- SFD-discuss - lists.mailman3.com

Thank You

by LM

I wanted to thank everyone who helped make #SoftwareFreedomDay2025 a success this year. We couldn't have done this without you. We had 61 events, up from last year's 55. We even have some scheduled for later this year. There were more virtual options than ever before. You'll find highlights and recordings here: https://digitalfreedoms.org/en/sfd/blog/software-freedom-day-2025-whats-goi… Hope you'll join us for our next event #DocumentFreedomDay2026 in March, 2026.

Sept. 21, 2025

Please share your multimedia

by LM

Want to save your graphics, presentations, videos, posters or other memorabilia from your #SoftwareFreedomDay2025 event for posterity? Consider sharing them to the Wikimedia Commons! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Software_Freedom_Day Thanks to Marado for this great idea: As an added benefit, there are no paywalls or logins required to view them. Hope everyone is having an enjoyable Software Freedom Day 2025.

Sept. 20, 2025

Happy Software Freedom Day 2025

by LM

Happy Software Freedom Day 2025. Hope you've found a celebration in your area to attend. If not, there are a few online events today including one I'm hosting. See the DFF blog posts for links to virtual events and recorded talks and all the latest news on Software Freedom Day 2025: https://digitalfreedoms.org/en/sfd/blog/software-freedom-day-2025-whats-goi… You can find some of us on matrix on the #SoftwareFreedomDay channel if you want to live chat or ask questions. Please let us know how your celebrations are going. Let us know if you have any blog posts or recordings or videos to share of your event and we'll add them to our page. Hope you have fun today. On behalf of the board of the Digital Freedom Foundation, have a great Software Freedom Day 2025! Best wishes. Laura

Sept. 20, 2025

Tomorrow is Software Freedom Day 2025

by LM

It's almost here. Just one more day and then Software Freedom Day 2025 will kick off all around the world in different time zones. Be sure to keep tabs on our blog page with highlights to get the latest news about Software Freedom Day: https://digitalfreedoms.org/en/sfd/blog/software-freedom-day-2025-whats-goi… I'll be summarizing resources and event news on that page. I'll also be tracking Mastodon, BlueSky and the other social media outlets where the DFF has accounts and boosting #SFD2025 posts. You can also check out #SoftwareFreedomDay on matrix if you want to chat with others live. If you have any virtual events or anything you'd like to share online, please let me know. I'd like to get the word out on those so people everywhere can participate. I'm summarizing virtual events on the blog page in hopes that we can reach more people and give people without a local Software Freedom Day event a chance to celebrate with us. Also, if you make recordings of any panels or talks, please send the links so I can share them as well. My last question on favorite software for the countdown, what are your favorite sites that list Free, Libre and Open Source software available to anyone? It could be a specialized list on a particular topic or a site that lists what you can use in place of commercial programs. What Free Software recommendation sites or web pages do you recommend to new (or experienced) users? Here are some I like to share: Libre Projects is an older list but a good starting point to introduce newcomers to Free Software when they can't install programs on their own systems. https://libreprojects.net/ PortableApps is my favorite site to introduce Windows users to the benefits of Free Software. Extra bonus, these programs avoid the Windows registry and you don't need to be an administrator on a Windows system to run them. http://portableapps.com/ Here's my list of educational games: https://codeberg.org/lmemsm/delightful-educational-games Some of them can even be played online. F-droid's a wonderful resource for Free Software for phones. Unlike smart phones with commercial apps stores, you can even create your own F-droid repository. Thought I'd highlight this repository which adds even more app choices to F-droid: https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/ There were even some articles on removing more proprietary software from Android phones at the izzysoft.de site. How can I not mention the K.Mandla blog which is the place to go to find lightweight software that works well on older computers? https://kmandla.wordpress.com/software/ Plus, the great Inconsolation site by the same author: https://inconsolation.wordpress.com/index/ Don't forget sites like https://alternativeto.net/ I'll be sharing my own list of favorites at my Software Freedom Day event. Have you created your own lists or do you have sites that you recommend when you want to share Free Software with others? Please share your favorite Free Software lists. Have a wonderful Software Freedom Day 2025. If you have any last minute questions or want to find events or share resources with others, feel free to reach out to us. Best wishes. Laura

Sept. 19, 2025

virtual SFD 2025 from NOSK

by LM

An opening talk for SoftwareFreedomDay2025 will be delivered virtually by none other than our own Jurgen Gaeremyn, DFF Board member and FreeSoftware advocate. Register for the Software Freedom Day 2025 Virtual Edition from NOSK to attend: https://luma.com/e1gz9zpy #SFD2025

Sept. 19, 2025

2 days and counting

by LM

Free Software is a great resource in an emergency. You can freely give copies of the software to anyone who needs it. You have the source code, so you can modify it for your specific needs if it doesn't quite do the job. Here's the list I put together for Hardware Freedom Day for Open Hardware and Free Software that could be useful in an emergency or during a power outage: https://codeberg.org/lmemsm/delightful-off-grid-open-tech I would love to hear your suggestions for useful Free Software to have in an emergency. Do you know of other useful lists of FLOSS for emergency situations? Please share the links. Also, if you have any other suggestions (Free/Open hardware, software, etc.) that I can add to my Off Grid Open Tech list, please let me know. Have a great Software Freedom Day 2025 and be safe. Sincerely, Laura

Sept. 18, 2025

3 days until SFD2025

by LM

Three days and counting until Software Freedom Day 2025. Thought I'd post something useful for SFD. Here are some links to lists of Free, Libre, Open Source remote communications software: https://lmemsm.dreamwidth.org/14124.html https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/better-than-zoom-try-these-free-softwar… https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Remote_Communication What's your favorite FLOSS alternative to proprietary communications software? Thanks to all the people who have shared their favorite Free Software on this list and social media platforms. Have a great SFD2025.

Sept. 17, 2025

Re: 4 days and counting

by Adam Bolte

On Wednesday, 17 September 2025 4:15:45 am Australian Eastern Standard Time Marcos Marado wrote: > In the past few years I've been using rhythmbox, not because I like it but > because it is what I found that "gets the work done". I used to use rhythmbox also, but for quite some years now have been very happy with Quod Libet. It has plugins to do everything I could imagine wanting or needing, and it has a simple clean layout. It's all Python-based too which I appreciate. When I get new CDs (which still happens from time to time), I use Sound Juicer to rip them to to flac. However, other times I get music from Bandcamp and elsewhere, where tag aren't as I would like, and Quod Libet is also great at adding or adjusting tags as needed. As a KDE Plasma user these days (having transitioned from Xfce a few years back when I needed Wayland for something), I have also experimented with Elisa, but I'm just too big of a fan of Quod Libet's Panned Browser layout mode. If I need to convert flac files to mp3 for compatibility with something, there is ffmpeg at the ready for this, and a whole lot more. In fact, I used it just today in a little script to add metronome ticks to drama audio tracks, so I can keep my target cadence while listening to them while running. I had to ensure the tracks always ended right on a tick (with a tiny bit of padding) so the metronome would be consistent if tracks are shuffled. It worked out great! For video, I too dig mpv. -Adam

Sept. 17, 2025

Re: 4 days and counting

by Marcos Marado

Hi, On Tue, Sep 16, 2025 at 1:44 PM LM <lmemsm(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I can't believe we're only 4 days away from Software Freedom Day 2025. > FLOSS question for today, what's your favorite Free, Libre, Open > Source music player? I like the lightweight combo of FLTK based flrec > that works with sox. Sox, the swiss army knife of sound processing > utilities is a very useful program. I'm also a fan of qmmp. Thank you for these e-mails, they're fun! In the past few years I've been using rhythmbox, not because I like it but because it is what I found that "gets the work done". I was a fan and user of Amarok for many years, until its development stalled, and forks and alternatives like clementine showed up but never quite managed to take over - and I haven't been satisfied with a music player ever since. I know that "Amarok is back" since last year, and I'm looking forward to try out the new/modern versions, but it is not available for the current version of Ubuntu LTS which is what I am using in the machine I'd use it on, so I might just wait for Ubuntu 26.04 before trying it... -- ~marado

Sept. 16, 2025

4 days and counting

by LM

I can't believe we're only 4 days away from Software Freedom Day 2025. FLOSS question for today, what's your favorite Free, Libre, Open Source music player? I like the lightweight combo of FLTK based flrec that works with sox. Sox, the swiss army knife of sound processing utilities is a very useful program. I'm also a fan of qmmp. Feel free to get some chatter going on about Software Freedom Day on any of the social media platforms you're on. Please use #SFD2025 in your posts so others can find and boost or like them. If you want anything posted or shared about your event on the Digital Freedom Foundation social media accounts, please let me know.

Sept. 16, 2025