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

Buying or building a computer in Melbourne
by Ben Finney 13 Oct '11

13 Oct '11

Howdy all, I want to get some machines for the home network, and I want them to be fully supported by only-free software. I would be happy to pay some business in Melbourne to build it from parts and test it, and ideally be available for warranty support. The big trouble is finding people who can meet the free-software requirements. Saying “free software only” doesn't ring any bells with vendors, for the familiar reasons that nobody thinks about software freedom. Saying “only hardware supported by Linux without binary blobs” just gets boiled down in their head to “Linux”, and reliably leads to disappointment when they recommend hardware that doesn't meet what I described. There are some resources to help with this. But pointing a vendor at <URL:http://www.h-node.com/> and asking them to choose only hardware that gets an okay in that database is not much of an option; my money is likely not worth it to the shop to spend their time on that site. There are also efforts to put together computers and sell them <URL:http://open-pc.com/>; but they're patchy and poorly-available and the store interfaces are average-to-terrible. Needless to say none of them are in Melbourne, so delivery costs are a huge factor. Worst of all, those well-researched complete machines are almost never specified in detail, so I can't just say to a Melbourne shop “build me one of these, test it with this USB stick, sell it to me, and give me warranty support”. The information just isn't there for me to take to the shop. Where can I get satisfaction here? I need some or all of these functions: * a machine to act as ADSL + wireless router and DNS + DHCP + HTTP proxy * a machine to act as grunty software development workstation * a machine to act as thin desktop client * a machine to act as home theatre for video & audio It's not 2000 any more; even Debian now has an entirely free-software kernel. Now all I need is to know exactly what good-quality parts to buy to have the above functions. Surely I don't have to individually compile all these specifications myself? -- \ “Human reason is snatching everything to itself, leaving | `\ nothing for faith.” —Bernard of Clairvaux, 1090–1153 CE | _o__) | Ben Finney

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Mozilla post on "Open Apps Ecosystem"
by Patrick Sunter 12 Oct '11

12 Oct '11

Hi guys, apropos our recent discussion on FOSS options for phones, I thought the commentary on the need for open 'Apps' was quite good (by chair of Mozilla foundation) http://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2011/08/09/the-app-model-and-the-web/ cheers, Pat.

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Rare opportunity on software patents
by Ben Sturmfels 11 Oct '11

11 Oct '11

Hi Folks, The Australian government is requesting comments in a review of "innovation patents". Submissions close *this Friday* 14 October. This is a rare opportunity to be heard. Please write to <mail.acip(a)ipaustralia.gov.au>, explaining the problems of software patents and pointing out that "innovation patents" are the same, but worse. (I've added some notes below to help get you started.) Important: 1. Please focus on software patents only, not patents in general. 2. Please BCC to <swpat(a)sturm.com.au>. 3. Try get your colleagues and organisation to co-sign. For more on the campaign, please visit: http://endsoftpatents.org/australia. The ACIP review: http://www.acip.gov.au/reviews.html#patsys Thanks for your help. Regards, Ben Sturmfels Ideas for your email ==================== Please feel free use your own words and ideas too. FYI: "Innovation patents" came about in 2000 as a replacement for "petty patents". They have a term of 8 years (std. patents 20 years), minimal examination and much lower barrier of "inventiveness" - easy to get, just as hard to defeat. Intro ideas: software patents in general ---------------------------------------- - you're in the software industry - patents on computation and information processing do the opposite of promoting innovation - harmful to both software industry and society - as such should be abolished - you're one of the thousands who signed the paper petition to the House of Representatives calling for this Body ideas: "innovation patents" are the same but worse ------------------------------------------------------- - pose all the same risks as standard patents - are worse because they have lower requirements for examination and inventiveness - should also be abolished Closing ideas: -------------- - you wish you'd been aware of the 2009 Review of Patentable Subject Matter so you could have commented on that too

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Re: [free-software-melb] looking for calendar application
by Bernie Schelberg 08 Oct '11

08 Oct '11

> From: andrew thornton <andrewtech(a)iinet.net.au> > To: free-software-melb(a)lists.softwarefreedom.com.au > Subject: [free-software-melb] looking for calendar application > Message-ID: <4E8E59E8.2080705(a)iinet.net.au> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; Format="flowed" > > > Hello > Is there a free and/or opensource calendar > application? Can't find one on sourceforge. Tried mozilla sunbird. But I > want to do this: > > I have dropbox on two computers connected > by short range wireless/ethernet internet. Person on computer a wants to > make a calendar file, save it, drop into dropbox, then i see it on > computer b, and i make the file public and email a link to business > colleagues with the schedule calendar file. > > I can't get this to occur with mozilla > sunbird. Please don't suggest thunderbird/lightning. I use that. But he > can't email. He needs an idiot level calendar application for windows. > Sunbird saves as weird.ics files that I can't open. If I can't open them > how will anyone else use them? > > Does such a calendar application exist? > > Thank you > Andrew I've not used it myself, but Evolution includes a calendar that might be able to do what you want. .ics is a standard format, I don't know why you're having trouble with it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar. Bernie

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Byte Into It 2011-10-05: LibreOffice one year old, GNOME 3.2, ACTA signed by Australia
by Ben Finney 07 Oct '11

07 Oct '11

Howdy all, The 3RRR radio program Byte Into It on Wednesday 2011-10-05 had me as one of the co-hosts. <URL:http://rrrfm.libsyn.com/byte-into-it-5-october-2011> I got some coverage of software freedom in there, including GNOME 3.2, LibreOffice's one-year milestone, the signing of ACTA by Australia and other countries, and the Defective By Design response to the Kindle Fire. -- \ “Ubi dubium, ibi libertas.” (“Where there is doubt, there is | `\ freedom.”) | _o__) | Ben Finney

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looking for calendar application
by andrew thornton 07 Oct '11

07 Oct '11

Hello Is there a free and/or opensource calendar application? Can't find one on sourceforge. Tried mozilla sunbird. But I want to do this: I have dropbox on two computers connected by short range wireless/ethernet internet. Person on computer a wants to make a calendar file, save it, drop into dropbox, then i see it on computer b, and i make the file public and email a link to business colleagues with the schedule calendar file. I can't get this to occur with mozilla sunbird. Please don't suggest thunderbird/lightning. I use that. But he can't email. He needs an idiot level calendar application for windows. Sunbird saves as weird.ics files that I can't open. If I can't open them how will anyone else use them? Does such a calendar application exist? Thank you Andrew

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Microsoft requires Windows 8 logo systems to not boot unsigned OS's
by Chris Samuel 25 Sep '11

25 Sep '11

This looks like something to keep an eye on.. Matthew Garrett (the guy who makes peoples laptops work with Linux and has to deal with EFI & Linux - makes you wonder what awful thing he did in a past life) writes about a worrying requirement for Windows 8 logo certification for hardware vendors.. http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/5552.html # Microsoft requires that machines conforming to the # Windows 8 logo program and running a client version # of Windows 8 ship with secure boot enabled. The two # alternatives here are for Windows to be signed with # a Microsoft key and for the public part of that key # to be included with all systems, or alternatively for # each OEM to include their own key and sign the # pre-installed versions of Windows. The second approach # would make it impossible to run boxed copies of Windows # on Windows logo hardware, and also impossible to install # new versions of Windows unless your OEM provided a new # signed copy. The former seems more likely. # # A system that ships with only OEM and Microsoft keys will # not boot a generic copy of Linux. -- Chris Samuel : http://www.csamuel.org/ : Melbourne, VIC

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late Gen X experimenters with Linux
by Andrew Thornton 24 Sep '11

24 Sep '11

Ubuntu is a great example of a OS ready for the desktop market. If only Stallman would see it as such. I suppose we can continue in spite of him. I don't see how you can go against what people want; if people want to use Skype in a Linux OS then Stallman to me is engaging in anti-marketing by not putting it on a recognized OS list of "free" software". Anyway. What I want to get to is why people use Linux. This was discussed on SFD. I want to concentrate on my own motivations. I left school in the early 90's with absolute computer illiteracy. I couldn't put a disk in the drive. I couldn't turn on a computer. This was in spite of an abundance of computers and being taught about computers at school. It took me a long time to get anywhere with computers. I didn't really understand what a file was until about 2004. Now I experiment with any computer technology that I can find. It might be free software or opensource. It might be paid software. I am dual booted with Win 7 and Fedora 15 mainly to experiment with fedora. I use Windows most of the time and it alone would meet my needs. Sometimes in my experiments the instructions are wrong in documentation or tutorials so I have to "work it out". In such cases I try to avoid going to forums or mailing lists except as a last resort; it's my intent to "solve the puzzle" with my own brains. That I have succeeded in that a number of times with my own unassisted efforts makes me believe that I am "good" with computers. At least by that definition. I have never learnt C++. I don't understand IPV6 and so many other things. I have no idea how to set a laptop display for talks; I have never had a laptop. But for all that I am "good" with computers. And all that with a lack of any training. I have never studied computing at TAFE or university; I wish that I had been in the system 5 years later and I might have done comp sci at uni. But I was in the wrong era in the last days of a pre-internet world when computers were thrown at kids without any help. Web application frameworks. Shopping carts. Databases. GUI programming. Prolog. Python. Clonezilla. Backtrack. VMware. OpenIndiana Linux [fork of Solaris] IPV6 [trying to understand it! Whether I get anywhere with NAT and Teredo tunnels is another matter]. Had I a dollar for everything that I try and get into I would be rich. It all fascinates me. I spend hours with it all. A lot of the time it is random. I might go to Wikipedia and look up say, comparison of web application frameworks. What's that one? Never tried one. So I set it up and play with it. I wish that I could learn it all. But of course nobody can. So I guess that I have narrowed it down to a broad intent of sorts. I am studying a mixture of graphics design [Dip of Design] and some IT certificates in php and python and .NET. The providers are online courses and there are no deadlines. So I can romp down whatever IT rabbit hole I wish. So in the end it's graphics design/web programming that is the overarching broad intent. I am heading for a similar skillset to that guy who does the VTC.com lectures, Geoff Blake. So that's it. I am an experimentalist. I have no bias for it. I will experiment with anything. I have astonishing opportunities as a student.I have access to a free, entirely legal student copy [can't be used for commercial work] of 3D Autodesk Max. Because my college for graphics is recognized by Autodesk. So I am playing with that. Sometimes I have played with blender.

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Re: [free-software-melb] the evil MS endgame?
by elliott-brennan 22 Sep '11

22 Sep '11

Hi Andrew, Apart from not being an idiot, I could well imagine Stallman would consider this to be a serious concern also. His concerns about Ubuntu are valid when you examine his overall aim. Though I can see what he means, I'm less doctrinaire (which is either a failing in me or not) than he is and so am more willing to negotiate away some rights for a little 'soft and fluffy'. One doesn't need to be concerned about only one thing at a time. Regards, Patrick > Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:19:50 +1000 > From: Andrew Thornton<secretelf77(a)gmail.com> > http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/2/2011/09/21/secure_boot_firmware_lin… > > > Richard Stallman is an idiot to worry about ubuntu so much that it's not in > the FSF list of "free" software. May be much much more important things to > be concerned about. As the Iranian proverb goes:"a drowning man doesn't > worry about rain".

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the evil MS endgame?
by Andrew Thornton 22 Sep '11

22 Sep '11

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/2/2011/09/21/secure_boot_firmware_lin… Richard Stallman is an idiot to worry about ubuntu so much that it's not in the FSF list of "free" software. May be much much more important things to be concerned about. As the Iranian proverb goes:"a drowning man doesn't worry about rain".

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