Hardware we all want: FSF announces criteria for hardware endorsement program "Respects Your Freedom"
http://www.fsf.org/news/endorsement-criteria BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, October 14, 2010 -- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced today that it has published an initial set of criteria for endorsing computers and other devices. The FSF seeks both to obtain feedback on the criteria, and raise interest in the program among hardware manufacturers. Ultimately, the FSF plans to promote an endorsement mark to be carried on products that meet the criteria: respects your freedom. http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Hardware/Endorsement_criteria "The desire to own a computer or device and have full control over it, to know that you are not being spied on or tracked, to run any software you wish without asking permission, and to share with friends without worrying about Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) -- these are the desires of millions of people who care about the future of technology and our society. Unfortunately, hardware manufacturers have until now relied on close cooperation with proprietary software companies that demanded control over their users. As citizens and their customers, we need to promote our desires for a new class of hardware -- hardware that anyone can support because it respects your freedom," said Peter Brown, executive director of the FSF. The FSF's criteria seek to cover all aspects of user interaction with and control of a device: they say the hardware must run free software on every layer that is user upgradeable, allow the user to modify that software, support free data formats, be fully usable with free tools, and more. FSF license compliance engineer Brett Smith said, "Every software component needed to produce endorsable hardware is now available. We have several GNU/Linux distributions that only include free software, and are completely functional on the right hardware. We have the LinuxLibre kernel that does not include nonfree microcode. And we have cutting edge mobile platforms like Android and MeeGo that are based on free software. In the past we've spoken to manufacturers who were interested in making free software-friendly hardware, but they worried about connecting with customers. With our endorsement mark and the strong criteria that back it, we plan to bridge that gap and demonstrate to manufacturers that they stand to gain plenty by making hardware that respects people's freedom instead of curtailing it." The initial set of guidelines are available on the LibrePlanet wiki, at http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Hardware/Endorsement_criteria. The FSF welcomes contributions on the wiki discussion page, including suggestions for improvements to the criteria, and ideas and art submissions for an endorsement mark. Hardware manufacturers interested in endorsement should contact [email protected]. -- ____________________________________________ THOMAS M. VAZHAPPILLY സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം തന്നെയമൃതം സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം തന്നെ ജീവിതം പാരതന്ത്ര്യം മാനികള്ക്ക് മൃതിയെക്കാള് ഭയാനകം - മഹാകവി കുമാരനാശാന്
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