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FSM Jan 16th - Discussion on inclusion policies & FSM campaigns for 2020
by PuZZleDucK 07 Jan '20

07 Jan '20

Welcome to 2020 everyone, We're kicking off the decade by giving you the chance to choose your own 2020 at Free Software Melbourne. Do you want more games nights, hardware reviews, campaigns or just more pizza! Which campaigns should we continue our involvement in and what other campaigns are emerging in the new decade we could lend our weight to? Now's your chance to come along and have your say about how the next year at Free Software Melbourne will look. This will be a non technical event and all are welcome to attend and contribute. We'll all take a look at the campaigns we are currently running like the AABill and what we can do next. We'll also look at what we need to do to plan for and participate in events like Melbourne Knowledge Week and Privacy Week. If you're aware of any other events we could participate in come along and tell us about it or make suggestions on the mailing list before the meetup. As discussed in last years October meeting we will be looking at our options for an Inclusion policy and deciding on candidates for adoption. While were adding another policy this seems like an optimal time to review our current policies and how we present them on the website. Are there better ways to convey our policies, should they all be grouped together, are they up to date and serving the functions they are intended to? We'd be interested to hear ayones experience with inclusion policies or opinions of good (or bad) inclusion policies you've come across. So come along to discuss inclusion policies, and help set course for 2020 at Free Software Melbourne. After the meeting we will continue our discussions over dinner in North Melbourne a short walk away and all are welcome to join us. Thanks again to Electron Workshop for hosting Free Software Melbourne and Software Freedom Day for another year. Details Thursday 16th January, 6:30-8:00pm Electron Workshop: 31 Arden St, North Melbourne, Victoria, 3051 Map: http://osm.org/go/uG4HWyqEz?m=&node=2556615434 Travel Tips: http://www.electronworkshop.com.au/map/

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End of Year update
by Michael Verrenkamp 17 Dec '19

17 Dec '19

And so another year of Free Software Melbourne comes to an end. This year has been an interesting one. Firstly for Free software at a glance. Most Distros have kept on improving in their quality and stability as they are deep into their maturity nowadays, and that is only a good thing. In one of our meetups mid-year someone came along (I'm sorry I forgot their name!) and asked "So I'm running Linux Mint, how do I get to experience the 'real linux?'". It is a funny question as from the outside GNU/Linux has the appearance of being this huge technical challenge that gets you closer to your machine. Yes, you do get closer to your machine but it isn't a large technical challenge any more and for that we should be grateful. To borrow the cliche of Apple - for the most part "it just works!". Now stop mentioning the terminal unless you really need it. ;) I will mention three packages that have had a particularly good year, all of them in the arts side of things. Blender, Krita and Godot. In the last decade Blender has gone from an interesting little 3D packaging to experiment with to a world leader in 3D rendering technology. The community kept it alive and now it is thriving. There have now been feature films made using this technology and the number of studios and users is exploding. This is a true testament to what free software can do and how it can help people a long way outside of the technical side. Krita which started out as a one programmer project for digital painting is now getting major funding for additional features plus an entire community surround it. You can now easily find tutorials, lessons and even printed books on how to use this package. I think the folks over at Adobe are starting to worry about this contender and there is no way they can counter it... well unless they liberate the code to Photoshop under the GPL. Godot is a video games engine/platform for 2D and 3D games and it has started to get a lot of traction, unfortunately in proprietary games but at least the technology base under it is free software. It has gone from a clunky little experiment to the darling of the indie games world with complex 3D shaders and ever increasing performance gains. I guess the price of $0 upfront and a Free code base does encourage people to gravitate to it over the other proprietary solutions. On the hardware front, we are seeing the first steps back into the world of Free software phones. After the dream of the Ubuntu phone faded, the whole idea has been on the back burner for a few years now. Hardware costs have fallen dramatically and processor speeds/memory are now more than enough to all a free software OS to have a chance again. The PinePhone64 and the Librem 5 are two that are looking to bring the dream back to life. Hardware is starting to appear in users/developers hands and it will be a while until we can consider these things ready as daily runners but these things looks like they will go the long yards. The big news this year however was not in software but the departure of Richard Stallman from the Free Software Foundation and his position at MIT. The situation was complicated and filled with all sorts of emotional issues that sit far outside of the Free software. It came as an unexpected blow to the community but we are resilient, we are more than just a fan club for one guy, we are a movement. I will not comment any further on this but I will take the sentiment of Stallman himself - even without him there, support the FSF and make it clear that they need to defend the rights of users. Freedom is important. Now onto Free Software Melbourne. This year we had a little experiment, instead of monthly meetings, we went for every second month for meetings. It was a bit more relaxing but the committee has decided it was maybe a little too relaxed. Next year we will be moving back to a monthly meetup schedule. This is every 3rd Thursday of every month excluding September in which we will have the 16th - Software Freedom Day. So put the following dates in your calendar. We will still make announcements for this and do check on our email list as these are subject to change. Thursday 16th January Thursday 20th February Thursday 19th March Thursday 16th April Thursday 21st May Thursday 17th June Thursday 16th July Thursday 20th August Saturday 19th September Thursday 15th October Thursday 19th November December Dinner to be decided The March meetup is a very important date. That will be the 10th anniversary of Free Software Melbourne. From two people meeting in a library, we have had a long and exciting history and we are only going to keep going from here. There are plans in the pipeline for a couple of advocacy/activist campaigns over the next year, we won't so much be boycotting things - don't want to step on the Liberal parties toes - but we will be very informative to people. These won't just impact Australia but they will be things that are relevant globally. Stay Tuned. There is a lot of work to be done but there is a lot of fun along the way, please join us in this journey. Michael Verrenkamp -- Committee Member Free Software Australia/Melbourne Advocating for freedom in computer software. www.freesoftware.org.au

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Meetup Dinner - Friday 6:30pm - 13th December 2019 - Char Siu House
by Michael Verrenkamp 16 Nov '19

16 Nov '19

The Christmas puddings at Coles are now being heavily discounted because they have been on the shelf for over 3 months, you know what that means... Christmas is just around the corner and with that it is also the end of another great year for Free Software Australia! As is tradition, the last meetup of the year is casual affair with dinner at Char Sui House in North Melbourne. No talks or pre-planned agenda, just an excuse to get together talk and have a great meal. Talk about the great things that have happened, things that concerned you and then move on to the great things that lay ahead in the world of free software in the new decade. Dinner will be at 6:30pm on Friday 13th December at Char Siu House - 37 Errol St, North Melbourne. If you are lost on the night I can be contacted via mobile on 0433 96 96 77. https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/480586195 - Michael

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Free Software Melbourne October Wrap-up
by PuZZleDucK 23 Oct '19

23 Oct '19

Thanks everyone for coming along to this months Free Software Melbourne discussion around the resignation of Stallman from the FSF and MIT, what a great turnout for what could so easily be an uncomfortable discussion. It's a difficult topic to come to terms with as someone who has been an inspiration and household name in our community has had to resign under such circumstances. As much as we might wish that our movements founder was could champion the cause forever, the reality is that no one could, and we must move on. The consensus seemed to be that we keep up our support for the cause of Free Software and the Free Software Foundation while we wait on tender hooks to see who the FSF will appoint as their new president. The major point of concern now seems to be with the GNU project stewardship and how this might reflect on the community and the inclusiveness of our cause. One thing that came up during the discussion was inclusion policies, and unfortunately I think that we don't have one for FSM. I'd appreciate any suggestions or feedback on the idea from the group. Are there good (or bad) examples you've seen around? Then maybe at our next meetup we could take a look at the suggestions and evaluate what kind of inclusion policy we want for our group. I also observed that there are still lots of inspirational people left in our community like Bradley Kuhn and Matthew Garrett who came up during our discussions. There are also great people (technically outside the FSF) like Deb Nicholson who often speaks about software freedom, Bryan Lunduke who has reached many people with his enthusiasm for freedom and Allison Randal at the Free Software Conservancy. So I'd also recommend taking a look at the FSF board as it now stands and taking some time to get to know a board member you didn't know about before :D Then the other big topics of discussion were Open Hardware and Meetup.com. With meetup.com thankfully backing down, for the time being, from putting a price per head on meetup attendance. We were reflecting on our communication tools and processes, and how we might want to better document the process in the future. We also identified Libre Planet as an untapped resource for new membership and it is a platform we rarely keep up to date. So that's something the committee will be trying to make an improvement on before we start fresh next year. On a few internal matters, we also picked a date for our December dinner, so save the date: December 13th... but we'll post an announcement for that soon. We also decided to go back to monthly meetups next year and to trial some remote and/or recorded talks using FOSS tools through the year. So stay tuned! ~~ Ben Slides from the meetup: https://free-software-melbourne.github.io/Future-2019-October/

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FSM Oct 17 - The Future of Free Software Culture
by PuZZleDucK 17 Oct '19

17 Oct '19

Hi folks, It's certainly turbulent times for the Free Software Foundation and for the community in general. With an unexpected change of leadership at the Foundation underway we thought it would be a good time to get together and discuss the possible outcomes and ramifications of the current crisis as well as the possible impacts it could have on us. Along with every crisis we are also presented with opportunities, and in this case maybe our opportunity is to reflect on our own public image as an organisation and reassess where we stand and what we stand for. We will be talking about how are we currently using social media and how we might be able to better reach the wider public and communicate or message about the importance of Free Software. See you all there Event details: Thursday 17th March, 6:30-8:00pm 31 Arden St, North Melbourne, Victoria, 3051 Map: http://osm.org/go/uG4HWyqEz?m=&node=2556615434 Travel tips by Electron Workshop: http://www.electronworkshop.com.au/map/

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Software Freedom Day - 21st of September 2019
by PuZZleDucK 03 Sep '19

03 Sep '19

Free Software Melbourne and Linux Users Victoria are celebrating the 16th annual Software Freedom Day celebrations in Melbourne and we're going to be hosting a series of talks about using Free and Open Source Software in the real world. We're going to be talking about what even is Free and Open Source software and why is Free Software so important we want to dedicate a whole day to it. We're also going to talk about using free software for audio production, and how open source is used in the development of open hardware and some demonstrations of projects you could even build yourself. We'll also be having plenty of networking opportunities and introductions to many of Melbourne's Free and Open Source technology groups and organizations. Entry is free any time and Software Freedom Day is a family friendly event welcoming to anyone, pass on the word to help make it a great day for everyone. We do have a code of conduct on our website, but in short: Be respectful. Be mindful. Work together. We'll have light snacks and sodas available gratis throughout the afternoon and at the conclusion of the day we usually continue discussions over dinner along the nearby Errol st, so feel free to join us if you're enjoying the conversations. Hope to see you all at Electron Workshop on the 21st for another exciting Software Freedom Day! Details Date: Saturday the 21st of September Time: Talks starting at 1:00pm and wrapping up about 5:30pm Location: Electron Workshop co-working space Address: 31 Arden Street, North Melbourne Map: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/2556615434 Travel Tips: http://www.electronworkshop.com.au/map/ Parking: On street parking in the area Code of Conduct: http://freesoftware.org.au/code-of-conduct/ Time Table (further details to be announced shortly): 1:00 - 1:15 Welcomes and Introductions 1:15 - 5:30 Presentations and Community Get Together 5:30 Official event ending 6:00 Dinner at Errol St SFD announce blog: https://freesoftware.org.au/blog/software-freedom-day-21st-of-september-201…

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Workshop 30/31 August: Contribute to Free Software and Open Source in Ballarat
by Ben Sturmfels 28 Aug '19

28 Aug '19

Hi FSM folks, Just wanted to let you know that Damien and I are organising a community event for the Digital Innovation Festival in Ballarat that you or someone you know might be interested in. https://dif.vic.gov.au/event/10088280-a/contribute-to-free-and-open-source-… It's a mentored workshop to help people get over the hurdles to making their first free software/open source contribution. The 4 mentors are all experienced contributors and we're capping it at 16 participants to ensure participants can spend plenty of time with them. The event is an evening intro session on Friday 30 August plus full day Saturday 31 August. It's suitable for anyone people with programming experience. Is there anyone you know who might like to join us? Tertiary studets $15 (subsidised by sponsors) Hobbyists $45 Professionals $85 Registrations close Sunday 25 August or when we fill up. Regards, Ben

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Our Favorite Free Software of 2019
by PuZZleDucK 18 Aug '19

18 Aug '19

Hey Folks, Thanks for braving the cold and coming out to Free Software Melbourne this month, and thanks also to everyone who shared their best Free and Open Source Software recommendations with us. I wanted to share the recommendations that came up with the group as a whole: I think the hands down winner for eliciting amazed gasps was the spectacular Stellarium planetarium for your computer with its amazing visuals: https://stellarium.org/ We took a look at the Oh My Zsh extensions for making your command line look flashy: https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/wiki/Themes One of our members updated us on the Librem 5 project as they eagerly anticipate the upcoming release: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ Someone also suggested RamBox for managing multiple communications sources: https://github.com/ramboxapp/community-edition We talked about the release of some RISC-V hardware into the market: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RISC-V And we also discussed the benefets of testing hardware with pure Free Software distributions such as Trisquel: https://trisquel.info/ Also a quick note that Software Freedom Day is coming up on the 21st of September, so mark your calendars now. ~~ Ben

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Meetup 6pm 15th August 2019 - Favorite Free Software
by PuZZleDucK 09 Aug '19

09 Aug '19

Hi all, The world is always changing and so is the Free Software world, it can be difficult for folks to figure out what software is really worth looking into. With that we are having a 'Favorite Free Software' event. From distro's to audio/video software and heavy lifting work programs. For software for your top end PC down to your older phones, there is always something great in Free Software that can help you do more of what you want. We will show you some of the great free software available and hope that you will show us something great as well. This is a no cost non-technical event and everyone is welcome. Bring a friend it you want, the more the merrier. Bring a computer or just bring yourself. Event will be at Electron Workshop, 31 Arden Street - North Melbourne. Doors open at 6pm with the event starts at 6:30pm. Afterwards will be the usual Dinner in North Melbourne were we can continue the discussion were ever it may go. - Michael

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Journalists, suppression and spying on Australians.
by Michael Verrenkamp 05 Jun '19

05 Jun '19

Good day everyone, Looks like the effort to suppress journalists in Australia is ramping up. It is being implied that this has to do with the reporting on the Australian Signals Directorate to spy on Australian citizens for the first time. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/04/federal-police-raid-… Cheers Michael -- Committee Member Free Software Australia/Melbourne Advocating for freedom in computer software. www.freesoftware.org.au --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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