[Discuss] RMS talks in March

Drew Fustini pdp7pdp7 at gmail.com
Wed Mar 18 16:50:23 UTC 2015


enjoyed last night:
http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-C-CPP-Users-Group/events/220194341/

couple things I learned:

+ GNU LibreJS
https://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/
"aims to address the JavaScript problem described in Richard
Stallman's article The JavaScript Trap. LibreJS is a free add-on for
GNU IceCat and other Mozilla-based browsers. It blocks nonfree
nontrivial JavaScript while allowing JavaScript that is free and/or
trivial."

+ Stallman has switched from the lemote notebook to a ThinkPad X60
rebranded as "Gluglug":
https://www.fsf.org/news/gluglug-x60-laptop-now-certified-to-respect-your-freedom
"updated the computer by adding a modern wifi chipset, replacing the
proprietary BIOS with a free software boot system made by modifying
Coreboot to remove all proprietary microcode and proprietary blobs,
and replacing the proprietary Microsoft Windows OS with the
FSF-endorsed, Trisquel GNU/Linux OS.

+ Linux-libre is a version of the Linux kernel that has non-libre
firmware (e.g. binary blobs) removed:
http://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/

+ Stallman proclaimed it is critical to software freedom to encourage
more people to do reverse engineering.  He said that he thinks every
university should have a course on it.  there are talented free
software developers that can write the drivers but we need to first
figure out the "secret" commands for hardware peripherals.

+ Stallman believes that GPL is a good license to use for hardware
designs including schematics.  However, it only applies so far as
copyright law does.  Certain aspects of hardware design do not apply
to copyright law such as manufacturing data as they not creative works
and would be viewed as facts.  That is my understanding but would like
to learn more.

+ Stallman believes the Linux kernel could still be relicensed under
GPLv3.  He stated that Eben Mogel had outlined a plan of how this
would work.  I need to read up on that as it is an interesting
situation where you have thousands of developers and the majority have
retained their copyright.

+ Stallman's birthday was on Monday.  There was birthday cake after his talk :)


cheers,
drew


On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 11:54 AM, Brian <brian at fiberoverethernet.com> wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> Just an FYI that RMS will be here in March.
>
> https://www.fsf.org/events/rms-speeches.html
>
> All the best,
>
> -Brian
>
> _______________________________________________
> discuss mailing list
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