Brett Smith has been using free software since 1998. He worked in several roles at the Free Software Foundation (FSF) from 2002-2004, and then worked in its GPL Compliance Lab from 2006-2012. Dtrx stands for “Do the Right Extraction:” it extracts all kinds of archive files in a consistent way, so you always get the same results no matter how the author built the archive.

What inspired you to create dtrx?

The idea actually came about while I was working in the FSF’s GPL Compliance Lab. In the course of investigating violations and verifying that provided source was complete, I often found myself downloading files and then repeating the same steps over and over: figure out a file’s real type, extract it, move extracted files around to keep things organized, fix permissions. I wrote dtrx to automate that part of the job, so I could stay focused on compliance itself.

How are people using it?

I think most people who install dtrx use it to extract all archives they download. I know I do: it’s nice to type a single, short command that I know will do the right thing, no matter what kind of archive it is or how it’s organized.

What features do you think really sets dtrx apart from similar software?

When you extract an archive with most of the native tools like tar, they tend to prioritize extracting the files in exactly the same state they were archived in. For good reason: if the archive is a system backup, you wouldn’t appreciate it if the tool started reorganizing the data or changing permissions. Dtrx assumes you’re extracting an archive someone else made, so its top priority is to make it easy for you to access the data inside. Both use cases are important, but now that it’s so common for people to distribute all kinds of files in archives over the Internet, I think dtrx’s focus is what most people want most of the time.

Why did you choose the GPLv3 as dtrx's license?

I’m a strong believer in copyleft, and GPLv3 (along with its cousin AGPLv3) does more to ensure the software stays free than any other license. The strongest patent defenses in a free software license, broad compatibility with other licenses—why would I choose anything else?

How can users (technical or otherwise) help contribute to dtrx?

I’ve received a lot of great bug reports and feature requests over the years, and those are always helpful. Dtrx tries to make archives as easy as possible for people, so if it does something unexpected with an archive, or is missing an important feature, that’s as much a bug as crashing. I’m always happy to receive feedback by e-mail.

What's the next big thing for dtrx?

I’m slowly planning out a version 8 which will work the same way for users, but improve a lot under the hood. It will try to extract an archive with multiple tools, so you don’t have to install one specific tool to extract an archive type, as long as you have any tool installed that knows how to do it. It will also run in Python 3, so users don’t have to keep installing a crufty Python 2.7 to run dtrx.

Enjoy this interview? Check out our previous entry in this series, featuring Kees Verruijt of CANboat.

One of our main goals here in the Free Software Foundation's Licensing & Compliance Lab is education. Over the years we have created a wide breadth of tools and resources to help users and developers understand free software licenses and related legal issues. We've been doing this for so long that some resources, published some years ago but still very relevant, aren't consulted as often as they could be. With all these great tools available, we thought it would be good to take some time to highlight individual resources that you may not know about. With that, we are starting a regular series of articles, each promoting a particular tool or resource to help you understand the legal side of free software.

In this inaugural edition, we'd like to share with you A Quick Guide to GPLv3. Released around the launch of the GNU General Public License version 3, the guide walks you through a basic understanding of many of the changes made from previous versions. From fighting back against Digital Restrictions Management to smoothing the process of returning to compliance, GPLv3 has quite a few improvements in the way it protects and promotes the rights of users. With so many projects upgrading to GPLv3, it's important to know how it differs from the GPLv2. The guide goes over all the major changes, and even comes with a beautifully constructed PDF version that you can print out to share at conferences or meetups.

The guide finishes by highlighting more resources to help you understand what was new in GPLv3. The Licensing & Compliance Lab provides a wide variety of tools on this and many other topics, so keep a look out for the next edition of our licensing resource series.

• You can keep up to date on this series and more free software news by subscribing to our newsletter, the Free Software Supporter and subscribing to our RSS feed.
• You can help fund our work in creating these licensing resources by becoming a member or by making a donation.

Architecturally, the ME varies from model to model, and over the past decade it has been growing in complexity. In general, it consists of of one or more processor cores, memory, system clock, internal bus, and reserved protected memory used as part of its own cryptography engine. It has its own operating system and suite of programs, and it has access to the main system's memory, as well as access to the network through the Intel Gigabit Ethernet Controller. If you had control over the ME, then it would be a powerful subsystem that could be used for security and administration of your device.

The ME firmware runs various proprietary programs created by Intel for the platform, including its infamous Active Management Technology (AMT), Intel's Boot Guard, and an audio and video Digital Restrictions Management system specifically for ultra-high definition media called "Intel Insider." While some of this technology is marketed to provide you with convenience and protection, what it requires from you, the user, is to give up control over your computer. This control benefits Intel, their business partners, and large media companies. Intel is effectively leasing-out to the third-parties the rights to control how, if, and when you can access certain data and software on your machine.

Leah Woods of GNU Libreboot states that the "Intel Management Engine with its proprietary firmware has complete access to and control over the PC: it can power on or shut down the PC, read all open files, examine all running applications, track all keys pressed and mouse movements, and even capture or display images on the screen. And it has a network interface that is demonstrably insecure, which can allow an attacker on the network to inject rootkits that completely compromise the PC and can report to the attacker all activities performed on the PC. It is a threat to freedom, security, and privacy that can't be ignored."

At this time, developing free replacement firmware for the ME is basically impossible. The only entity capable of replacing the ME firmware is Intel and its OEM partners. And, since the ME is a control hub for your machine, you can no longer simply disable the ME like you could on earlier models, such as the Libreboot X200 laptop.

This means that if in the future we want more hardware that can achieve Respects Your Freedom certification, we will need to make it a "High-Priority" to support the work of those who are getting GNU Libreboot and 100% free system distributions running on other architectures, such as ARM, MIPS, and POWER8.

Join the FSF and friends Friday, June 10th, from 12pm to 3pm EDT (16:00 to 19:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory.

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

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 Free Software Directory has been and continues to be a great resource to the world over the past decade, it has the potential of being a resource of even greater value. But it needs your help!

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 FSD Meetings pages that everyone is welcome to contribute to before, during, and after each meeting.

• 8sync-0.1.0
• autogen-5.18.9
• cflow-1.5
• denemo-2.0.8
• fontopia-1.2
• freeipmi-1.5.2
• gcc-6.1.0
• gdbm-1.12
• gneuralnetwork-0.9.1
• gnumach-1.7
• gnupg-2.1.12
• gnu-pw-mgr-2.0
• gnutls-3.4.12
• guile-ncurses-1.7
• gzip-1.8
• help2man-1.47.4
• hurd-0.8
• icecat-38.8.0-gnu1
• jel-2.1.1
• librejs-6.0.13
• make-4.2
• mig-1.7
• parallel-20160522
• remotecontrol-2.0
• swbis-1.13
• tar-1.29
• xboard-4.9.0

For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu.

To download: nearly all GNU software is available from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/, or preferably one of its mirrors from https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html. You can use the url https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a (hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.

This month, we welcome Mohd Isam as the maintainer of the new package Fontopia, Peter Cherepanov as the new maintainer of GGradebook, Tom Cato Amundsen as a returning maintainer of Solfege, and Leah Woods as the maintainer of the newly dubbed GNU Libreboot.

A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance: please see https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to help. The general page on how to help GNU is at https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html.

If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.

As always, please feel free to write to us at maintainers@gnu.org with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.