@digitalfreedoms.bsky.social
Celebrating Software Freedom Day every third Saturday of September! Also celebrating Hardware Freedom Day and Document Freedom Day Want to join us? https://digitalfreedoms.org
2/2 The #DFF is seeking:
→ New board members (1 year term or more)
→ Non-board #volunteers for outreach, sponsorship, #infrastructure
For details, please see: digitalfreedoms.org/en/dff/blog/... #OpenSource #FreeSoftware #FOSS
1/2 We're looking for assistance to help shape the future of #SFD2026 & the #DFF. #SoftwareFreedomDay has grown from 23 events in 2023 to 100+ locations worldwide in 2025. #Volunteering is a meaningful way to contribute to #FreeSoftware without writing a single line of code!
2/2 If you don't want to learn #HTML and #XML coding, you can use #FreeSoftware like #Scribus to design and generate #EPUB formats for you. #Calibre can organize your #ebook #library. Bard incorporates #FLite #TextToSpeech to read ebooks aloud to you. #DFD2026
1/2 Welcome to today's #DFD2026 countdown. The #Free format for this week is #EPUB, the #OpenStandard for #ebooks. It's very easy to create your own ebooks. All it takes is a text editor to produce #HTML and #XML files and a zip tool to store them. #DFD2026
A quick reminder, #DocumentFreedomDay2026 is March 25th. Be sure to add your local event to the official event list: digitalfreedoms.org/en/dfd/archi... You can also check for events in your area to attend or virtual events to join. Please join us in celebrating #DFD2026.
2/3 Projects don't have to reinvent the wheel to provide language support. A msgfmt program converts po files (human readable) to mo format for use with libintl which is part of #GNU gettext. There are other compatible implementations too. #DFD2026
3/3 #BSD offers libcitrus. #musl C library includes support and gettext-tiny makes use of musl to provide a lightweight alternative for embedded systems. There are #C, #Perl and #Python versions of msgfmt. I'm learning more about the format by writing my own msgfmt utility. #DFD2026
1/3 We're officially counting down to #DocumentFreedomDay2026 on March 25th. One Free format I've been investigating is the mo file used by gettext. This format is a great way to provide #internationalization in a standardized manner to programs. #DFD2026
Some recent videos regarding AI protections for AI usage seem worth noting:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPTN...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3YH...
Science fiction has warned us about dystopian situations for decades. It would be nice if we thought those warnings through instead of following the sf scripts.
2/3 Some Free operating systems (from #MidnightBSD to a Free calculator OS) are responding by excluding usage of those operating systems in locations with digital age verification laws. It's a valid strategy trying to protect the developers of systems who volunteer efforts to support #FreeSoftware.
3/3 See the EFF site for more on the dangers of age verification: www.eff.org/issues/age-v... If you're in an area proposing age verification laws for your operating systems, contact your legislators if you oppose this. Help keep Free Operating systems freely available throughout the world.
1/3 California enacted Digital Age Verification Law AB-1043. Colorado may soon follow suit as may other countries and other US states.
The #Consumer #Rights Wiki is looking for #volunteers to help document corporate overreach from anti-repair policies to forced subscriptions. Please see: consumerrights.wiki/w/Main_Page This sounds like a worthwhile project for people concerned about #FreeSoftware and #OpenHardware. #RightToRepair
2/2 Seeking attendees & short (~15 minute) talks on favorite #OpenFormats or #FreeSoftware projects that use them. Let me know if you want to present. #DFD2026 #OpenSource #ebook #OER #OpenScience #OpenAccess #OpenData #Libraries
1/2 Virtual #DocumentFreedomDay2026 event: March 28th, 10-11:30 AM EST (2 PM GMT). Discuss #Free formats, #FOSS tools and sharing #CreativeCommons & #PublicDomain #multimedia in #Open formats. We need #volunteers. #DFD2026
Planning an event for Document Freedom Day, 2026? Please be sure to register your event so others can join in: digitalfreedoms.org/en/dfd/blog/...
Want to record your #DocumentFreedomDay2026 or #SoftwareFreedomDay2026 event to share with other #FOSS fans? Check out this article at the #DFF site on Live streaming to #Peertube using #OBSStudio: digitalfreedoms.org/en/documenta...
Join the #DFF and #Beyond40 in celebrating #PublicDomainDay, the #CreativeCommons and public domain #FreeSoftware, January 4th at 2 PM Eastern (7 PM GMT): gath.io/XDKJ66FYl2AB... We'll also be brainstorming ideas for #DocumentFreedomDay2026.
Happy #PublicDomainDay. Hope you enjoy using public domain source code in your own projects. See sites like Open Culture or Internet Archive for #PublicDomain #multimedia. Please encourage use of Public Domain and #CreativeCommons works. Help us spread the word, #DocumentFreedomDay2026 is in March.
#HappyNewYear to all. After the holidays is a great time to start planning for #SoftwareFreedomDay2026, #DFD2026 & #HFD2026: digitalfreedoms.org/en/ Our next event is #DocumentFreedomDay2026 on March 25th. Feel free to join the #DFF mailing list or Matrix & brainstorm plans to celebrate in 2026.
Another fun idea for #NewYearsEve is to play some #Karaoke tunes. #ABCNotation is great for creating your own Karaoke #midi files. #TiMidity++ is a helpful midi player. What's your favorite #FOSS Karoke software.
What are your favorite #FOSS programs to run for the #NewYear?
One of my favorites any time I want to watch #fireworks is xfireworks:
packages.debian.org/sid/games/xf...
I even wrote a compatibility layer so I could run it with #SDL and #X11 was no longer a hard requirement.
Happy #solstice. The #FOSS countdown continues. Let's light the night with astronomy #software: lmemsm.dreamwidth.org/32095.html #FreeSoftware #OpenSource
Happy #holidays! Wanted to share my #PublicDomain #code list:
lmemsm.dreamwidth.org/10325.html I'm still maintaining my own fork of a public domain #w32api. If you have suggestions to add to the list or want to chat about w32api or #coding a #C runtime library, feel free to respond to this post.
Congratulations to the winners of the #SFD2025 #Huion Mascot Challenge: digitalfreedoms.org/en/sfd/blog/...
If you were to put together a list of #FOSS to share or give to someone for the holidays, what programs or #FreeSoftware projects would be on that list? #DFF #FLOSS
Find out how you can support the #DFF and #FreeSoftware this Giving Tuesday or any time of year: digitalfreedoms.org/en/contribut... Have you made a New Year's resolution to volunteer for a #FOSS project? Now's your chance.
If you're concerned about the state of #FreeSoftware on #Android and projects like #FDroid and #Termux, please sign the petition to stop Google from limiting APK usage: www.change.org/p/stop-googl...
Last day to enter if you want to win a prize in the Huion Mascot challenge: digitalfreedoms.org/en/sfd/blog/...
Connect with #FOSS advocates from around the world at SeaGL (the Seattle GNU/Linux Conference), Nov. 7th & 8th, in Seattle and online (for free!) 🐧 🐦 seagl.org
#Linux #observability #freesoftware #softwarelibre #FLOSS #opensource #Linux #tech #sysadmin #seaGL #seaGL2025