A world where software freedom has a fighting chance and hope exists
Quoting: A world where software freedom has a fighting chance and hope exists —
All in all, LibrePlanet proves again and again that a community can come together and run a conference using entirely free software. How great is it that we can communicate and collaborate in freedom!
All year round, the FSF runs on free software, self-hosted on our own computers to the maximum extent we can. That includes maintaining a rack of about a dozen servers across two data centers. We run a wide array of software to support the free software movement, including things like Git hosting and mailing lists for GNU software development. In fact, we counted sixty-three different services. One way we are working to be more efficient is to better enable volunteers to do and lead sysadmin work. We are fostering a volunteer-centered team called the FSF SysOps team, which has a fledgling website at https://sysops.fsf.org/wiki/, where we are migrating volunteer-relevant information from the LibrePlanet wiki and other places. If you have technical skills and want to volunteer, please get in touch!
There is one more thing I helped a little bit with that I think is really amazing and worth mentioning here. This year, the world's largest company by revenue, Walmart (which recently acquired Vizio), attacked the FSF with its lawyers in a grueling and verbally aggressive ten-hour deposition that aimed to find a crack in the GPL and the FSF's stand for user freedom. The FSF responded diligently with extensive preparation and assistance from legal counsel, and we didn't crack. These kinds of actions take significant financial resources. We need your help to keep doing this. For me, a world where the FSF is able to stand up to the biggest companies in the world is a world where freedom has a fighting chance and hope exists.
Please help make that world exist. We know not everyone is in a position to, but if you can, will you support our efforts by joining the FSF as an associate member? An associate membership is a great show of support we can rely on. With your help, the tech team can ensure that the FSF runs smoothly on free software and thereby show that a world of computer user freedom is possible. As an FSF associate member, you'll be part of a vibrant international community and be able to enjoy all the associate member benefits, such as access to the FSF's videoconferencing server, 20% discount on FSF merchandise, and email forwarding. Every new associate membership this spring will receive a FSF thermal mug as a welcome gift and help us achieve our goal of 200 new associate members by July 26. Need more reasons to join? Have a look at our appeal page or email us at info@fsf.org to receive more information.