The FSF Is Looking To Update Its High Priority Free Software Projects List (phoronix.com) 33
AmiMoJo writes: As we roll into 2021 the Free Software Foundation is looking to update its high priority free software projects list. These are the software projects that should be incorporating "the most important threats, and most critical opportunities, that free software faces in the modern computing landscape." For now the FSF is looking for help deciding what to include. The FSF high priority projects list is what once included PowerVR reverse engineering as being very important albeit never happened prior to PowerVR graphics becoming less common. In fact, many FSF high priority projects never panned out as they weren't contributing much in the way of resources to the causes but just calling attention to them. PDF support was among their high priority projects as well as another example as well as the likes of an open-source Skype replacement and reverse-engineering other popular technologies.
They overhauled the list in 2017 after forming a committee to maintain the list while now as 2021 is just around the corner they are looking to revise their high priority projects focus once more. They have issued a call for input to share with the High Priority Free Software Projects committee what you feel should belong on the list. Feedback is being collected through early January. Currently on the list are different "areas" they feel are high priority for free software as opposed to previously focusing on particular projects.
They overhauled the list in 2017 after forming a committee to maintain the list while now as 2021 is just around the corner they are looking to revise their high priority projects focus once more. They have issued a call for input to share with the High Priority Free Software Projects committee what you feel should belong on the list. Feedback is being collected through early January. Currently on the list are different "areas" they feel are high priority for free software as opposed to previously focusing on particular projects.
Should focus on Infrastructure (Score:4, Insightful)
They should focus most on internet infrastructure. Their "high priority" list should be a list of arcane things that 99% of people wouldn't care about.
Focus (Score:2)
A general focus would be great. The last list was really scattershot. A free phone OS. A free personal assistant. Encourage adoption by governments. Encourage entirely free distros. Improving accessibility.
Before you get all the fun stuff, you need to make sure the fundamentals are stable, secure and maintainable. I agree that the internet infrastructure stuff should get focus, as well as all the ancillary stuff that doesn't get enough attention (libjpeg? busybox? ftpd? ntpd?)
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(libjpeg? busybox? ftpd? ntpd?)
what's wrong with these? The free software versions of these are more stable and reliable than proprietary equivalent
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what's wrong with these? The free software versions of these are more stable and reliable than proprietary equivalent
They are used everywhere and don't get a lot of attention from developers. libjpeg is updated once every two years. Development has slowed to the point that there are multiple forks to add functionality. Busybox doesn't get updated very often. Ditto ftpd (though proftpd seems to be maintained) OpenNTPd hasn't been updated in three years.
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Maybe they're "finished" and don't need constant updates. (Are they? I don't know enough about them to be sure, frankly.)
When's the last time some updated the ls or cat command?
More often than you think (Score:2)
ls gets updated fairly regularly, mainly to handle new filesystem flags, attributes, or security schemes.
As for libjpeg, as I pointed out, development has stagnated to the point that there are multiple forks. I'd say that's as sure sign there is a development problem. Which is a healthier development environment - multiple codebases servicing a critical library that do mostly the same thing, or everybody focusing on one?
As for OpenNTPd, there have been plenty of commits, many coming from downstream, but no
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Two problems.
First, the FSF pretty much would demand GPLv3. Busybox is v2only. That pretty much excludes its support.
Second, v3 support isn't happening - lots of v2only code in there (Linux code, for example), and industry support for it would drop to 0 if t were made v3.
Even now industry support for busybox is minimal given the lawsuits that made everyone gunshy on using it, which is why there are others including toybox.
How about some working fucking video card drivers? (Score:2)
No, AMD, your "mostly open except for that closed-source firmware needed for all features except unaccelerated 2d blitting" doesn't count.
And if anyone is thinking of bringing up Nouveau, just punch yourself in the genitals.
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My nouveau drivers work just fine, maybe stop punching yourself in the balls and learn how to computer?
And buy a fucking console for your gaming, computers are tools.
I am so glad the "PC" market is dying; after all, it isn't like they're making less server motherboards for me to put in desktops.
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And buy a fucking console for your gaming, computers are tools.
Mods and indie games are more often PC first if not PC only.
The FSF Effect, Streisand Edition, Part Deux. (Score:1)
"...many FSF high priority projects never panned out as they weren't contributing much in the way of resources to the causes but just calling attention to them.
Gee, where have we seen that before.
If we think highlighting the most critical of software won't draw undue attention, Barbara would like to have a word with you, as she has with millions of others who love to laugh at her Don't-Look-At-Muh-House mantra.
This is why Governments store lists like this in vaults, and require security clearances...
Re: The FSF Effect, Streisand Edition, Part Deux. (Score:2)
Check out the failures of their previous lists.
Or their "Free Windows 7" campaign to gain attention by demanding Microsoft open source Windows 7, knowing in advance that Microsoft doesn't have the right to open source code used under license.
The FSF purpose is to collect donations to keep their paycheques coming. Any other beneficial effects are completely coincidental.
The #1 need missing from every one of the lists is a proper financial model for software developers. But that would involve, among ot
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Thank you for the detailed response. Sadly, it sounds like the FSF, regardless of their innocent name and perceived value-add, has succumbed to average ordinary everyday Greed, demonstrating abuses no better than the "non-profit" Clinton Foundation, or damn near every other American "charity" abusing the shit out of corrupt tax laws.
And of course, demonstrating blinding hypocrisy when demanding they get paid for pimping a "Free" Foundation, but everyone else involved works for canned goat farts. How fresh
Free instruction set and a free chip fab (Score:2)
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1) Most of my RISC-V CPUs are running on FPGAs, and I can validate the heck out of the circuit
2) A free instruction set is just what it sounds like; free instructions. If you're worried about being given the wrong instructions, simply verify that they're the instructions you want before following them. The point being, when you choose an instruction set, you haven't engineered anything yet; you still have to design and build a circuit that behaves in the way described by the instructions. You do that yourse
Cleanup in aisle 3 ..... (Score:2)
I tapped out on TFS about halfway through the second sentence. Coherent writing is a dying art, apparently.
That said - if reverse-engineering other peoples’ technologies is the highest priority, that sounds like a losing position to start from. How about actually developing something of quality, instead of a half-baked poor reimplementation?
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Both are too expensive at this point, but nobody seems to be exploring the relatively cheap option of just bribing these greedy shits to fully open all the software to support their 3+ generation old tech that is still in the wild and would otherwise have to be discarded and replaced at additional (unnecessary, unsustainable) cost to both the economy and the environment. I'm sorry but propping up the Microsoft + Nvidia duopoloy with artificially contrived World of Warcraft system requirements isn't capital
That's not how this works! (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not how ANY of this works.
People work on open source projects because they have an itch. The only thing that makes any project a priority is because someone is itching. If the PowerVR isn't making anyone scratch, it isn't going to get any attention. If it is making a lot of people scratch, it will get LOTS of attention. Asking people to scratch themselves or telling them that they have an itch is a rather odd thing to do.
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Indeed; were I to see something on their list I wanted to contribute to advancing, I'd start an Apache 2 licensed project instead; that's where most of the itches are.
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They have resources, including cash, to devote to this sort of thing. It's part of their mission.
Also maybe relying on itch scratching isn't the best policy, after all that's how we ended up with systemd.
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And Wayland, because X sucks so hard it's still going strong 10 years after its super simple replacement was meant to replace it but didn't, so how we have something stagnated because it's "deprecated" in favour of something which isn't actually able to replace it in any meaningful manner.
Re:That's not how this works! (Score:4, Informative)
X is still well maintained (despite the abandonware FUD). But yes, the funding could have been used to make things better, instead of building an inferior alternative (harming the ecosystem by destroying compatibility). For example, we could have connect/reconnect for all clients, and whole desktops. Moving of windows between displays (over the network), as well ass latency hiding over the network (addressing 90% of the performance issues over the network). The underlying X protocol is already async and xcb supports all this just fine! So this would only require improved toolkit support - no changes to X. We could also have client isolation (this also already works with untrusted clients, but would need exposre of some newer extensions such as RENDER to untrusted clients). It sad that this is not stuff people work on. Instead, in 2020 where the network is king and multi-core is standard, people work on a local window system to save an (irrelevant) context switch.
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Instead, in 2020 where the network is king and multi-core is standard, people work on a local window system to save an (irrelevant) context switch.
Right? People have been bragging about the reduced context switches when moving the mouse. I mean context switches take small numbers of microseconds on the whole, like 1. A few extra per mouse move? Who the fuck cares!
Also, removing the old X drawing code. I mean also, who cares. It was small enough to be practical in 1987! There's no way it's a significant burd
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Yes and no. I think having a set of priority for the FSF and the community it tries to represent can foster directions.
I don't think an independent developer will go and say "I really hate OS level work, but the FSF thinks it is important".
But what could happen is "The FSF think OS-level work is important, we, Google, will fund some of that effort to court the Free Software crowd".
It could lead to the FSF organizing events designed to get the appropriate parties to talk to each other to make progress on som
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PowerVR was a high priority to them because once upon a time Intel used it in budget netbooks.
Still used in low end phones, e.g. Mediatek from Nokia but FSF-endorsed Replicant has focused on Exynos handsets.
But yeah, no one had that itch when it was simpler to vote with one's wallet and buy friendlier hardware.
Somebody please proofread these things! (Score:2)
These are the [FSF] software projects that should be incorporating "the most important threats, ..."
We Need Open Videoconferencing (Score:2)
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I thought Skype and Zoom were themselves already closed-source replacements for gnome-meeting/ekiga? What ever happened to the shit we already had, huh?
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Like this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ?
Yeah, I learned about it 2 weeks ago. Why didn't I know about that before? No idea...
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This will become ever more important for security reasons and weaning users off proprietary OS.
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