Discussion September 2014

discussion@lists.fsfe.org

24 participants
8 discussions

Metaphors of Free Software
by Hugo Roy 02 Oct '14

02 Oct '14

Hi, Metaphors when done right can be powerful to convey an idea. There’s a short article with some good metaphors: http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalreports/internetreport/whatisopensour… Transparency: a car. An open source license is like having the right to lift your car bonnet to view the engine. If you use software but can’t see what it’s doing behind the scenes, then it’s impossible to know what it’s doing with your data or even if it’s secure. By making code viewable by all, it’s much easier to spot and fix security flaws and bugs, which is why many security standards, such as password encryption, are open source. Modification: a house Open source is like buying a house and being free to decorate it however you want, to build extensions or demolish walls. Closed-source software strictly limits what you can do with it. Accumulative: DNA: Like a genome that keeps evolving, or the way academia builds upon prior knowledge, open source is a way of ‘standing on the shoulder of giants’, by building on what exists, rather than starting from scratch. This applies to everything from the code at the heart of software and powering websites to design elements, which can develop in an accumulative way, with anyone free to improve on the work of those previously. Collaborative: a coop Like a co-op, but without membership. While code authors may still own copyright on their code, by providing an open license, assets are kept public and the user community can offer improvements, fixes, language translations, design improvements, documentation and so on. Eric S Raymond describes open source development as “a great babbling bazaar of differing agendas and approaches out of which a coherent and stable system could seemingly emerge only by a succession of miracles”. Democratic: a landslide Like a democracy where anyone can set up their own country if they don’t like the leader. Open source projects have core maintainers who have the final say over suggestions and contributions from the user community but if they aren’t responsive, people can ‘fork’ the software and build their own ‘branch’. The content management system Joomla, for instance, was forked from Mambo, after its corporate owners started charging developers big fees. I suppose we’re missing the analogy between a cooking recipe and source code for the list to be complete :-) -- Hugo Roy, Free Software Foundation Europe, <www.fsfe.org> Deputy Coordinator, FSFE Legal Team, <www.fsfe.org/legal> Coordinator, FSFE French Team, <www.fsfe.org/fr> Get our monthly newsletter, sign up! <https://l.fsfe.org/nl>

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CodeWeek.EU - call for participation
by Guido Arnold 02 Oct '14

02 Oct '14

Hello everybody! I hope you all had a nice Software Freedom Day last weekend! :) And the next FS related event is already approaching... From Oct 11 to 17, there will be events throughout Europe where kids will learn to code [1]. You will notice that Free Software is not endorsed on the codeweek webpage in any way or form. If Free Software is explained or even mentioned is up to those who conduct the workshops. The good thing is that most organizers will be grateful for any helping hand they can get We would like to encourage everybody to participate in one of the existing events to make sure that Free Software will not remain unknown to these kids. As they are already interested in coding, it would be a shame if they wouldn't learn about Free Software, don't you think? BTW: It's not too late to order promo material [2] for this! :) FSFE's edu-team [3] will be happy to answer questions and concerns and provide guidance or advise. Please also share this with anyone who might be interested! Thanks! Guido [1] http://events.codeweek.eu/ [2] http://fsfe.org/contribute/spreadtheword.en.html#promo-material [3] http://fsfe.org/activities/education/eduteam.en.html -- Guido Arnold Free Software Foundation Europe http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido [] Edu team & German team OpenPGP Key-ID: 0x51628D75 [][][] Get active! XMPP: guido(a)jabber.fsfe.org || http://fsfe.org/support/?guido

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Coder Dojo in Richmond and other educational events during SFD
by Guido Arnold 25 Sep '14

25 Sep '14

Hello, Andrés pointed me to this report from a Coder Dojo event that happened during last Software Freedom Day near London: http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:LibrePlanet_Ham#Previous_event Great work! I was wondering if anyone is aware of more educational events that happened in liaison to SFD. So, far I found: - The Python Conference UK: http://pyconuk.org/education/ - and that an SFD event took place in the Technological Educational Institute of West Macedonia, Greece: http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2014/Greece/Kastoria Is anyone aware of more? I'd like to include them in the next edu news collection. http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido/category/education/ Thanks and Greetings, Guido PS: While skimming through DFD events, I was happy to see FSFE mentioned in a few of them: Uitrecht, NL: http://nllgg.nl/bijeenkomst/20140920 Lisbon, PT: http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2014/Portugal/Lisboa/MOSS Ljubljana,SI: http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2014/Slovenia/Ljubljana/FSFE%20Fellowshi… Berlin: DE: http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2014/Germany/Berlin/BeLUG -- Guido Arnold Free Software Foundation Europe http://blogs.fsfe.org/guido [] Edu team & German team OpenPGP Key-ID: 0x51628D75 [][][] Get active! XMPP: guido(a)jabber.fsfe.org || http://fsfe.org/support/?guido

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Re: ownCloud and free software in the cloud: Meet Frank Karlitschek in Open Space Aarhus
by Carsten Agger 24 Sep '14

24 Sep '14

Hi Torsten, >> Do bring a friend, this is going to be interesting! > > It surely's gonna be! :) > > Make sure to ask the panelists about the challenges to run a successful Free > Software business without making the product non free. > > See https://owncloud.com/products/enterprise/ at the end of the page for > example. > Indeed! Luckily, I represent the other part of the spectrum, as I work for a company which will never deliver anything to any customer under a non-free license, and has had this principle since 1999. Indeed, we might compete with ownCloud Enterprise by offering SLAs for installations of the free version - we don't deliver ownCloud for the moment, but we do so e.g. with Alfresco Community Edition. But thanks a lot for your observation! :-) -- http://www.modspil.dk https://blogs.fsfe.org/agger/

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ownCloud and free software in the cloud: Meet Frank Karlitschek in Open Space Aarhus
by Carsten Agger 24 Sep '14

24 Sep '14

I’m co-organizing this event, <http://osaa.dk/2014/09/owncloud-and-free-software-in-the-cloud-meet-frank-k…> involving our hackerspace and the FSFE local group in Aarhus, Denmar: Frank Karlitschek, creator of ownCloud <http://owncloud.org/>, will give a talk centering on ownCloud, free software in the enterprise and data protection in a post-Snowden world. The talk will be followed by a discussion with the audience and a discussion panel consisting of: * Frank Karlitschek, Debian developer and creator of ownCloud * Christian Orellana, CEO of Cabo <http://cabo.dk/>, a company that build enterprise clouds from free software * Carsten Agger, local group coordinator in Free Software Foundation Europe <http://fsfe.org/> and software developer in Magenta <http://magenta.dk>, a company that specializes in free software mainly for the Danish public sector. The event will take place in Open Space Aarhus on *Wednesday, October 1 at 18:00 hours* Do bring a friend, this is going to be interesting! http://blogs.fsfe.org/agger/2014/09/23/owncloud-and-free-software-in-the-cl… -- http://www.modspil.dk https://blogs.fsfe.org/agger/

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An idea / pointers / risks?
by Allan Irving 14 Sep '14

14 Sep '14

Unrelated to normal discussion but hopefully, of interest to some and some of you can help point me in the right direction. Long story short, old laptop. Coffee spill. Works fine, just the keyboard is stuffed. Have an idea to utilise it. Guy it from the laptop casing and create a Lego case from Lego parts around the motherboard. Not sure if I will utilise the inbuilt screen, current plan is to use an external one. Install Debian on it and put it to some use. Now, I'm not too familiar with doing something like this. I can build computers but in usual components. First thing, heat + plastic. Bad idea? Any suggestions as to how to place or manipulate the heat sink and CPU to reduce melting or danger? I was thinking fans if course, USB ones plus added built in one. Any ither suggestions as to how I can go about making this happen?!

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Supermicro bios update
by Paul van der Vlis 11 Sep '14

11 Sep '14

Hello, Normally I buy Supermicro servers. Updating the bios works most of the time fine with the free program Flashrom.[1] But now I have bought a type what is not supported by Flashrom. Because of that, the program asks which type of programmer to use, and presents a list. But I don't know which one to choose. And Supermicro support does not know that too. When I ask Supermicro support (Europe) for another solution to upgrade the bios, they only can advice me to create a bootable USB stick with MS-DOS using a Windows PC. This are servers what are used much with free software, in my opinion it's normal to have some way to upgrade the bios without Windows. I would like to ask you if you think about buying a Supermicro server, first to ask Supermicro support for a way to update the bios. You can ask it to your sales-person, or here in Europe you can ask it at "support at supermicro dot nl". With regards, Paul van der Vlis. [1] http://flashrom.org/Flashrom -- Paul van der Vlis Linux systeembeheer, Groningen http://www.vandervlis.nl

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Re: Supermicro bios upgrade
by Paul van der Vlis 11 Sep '14

11 Sep '14

op 11-09-14 16:41, Brad Rogers schreef: > On Thu, 11 Sep 2014 16:25:59 +0200 > Paul van der Vlis <paul(a)vandervlis.nl> wrote: > > Hello Paul, > >> Because of that the program asks with type of programmer to use, and >> presents a list. But I don't know which one to choose. And Supermicro >> support does not know that too. > > Supermicro support may not know(1), but they're best placed to find out. > Failing that, ask on the flashrom ML at flashrom(a)flashrom.org(2). The > flashrom people also run an IRC channel. I don't have the IRC details to > hand, but they should be on the flashrom web site. > > (1) Worrying in itself. > (2) Subscribing may be required. The flashrom website says: ---- Probing works (Winbond W25Q64, 8192 kB, SPI), but parts of the flash are problematic: descriptor is r/o (conforming to ICH reqs), ME region is locked. ---- I think the flashrom people need more information. I did send them my output. But I think it's work for Supermicro or Winbond to give information to get things work. And I think Supermicro will do that when many people are asking for it. I found out what the type of programmer is. You need to use "--programmer internal" when it's a bios on the mainboard. With regards, Paul van der Vlis. -- Paul van der Vlis Linux systeembeheer, Groningen http://www.vandervlis.nl

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Discussion September 2014