The Free Software Foundation (FSF) tech team is the four-person cornerstone of the primary infrastructure of the FSF and the GNU Project, providing the backbone for hundreds of free software projects, and they epitomize the hard work, creativity, and can-do attitude that characterize the free software movement. They’re pretty modest about it, but I think they deserve some serious credit: it’s only because of their everyday efforts (with the help of volunteers all over the world) that the FSF can boast that we can host our own services entirely on free software, and help other people to become freer every day. It’s also largely to their credit that the FSF staff were able to shift to mostly remote work this spring with barely a blip in our operations.

You can read a summary of their work over the last six months in the most recent issue of the Free Software Foundation Bulletin, but I wanted to give you a few highlights:

• This March, the novel coronavirus swept in and caused the shutdown of nearly all in-person activities at the most inopportune time in the FSF’s yearly schedule: the week of the 2020 LibrePlanet conference. After deep discussion, the decision was made to take LibrePlanet online-only on Monday, March 9th; the conference was due to begin on Saturday, March 14th. You can see all of the details of how the conference ultimately ran on our blog, and you can watch the session videos on our MediaGoblin page. However, the thing that I want to emphasize here is that the tech team successfully ran an entire conference online, which they had never done before, and made it all run smoothly with only five days to prepare, and every piece of software used was free software. Like I said, they’re modest.

• Next, the tech team set about addressing how proprietary remote communication tools used for staying in touch and for education are becoming a dangerous fact of everyday life. Having used Jitsi Meet as one part of the livestreaming process for LibrePlanet, they created a Jitsi Meet instance that FSF associate members can use for work and play. They can invite anyone to connect with them in a freedom-respecting video chat room. Not only does this instance enable you to chat with the people you care about without the abuses of proprietary software, but it also makes it easier than ever to demonstrate the advantages of free software to everyone you know!

• Finally, we’re so proud that FSF Web developer Michael McMahon spearheaded the HACKERS and HOSPITALS project on the LibrePlanet wiki, enabling the hacker community to share resources and connect with activists who have been manufacturing an astounding variety of desperately-needed medical and protective equipment. Only free software gives hackers and makers the complete flexibility and freedom they need (and deserve!) in order to meet immediate needs, and Michael and many others have risen to the occasion admirably. You can read a dedicated article on HACKERS and HOSPITALS in the new issue of the Free Software Foundation Bulletin.

If you’re finding these accomplishments as exciting as we do, we hope you’re now motivated to chip in by becoming an associate member of the FSF! At this writing, we are only 13 members away from our goal of 200. The farther we surpass this goal, the more our tech team can achieve!

The value of a membership goes far beyond the dollars and cents needed to help us weather the challenges of this year: a membership is a vote of confidence that helps us launch new initiatives and puts weight behind our campaigns, licensing, and technical work. Plus, membership comes with plenty of benefits, including merchandise discounts, a bootable membership card, and the newest member perk: access to our Jitsi Meet videoconferencing server.

We don’t know what the future will bring in many ways, but we know that we can count on the ingenuity and hard work of the FSF tech team -- and so can you. Thank you so much for supporting their efforts!

Illustration Copyright © 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc., by Raghavendra Kamath, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

• adns-1.5.2
• binutils-2.35
• bison-3.7
• gama-2.09
• gcc-10.2.0
• gettext-0.21
• gnun-1.0
• gnunet-0.13.1
• gnupg-2.2.21
• guile-3.0.4
• help2man-1.47.16
• libextractor-1.10
• libgcrypt-1.8.6
• libidn-1.36
• linux-libre-5.7-gnu
• mcsim-6.2.0
• mpfr-4.1.0
• nano-5.0
• parallel-20200722
• shepherd-0.8.1
• tramp-2.4.4
• unifont-13.0.03

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.

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.

Even though the vast majority of software development and news articles on technology still predominantly focus on proprietary software, public pressure is increasingly shifting the conversation to include ethical considerations. Whenever you feel that free software is not making strong enough waves, I urge you to look at the LibrePlanet conference video collection (or listen to the talks), to strengthen your belief. Making free software a kitchen table issue in every home can at times seem like an insurmountable challenge, but there are so many community members doing incredibly inspiring work driving user freedom forward.

This is why we have been updating our "Working Together for Free Software" pages in the last few weeks, with new testimonials from activists and enthusiasts. We have heard why people believe in free software, and how free software can make a difference in all industries. This third blog post in the series inspired by interviews with community members will bring some attention to the success that people have had advocating for free software through their occupations. It manifests how appeals to user freedom, and successful free software implementations, are driving forces behind the advancement of businesses all over the world.

Adam Monsen, senior director of engineering at C-SATS R&D, and a founder of SeaGL, the Seattle GNU/Linux Conference, puts it simply:

Free software is the backbone of our robust software supply chain at C-SATS. We know we'll always be able to improve or customize it.

But for some people, free software is not an option their employer presents for them, or it doesn't seem like a natural go-to for the business or its customers. Alper Atmaca, a law professional, and board member of the Free Software Association (Özgür Yazılım Derneği) in Turkey, runs into this daily, and poetically explains:

A needle that refuses to go through certain fabric is as ridiculous as today's computing restrictions. But we laugh about the former, and continue to use the latter.

As a law professional who works in criminal and data protection cases mainly, I see this is truer everyday. It is generally accepted that a law office runs on overpriced, hyped nonfree software. That expectation drives an unwarranted standardization of tools that do not necessarily drive the client's best interest in law spheres.

Alper starts conversations about free software every day, and convinces his clients of its value in his professional field. You can read his entire statement to learn more about how he invests time in his clients to educate them. He states:

I am proud to have had some clients who became even fiercer freedom advocates than I am.

Individuals who bring their advocacy to their workplace can make a huge difference for the movement. We can benefit greatly if we bring conversations around software freedom to the conference table as well as the kitchen table. In recent years, we have seen organizations that prioritize freedom secure a stronger foothold in a range of industries. One example is Nextcloud, the popular file sharing and collaboration platform founded by Frank Karlitschek:

Working in a global community where decisions aren't purely dependent on boring company politics and where code is reused instead of reimplemented is just so much more interesting and rewarding!

He continues:

[...] when I was young, free software was still almost always a hobby, something you did as a student, until you got a "real" job. One where you showed up in a suit, did things you knew were often useless, working on projects that were not going anywhere and didn't help anyone. I wanted to change that for myself, and later, also for others. And today, my company employs several dozen developers, and we're hiring new ones all the time!

As Adam, Alper, and Frank show us, the use of free software in business for reasons related to freedom is not just viable, but advantageous. You can advocate for free software within your industry by making an effort to show how free software fits your clients' needs, and your passion for free software can translate into a successful business. Your advocacy through your workplace will help make progress towards free software becoming a true kitchen table issue.

Check out our working-together pages for the complete testimonials.

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Free software is an idea, a set of principles, and a community that's been growing in both size and importance every day for over 35 years. This set of principles needs to be protected against constant threats, like the novel coronavirus, and the billions of dollars from governments and proprietary software corporations that we're up against. It's an uphill battle, but we most certainly are making headway.

Right now, we are very close to reaching our associate member goal before August 7th. A larger community means more speaking power, and a greater ability to uplift community members who refuse to accept the proprietary status quo, like the inspiring group of people we have interviewed over the past few weeks.

To help raise awareness, you can also share your own story about your work or business using free software and how you are defending #UserFreedom via social media using the hashtag and one of our beautifully designed free software images. You can connect with community members on our LibrePlanet mailing list, or, if you are an FSF associate member, on the forum. Knowing that there are people standing up for freedom all over the world is so inspiring to us, and we hope it's inspiring to you as well.

Thank you for being part of this fight.

Illustration Copyright © 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc., by Raghavendra Kamath, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Right now, in a rapidly changing and uncertain world, free software has a special role to play. This issue of the biannual Free Software Foundation Bulletin addresses some of the challenges that life during the COVID-19 pandemic poses to software freedom, but it also highlights some of the unique contributions that activists are making to safeguard your rights today. Whether through manufacturing desperately-needed medical supplies, advocating for and supplying free and secure videoconferencing for remote learning, or creating flexible and portable libre medical information systems, activists have put in extraordinary effort to ensure that our user freedom is protected along with our safety.

Read the Free Software Foundation Bulletin online

Every free software supporter is important to our mission, and we’re so grateful for your commitment. If you can spare just $10/month ($5 for students), it’s more important than ever to take that commitment to the next level by becoming an associate member of the Free Software Foundation (FSF).

The value of a membership goes far beyond the dollars and cents needed to help us weather the challenges of this year: a membership is a vote of confidence that helps us launch and support initiatives like the ones you’ll read about in this Bulletin. Plus, membership comes with plenty of benefits, including the newest member perk: access to our Jitsi Meet videoconferencing server.

The Bulletin is one way that the FSF gives a platform to hard-working activists all over the world. This deluxe edition makes the articles even easier to share, in order to introduce others to the work that is being done globally. Despite the pandemic challenging us, we also managed to send out printed versions of the Bulletin, so you may already have one in your mailbox! If you’ve gotten yours, we encourage you to post a picture on social media with /#fsfbulletin.

In these difficult times, it’s so encouraging to see the community come together and apply their diverse skills and inspiring idealism to the challenges of the moment. New threats may arise, but free software users and developers are creative problem-solvers with an ironclad commitment to freedom and ethical treatment of others. We hope the stories in this Bulletin inspire as well as inform, and we can’t wait to see how you and the rest of our vibrant community continue to put free software into action.

"John F. Kennedy once said that a farmer is the only person 'in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.'

This exploitation has extended into the age of data, where corporate agriculture tech giants sell proprietary software to farmers that funnel enormous amounts of valuable data into closed and proprietary databases, which is then used to sell more seed, inputs, and hardware back to the farmers. Free software offers a way to give back control to the people in this economy who produce valuable resources like food, and the environmental and agricultural knowledge surrounding it.

Working together, we can ensure that this knowledge is put toward the benefit of everyone, not just a small set of large company shareholders. This is how we will achieve true sustainability in the coming centuries."

The above is a statement from Michael Stenta, lead developer of FarmOS, and a LibrePlanet 2020 speaker. He submitted his thoughts for us to add to the "Working Together for Free Software" pages, which we have been updating as part of a summer push highlighting "free software in action." On these pages, we explore the different reasons why people dedicate their time to free software, and highlight all the different ways that user freedom is important to them.

With each submission that comes in, we realize again just how far the fight for software freedom stretches. Thankfully, like Michael and many other community members that we have spoken to recently, there are people all over the globe and in many industries, who are fighting for justice.

Right here in the Boston area, Micky Metts (also known as FreeScholar, and a member of Agaric, a worker-owned cooperative of Web developers), is working with the Boston Public School system to host an online Learning Management System (LMS), as schools will not be open for the summer, and possibly not even in the fall. Agaric is using some packages the FSF put together with Canvas as the LMS and BigBlueButton as the video chat/whiteboard. On Micky's "Working Together" page, you can find more information about the timely and relevant work that Agaric does with free software in education, immigration, and community engagement.

When asked why free software is so important, Micky tells us:

"When data consumption and data breaches at large corporations are at an all-time high, organizations need to understand that using proprietary solutions for their customers and clients puts everyone at a great disadvantage."

Even where the FSF is not directly involved, our broad work advocating for the principles of free software and best practices in its licensing and development help make and hold the space for others to accomplish impressive feats for freedom. We will continue to give people like Michael and Micky a platform, and, most importantly, we help grow the community of people that are taking on this important work of defending user freedom in this time when proprietary software corporations are exploiting the consequences of the virus in more ways than we can imagine.

Check out our working-together pages for the complete testimonials

Together, we can continue to protect crucial rights for freedom. This summer, our goal is to reach 200 new associate members before August 7, and we could really use your help. You can use one of the beautifully designed free software images to help raise awareness, and publicly bring attention to the need for free software.

You can also share your own story about your field or industry, and how you are using free software to defend #UserFreedom via social media, on our LibrePlanet mailing list, or, if you are an FSF associate member, on the forum. Knowing that there are people standing up for freedom all over the world is inspiring. Connecting with the community over your challenges and successes will help us all get stronger.

The FSF is also taking action to defend students' #UserFreedom. Read more, and sign the petition for freedom in the classroom.

Thank you for being part of this fight.

Illustration Copyright © 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc., by Raghavendra Kamath, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.