Participate in supporting the Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on irc.freenode.org.

Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth of useful information, from basic category and descriptions, to providing detailed info about version control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing info that has been carefully checked by FSF staff and trained volunteers.

While the Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world for over a decade now, it has the potential to be a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

This week we're back to adding new packages to the Directory. We'll also be checking in on the import project, which will allow for the automated creation of entries from repositories based on their previously vetted licenses, and which could grow the Directory by a massive amount. The more the merrier! That goes for software packages, but also for friends joining us for the weekly meeting. Hope to see you all there.

If you are eager to help, and you can't wait or are simply unable to make it onto IRC on Friday, our participation guide will provide you with all the information you need to get started on helping the Directory today! There are also weekly Directory Meeting pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.

We wrote previously about why you should support the Talos II from Raptor Engineering. The pre-order period for the Talos II is almost over. Making a pre-order will help them to launch this much-needed system. The goal for the folks at Raptor Engineering has always been to gain Respects Your Freedom certification. We certified a lot of new devices this year, and if we want to keep seeing those numbers increase, then it is critical that we support projects like this. As we said in our last post:

The unfortunate reality is that x86 computers come encumbered with built-in low-level backdoors like the Intel Management Engine, as well as proprietary boot firmware. This means that users can't gain full control over their computers, even if they install a free operating system.

While people are currently working to overcome the Intel Management Engine problem, each new generation of Intel CPUs is a new problem. Even if the community succeeds fully with one generation, it has to start over with the next one. This is precisely why the Talos II is important. As we said previously:

For the future of free computing, we need to build and support systems that do not come with such malware pre-installed, and the Power9-based Talos II promises to be a great example of just such a system. Devices like this are the future of computing that Respects Your Freedom.

You should help make the Talos II a success by making a pre-order by September 15th. The FSF Licensing & Compliance Lab will have to do another evaluation once it is actually produced to be sure it meets our certification standards, but we have high hopes. Here is what you can do to help:

• Pre-order a Talos II by September 15th.

• Support our work on the RYF certification program, to help get more devices made that run free software by design, by becoming an associate member or making a donation.

We get it: people like technology that they believe is easy to use, and costly, flashy-looking smartphones have become status symbols for many. The trouble is that the cost of owning an iPhone is even higher than the new iPhone's hefty $1000 USD price tag.

Here are four reasons to avoid the new iPhone (and all things iOS):

The iPhone despises free software

While Apple is happy to make use of free software to construct its operating system, almost all of the software distributed with its devices is proprietary. Apple's refusal to release its source code violates your freedom to study, modify, and distribute software. Apple may claim to care about your privacy and security, but unless you can inspect Apple's source code, you have no way of verifying whether they're really looking out for you. And unless you have the right to install third-party or modified versions of the software on your device, you have no way to protect yourself when they aren't.

Apple loves DRM

Apple products, including the iPhone, are shackled with Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). Despite the fact that DRM restricts your freedom, preventing you from using computers as you please, Apple works hard to restrict you, even going so far as to argue that the anti-circumvention provisions of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it illegal to tinker with an iPhone for any reason, should remain in place. Even Steve Jobs's opportunistic 2007 essay arguing against DRM has mysteriouly disappeared from Apple's Web site. They have a history of using demonization, concern trolling, and false claims about security to justify this.

Apple is lawsuit-happy -- especially regarding software patents

Apple has often ended up embroiled in lawsuits, both as plaintiff and defendant, and has several times unleashed their massive legal team on other smartphone creators, including suing HTC for allegedly infringing on multiple software patents relating to the iPhone in 2010, and spending the last six years battling Samsung in massive litigation encompassing more than 50 lawsuits worldwide covering a variety of alleged violations, including that of some Apple software patents. Some of these cases drag on today.

We've written extensively about how these lawsuits could hurt free software, causing free software developers to shy away from any ideas that might expose them to a patent infringement lawsuit. The FSF advocates for the elimination of all software patents.

Apple has worked hard to take away their customers' right to repair

Many people like to tinker with things they own, to understand how they work, modify them in ways that make them more useful, or to extend their usefulness through repair. Though the four freedoms of free software do not encompass hardware, restriction of the right to repair often goes hand in hand with nonfree code, and Apple is a prime example.

Apple leads the charge among technology companies when it comes to removing your right to repair, through physical changes to their products and by lobbying for laws that make it illegal for you to modify devices that you own. Apple's physical changes include using non-standard screws and tools for their products, making it extremely difficult to open them up to examine, repair, or replace parts. Its legal efforts include attempting to kill a "Fair Repair" bill introduced by farmers and independent repair shops in Nebraska earlier this year. These measures by Apple negatively impact free software developers trying to reverse engineer support, or make modifications to the hardware that would allow free software to run on the devices.

Apple's encryption is not trustworthy

In 2016, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tried to force Apple to help it unlock an iPhone 5c used by a person believed to have staged a terrorist attack in California. While it is good that Apple did not create a wide open general backdoor for the FBI which could've been exploited by others and for other purposes, they still conceal their encryption practices, so users cannot discern what's happening under the glass or verify Apple's claims.

Part of Apple's security efforts include preventing unauthorized firmware from being installed on a device by verifying that all firmware updates are signed with a trusted key -- but the trusted key is Apple's, not yours. That means Apple is ultimately deciding what is "authorized" firmware -- you cannot. True security in the long term comes only from completely free software, and as security developer Matthew Garret argues, "If Apple genuinely value user privacy over Apple's control of a device" they should "allow users to remove Apple's validation keys and substitute their own."

What can you do instead?

We don't have a freedom-respecting drop-in replacement for the iPhone. Apple's government-subsidized DRM and massive legal intimidation team make developing and distributing a freedom-respecting smartphone very difficult. But we are nonetheless getting closer. You can have a solid, basic smartphone today by running Replicant, a free software version of Android. You can install it yourself on supported models, or buy one pre-installed from Technoethical. You can give the Replicant project a boost, and help them to implement missing features, by donating. Also, check out F-Droid, an app repository of exclusively free software for Android.

Keep an eye on the Purism phone crowdfunding campaign -- they haven't yet fully committed, but they are trying very hard to provide a phone whose hardware does not require any proprietary software, and won't be locked down. If they do make such an announcement, you should support them as much as you can.

Don't buy any iOS device, and let Tim Cook at Apple know why you won't.

Richard Stallman's latest article, “Why hackathons should insist on free software,” explains how free software, by its very nature, is the only software suited for hackathons.

Like hackathons, free software strengthens community and facilitates cooperation. As long as hackathons do not insist on the use of free software exclusively, the “community spirit they are based on” will be at risk of being subverted. Beside egregious examples of hackathons set up for the benefit of specific companies, there are the seemingly benign cases of developers bringing to hackathons projects they don't explicitly say will be free—a practice that “undermines” the “community spirit.” Hackathons insisting on free software, and thereby insisting on cooperation in exchange for cooperation, is vital to “strengthen[ing] the community spirit they are based on.”

RMS concludes by listing ways in which, “as an individual hackathon participant, you can support this principle [of cooperation]” and by calling on hackathons, and the schools that often host them, to issue to their participants clear directives that support computer users' freedom.

Every week free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on irc.freenode.org to help improve the Free Software Directory. This recaps the work we accomplished at the Friday, September 8th, 2017 meeting.

Last week we had a Star Trek theme, focusing on physics entries. Many of the entries in the category were relatively up to date, with almost all having been reviewed within the last few years. It may not be as exciting as adding new entries to the Directory, but this work is just as critical for ensuring that the entries we do have remain current and useful.

If you would like to help update the directory, meet with us every Friday in #fsf on irc.freenode.org from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC).