Discussion January 2013

discussion@lists.fsfe.org

25 participants
10 discussions

Goal for February 14th: More love reports than bug reports! #ilovefs
by Matthias Kirschner 24 Feb '14

24 Feb '14

(If you are reading FSFE's newsletters [1] (and you should when you have not yet given me feedback what I could improve ;) ), and you already use one of our banners [2], you can skip this post because I copied and pasted it. Else please continue.) Let us admit it, the Free Software community is often very critical. Wewrite bug reports, tell others how they can improve the software, ask them fornew features, and to not spare with criticism. Sometimes we forget to say "thank you, for all your work". As in the last years, we want to change this, at least for one day. So on Tuesday the 14th of February we will celebrate the "I love Free Software" - Day [3]. Get active, buy your favourite developer a drink or give them a hug (ask forpermission first), write an e-mail/letter [4] expressing your feelings, create nice pictures, donate to a Free Software initiative, use another of our suggestions [5] or be create yourself to show how you appreciate people, working hard to enlarge or defend our freedom. Beside that help us to promote the activity with our banners [6], by e-mail, (micro)blog or in your (distributed?) social networks. New this year is a whole day event in the Unperfekthaus in Essen (Germany) [7] and that all our Fellows automatically get an login(a)ilovefs.org e-mail alias. So let's make sure that on February 14th there are more love reports, than bug reports! All the best, Matthias 1. http://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html 2. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/2012/banners.html 3. http://ilovefs.org 4. http://blogs.fsfe.org/thomaslocke/2012/01/18/why-i-love-free-and-open-sourc… 5. http://ilovefs.org 6. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/2012/banners.html 7. http://fsfe.org/campaigns/ilovefs/2012/unperfekthaus.html -- Matthias Kirschner - FSFE - Fellowship Coordinator, German Coordinator FSFE, Linienstr. 141, 10115 Berlin, t +49-30-27595290 +49-1577-1780003 Free Software is important to you? Join today! (fsfe.org/join) Weblog (blogs.fsfe.org/mk) - Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner)

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Firefox Mobile + Geeksphone = Awesome
by Sam Tuke 28 Feb '13

28 Feb '13

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 "This week we are announcing our new Firefox OS developer preview phones because we believe that developers will help bring the power of the web to mobile. These developer phones are being developed by Geeksphone in partnership with Telefonica and Geeksphone." This is a very interesting development for Free Software! Details: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/01/announcing-the-firefox-os-developer-previ… Get the ROM: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/Building_and_in… Get the simulator: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-os-simulator/ Buy the Firefox Geeksphone (soon): http://www.geeksphone.com/ Best, Sam. - -- Sam Tuke Campaign Manager Free Software Foundation Europe IM : samtuke(a)jabber.fsfe.org Latest UK Free Software news: uk.fsfe.org Is freedom important to you? Join the fellowship.fsfe.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.13 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/ iF4EAREIAAYFAlD+uhoACgkQ1bR1Itj7YQVDEAD/cuDj8CQpdNW3uma6wO/SZTlI ZBLlxtmEn31eT+blh/IA/AuTQ50b0wQ5BjmYGECz7+no9j+gOClXpI0Rl1QhO7rO =8ebs -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Software Freedom Day: Hunt for Skype alternatives
by Sam Tuke 07 Feb '13

07 Feb '13

Hello all, this Saturday Free Software activists will determine the easiest ways of chatting using Free Software audio and video programs. We'll be testing out a variety of applications, including Pidgin, Empathy, and Kopete. The core group of testers will be in Madlab Hackerspace in Manchester, but *anyone can participate* - join the #FSFE IRC channel on Freenode to find people to test chatting with, and see what still needs testing (email manchester(a)lists.fsfe.org if you need help getting access to IRC). The aim is to publish the results as a compatibility chart that will show at a glance the easiest way to chat. As many Free Software users still use Skype due to confusion surrounding Free Software alternatives, our research will hopefully be very useful to a variety of individuals and organisations. *Activity outline* - Testing takes place on 15.09.12 at 14.00-17.00 UK time (15.00-18.00 CEST) - Use a grid of Free Software chat programs for collecting our findings - Test as many chat clients as possible (eg. Pidgin, Psi) - For each combination of programs test whether voice chat and video works (people without webcams can still test voice chat) *Optional additional tests* - Try connecting to other people at madlab, and also try connecting to people in other countries - Test the Free Software clients with different operating systems if people bring them installed on laptops - Test different versions of chat clients (not just the latest release) *Requirements* - Bring your own laptop (some older laptops will be available to borrow) - Your laptop should have either a built in microphone, a separate microphone, or mic headset *Optional Requirements* - Built in, or stand-alone webcam Three separate Free Software and GNU/Linux groups will be meeting in MadLab on Saturday: Manchester FSFE Fellowship Group, Manchester Free Software, and ManLUG. Other activities will likely be available in addition to chat testing, so feel free to come along and see what you fancy. MadLab event page: http://madlab.org.uk/content/fsfe-manchester-free-software- and-manlug/ "See" you there (one way or another :) ), Sam. -- Sam Tuke Campaign Manager Free Software Foundation Europe IM : samtuke(a)jabber.fsfe.org Latest UK Free Software news: uk.fsfe.org Is freedom important to you? Join the fellowship.fsfe.org

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Jonathan Corbet's predictions on UEFI
by Matthias Kirschner 30 Jan '13

30 Jan '13

I fully agree with Jonathan on this http://lwn.net/Articles/531082/: In 2012, the shape of a solution for the UEFI secure boot problem came into view. In 2013, the full messiness of the secure boot situation will come to the fore. There are already reports of some secure-boot-enabled systems refusing to work right with the Linux "shim" solution; others will certainly come out. We are, after all, at the mercy of BIOS developers who only really care that Windows boots properly. We are also at the mercy of Microsoft, which could decide to take a more hostile stance at anytime; there have already been snags in getting the Linux Foundation's bootloader signed. UEFI secure boot bears watching, and we owe thanks to the developers who have been laboring to make Linux work in that environment. But the problem of locked-down systems is much larger — and much older — than UEFI secure boot, and many of the systems in question already run Linux. Maintaining access to "our" hardware will continue to be a problem this year, just like it has been in the past. "Runs Linux" will continue to mean something different than "the owner can run their own software on it," and UEFI secure boot does not really change the situation all that much, especially for non-x86 systems. Best Regards, Matthias -- Matthias Kirschner - FSFE - Fellowship Coordinator, German Coordinator FSFE, Linienstr. 141, 10115 Berlin, t +49-30-27595290 +49-1577-1780003 Weblog (blogs.fsfe.org/mk) - Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner) Support FSFE! http://fsfe.org/support/?mk

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A lightweight laptop with SSD and good GNU/linx support?
by Hugo Roy 21 Jan '13

21 Jan '13

Hello, You know how hard it is to find a good laptop. You know how harder it can be to find one without windows, or better, with some flavour of GNU/Linux preinstalled. I'm looking for a new laptop. Do you have suggestions matching: * Good support with Debian Testing * No more than 13 inches * Good Battery life. At least 5 hours * around 1 kilo / 2.4 pounds * No more than 500 EUR * SSD http://blogs.fsfe.org/hugo/2013/01/im-looking-for-a-new-laptop-suggestions/ Thanks!! Hugo -- Hugo Roy FSFE Legal Team Deputy Coordinator FSFE French Team Coordinator Support Free Software, sign up! https://fsfe.org/support

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Secure boot, DRM and current hardware. Was: A lightweight laptop with SSD and good GNU/linx support?
by Xavi Drudis Ferran 18 Jan '13

18 Jan '13

On Fri 18/01/13 16:24 , Sam Liddicott <sam(a)liddicott.com> wrote: > Without intended to promote dissent, Alas ! the law of unintended consequences... > I like UEFI with secure boot when I > can upload the signing keys and there is a physical switch on such key > storage. I don't. The current stage is still early. In the future we'll be denied access to content, networks and services (publics services, banking services, whatever) when the devices we try to connect to are unable to proof that we run the software they (not us) trust. I think it's called Remote Attestation. The only way out is not buying our own shackles and ensuring DRM enabling hardware fails in the market (I'm not saying the only way out is likely). I'm not sure I'll stick to my own advice forever, but at least I'll try to hold for as long as I can and if I ever buy shackles just buy the cheapest or something . It's difficult to buy computers nowadays, because all implement DRM provisions in one way or other. Modern intel processors check signatures on propietary initialization code before they even configure RAM. Is that a computer ? AMD at least contributes to coreboot and documents processors, but they do implement the basic remote management infraestructure, and tie their CPUs to GPUs or APUs with propietary AtomBIOS, possibly to keep secrecy on DRM measures. ARM is deploying Trust Zone (or True Zone, forgot the name) functionality of similar kind. Closed hardware nowadays is not something I recognize as a computer any more, a general purpose mathematical machine. Open hardware is ok, but still not fit for some purposes and not easy to buy. > That way I can secure my own machine and retain my own freedom. > I acknowledge that UEFI + secure boot generally refers to something more > restrictive > I'm no security expert, but I don't think it buys much security either. How do you know your signed software is safe ? If enough of your software is really safe, then it wouldn't have let anyone modify itself or bootloaders even without secure boot. If some of it isn't then it may be compromised and maybe coerced into breaking security even with secure boot. Our current functionality is too complex to have simple enough software to be completely validated. Signature checks are just a way to shove security worries under the carpet. Secure boot with user controlled trust and maybe microkernels with small trusted baselines may bring some measure of security but that's just theory. In practice you don't audit all your software, and even with the huge help of a free software community you can't be all that sure that software is safe. You'll always be as safe as the society you live with accepts because you can't write all the code you run, you can't even read it all, and your society will move your requirements fast enough for a minority of secure minded auditors to be outpaced. And in exchage for that you're throwing a computer away and replacing it with a special purpose machine running a finite set of trusted software. Bad bargain I say. For more information look at the coreboot mailing list archives. It's been discussed a little. Btw, one of the coreboot developers recomended chromebooks (and another laptop I think too heavy) because (some?) come with coreboot, which is free firmware (may require blobs depending on the hardware), and locks can be disabled by the user. I insist that I don't like todays hardware in general, but thought it might be worth noting since discussion is a little centered on the operating system and drivers, and even laptops sold without OS (when you can find one), or with FreeDOS or fully free OSes (is there any?) have closed hardware and propietary firmware. So since we have to either refrain from buying or make freedom tradeoffs, it is not so unwise to pick free firmware if available and replace propietary OS or applications that may ship with it. http://www.mail-archive.com/coreboot@coreboot.org/msg38732.html http://www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/2012-April/069598.html Maybe the best advice is not buying anything, otherwise wait for Rhombus-tech (but there's secrecy in ARM chips too, it's more to try to help a path to more open hardware that in the future may bring more worthwhile stuff). Otherwise either AMD or ARM or if you go for intel, a chromebook to get free firmware (with blobs). I don't know. Btw, be sure to understand everything if you ever try to install coreboot (or any firmware) yourself in your device (more so in a laptop). If you don't have proper knowledge and equipment you may render it unbootable (brick it).

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European Schoolnet and the Future Classroom Lab
by Federico Bruni 10 Jan '13

10 Jan '13

Hi a friend of mine is involved in an european project which promotes the use of ICT in public schools: http://fcl.eun.org/living-schools-lab http://www.europeanschoolnet.org/ This project is coordinated by several Ministries of Education, but it's also supported by some big ICT players, as you can see here: http://fcl.eun.org/participate My friend is concerned about the presence of these companies. It's quite likely that they are going to use the project to promote their products. As far as I can see, all these companies produce proprietary software or hardware. What can we do to guarantee the presence of Free Software projects and companies in this project? Is there any European directive which recommends the use of Free Software in such situations? I think that FSFE may take a stand and do some "lobbying" about this project. What do you think? Thanks, Federico

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looking for a gdb-backend
by hiren sangani 10 Jan '13

10 Jan '13

Hi Everyone, I am new to Unix-like system and for GDB. I want to write a new GDB backend which will be possible either by GDB Generic or by GDB server or both. So does anyone has idea which one is preferable and from where and how should I start to write ? I sucessefully build gdb-7.5.50-1 in Cygwin environment. Thanks in advance .. ---- Mit freundlichen Grüßen / With Best Regards Heeka

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FSFE wiki card howto / subkeys
by Daniel Pocock 07 Jan '13

07 Jan '13

The how-to guides: http://wiki.fsfe.org/Card_howtos all steer people away from keeping the main key on a card. Yet some of the coloured notes here: http://www.gnupg.org/howtos/card-howto/en/ch05s02.html suggest that may not be best practice today. Can anyone comment on the state of play? My understanding is that various possibilities exist, potentially with multiple cards: card 1: - main RSA private key - used for signing other keys - kept in a safe at home card 2: - sub key - signed by main key - card that is kept in the wallet

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[just for fun] xkcloud
by Nicolas JEAN 06 Jan '13

06 Jan '13

Hi all, In case you have not seen this one already: https://xkcd.com/1150/ I first read the story, and laughed. Then just as I was closing the tab, I read its title, and it took on a completely different dimension! That's very meaningful to us FSFE. Cheers, Nico -- Nicolas JEAN - Web coordinator Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfe.org) Is Free Software important to you? Join us! (http://fsfe.org/join)

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Discussion January 2013