Since my blogging habit have become more erratic of late I have forgotten to write about stuff that happens. Sorry about this. One important event is the release of the final draft of the GPLv3.
What follows is a brief period for commenting then the draft will get the final and official form and go live.
More info at: FSF official page or Ciaran’s blog (FSFE).
Thanks to Personal Notes for the reminder…
The audio file from Stallman’s lecture in Göteborg. The file is in ogg vorbis (rms-speech-gbg-sweden-2007.ogg) its 78MB but is easy to download since there are quite a few of us seeding.
Click here to begin download via bit torrent.
Information about the free audio format ogg vorbis and about the file sharing system bittorrent.
According to Computer Sweden Göteborg is gripped by Stallman-fever well it might be a good headline but there is no real fever here. In our offices we are getting the final preparations done as I write the atmosphere is one of calm expectation. But we fully expect to have a great time when the event begins at 5pm.
Tomorrow Richard Stallman arrives in Göteborg. During his stay here he will be giving a speech on the 16th May entitled Free Software and Beyond: Human Rights in the Use of Software and Other Published Works. More info on the rms2007.se website.
Stallman’s visit and speech can best be described as a very popular event. Originally we hoped that we would have about 200 attendees but we now have over 1000 people who have registered to come and listen to the talk.
When the registrations started pouring in we were happy then, after reaching 600, we were concerned. And now, after moving the venue to the Draken movie theater we think we have the situation under control. Whatever happens now we will have a good event…
Richard Stallman is going to give a lecture in Göteborg which is really cool. We booked a hall with a capacity for 400 but the amount of registrations has now increased to 600! We had no idea what to expect but with over 600 registrations we are naturally very happy. This can now be classed as a major event.
Naturally this means that we will be moving the venue to a new site. The lecture will now be held at the Draken cinema on Järntorget. The cinema is an old style movie house and seats 700 people. You can see a plan of the theater on their website (in Swedish).
For more information about the talk see the website www.rms2007.se…
This is really cool. Richard Stallman will be giving a lecture in Göteborg in May.
The Free Software Foundation Europe and Göteborg University are pleased to invite you to a lecture with Dr. Richard Stallman:
Free Software and Beyond: Human Rights in the Use of Software and Other Published Works
Dr. Richard Stallman will speak about the goals and philosophy of the Free Software Movement: defending essential freedoms for the users of software. In addition, he will address how the ideas of free software do or don’t extend to other kinds of published works. He will also explain what the Pirate Party must change in its program to avoid unintended negative consequences in the software field.
Dr. Stallman is the founder of the GNU project and president of the Free Software Foundation. He has received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Institute of Technology, the University of Glasgow, Free University of Brussels and Universidad Nacional de Salta. In 1990, he was the receiver of a Macarthur foundation fellowship and has been elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The lecture will take place at:
University Aula
Göteborg University
Vasaparken
Göteborg, Sweden
May 16th
From 5pm to 8pm
While the lecture is a public event, and we invite you to forward this invitation to whomever you feel might be interested, we kindly request that in order to participate, you register via http://www.rms2007.se/registrering
The third draft of the GPLv3 has been released. The draft is a result of feedback from various sources (general public, official discussion committees, and two international conferences held in India and Japan). The draft incorporates significant changes since the previous draft (July 2006). This draft is planned to be the penultimate draft prior to the formal release of the official GPLv3.
Changes in this draft include:
* First-time violators can have their license automatically restored if they remedy the problem within thirty days.
* License compatibility terms have been simplified, with the goal of making them easier to understand and administer.
* Manufacturers who include the software in consumer products must also provide installation information for the software along with the source. This change provides more narrow focus for requirements that were proposed in previous drafts.
* New patent requirements have been added to prevent distributors from colluding with patent holders to provide discriminatory protection from patents.
The draft will be open for comments and discussion for sixty days. Following this the FSF will release a “last call” draft, followed by another thirty days for discussion before the FSF’s board of directors approves the final text of GPL version 3.
Richard Stallman, president of the FSF and principal author of the GNU GPL, said, “The GPL was designed to ensure that all users of a program receive the four essential freedoms which define free software. These freedoms allow you to run the program as you see fit, study and adapt it for your own purposes, redistribute copies to help your neighbor, and release your improvements to the public. The recent patent agreement between Microsoft and Novell aims to undermine these freedoms. In this draft we have worked hard to prevent such deals from making a mockery of free software.”
The Bad Vista blog has an interesting post about Dell. Apparently the company is looking for ideas how they can improve their systems. Besides letting them know which hardware they should have, Bad Vista recommends letting them know that selling their computers with preinstalled with free software, or without any operating system would be a way of promoting freedom.
You can go here to propose your idea and to vote for ideas you support. If you register an account with them, your vote counts for 10 anonymous votes.
Bad Vista also has created a nice t-shirt on Cafe Press
Yesterday included a six hour train ride from Stockholm and back again. The point was to go meet some people and organise my visa for the Indian trip next week. Today was another six hours on the train. This time it was off to Linköping to give a Creative Commons presentation. The journey was with Jonas �berg who was presenting the third draft of the GPLv3 which is about to be officially released in a matter of hours.
Interesting stuff and an enthusiastic audience made the brief stay in Linköping worthwhile. Unfortunately the last train home left at 8pm so we were pressed for time.
On the train home and I have just bugged Jonas to put his presentation online – download the pdf here.
The Free Software Foundation has launched a new campaign called BadVista (www.badvista.org). The campaign has two gaols (1) to expose the harms inflicted on computer users by the new Microsoft Windows Vista and (2) to promote free software alternatives that respect users’ security and privacy rights.
The part about Vista which bugs me is that Microsoft is attempting to sell this as something new. But from the users point of view there is nothing really new here. Vista is actually all about control: firstly, Microsoft’s control over users and secondly, the support department’s control over the customers/clients/users. For the cost at which Microsoft is selling it you would think that Vista would flop. But if you believe that you have forgotten about Microsoft’s tradition of marketing by FUD (playing on the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt of the users).
FSF program administrator John Sullivan writes: “Vista is an upsell masquerading as an upgrade. It is an overall regression when you look at the most important aspect of owning and using a computer: your control over what it does. Obviously MS Windows is already proprietary and very restrictive, and well worth rejecting. But the new ‘features’ in Vista are a Trojan Horse to smuggle in even more restrictions. We’ll be focusing attention on detailing how they work, how to resist them, and why people should care.”
I think that the BadVista campaign will provide interesting reading… for those of you who want to catch up on Vista and its problems here are some related Vista articles
FIN24, Windows Vista: Fact or Fiction, 15 December 2006
eWeek, Vista, why bother?, 14 December 2006
CRN Test Center – CRN, 25 Shortcomings Of Vista , 4 December 2006