- Free-software-melb - lists.softwarefreedom.com.au

Radeon GPUs and proprietary microcode discussion
by Adam Bolte 30 Apr '15

30 Apr '15

There's some interesting discussion happening currently around AMD's proprietary microcode for its Radeon hardware on Phoronix: http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?116965-Nouveau-NVIDIA-s-New-H… (scroll down to the third last comment on the page, and continue from there) bridgeman is one of the engineers at AMD who knows a lot about the GNU/Linux GPU driver developers and hardware manufacturing process, so it's great to have someone such as him discuss his personal views on the microcode issue. It's especially interesting to learn that both AMD and the FSF tried to get board vendors to distribute the microcode on a chip instead of relying on operating system distributions to deliver it, but nobody wanted to pick up the expense for the flash chips. Anyway, I think some of you will find it worth a read (but mind the trolls!), and it would be a good time to post anything else on the topic that needs to be said while we have the attention on this issue from somebody at AMD. Cheers, Adam

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Re: [free-software-melb] Updated letter to Mozilla for Day Against DRM
by Michael Verrenkamp 29 Apr '15

29 Apr '15

Probably also a good idea to have one simple line somewhere towards to end to summarise the whole effort.Something like this... "Putting any company and its closed formats above the users freedoms, doesn't help the user. It only demonstrates a lack of respect for those who have contributed, used and ultimately driven such wonderful projects as your own to the position you are in now." Only if you feel it is necessary. -Michael -- Sent from my GNU/Linux-Libre box. Run free. http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html Come Visit Free Software Australia - http://freesoftware.org.au/ jabjabs(a)fastmail.com.au

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Re: [free-software-melb] Adam and Andrew make Free Software Melbourne awesome (Ben Sturmfels)
by Michael Verrenkamp 29 Apr '15

29 Apr '15

"I should clarify - the chaos was of course having 3 people called Ben, not from using fully free software. We've been doing free software audio conferencing for a couple of years now." Sounds like my kind of chaos... we need more Bens. Also it is pretty much expected that free software audio conferencing to work fairly well nowadays, it is one of the more modern era software functions that have been solved fairly comprehensively. -- Sent from my GNU/Linux-Libre box. Run free. http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html Come Visit Free Software Australia - http://freesoftware.org.au/ jabjabs(a)fastmail.com.au

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Adam and Andrew make Free Software Melbourne awesome
by Ben Sturmfels 28 Apr '15

28 Apr '15

Hi Folks, Free Software Melbourne is awesome because people like Adam Bolte and Andrew Spiers make it so. We thank you both for your time and effort organising the monthly meetups, finding interesting speakers, running Software Freedom Day, organising campaigns, hosting games nights and much more. Adam has been our President for the last year and Secretary the year before. He's made sure that we're always up-to-date with the Gnews and the latest in free software gaming. He also hosts our website out of his home (see why)[1]. Andrew has been Vice-President for the last year. He hasn't been able to attend our monthly meetups for a little while, but we're all missing him and hope see him soon. Following the March meetup, Scott Junner and Ben Minerds now have joined Ben Finney and myself on the mostly Bens committee[2] for the coming year. Our first (fully free software) audio conference was amusingly chaotic. We're looking forward to lots of fun free software activities this year. Regards, Ben x 3 + Scott [1] see why: http://freesoftware.org.au/about/ [2] committee: http://freesoftware.org.au/melbourne/committee/

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Podcast recommendation reaction
by Michael Verrenkamp 18 Mar '15

18 Mar '15

Can I retract my recommendation? :P if you want people recommending almost every DRM platform available then it would be a great podcast. Doesn't really belong here -- Sent from my GNU/Linux-Libre box. Run free. http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html Come Visit Free Software Australia - http://freesoftware.org.au/ jabjabs(a)fastmail.com.au

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A local podcast focusing on Free/'open source' news and issues.
by Michael Verrenkamp 17 Mar '15

17 Mar '15

This was posted on Reddit a few hours ago, I haven't listened to it yet but at least the run down on the website sounds promising. http://systemau.net.au/ Check it out when you have some spare time. -- Sent from my GNU/Linux-Libre box. Run free. http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html Come Visit Free Software Australia - http://freesoftware.org.au/ jabjabs(a)fastmail.com.au

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Citizenfour at Cinema Nova, Monday 2015-03-16 midday session
by Ben Finney 15 Mar '15

15 Mar '15

Howdy all, I'm going to see the documentary Citizenfour at Cinema Nova, tomorrow afternoon (Monday 2015-03-16), arriving around 11:30 for the 12:05 session <URL:http://www.cinemanova.com.au/movies/9374.php>. Late notice, during the day on a weekday; yeah, but I happen to have the day off, and Monday afternoons are the cheap tickets :-) Who's in? -- \ “Odious ideas are not entitled to hide from criticism behind | `\ the human shield of their believers' feelings.” —Richard M. | _o__) Stallman | Ben Finney

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Defending Free Software Against Privatizers
by Patrick Sunter 13 Mar '15

13 Mar '15

Interesting article about the Software Freedom Conservancy planning to sue VMWare http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/defending-free-software-against-privatizers/2…

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Gnews notes & recent discussion topics
by Scott Junner 13 Mar '15

13 Mar '15

Hey guys. I'd like to express my enthusiasm for getting a hold of the Gnews notes. I just joined this list assuming this is where they will be posted. But in case not, where will they be? Also, I took the liberty of calling the department of education in Victoria to get a feel for what it would take to get Free Software in schools. They directed me to http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/spag/infrastructure/Pages… On the left hand side of that page you can see links to other related areas. But they did make it clear to me that these sorts of things are handled by the actual school. That is to say what the school buys for their students and staff is up to the school, no the department. The department provides guidance but not final say (though you can see the bias fairly clearly). So it could be worth talking to a few principals to understand how they think. From there a trial presentation/demonstration can be put together, get a room full of them and just get some feedback so that a solid project could begin with some focussed direction. And lastly on the topic of workshops for getting started contributing to free software projects. Yes please. Give me one job to do to that will get that ball rolling. Coz I wants it. There are things I would like to contribute to but don't know where to begin (or more truthfully feel like I have nothing to offer). Cheers. Scott.

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Re: [free-software-melb] Free-software-melb Digest, Vol 53, Issue 7
by Michael Verrenkamp 13 Mar '15

13 Mar '15

At least if we elect another Ben then there will be no need to change anything on any paper work, if there is any :P As for Libre Planet Boston - do us all proud! Show that the movement is getting its roots here as well. -- Sent from my GNU/Linux-Libre box. Run free. http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html Come Visit Free Software Australia - http://freesoftware.org.au/ jabjabs(a)fastmail.com.au On Thu, Mar 12, 2015, at 05:00, free-software-melb-request(a)lists.softwarefreedom.com.au wrote: > Send Free-software-melb mailing list submissions to > free-software-melb(a)lists.softwarefreedom.com.au > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.softwarefreedom.com.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/free-software-… > > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > free-software-melb-request(a)lists.softwarefreedom.com.au > > You can reach the person managing the list at > free-software-melb-owner(a)lists.softwarefreedom.com.au > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Free-software-melb digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Nomination for committee (Ben Sturmfels) > 2. Re: Nomination for committee (Ben Finney) > 3. Re: Nomination for committee (Ben Finney) > 4. Re: Nomination for committee (Scott Junner) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2015 13:21:54 +1100 > From: Ben Sturmfels <ben(a)stumbles.id.au> > To: free-software-melb(a)lists.softwarefreedom.com.au > Subject: [free-software-melb] Nomination for committee > Message-ID: <5500F842.7050509(a)stumbles.id.au> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Hi Folks, > > I'm heading off to LibrePlanet in Boston so won't be at the upcoming > meeting, but I'd like to nominate for President in the elections. > > It's been a great last 12 months for Free Software Melbourne - very > successful Software Freedom Day, lots of interesting meet-ups and > dinners, some international guests, a new website, reaching out to new > people through Meetup.com as well as early discussions about a "get > started contributing to free software" workshop and about a LibrePlanet > Sydney starting up. I'm keen for more. :) > > Regards, > Ben > >

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