Hi all,
I am sure many of you will have seen the Geneva Declaration and may
even have supported it publicly.
A group of organisations and individuals felt that it was necessary to
support the Geneva Declaration and build upon it -- the result of this
initiative will be online at
http://fsfeurope.org/documents/wiwo.en.html
which already exists -- although I would like to ask you to not
publish it or link to it before tomorrow, Oct 14th, which is when it
will be officially released.
If you or your organisation wish to be among the initial signatories,
please send mail to
web(a)fsfeurope.org
until TONIGHT, 23:59.
Regards,
Georg
--
Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)gnu.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfeurope.org)
Brave GNU World (http://brave-gnu-world.org)
Starting this november, I will be teaching a course in Free Software
philosophy and theory at the University of Göteborg, Sweden. Having
received some interest about this course from foreign students, we have
decided to give the course in English and invite students from other
countries to participate as well. The course is a distance learning
course, so students can participate from anywhere in the world.
Additional information about the course can be found here:
http://www.informatik.gu.se/eng/education/
Any help with dissiminating information about this course would be much
appreciated.
Thanks,
Jonas
1. FSFE self-conception
2. Is Microsoft happy that the FSFE is included in their appeals process?
3. FSFE intervenes at the European Court
4. FSFE at the Ars Electronica
5. GNU/Linux World Expo in Milan, Italy
6. FSFE at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
7. Spanish press release mailing list now available
1. FSFE self-conception
In the course of improving the "About" section of the web site, a page
was added explaining the self conception of the FSFE. We recommend
that everybody interested in the work of the FSFE may like to read this
page, as it explains the philosophy behind the FSFE:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/about/self-conception.en.html
2. Is Microsoft happy that the FSFE is included in their appeals process?
As mentioned in the July newsletter, the EU Commission invited the
FSFE to support their position in the Microsoft trial. Handelsblatt,
Germany's most influential economic newspaper, reported that Microsoft
wrote a two page letter to the European Court trying to argue that
FSFE should not be involved. When the Handelsblatt raised this issue
with Microsoft, its spokesperson denied that any such attempt had been
made and that Microsoft believes more third parties would be beneficial
to the case. No comment was made whether this was related to Microsoft
asking that third parties in support of the Commission should pay
Microsoft's lawyers.
3. FSFE intervenes at the European Court
Meanwhile, Carlo Piana and Jeremy Allison delivered FSFE's first
statement; they also represent the Samba team in this trial.
While they explained why Microsoft has to disclose the specifications
of the network protocols used in MS-Windows networks to enable ongoing
competition, they also made clear that they do not request Microsoft
to publish source code of their Windows Operating Systems. The hearing
will continue on 1 October 2004 and the final decision should be made
public around the end of October 2004.
4. FSFE at the Ars Electronica
During Ars Electronica 2004 in Linz, Austria, Georg Greve participated
in a discussion focusing on "digital commons" together with Lawrence
Lessig. Before this there was the "Netvision" prize award ceremony,
which was awarded to the "Creative Commons" organisation.
5. GNU/Linux World Expo in Milan, Italy
The FSFE presented a booth at the GNU/Linux World Expo in Milan, and
Stefano Maffulli gave two speeches at that event, presenting the
activities of FSFE. Several companies contacted the FSFE staff there
to express their interest to release their software under a Free
license and asked for help with that goal. Commercial Free Software
is seen more and more as a realistic business opportunity.
6. FSFE at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
Georg Greve participated in the Expert Meeting on Free Software at the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Geneva,
Switzerland. In the panel on economic perspectives of Free Software,
he spoke about Free Software and its role in advancing the information
society, in particular in developing countries.
7. Spanish press release mailing list now available
The FSFE has now set up a mailing list where you can subscribe to
receive its press releases in Spanish. This is the sixth language
press releases will be available in:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/press/
Help with the necessary translations for all the languages is still
very welcome:
http://www.fsfeurope.org/contribute/translators.en.html
You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
Hi,
The Portuguese parliament (Assembleia da Republica) recently passed an
advisory motion on free software (proposed by the Communist Party, but
with cross party support). You can find the original at
http://www.pcp.pt/ar/legis-9/projres/pjr255.htm. There is
some (portuguese language) discussion of the resolution, together with
the text of supporting speeches by other deputies in the ANSOL free
software list
http://listas.ansol.org/pipermai/ansol-geral/2004-September/
I haven't seen anything about this in any language other than
Portuguese, so I thought I would translate it.
The translation below is completely unofficial; I hope it's of some
interest for the list, but you might want to get it verified by a native
Portuguese speaker before using it for anything..
Best
Graham
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Draft resolution no. 255/1X
Recommends that the government take measures to develop Free Software in
Portugal
1. Software plays an ever more pivotal role in administrative,
political, and economic activities. As such it is essential to guarantee
that these activities - which are fundamental for the development and
sovereignty of the country - should not be subject to a monopoly of
private bodies, and that it should be possible to guarantee the
independence of the state in relation to proprietary formats and
software suppliers who may close or discontinue their software at any
moment.
2. The concept of Free Software is based on four fundamental
principles of freedom for the user, defined by the 'Free Software
Foundation' in the following way:
* The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
* The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to
your needs.
* The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your
neighbor.
* The freedom to improve the program, and release your
improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.
Access to the source code is essential to make these four
freedoms possible.
3. Free Software, insofar as it guarantees access to the original
source code, not only allows this independence but also brings
significant savings when used in public administration, since it does
not require the payment of licences for its use. It also allows it to be
verified without question that the software fulfills only the tasks for
which it was designed, with no hidden functions which might place at
risk either sovereignty or the national economy.
4. Adaptation of the various resource centres for information
technology, in the framework of the public educational network, to
permit the mandatory availability of Free Software solutions for
students and teaching staff.
5. Inclusion of material relating to Free Software in the definition
of the various curricula and programmes for teaching of information
technology in primary and secondary education, identifying in the
curricula and programmes any currently existing references to products
or trade names of commercial software, with the aim of their compulsory
substitution by corresponding generic descriptions.
6. Establishment of research grants and support programmes for
research and development projects; translation into Portuguese
(converting into Portuguese the technical and scientific terminology
involved); and application of Free Software solutions, in the area of
higher education and research or scientific institutions.
7. Integration of the Free Software field in programmes for
encouragement and support for technological change, especially for SMEs,
as well as in initiatives for publicizing information technology to the
associational movement (youth, culture, sport, recreation etc).
8. Interoperability between different computing applications is
essential for the proper functioning of the state, and it is essential
that these are not dependent on the proprietary formats of private
companies. The initiative of the European Commission for the electronic
exchange of information between administrations (IDA) gives especial
relevance to the use of Free Software in this activity, having even
created a Free Software Observatory.
9. The 'eEurope 2005' programme of the European Union recommends the
use of open source software in various sectors, in particular e-government.
10. As well as take-up by public administration, it is also desireable
to motivate private companies to use this software model, as a way of
energizing the national economy and making it independent of private
monopolies.
11. Free Software is a source of work for Portuguese programmers as it
is for the micro, small, and medium portuguese computing enterprises;
not only at the level of software development but also in providing
technical support for these and other applications which have the same
philosophy of implementation and distribution.
12. The use of Free Software in teaching not only allows a reduction
of costs in the use of information technology, but also allows access to
detailed information on the inner workings of the software used by
computing students, guaranteeing an quality of opportunity in access
since the student is not compelled to pay a licence for its use outside
the school environment. It also ensures that the student does not become
a mere operator of applications from any multinational company, but
becomes a skilled technician, an essential factor in the development of
the country.
13. Free Software allows the easy translation into Portuguese of
existing programmes, since the translation is not dependent on the good
will of the supplying companies, or limited by any kind of licensing.
Therefore, taking into account the reasons laid out above, Parliament
resolves, under the terms of clause 5 article 166 of the Constitution of
the Portuguese Republic, to recommend that the Government carry out the
following measures:
1. Assembly of a 'White Book of Free Software in Portugal', which
(among other aims) evaluates the current personnel, surveys trials in
progress, and defines scenarios and lines of intervention.
2. Development of a programme of definition and staffing of pilot
projects for reference use of Free Software in public administratrion,
in particular within the scope of the Unit for Information and Knowledge
(UMIC), and of the Ministries of Culture, Education and Science, and
Higher Education.
3. Creation of a support service, staffed by UMIC, for technical
support to the implementation of Free Software solutions in public
administration.
4. Integration of the field of Free Software in the area of
incentives and programmes of support for administrative modernization of
local councils, including in particular technical support, logistics,
and training.
5. Establishment of mandatory access to source code and data formats
in the acquisition of computing solutions destined for use by public
administration and other government bodies, for the exercise of
sovereign functions and other areas of strategic importance.
6. Development of an 'online library' which systematizes and brings
up to date information on the range of Free Software solutions and
applications, with particular attention to those in the Portuguese language.
7. Adaptation of the various information technology resource centres
in the public schools network with the aim of compulsorily making
available Free Software solutions to students and teaching staff.
8. Inclusion of material relating to Free Software in the definition
of the various curricula and programmes for teaching of information
technology in primary and secondary education, while identifying
currently existing references in these curricula and programmes to trade
names and products of commercial software, with the aim of their
mandatory replacement by corresponding generic descriptions.
9. Establishment of research grants and support programmes for
research and development projects; translation into Portuguese
(converting the technical and scientific terms involved to Portuguese);
and application of Free Software solutions, in the area of higher
education and research and scientific institutes.
10. Integration of the Free Software field in programmes encouraging
and supporting technological change in companies, especially SMEs; as
also in initiatives to encourage information technology in the
associationist movement (youth, culture, sports, recreation, etc).
Assembly of the Republic, May 26 2004
Occasionally the question arises:
Is Free Software more secure?
And what statement can be made about this, e.g. by the FSFE.
My answer to this is:
Free Software has a higher chance of being secure.
Of course I wouldn't post this to a discussion list
if this was completely clear to everybody.
Unfortunately the relation of freedom to security is complicated.
There are already quite a few texts and papers about it.
Maybe we need to find the best which can be used as references
to give to journalist and other interested people.
To support my statement I usually look at David Wheeler's work first.
http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html#conclusions
OSS/FS software often has far better security [1],
perhaps due to the possibility of worldwide review.
[1] http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html#security
Again, it is not true that proprietary programs are
always more secure, or that OSS/FS is always more secure, because
there are many factors at work. For example, a well-configured and
well-maintained system, of any kind, will almost always be far more
secure than a poorly configured and unmaintained system of any kind.
For a longer description of these issues, see my discussion on open
source and security [2] (part of my book on writing secure software).
However, from these figures, it appears that OSS/FS systems are in
many cases better - not just equal - in their resistance to attacks
as compared to proprietary software.
[2] http://www.dwheeler.com/secure-programs/Secure-Programs-HOWTO/open-source-s…
(Wheeler in this book uses "open source" for Free Software.)
2.4.1. View of Various Experts
2.4.6. Bottom Line
Just making a program open source doesn't suddenly make a
program secure, and just because a program is open source does not
guarantee security:
First, people have to actually review the code. This is one
of the key points of debate - will people really review code
Second, at least some of the people developing and reviewing
the code must know how to write secure programs.
Third, once found, these problems need to be fixed quickly
and their fixes distributed. Open source systems tend to fix the
problems quickly, but the distribution is not always smooth.
Another advantage of open source is that, if you find a
problem, you can fix it immediately. This really doesn't have any
counterpart in closed source.
In short, the effect on security of open source software is still a
major debate in the security community, though a large number of
prominent experts believe that it has great potential to be more
secure.
Another interesting source stressing active peer preview
is within Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 of Peter Gutmann's book:
Cryptographic Security Architecure
It is the book that stems from his thetis.
He has put a few chapters online at:
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/thesis.html
Especially interesting for this question are:
Chapter 4: Verification Techniques
where he criticises a lot of believes about
how to build secure systems and verify them
Chapter 5: Verification of the cryptlib kernel
where he explains his approach and the interesting
part is 5.1.1 "Peer Review as an Evalution Mechanism"
and the cited literature there
Bernhard
RE: Announcing the second official X Window System release by the
XOrg Foundation, at http://www.X.Org .
If you have questions, you may contact:
Leon Shiman, for The XOrg Foundation, at:
Shiman Associates Inc
(00)1.617.277.0087
leon(a)shiman.com
X.Org Foundation Announces X11R6.8 Release of the X Window System
=================================================================
The X.Org Foundation Release Officially Introduces State of the Art
Technologies to the X Window System
Brookline MA, September 9, 2004 - The X.Org Foundation today announced the
second release of the X Window System since the formation of the Foundation
in January of this year.
The new X.Org release, called X Window System Version 11, Release 6.8
(X11R6.8) builds on the work of X.org X11R6.7 released in April. X11R6.8
combines the latest developments from many people and companies working
with the X Window System and an open X.Org Foundation Release Team. The X
Window System X11R6.8 release can be found at ftp://www.x.org/pub and at
mirror-sites worldwide.
About this Release:
-------------------
In response to user and application developer demand, X.Org's X11R6.8
brings forward widely anticipated fundamental facilities through this
release. They include the first official X Window System Release support
for:
o Translucent windows
o Window animation, window decorations like shadows
o Support for accessibility applications
o Support for 3D immersive user environments like
Looking Glass(1) and Croquet(2)
o Support for large scale display walls using DMX(3)
These new facilities, some of which are still considered experimental, and
so not enabled by default, have been under development for several years.
Once completed and deployed, they will enable X Window System desktop
projects, such as Gnome and KDE, to greatly extend their visual user
interface vocabulary while still ensuring uncompromised support for
existing applications, even surpassing current state of the art in
competing window systems.
These facilities will enable easy implementation of thumbnailing, screen
magnifiers for accessibility, translucent windows, menus, drop shadows, and
even integration of conventional applications into 3D immersive
environments. They are the result of open collaboration within the
freedesktop.org community, desktop projects, and the X Window System user
and developer communities. For some illustrations visit
http://www.freedesktop.org/XOrg/X11R68ScreenShots.
Features also included in this release are updates and fixes to: FreeType2,
Xprint, Xaw ( new PrintShell class), Mesa, DRI, driver rotation support,
Render ( New Trapezoid Extension ), many driver updates, and a broad range
of fixes and enhancements.
About participation and membership in X.Org
-------------------------------------------
Membership in the X.Org foundation is free and open to all participants.
Active participants in the further development of the X Window System are
invited to visit: http://www.x.org/XOrg_Foundation_Membership.html to
complete a membership application. Participation in the Foundation's
Sponsor Group is also available to those who wish to financially
support the activities of the X.Org Foundation. Current Sponsors
include Hewlett Packard, IBM, ICS, Sun Microsystems, Shiman
Associates, and WRQ.
About the X.Org Foundation
--------------------------
X.Org Foundation L.L.C. is a Delaware company organized to operate as
a scientific charity under IRS code 501(c)(3), chartered to develop
and execute effective strategies that provide worldwide stewardship of
the X Window System technology and standards. The group is currently
managed by its Board of Directors that includes: Stuart Anderson (Free
Standards Group), Egbert Eich (Novell), Jim Gettys (HP), Stuart
Kreitman (SUN Microsystems), Kevin Martin (Red Hat), Jim McQuillan
(Linux Terminal Server Project), Keith Packard (HP), and Leon Shiman
(Shiman Associates). The website for the X.Org Foundation can be
found at http://www.x.org/.
About The X Window System
-------------------------
The X Window System provides the only common networked windowing
environment bridging the heterogeneous platforms in today's
computing. The X Window System is one of the most successful
open-source, collaborative technologies developed to date and is the
standard graphical window system for the Linux® and UNIX® operating
systems. The inherent independence of the X Window System from the
operating system, the network and the hardware, as well as its
successful interoperability, have made it widely available and
deployed with more than 30 million users worldwide. All major hardware
vendors support the X Window System and many third parties provide
technologies for integrating X Window System applications into the
networked computer or personal computer environments including
Microsoft Windows®, UNIX, Linux and Mac OS® X. Further, thousands of
software developers provide X Window System applications, and with the
continued growth of Linux and the emergence of Mac OS X, the number of
users is growing rapidly.
Community Response:
-------------------
"This release of the X.org server incorporates a number of extensions that
were developed in consultation with experts in the field," said Bill
Haneman, Sun Microsystems, GNOME Foundation board member and member of the
FSG Accessibility Workgroup. "This new release removes a number of
significant accessibility roadblocks and facilitates considerably improved
support for onscreen magnifiers, screen readers, and other assistive
technologies."
"As one of the original founding members of the X Window System project,
HP is pleased to be supporting the X.Org Foundation as a continued
sponsor. With the second X.org Foundation release of the X Window System, we
once again demonstrate the power of the open source development model to
deliver true innovation and value to our customers," said Martin Fink, vice
president of Linux, HP.
"Open source takes a giant leap into the future with the new X Window
System release and Croquet working together," said Alan Kay, Senior HP
Fellow, HP Labs.
"If anyone doubts the quality of 'Open Source' they only need look to this
new release of X," said Peter Winston, President of leading UI development
company Integrated Computer Systems (www.ICS.com) and member of X.org. With
tens of millions of Linux and UNIX developers around the world relying on
the X Window System, X.org has created a new version which users can depend
upon and that addresses the new needs of a changing market. The additions
of translucent windows and support for large scale display walls will be
especially well received by our core customer base of developers building
homeland defense applications."
"LTSP relies heavily on the X Window System and we are inspired by the
continuing development and community involvement that has gone into the
latest X.org release." -- Jim McQuillan, LTSP project leader.
"Novell welcomes the rapid progress of the X.Org Foundation. We are
pleased to support the new release of X.Org in the next SUSE LINUX product
offering, which will enable technology enthusiasts to benefit from the
latest enhancements in Linux windowing technology, and we will continue to
actively contribute to the project." -- Chris Schlaeger, VP R&D SUSE LINUX
at Novell
"Red Hat is proud to contribute to development of the X Window System
technology and standards through continued involvement in and support of
X.org's efforts. Red Hat plans to include the X11R6.8 release in the
the open source Fedora Core project and upcoming releases of Red Hat
Desktop." -- Havoc Pennington, desktop technical architect and engineering
manager.
"X11R6.8 contains essential features which provide the underlying
foundation for the Project Looking Glass 3D window system, such as the
Composite and Damage extensions. These timely and well implemented
features have significantly accelerated our development effort." -- Deron
Johnson, Sun Microsystems, Project Looking Glass.
"As the former X.org chair, and current chair of the X.org Sponsor's
Group, I'm very pleased to see the X.org Foundation produce the 6.8 release
of X11, which includes contributions from many different groups, with
different interests and goals, but with a common interest in and focus on
advancing the X technology. I believe that as long as that common focus
continues, this Foundation and their releases will be of great value to the
broad community of X technology users." -- Steve Swales, Senior Manager,
Platform Globalization Engineering; X.Org Sponsor Board Chairperson, Sun
Microsystems, Inc.
"R6.8 rocks! Now Qt/X11 can natively support almost everything developers
have come to expect from our Windows and Mac OS X versions", says Matthias
Ettrich, Director of Software Development at Trolltech, a cross-platform
GUI tool vendor, "Kudos to the X.org team."
Notes to editors:
-----------------
(1) Project Looking Glass: http://wwws.sun.com/software/looking_glass/
and https://lg3d.dev.java.net
(2) Croquet Project: http://www.opencroquet.org/
(3) Distributed Multihead X Project: http://dmx.sourceforge.net/
(4) The Mesa 3D Graphics Library: http://www.mesa3d.org
(5) Direct Rendering Infrastructure: http://dri.sourceforge.net/
(6) The Freetype Project: http://www.freetype.org
(7) The Xprint Project: http://xprint.mozdev.org/
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in
the US and other countries. LINUX is a registered trademark of Linus
Torvalds. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Mac OS is a
registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the
U.S. and other countries. All other company names are trademarks of
the registered owners.
1. Announcing Wilhelm Tux as a new associate organisation
2. Software patents discussion
3. Donating to the FSFE in the United Kingdom
4. Speech at the KDE Community World Summit
1. Announcing Wilhelm Tux as a new associate organisation
Wilhelm Tux, a Swiss organisation for Free Software, has become an
associate organisation of the FSFE. The FSFE now has 9 associate
organisations in 8 different countries. Wilhelm Tux is the first
European associate organisation that resides in a country not being an
EU member state.
2. Software patents discussion
The FSFE has always pointed out that software patents are a big threat
for companies and individuals developing or using software, no matter
whether if it is free or proprietary. Recent software patent discussions
relating to the ongoing migration to Free Software in Munich seemed to
create the wrong impression for some people, namely that the software
patent problem only exists for Free Software, and the FSFE is happy that
it could help to clarify this point.
The FSFE also congratulates Mr. Ude, the mayor of Munich, who is showing
himself to be highly reasonable and competent: He continues the
migration without delays while both evaluating the risks potentially
created and speaking out against introduction of software patents in
Europe.
3. Donating to the FSFE in the United Kingdom
Due to substantial bank fees charged for international money transfers,
small donations or standing orders are too expensive to be send directly
to the Free Software Foundation Europe bank account. To rectify this,
FSFE in July 2004 entered into an agreement with UK based associate
organisation AFFS to collect donations and transfer them in larger
batches.
http://www.fsfeurope.org/help/donate-2004-uk.en.html
4. Speech at the KDE Community World Summit
Bernhard Reiter gave a speech at the KDE User and Administrator
Conference, which was part of the KDE Community World Summit in
Ludwigsburg, Germany. He spoke about social and political aspects of
Free Software.
You can find a list of all FSF Europe newsletters on
http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/newsletter.en.html
I was directed to
http://europa.eu.int/abc/doc/off/bull/en/200405/p103027.htm#anch0042
which is the EU Bulletin claiming the council agreed common position
in May. This is also reflected in the "legislative observatory" record
for the swpat proposal, although no new EuroParl date has appeared
there. I had heard there was some dispute about it. What information
source is binding, if any?
From the draft agenda, it looks like the 13-16 September plenary will
be concerned with budgets, stability, human rights and Iraq. The next
plenary is 13 October 2004 - 28 October 2004, so watch
http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep/owa/p_calses.plenary?ilg=EN&iorig=plenary&i…
for an agenda in case swpat appears.
--
MJR/slef My Opinion Only and not of any group I know
http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ for creative copyleft computing
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