News about Free Software, the GNU project and GNU applications

 Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman, Oct 01, 2008

The concept of using web-based programs like Google's Gmail is "worse than stupidity", according to a leading advocate of free software.

Stephen Fry has appeared in a video on the GNU web site, in which he criticises the closed nature of operating systems from Microsoft and Apple.

GNU SOFTWARE is turning 25 years old this year, so the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is celebrating with a month-long party launched by the release of "Happy Birthday to GNU," a short video with English humourist, actor, novelist, film maker and posh bloke Stephen Fry.

Free-software advocate Richard Stallman has spoken out against the association of open-source software with London's "unethical" Oyster-card system.

Does GNU/Linux need to run Windows apps? This question resurfaced last week, when the media noticed that Google has been contributing heavily to the Wine project, which develops a compatibility layer on GNU/Linux for running Windows applications.

The message posted Friday evening on emacs-eval by Richard Stallman was cryptic: "Stefan and Yidong offered to take over, so I am willing to hand over Emacs development to them."

When Richard Stallman announced the GNU Project back in 1983, he launched a movement that would, in time, transform the software industry. The Free Software Foundation, also created by Stallman and now sponsor of the GNU Project, has become a driving force behind the adoption of the widely used GNU GPL software license.

Every couple of years, someone compiles a list of programs that GNU/Linux needs to compete on the desktop. For example, in early 2006, Novell conducted a survey of the applications that people most wanted ported to the platform.

As a lawyer, law professor and software programmer, Eben Moglen is passionate about technology, software and user freedom. A former board member of the Free Software Foundation and the founder, president and executive director of the Software Freedom Law Center in New York since 2005, Moglen has worked to protect and advance open source and free software.

Anyone looking for a summary of the free software movement's concerns needs only to look at Richard M. Stallman's essay "Some Confusing or Loaded Words and Phrases that are Worth Avoiding."

Members of the Linux community have complained that the hot new sub-notebook from Asus, the eeePC, may have violated the spirit of the Linux General Public License (GPL)

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has filed two more GPL infringement lawsuits on behalf of an open source software project. The second-ever GPL lawsuit alleges that Xterasys and High-Gain Antennas failed to honor "source-code transparency," in violation of Busybox's GPLv2 license.

The Free Software Foundation published the GNU Affero General Public License Version 3 on Nov. 19. This new license, based on the GPLv3, enables those who use AGPLv3 software over a network to receive the source code for that software.

How is the third version of the GNU General Public License (GPLv3) being received four months after its official release? Not well, if you believe the Evans Data survey released on September 25.

What's up with GPLv3? Hoping to clear up both confusion and FUD, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Compliance Lab will hold a public Q&A session on Tuesday, Oct. 24 at 2 PM (ET).

"Free software" is a term that's often used interchangeably with "open source," and often understood simply to mean software that is obtained without charge. However, the idea of free software is neither about openness nor about price; it is a matter of freedom, and its implications extend into the political, philosophical and ethical realms.

... we have unwittingly neglected to honor the terms of the GPL which requires us to obtain permission from the copyright holders of any software component for which we have modified the code in order to deliver our product.

The founder of the Free Software Foundation comments on free software, Torvalds, Microsoft, and lazy users.

The founder of the Free Software Foundation asks readers whether they will fight for freedom or be too lazy to resist.

GPLv3 will help FreeBSD take some users away from Linux, according to the founder and vice president of The FreeBSD Foundation.

WikiNews has learned that Richard Stallman, the founder of the GNU Project, is confirmed to be safe in Peru after a massive 8.0 earthquake struck the country on August 15. It was earlier reported that he may have been missing.

The third revision of the General Public Licence has been out for just short of three weeks but plenty of people are already questioning why take-up has been so slow

Hill replaces free software legal expert Eben Moglen, who resigned from the board two months ago in order to focus his efforts on developing the Software Freedom Law Center.

In a note from leading Samba developer Jeremy Allison, The Samba Group announced that it is keeping its promise to move its code base to GPLv3.

I'm no fan of DRM, but I can see that adding new rules to the GPL to govern how some device vendors are allowed to interact with their users would mean more confusion in the already-too-cloudy world of free and open-source licensing.

GPLv3 looks good for customers: It increases user protection from patents and lock-in, while clauses that could have affected Web services have been dropped.

The detractors of the GPLv3 have a simple mantra: anything that demands a modicum of principle should be thrown out of the window

Tell me, is anyone of significance -- besides the Samba Group for its CIFS (Common Internet File System) Windows-compatible file and print server program, and the license's creators, the FSF (Free Software Foundation) -- going to adopt the GPLv3 (GNU General Public License Version 3)?

As expected, the Free Software Foundation has released the long-awaited GNU General Public License Version 3, the third generation of the world's most popular free software license.

The official final release of the GPL is still a day away, but it's possible that over 5,500 projects could be migrating to it in very quickly.

... while Stallman lacks a talent for hype, he does have persistence on his side, and the kind of credibility that comes with being a true believer.

The Free Software Foundation plans to release the final version of the General Public Licence version 3 (GPLv3) on Friday 29 June.

The third version of the GNU General Public License (GPL) won't be released until the end of June. Yet, already, it is proving one of the most controversial developments ever in the free and open source software (FOSS)communities.

Emacs fans, limber up your fingers -- there's a new GNU in town. Almost six years after the release of the previous version, the Free Software Foundation has announced the release of GNU Emacs 22.

At long last, the final draft of the GNU GPLv3 (General Public License, version 3) is out. While companies and attorneys are taking their time in reacting to this latest version, two of the GPLv3's three primary authors have shared their opinions on the almost-completed work.

Version 3 of the GNU General Public License will soon be finished, enabling free software packages to upgrade from GPL version 2. This article explains why upgrading the license is important.

... in an SEC filing, TiVo says: "If the currently proposed version of GPLv3 is widely adopted, we may be unable to incorporate future enhancements to the GNU/Linux operating system into our software, which could adversely affect our business."

The final version of the GNU General Public License 3.0 should be published before the end of June, bringing to an end some 18 months of discussions around the new license, the Free Software Foundation said on May 31.

Eben Moglen, the law professor and open-source legal expert who has helped lead the revision of the General Public License, is predicting broad success for the upcoming new version.

All of this giving away coupons activity by Microsoft is meaningless and useless. The coupons have no expiration date, and Microsoft can be sure that some coupons will be turned into Novell in return for software after the effective date of GPL 3.

Following his second presentation of his talk on the status of GPLv3, Professor Moglen sat down with me for an exclusive interview. We discussed his departure from the Free Software Foundation; his personal history with Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel; the battle with Microsoft over its patent agreement with Novell; his history with free software; and what he would like for his students, for programmers, and even for reporters on the fringes of media corporations to learn about how to change the world.

While not as familiar a name in open source circles as Linus Torvalds or Richard M. Stallman, for those in the know, Eben Moglen ranks near them in his importance to the free software movement.

Free software is not about the price of software or even about the quality or practicality of it, according to Stallman. It is much more important than that. “This is about ethics,” he said. “That is, good and evil.”

A recent poll of some open-source developers found that while nearly half of the respondents believe that the upcoming GNU General Public License Version 3 will be good for open-source software, they are concerned about the patent, device, and digital rights management provisions in the recently released third draft of the license.

When I think about technology companies that are major backers of the open source movement, I tend to think about Google and IBM.

The accusations and counteraccusations continue to fly between ACT legal counsel Richard Wilder and open-source luminary Bruce Perens over whether the third draft of the GNU General Public License Version 3 creates genuine legal risks for the drafters and potential users.

For now, the most promising thing to report about the draft is that the leader of GPL 2's most prominent project doesn't hate it.

Sean Daly met up with Richard Stallman in Brussels, where Stallman just gave a speech on the GPLv3 draft. Mr. Stallman was kind enough to do an interview for Groklaw right afterward, which we appreciate

On the heels of releasing the latest draft of the GPLv3 (General Public License version 3), the Free Software Foundation on April 3 released a new draft of the LGPLv3.

The latest draft of revisions to the dominant open-source license offers an accommodating approach to some significant objections, but it could throw a wrench into the works of a major open-source company, Novell.

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