Mozilla dichtet zahlreiche Sicherheitslücken im Webbrowser Firefox und Mailer Thunderbird ab.

Firefox 124 bietet wenig Neues, aber Verbesserungen an einigen Stellen. Zwei wichtige neue Funktionen schafften es nicht in die stabile Version.

Quelle

In HomeMatic sowie in RaspberryMatic klafft eine Codeschmuggel-Lücke. Sie gilt als kritisch. Ein Update steht bereit.

Kernel 6.8 hat mehr zu bieten: etwa den ersten funktionsfähigen Treiber in Rust, ein optimierter Realtime-Scheduler und aufgepeppte TCP-Performance.

Looking back: Software freedom discussion @FOSDEM

Once again we co-organised our now well-known Legal & Policy Issues Devroom during FOSDEM 2024. The discussions in this track covered important issues for Software Freedom, such as CRA, RHEL, GPL termination, where discussed. Thanks to everyone who participated in it!

The Legal and Policy Issues Devroom took place on the first day of FOSDEM in one of the main rooms, which was packed throughout the track. In fact, this was the 12th edition and FSFE’s fourth year of co-organising in this devroom.

Together with our co-hosts this devroom once again focused on current political and legal challenges we face in the world of software freedom. These included discussions on recent licencing practices around RHEL and CentOS, questions on how to deal with with trademark issues, GPL termination under German law, discussion around GPLv3/AGPLv3 Section 7 and the new Swiss law on the procurement of Free Software.

id you miss the talks or do you want to watch them again? We have complied all the talks from this devroom in this video

As always the dev room ended with a discussion that brought all the organisers on stage: Karen Sandler and Bradley Kuhn from the Software Freedom Conservancy, Tom Marble, and Alexander Sander and Matthias Kirschner from FSFE talked about the most important issues for software freedom, touching on the Liability discussion in Europe around the Cyber Resilience Act, Product Liability Directive but also the AI Act, as well as discussing current cases and campaigns.

“Once again, we were able to bring exciting and pressing issues related to the law and politics of software freedom to the stage and discuss them with the FOSDEM community, raising awareness of how these issues intersect strongly with technological advances, and therefore why it is important to address and debate them”.

Alexander Sander, FSFE's Senior Policy Consultant and one of the devroom organizers

Last but not least, we want to thank you to everyone who take part of this devroom, from the amazing speakers to the participants who engaged in fruitful discussions to the FOSDEM organizers. We cannot wait to see you next year! And if you have any suggestion about topics and speakers, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Support FSFE

EU policy meets Free Software in FOSDEM

The FSFE helped to organise a FOSDEM devroom about Free Software in the European legislative landscape. It was the first time that this devroom was held and got a lot of interest from the community, that engaged in fruitful discussions about current EU policy topics.

During the last edition of FOSDEM, an EU policy devroom was organised and FSFE helped to co-organise it! On the second day of the conference, some of our staff and volunteers took part in this devroom, which was packed, and where the community had the opportunity to discuss current policy topics together with European lawmakers.

The devroom kicked off the day with a discussion on the new liability rules for Free Software. This turned into a broader debate on how the Free Software community can and should engage in the decision making process. Alexander Sander, FSFE's Senior Policy Consultant, moderated the session on "FOSS Policy Engagement", including a panel and a fishbowl discussion. After that, Lina Ceballos, FSFE Policy Project Manager, opened the session on “Public Services interoperability” and the Interoperable Europe Act, followed by a discussion between decision makers and the Community on the challenges and opportunities that the Interoperable Europe Act means for the Free Software community. Finally, Lucas Lasota, FSFE Programme Manager, together with our Netherlands Coordinator Niko Rikken, highlighted the main challenges for Router Freedom and Device Neutrality in Europe.

As this was the first time that we co organised this devroom, we are particularly interested in your feedback when it comes to the idea itself but also on the different format which was used to discuss those topics. We also want to thanks to the other devroom organizers: Simon Phipps, Enzo Ribagnac, Maarten Aertsen, Axel Thévernet, Deb Bryant, and Gijs Hillenius.

EU policy devroom

CRA & PLD: Free Software in the European legislative landscape Free Software policy engagement: Free Software in the European legislative landscape Public Services Interoperability : Free Software in the European legislative landscape Digital Services Interoperability: Free Software in the European legislative landscape

Support FSFE

Die KI-Plattform Hugging Face ruft ein Open-Source-Robotikprojekt ins Leben. Leiten soll es der zuvor bei Tesla angestellte Wissenschaflter Remi Cadene.

Das Raspberry-Pi-Projekt hat das Betriebssystem aktualisiert. Neben Fehlerkorrekturen kommen ein neuer Kernel und neue Firmware mit.

Die Einführung von Manifest v3 hatte aufgrund von Einschränkungen viel Kritik hervorgerufen. Mozilla hatte Ende 2022 MV3 übernommen, unterstützt aber weiterhin auch MV2.

Quelle

💾

Das anonymisierende Tor hat will mit Webtunneln Zensurmaßnahmen etwas entgegensetzen.

Raspberry Pi OS, die Standard-Distribution der Raspberry Pi Foundation hat ein Update erhalten, bei dem unter anderem Kernel und Browser aktualisiert wurden.

Quelle

Mit openDesk will der Bund bis 2025 eine quelloffene Office- und Kommunikations-Suite für die Verwaltung bieten. Personell ist das Projekt aber knapp besetzt.

Der Einsatz von Observability-Tools und -Methoden nimmt weiter zu. Laut einer Grafana-Umfrage bereiten Anwendern aber die Kosten zunehmend Sorgen.​

Proxmox VE ist Open Source und nutzt bewährte Linux-Techniken. Es kann oft eine Alternative zu vSphere und vCenter sein, erfordert aber Umgewöhnung.

Auf Arduino Pro Micro Basis mit 3D-gedrucktem Gehäuse eine eigene Maus bauen. Dieses Open-Source-Projekt bietet den Startpunkt.

Als erste Distribution bietet KaOS eine Veröffentlichung auf der stabilen Ausgabe von Plasma 6. Zudem konnte endlich der Code von GTK2 entfernt werden, da keine Anwendung diesen mehr benötigt.

Quelle

Linus Torvalds hat den Linux-Kernel 6.8 freigegeben. Der Änderungsumfang sei durchschnittlich, stellt Torvalds fest.

CRA & PLD: Liability rules with large exemptions for Free Software are introduced

With today's votes on CRA and PLD on the introduction of liability rules for software, a broad exception for Free Software was made, so that after long and intense debates individual developers and non for profit work are safeguarded.

On Tuesday, March 12, the two votes in the plenary of the European Parliament on the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and the Product Liability Directive (PLD) marked the provisional end of a long debate on the introduction of liability rules for software - with a broad exemption for Free Software.

Already at an early stage, the FSFE argued in a hearing in the EU Parliament, for the inclusion of clear and precise exemptions for Free Software development in the legislation and for liability to be transferred to those who significantly financially benefit from it on the market.

The co-legislators have largely complied with our demands and following intensive debates, have significantly improved the Commission’s proposal, by introducing an exemption for Free Software and including it in the articles of the regulation. In the future, individual developers and non-profit development of Free Software will be exempt from the CRA and the PLD. Nevertheless, the wording in both the regulations are different and a standardisation processes and guidelines are still being drawn up. We will therefore closely monitor the implementation and whether Software Freedom is protected accordingly. The efforts of Free Software advocates have also helped to ensure that decision maker in EU institutions now have a better understanding of Free Software and its various stakeholders, which will be useful in future debates.

"In the debate about liability rules for Free Software, it has become clear how important Free Software is for our economic and social development. On the other hand, it has also become clear what needs to be taken into account in the Regulation when it comes to software freedom. This has shown the immense importance of working together with the various stakeholders in Free Software development and distribution and as well as to understand and accommodate the different interests of these players," concludes Alexander Sander, FSFE`s Senior Policy Consultant.

Support FSFE

Grok, der Chatbot, den Elon Musks xAI herausbringt, soll Open-Source werden und noch in dieser Woche frei verfügbar sein.

Der Open-Source-Passwortmanager KeepassXC 2.7.7 führt Passkeys ein, verbessert den Import und vereinfacht das Entsperren der Datenbank.

Quelle

Linus Torvalds gab am Wochenende die nächste Kernel-Version Linux 6.8 frei. Unter anderem können sich die Nutzer des Raspberry Pi 5 über Support für Broadcoms V3D DRM-Treiber freuen.

Quelle

LXQt wird mit Version 2.0 im April als Basis auf Qt 6 setzen. Gerade meldet das Projekt, dass der Desktop mit PCManFM-Qt jetzt bereit für Wayland ist.

Quelle

Volla kündigt für April ein Crowdfunding für das erste Volla Tablet an. Starke Hardware und ein auf dem Papier gute Konzept mit Dualboot lassen auf ein brauchbares Tablet abseits vom Mainstream hoffen.

Quelle

Nutzer verlören zunehmend die Kontrolle über ihren wachsenden digitalen Gerätepark, warnen Befürworter freier Software. Sie müssten wieder ermächtigt werden.

openSUSE Leap 15.6 liegt in einer Beta-Version mit den Desktop-Umgebungen Plasma 5.27 LTS und GNOME 45 vor. Die stabile Freigabe soll Mitte Juni erfolgen.

Quelle