El Mundo Libre

Two days ago, the newest version of gNewSense was released. gNewSense is a GNU/Linux based operating system that contains and suggests only free software. It's the distribution of choice for users who care about software freedom because it provides them with a system that is easy to use and very extendible, without having to worry about falling into a proprietary trap.

Ik heb het vorig jaar al eens gehad over de verlenging van het auteursrecht op geluidsopnames. De Open Rights Group voert al een hele tijd de campagne Sound Copyright tegen deze verlenging. (Als je deze petitie nog niet getekend hebt, doe het nu.) Omdat ORG op 27 januari een bijeenkomst organiseerde rond dit onderwerp om er samen met andere organisaties en politici over te discussiëren, besloot ik mijn steentje bij te dragen. Er zelf bij zijn zat er niet in, dus heb ik een belangrijker persoon dan mijzelf gevraagd om er wel naartoe te gaan. Die persoon is ons Europees parlementslid aangaande cultuur, Ivo Belet. Ik feite had ik ook nog een paar andere parlementsleden kunnen aanschrijven (en misschien doe ik dat nog wel), zie ook de ORG wikipagina. Dit is wat ik geschreven heb:

The time of FOSDEM is once more almost upon us. It will happen on the 7th and 8th of February and I can guarantee you that it will rock. There will be so many talks, stands and people it hurts just thinking about it. And all of them will be great. Not going to FOSDEM is like having a computer with no Internet connection: you will feel a great void in your life.

Of course you will be wanting a T-shirt as a souvenir. Donating a mere 25 EUR gets you one that provides at least twice the warmth and comfort of a regular T-shirt, because every time you wear it you'll know that you helped make this event be an amazing experience for everyone there, including me. Thanks. There are also some other nice prizes to win. I bet gNewSense would look great on that Sun Ultra 24 workstation. If you think 25 EUR is a bit much then take into consideration that, besides the T-shirt, you can get free swag at the stands and O'reilly (as usual) will be selling their books at reduced rates.

Allright, see you there.

Debian had a vote about whether to postpone the release of Lenny to be able to remove all firmware blobs or just ignore the blobs and release anyway. The outcome is quite shocking: not only was it decided that the release will include the blobs (this was expected because that was also decided for the current stable release), but the majority also voted to Assume blobs comply with GPL unless proven otherwise! Uhm, what? I can see why pragmatists like Ted Ts'o think Debian should include the blobs. But assuming a load of binary (or hex) for which no source code is available complies with the GPL (or Debian's Social Contract) is quite a stretch of the imagination. This is the worst possible result of all the options that were given. Rather than saying This is a compromise to get the next release out the door, but we will do our very best to remove all blobs as soon as possible, please open a bug report if you find any more. it says Sourceless blobs are OK, who needs control over their devices anyway, we welcome our new manufacturer overlords. Please only file a bug if one of them sues us.Principles have once again lost to convenience. A black day for free software.

This comes as somewhat inconvenient for gNewSense because we want to derive our MIPS port (for the Lemote machines) off of Debian. Although we have our own methods of de-blobbing Linux, things would probably be easier if our base were closer to us, technically as well as philosophically. Then again, until now we've worked with Ubuntu, so moving/extending to Debian won't make things worse freedom-wise.

'Twas the day before Christmas, when all through our home
Not a computer was completely free, well, except for my phone.
I had just awakened, quite late in the morn'
For I needed not go to work, that place was forlorn,
When down in the hall there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a medium-sized box, that the postman delivered here.
I tore away the wrapping and opened it wide,
And out came my Lemote, with twinkling stars on its side.

Around the beginning of this month it was announced on the gNewSense mailing list that a company in The Netherlands, called Tekmote were taking orders for the Lemote YeeLoong, a.k.a. the laptop that rms uses. This is the first laptop that completely works with free software, including the BIOS, so naturally I was very interested. Further encouraged by the Free Software Foundation's need to have gNewSense ported (because of the MIPS architecture) over to it, I ordered one. There were a few glitches in the process, but I was compensated with a T-shirt. I'm not going to wear it just yet, though, because for all I know the Chinese writing on it could say This idiot doesn't know there's an insult on his T-shirt. I've played with the machine for a bit now and these are my experiences so far.