF."
[1] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/forty-years-of-commitment-to-software-freedom
[2] https://libreplanet.org/2024/
[3] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf-anniversary-logo-contest
Until the GPLv3 anyways (Score:3, Interesting)
Hardly anybody even uses the GPL anymore because of how hostile the GPL became towards even other open source licenses. Linus Torvalds explicitly carved out the bits about a later version being an option in Linux, meanwhile Richard Marx Stalin insists on calling it GNU/Linux or "the GNU operating system" despite that, not only does a hell of a lot more work go into the kernel than any of the GNU software by a lightyear, but when distros include any of it, it's basically just the coreutils, make, and bash. But the vast majority of Linux users (in the form of Android, ChromeOS, and several others) do not have a single piece of GNU code anywhere to be seen, period. Sure, back in the 90s he may have had a point, but that time has long since passed.
The FSF is nothing more than a mouthpiece for this:
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The only sane thing he's said recently is how stupid apple fanboys are.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhj8sh1uiDY
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
A check of the base package list for the latest version of Ubuntu shows that its using a lot of GNU software.
bash.
coreutils
CPIO
diffutils
findutils
grep
groff
grub
gzip
inetutils
readline
tar
binutils
gcc
gdb
glibc
gnutls
GPG
And probably others.
I bet most actual desktop linux distributions include a lot of GNU software out of the box (and/or in their repos)
Re: (Score:3)
That's great for desktop linux, but most linux users aren't desktop users. And there's a reason for that.
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzl1B7nB9Kc
Re: (Score:1)
You couldn't run a server without most of those GNU utils either. Your point here is moot.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
> But the vast majority of Linux users (in the form of Android, ChromeOS, and several others) do not have a single piece of GNU code anywhere to be seen, period.
That's the whole point of also mentioning GNU. The kernel Linux is also used to support other systems than GNU, such as Android, ChromeOS, etc.
If you expect the typical Bash user environment, then any GNU system will do (also Cygwin for instance). But don't look into Android for that. GNU and Android different systems that both happen to run on Linux.
Re: (Score:3)
> That's the whole point of also mentioning GNU. The kernel Linux is also used to support other systems than GNU, such as Android, ChromeOS, etc.
Well I think even desktop users get a lot more use out of the included web browser, which is typically firefox, that also has a lot more work and even code into it than GNU by a landslide.
So let's compromise by calling it Mozilla/GNU/Linux.
Its also... (Score:2)
The 68th anniversary of the launch of the first satellite (sputnik)