Richard Stallman
— source techrights.org
Tag: Free Software
How Many People Developed GNU in the 1980s
Milky Way v0.4 release
After a long and continuous period of tests and development, we are happy to announce a new release of Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre. With version 0.4, we have reached yet another major milestone: With it Hyperbola will be able to start the groundworks, per say of HyperbolaBSD. This release will serve as a transitional platform, for the continued effort to create a copyleft BSD based alternative kernel and system. For more information on this check.
Many of the commonly used frameworks that we identified as definitely not being wanted were dropped, and alternatives where packaged and included. Lumina is one example of that, when it comes to desktop enviroments, given its nondependence on D-Bus. Bluetooth is another, support has also been dropped, mostly because of the huge complexity of this codebase and derived and well-known vulnerabilities. In addition, Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre v0.4 stays further oriented towards INIT-Freedom. Therefore we have also added now experimental support for runit with the option to add also more alternatives (potentially S6). Please note at this point: This is for sure not finished and is for now marked as unstable while HyperRC stays our major focus. Again for further alignment with current roadmap. Continued direction in packaging, while previous versions used a snapshot-model the new release is now build from scratch with all packages included following the File System Hierarchy Standard.
And to conclude many if not all improvements brought you by this Project previously. Xenocara as the default display server for the X Window System, LibreSSL as the default provider of SSL and TLS protocols. Dropped support for systemd, Rust or Node.js by blacklisting main packages and related dependencies. Among many other enhancements Hyperbola has been making available to the general public through the years. Feel free to give v0.4 a tryout and give us feedback if you encounter any problems!
Removed:
D-Bus
Bluetooth
PAM
systemd / elogind
PolicyKit
ConsoleKit
PulseAudio
lastly Avahi
https://www.hyperbola.info/download/
— source hyperbola.info | André Silva | 2022-03-01
A German State Is Saying Goodbye Windows
Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state in Germany, has plans to move almost entirely open source. By the time the dust settles, the regional government will have all but dropped Windows, Microsoft Office, Zoom and other proprietary software for Linux, LibreOffice, OnlyOffice, and Jitzi. By the end of 2026, Microsoft Office is to be replaced by LibreOffice on all 25,000 computers used by civil servants and employees (including teachers), and the Windows operating system is to be replaced by GNU/Linux.
— source fossforce.com | Nov 23, 2021
Turning WWW into an app store
The Linux Backdoor Attempt of 2003
Josh wrote recently about a serious security bug that appeared in Debian Linux back in 2006, and whether it was really a backdoor inserted by the NSA. (He concluded that it probably was not.)
Today I want to write about another incident, in 2003, in which someone tried to backdoor the Linux kernel. This one was definitely an attempt to insert a backdoor. But we don’t know who it was that made the attempt—and we probably never will.
Back in 2003 Linux used a system called BitKeeper to store the master copy of the Linux source code. If a developer wanted to propose a modification to the Linux code, they would submit their proposed change, and it would go through an organized approval process to decide whether the change would be accepted into the master code. Every change to the master code would come with a short explanation, which always included a pointer to the record of its approval.
— source freedom-to-tinker.com | Ed Felten | Oct 9, 2013
In Estonia state-owned software will be publicly available
The Estonian Parliament, the Riigikogu, approved the necessary changes to the Estonian State Property Act on 12 May 2021, with the new rules coming into force on 1 June 2021. Under the new rules, all software to which the state owns the property rights in whole or part should be made available publicly. If only parts are owned by the state, those parts owned by the state should be made available.
— source joinup.ec.europa.eu | 02/07/2021
Linus Torvalds says GPL was defining factor in Linux’s success
Linus Torvalds and Dirk Hohndel, vice president and chief of open source at VMware, discussed the role that GNU GPL played in the success of Linux during a keynote conversation this week at LinuxCon NA in Toronto. Here is an edited version of the conversation.
“FSF [Free Software Foundation] and I don’t have a loving relationship, but I love GPL v2,” said Torvalds. “I really think the license has been one of the defining factors in the success of Linux because it enforced that you have to give back, which meant that the fragmentation has never been something that has been viable from a technical standpoint.”
“The GPL ensures that nobody is ever going to take advantage of your code. It will remain free and nobody can take that away from you. I think that’s a big deal for community management.”
— source cio.com | 27 Aug 2016
Thank you GNU. Thank you Stallman.
Codes of Conduct for Grown-ups
Unrelated issues are not important
Not long ago, there were moves to exclude Stallman from the movement and from the organized efforts he started, and impose a political stand about issues unrelated to the software freedom issue. It’s not that people can’t or shouldn’t hold or express unrelated views; he and they should be just as welcome and free to do so. People are multidimensional: we care about multiple issues.
However, in the Free Software Movement, the focus has always been on a single issue: freedom for all software users, justified on ethics and grounded on solidarity and on human rights, particularly on free speech. Stallman remains committed to the ideas that define the movement: though he supports several unrelated causes, he has not attempted to impose them on the free software movement.
— source fsfla.org | 2020-12-19