Archive for the ‘Free Software’ Category

We’re not Facebook users, we’re the Facebook used says Richard Stallman

Dont post any pictures of me on Facebook or Instagram, said Richard Stallman, as he began his talk on the ethics of software and web development. Theyre a monstrous surveillance engine.

Were not Facebook users, were the Facebook used, he said, claiming that the social networking giant was morally unacceptable due to the amount of data gathered on users and they way in which it is used.

What on the surface seems anathema to the Web Summit ethos, Stallman in actuality appeared to inject a healthy dose of skepticism into the proceedings by addressing privacy concerns of the modern, digitally connected citizen.

We know now that the internet has been converted into a massive surveillance engine, Stallman said, adding that all digital technologies enable this abuse of surveillance.

He wears a badge declaring: Dont be tracked. Pay cash. This is in reference to the fact that Stallman not only avoids credit cards but also doesnt browse the web on his laptop and aims to withhold as much personally identifiable information as possible.

I dont want a database to know what I bought or where I was.

He doesnt own a mobile phone either. He never has. Once I found out how they can track users and be remotely configured into listening devices through back doors I thought this is Stalins dream. Some things are too important to give up in exchange for convenience.

A few years ago there may have been raised eyebrows at Stallmans words but in a post-Prism world following countless phone tapping incidents and where the NSA is alleged to have accessed Google and Yahoos oversees servers, it doesnt seem so unrealistic.

Stallman is known best for founding the Free Software Foundation and is a pioneer of copyleft, a way of ensuring that software can be distributed freely while preserving those freedoms for all.

If all the software we use if free then we have control over the computing we do on our own computers. You should reject any programme that isnt free because if the user isnt controlling the programme, then the programme is controlling the user, he said.

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We’re not Facebook users, we’re the Facebook used says Richard Stallman

7 Reasons Apple's free Mavericks was the smartest move it ever made

Why is Mavericks free? Its a good question. From where were standing everyone likes free software (and beer), after all not having to pay for a dazzling software update is great news.

Apple has to make money though, or it cant carry on making amazing products. And I think we can all agree that Apple is a pretty smart company, so it must be financially worthwhile for Apple to give Mavericks away for nothing, or it wouldnt do it. And from what we gather Apple has decided that all upgrades in the future will be free.

So why has Apple decided to release Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks for free? We look at some of the reasons:

The main reason we think Apple has decided to make Mavericks free is to entice as many people as possible take part in the upgrade process. Ever since Apple switched to the App Store for its digital download an update program its been pushing Mac OS X updates down in price. Apple regularly boasts of how fast its users are updating compared to other companies.

Apple clearly likes the excitement when people rush to its products all at once. Apple is big on keeping things under the radar, and then announcing things with a flourish; its good at getting as a lot of products into the store on day one. Apple likes crowds! It likes it when everybody is together high-fiving outside its stores. Everyone getting a free update together is very Apple-esque in nature. It makes people feel good; that makes them buy more Apple products.

See

Five reasons to upgrade to Mavericks

Mac OS X Mavericks review

10 hidden features in Mavericks

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7 Reasons Apple's free Mavericks was the smartest move it ever made

Cisco: We'll open-source our H.264 video code AND foot licensing bill

5 ways to reduce advertising network latency

Networking titan Cisco Systems says it will open source its implementation of the H.264 video codec and release it as a free binary download.

This could make it easier for open-source projects to incorporate real-time streaming video into their software as the company has promised to cover the codec's patent-licensing fees.

"Cisco will not pass on our MPEG LA licensing costs for this module, and based on the current licensing environment, this will effectively make H.264 free for use in WebRTC," Cisco's Rowan Trollope said in a blog post on Wednesday.

Generally, any project that implements H.264 video must pay royalties to MPEG LA, the licensing body that manages the tangle of patents covering all aspects of streaming digital video.

That has led to a schism between web browser makers, with Google, in particular, choosing to forego H.264 support in favor of its homegrown VP8 codec, which it believes offers developers more favorable intellectual-property-licensing terms. (Others disagree.)

Some workarounds do exist. Microsoft has developed a plugin that allows Chrome to display H.264 video on Windows systems, for example. But getting every browser across every platform to support a common video codec has remained a challenge, particularly where free software is concerned.

This situation has been a stumbling block for WebRTC, the Worldwide Web Consortium's new standard for two-way real-time audio and video communications, because obviously getting two browsers to talk to each other requires them both to speak the same language.

According to Mozilla Foundation CTO Brendan Eich, Cisco's move should soon make it possible for any application to decode H.264 video without worrying about licensing implications and without paying any additional royalties to MPEG LA.

"We are grateful for Cisco's contribution, and we will add support for Cisco's OpenH264 binary modules to Firefox soon," Eich wrote on Wednesday. "These modules will be usable by downstream distributions of Firefox, as well as by any other project. In addition, we will work with Cisco to put the OpenH264 project on a sound footing and to ensure that it is governed well."

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Cisco: We'll open-source our H.264 video code AND foot licensing bill

The Quest to Build a Truly Free Version of Android

Youve probably heard Android is free and open source. But thats not entirely true.

Although most of the code in the Android Open Source Project is indeed open source, much of the software that interacts with hardware components like GPS chips, cameras and graphics is proprietary. And then theres Google Play, Gmail, Google Maps, and other Google-branded software, all of which is proprietary and requires Googles permission to distribute. In fact, if you were to strip out all the proprietary software, you wouldnt be able to do much with an Android phone.

The team behind Replicant wants to change that. Replicant is an independent version of Android with no proprietary software whatsoever. But the Replicant team doesnt like the term open source. They prefer the term free software, because to them, Replicant is all about freedom.

The term free software was coined in the early 1980s by Richard Stallman, the original developer of the UNIX clone GNU. Free software means software that respects users freedom and community, Stallman wrote for the Free Software Foundation website. Roughly, the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.

Although most software that is considered open source also is considered free software according to this definition, Stallman has argued the terms imply different values. For the Open Source movement, non-free software is a suboptimal solution, Stallman later wrote. For the Free Software movement, non-free software is a social problem and free software is the solution.

Thats the spirit the Replicant team follows.

Its a matter of not accepting unjust power over your computing and more generally, over your life, says Paul Kocialkowski, a lead developer of Replicant. Anyone who understands and values this point will understand why free software matters.

Replicant was founded in 2010, though its origins date to the release of the HTC Hero/G1, the original Android phone, in 2008. A few people started looking at the Android source code closely to find out what proprietary software was in there, says Kocialkowski. The free and open source software communities quickly realized that there were many proprietary components needed to run Android, so various developers started building alternatives. The original Replicant team Bradley M. Kuhn, Aaron Williamson, Graziano Sorbaioli, and Denis Carikli began gathering these components into a single build of Android free of proprietary software. Carikli, the only founding member still actively involved in the project, was responsible for quite a bit of the alternative code, Kocialkowski says.

Today Replicant supports 10 different devices, but its based on CyanogenMOD, another fork of Android that supports dozens of devices. But CyanogenMOD gets around the restrictions placed on redistributing Googles apps and other proprietary code by backing up the original copies from a users phone before installing the replacement operating system. That way the user can enjoy the advantages a custom version of Android without giving up proprietary software. But Kocialkowski and company are looking to eliminate proprietary software from their devices completely, so Replicant has no such backup features every bit of code included is free.

Perhaps the most noticeable absence from Replicant is Google Play, the app marketplace most Android users depend upon for apps and media. To make up for this, Replicant includes a free and open source app store called F-Droid. Both the source code for the F-Droid application and all the apps available through F-Droid are free and open source. In the past, there have been attempts to create a Replicant Market application, to replace what was at the time known as the Android Market, now renamed Google Play Store, says Kocialkowski. These attempts didnt succeed, but thankfully, F-Droid was being developed at the time by other individuals.

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The Quest to Build a Truly Free Version of Android

Ipad Air Hands onApple reveals ultra skinny iPad Air, free software – Video


Ipad Air Hands onApple reveals ultra skinny iPad Air, free software
Apple Ipad Air hands on.

By: anokhalove

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Ipad Air Hands onApple reveals ultra skinny iPad Air, free software - Video