[Discuss] Free Software Foundation's 2013 Giving Guide

[Peter (peabo) Olson]

On November 29, 2013 at 4:11 PM Tom Metro <tmetro+blu at gmail.com> wrote:

 ... snip ...

> I've never heard of Trisquel GNU/Linux. I know the FSF has long had a
> bit of a contentious relationship with Linux, trying to wedge GNU into
> the name, and complaining about distributions with proprietary bits. Is
> Debian not pure enough for them?

This thread explains the situation fairly well, though the discussion gets
argumentative in the middle:

http://lwn.net/Articles/505085/

Debian has been calling the system GNU/Linux for nearly 20 years.

> I'm not sure I've heard of Replicant either. Good lick finding a phone
> with that. (So what the plan? Buy a used phone on eBay, root it, load
> Replicant, then give that as a gift? The way cell service and hardware
> is bundled in this country, the whole idea of a phone as a gift makes
> little sense. "I got you this new phone, you just have to agree to pay
> for the rest of it through exorbitant monthly fees for the next two
> years. Happy holidays!")

Replicant is a version of CyanogenMOD with binary blobs stripped out.  It runs
on a small number of phones, including (an old version) of the original G-1 and
much more modern versions of mostly Samsung Galaxy phones.  Unfortunately some
of the binary blobs are for significant features of the phone such as WiFi, GPS,
or camera, so this distribution may not appeal to those who aren't taking a hard
line on freedom.  The FSF has a fundraising project active to help support
Replicant.

http://replicant.us/

peabo