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Read and share online:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2026/february.
Welcome to the Free Software Supporter, the Free Software
Foundation's (FSF) monthly news digest and action update — being read
by you and 234,631 other activists.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- GPL-compliant reasonable legal notices and author attributions
- Turning freedom values into freedom practice with the FSF tech team
- You came through for free software!
- Our members help secure the future of a free society
- GNU Guix 1.5.0 released
- "The FSFE had the most impactful intervention in the EU’s highest court”
- Ireland proposes new law allowing police to use spyware
- US Congress wants to hand your parenting to Big Tech
- January GNU Emacs news
- Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
- LibrePlanet featured resource: Group: Defective by Design/Ideas/Guide
- January GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali featuring twelve new GNU releases: GRUB, Units, and more!
- FSF and other free software events
- Thank GNUs!
- GNU copyright contributions
- Translations of the Free Software Supporter
- Take action with the FSF!
View this issue online here:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2026/february.
Encourage your friends to subscribe and help us build an audience by
adding our subscriber widget to your website.
Miss an issue? You can catch up on back issues at
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter.
Want to read this newsletter translated into another language? Scroll
to the end to read the Supporter in French or Spanish.
GPL-compliant reasonable legal notices and author attributions
From January 27
Notices accompanying free software, like clear authorship and license
information, can serve an important purpose when they communicate to
users the freedom to run, study, modify, copy, and distribute free
software. However, requirements to preserve notices could conflict
with user freedom. The GNU General Public License (GPL) includes a set
of rules protecting notices while also ensuring that users have full
software freedom. You can learn more about the different versions of
the GNU GPL in the comparison piece below.
Turning freedom values into freedom practice with the FSF tech team
From January 8
The tech team isn't one of the more publicly visible teams at the FSF.
Behind the scenes, they put in a lot of effort to ensure that the FSF
can complete its work in software freedom and help others do the same.
In the article below, Ian Kelling, FSF president and senior systems
administrator, outlines the complex steps the FSF tech team takes to
guarantee the software we use is free. From looking at a package
repository for new free software programs to reexamining
previously-approved free software programs, the FSF tech team works
tirelessly for software freedom. If you appreciate the work the FSF
tech team does, consider supporting them by joining the FSF as an
associate member.
You came through for free software!
From January 20
You really came through this winter for free software. We made our
winter goal of $400,000 USD, and more. We then launched a last-minute
extension to gain 100 associate members in just 16 days, and we came
very close to that, too. In just two weeks, 80 new associate members
signed up — thank you! Every dollar we receive helps us get closer to
securing software freedom for everyone. It's not too late: you can
still donate, become an associate member, or sponsor a membership for
someone else.
Our members help secure the future of a free society
From January 13
For the FSF staff and our hardworking volunteers, FSF associate
members are a crucial part of our efforts to support the rest of the
larger global free software community. When you become a member, you
grow our collective strength by joining thousands of other people who
stand behind the FSF, lending further weight to our work and helping
us pave our way to software freedom. The winter 2025 fundraiser and
membership drive may be over, but it's never too late to support the
FSF and software freedom with an associate membership.
GNU Guix 1.5.0 released
From January 23 by Noé Lopez
Three years after GNU Guix 1.4.0 went live, GNU Guix 1.5.0, an
FSF-endorsed distro, is here and ready to be used! The release comes
with ISO-9660 installation images, virtual machine images, and with
tarballs to install the package manager on top of your GNU/Linux
distro, either from source or from binaries. Guix users can update by
running guix pull, and if you're not yet a Guix user, now is a great
time to give it a try.
"The FSFE had the most impactful intervention in the EU’s highest court”
From January 2 by Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)
No amount of originality exempts a company from democratic regulation,
and the FSFE reminded the European Commission that Apple is no
exception to this rule. In the Apple v. European Commission case,
Apple claims that granting free-of-charge interoperability to
developers infringes upon its so-called "human rights."
Interoperability, or the capacity for different operating systems and
devices to share and apply data across geographical or organizational
boundaries while preserving the original data's meaning and quality,
is essential for software freedom. Intervention in cases such as Apple
v. European Commission is incredibly important and far-reaching,
especially for cases that could decide the legality of
interoperability. You can read further about this important case in
the article below.
Ireland proposes new law allowing police to use spyware
From January 22 by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
In late January, the Irish government proposed the Communications
(Interception and Lawful Access) Bill, which, if passed, would grant
law enforcement agencies greater surveillance power, including use of
spyware. Should this proposal pass, surveillance agencies would be
allowed to intercept all communication data, including encrypted data.
Unfortunately, Ireland's bid to decrease privacy, and increase human
rights violations is but one of many recent abuses in Europe and
elsewhere. Protest against this proposal, as well as any similar
proposition in your country or state. We also have some
recommendations for steps you can take to better protect yourself
against mass surveillance.
US Congress wants to hand your parenting to Big Tech
January 16 by Joe Mullin
Instead of respecting the choices that parents make with regards to
their children's online activity, the Kids Off Social Media Act
(KOSMA) would hand over full control to Big Tech. Should this law
pass, YouTube, Meta, TikTok, Spotify, X, Discord, and others will
decide who is allowed online, who must submit to intrusive face scans
and ID checks, and who is blocked altogether. It's not just the theft
of parental control this bill would take that makes it so alarming:
it's that it sets a dangerous precedent for who Big Tech is entitled
to lock out of the Internet and all the resources available online. If
you live in the United States, tell your Members of Congress and state
representatives that we must not give Big Tech such power.
January GNU Emacs news
From January 31 by Sacha Chua
In these issues: Emacs Lisp function for adding time, M-x research,
and more!
Join the FSF and friends in updating the Free Software Directory
Tens of thousands of people visit directory.fsf.org each month to
discover free software. Each entry in the Directory contains a wealth
of useful information, from basic category and descriptions to version
control, IRC channels, documentation, and licensing. The Free Software
Directory has been a great resource to software users over the past
decade, but it needs your help staying up-to-date with new and
exciting free software projects.
To help, join our weekly IRC meetings on Fridays. Meetings take place
in the #fsf channel on Libera.Chat and usually include a handful of
regulars as well as newcomers. Libera.Chat is accessible from any IRC
client — everyone's welcome!
The next meeting is this Friday, February 6 from 12:00 to 15:00 EST
(17:00 to 20:00 UTC). Details here:
https://www.fsf.org/events/fsd-2026-02-06-irc
LibrePlanet featured resource: Group: Defective by Design/Ideas/Guide
Every month on the LibrePlanet, we highlight one resource that is
interesting and useful—often one that could use your help. For this
month, we are highlighting Group: Defective by Design/Ideas/Guide.
This page contains suggestions for Defective by Design's Digital
Restrictions Management (DRM)-free living guide. You are invited to
help update, adopt, spread, and improve this important resource.
Do you have a suggestion for next month's featured resource? Let us
know at [email protected].
January GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali featuring twelve new GNU releases: GRUB, Units, and more!
Twelve new GNU releases in the last month (as of January 31, 2026):
For a full list with descriptions, please see:
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/2026-january-gnu-spotlight
For announcements of most new GNU releases, subscribe to the info-gnu
mailing list: https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu.
To download: nearly all GNU software is available most reliably from
https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/. Optionally, you may find faster download
speeds at a mirror located geographically closer to you by choosing
from the list of mirrors published at
https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html, or you may use
https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/ to be automatically redirected to a
(hopefully) nearby and up-to-date mirror.
A number of GNU packages, as well as the GNU operating system as a
whole, are looking for maintainers and other assistance. Please see
https://www.gnu.org/server/takeaction.html#unmaint if you'd like to
help. The general page on how to help GNU is at
https://www.gnu.org/help/help.html.
If you have a working or partly working program that you'd like
to offer to the GNU project as a GNU package, see
https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html.
As always, please feel free to write to me, [email protected],
with any GNUish questions or suggestions for future installments.
FSF and other free software events
- March 5-8, 2026, Pasadena, California, United States,
SCALE
- April 24-26, 2026, Bellingham, Washington, United States,
LFNW
- June 14-16, 2026, Prague, Czech Republic, Flock to
Fedora
- July 16-18, 2026, Porto, Portugal,
SECRYPT
Thank GNUs!
We appreciate everyone who donates to the Free Software Foundation,
and we'd like to give special recognition to the folks who have
donated $500 or more in the last month.
This month, a big Thank GNU to:
- David Ignat
- Iñaki Arenaza
- Inouye Satoru
- Jean-Louis Abraham
- Jeremiah LaRocco
- Joseph Cox
- Martin Jässing
- Simon Josefsson
- The Innovation and Understanding Fund
You can add your name to this list by donating at
https://donate.fsf.org/.
GNU copyright contributions
Assigning your copyright to the Free Software Foundation helps us
defend the GNU GPL and keep software free. The following individuals
have assigned their copyright to the FSF (and allowed public
appreciation) in the past month:
- Diana Korotun (GNUastro)
- dulikiles (GNU Emacs)
- Kenny Chen (GNU Emacs)
- Vili Johannes Aapro (GNU Emacs)
Want to see your name on this list? Contribute to GNU and assign your
copyright to the FSF.
Translations of the Free Software Supporter
El Free Software Supporter está disponible en español. Para ver la
versión en español haz click aquí:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2026/febrero
Para cambiar las preferencias de usuario y recibir los próximos
números del Supporter en español, haz click aquí:
https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=34&id=3095323&cs=3790089689c87806658c06b8777a99de_1770085878_168
Le Free Software Supporter est disponible en français. Pour voir la
version française cliquez ici:
https://www.fsf.org/free-software-supporter/2026/fevrier
Pour modifier vos préférences et recevoir les prochaines
publications du Supporter en français, cliquez ici:
https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?reset=1&gid=34&id=3095323&cs=3790089689c87806658c06b8777a99de_1770085878_168
If you no longer wish to receive the Free Software Supporter in
English (but still receive other communications in English), you can
opt out here.
Take action with the FSF!
Contributions from thousands of individual associate members enable
the FSF's work. You can contribute by joining at
https://my.fsf.org/join. If you're already an associate member, you
can help refer new members by adding a line with your associate member
number to your email signature like:
I'm an FSF associate member — Help us support software freedom!
https://my.fsf.org/join
The FSF is always looking for
volunteers. From rabble-rousing to
hacking, from issue coordination to envelope stuffing — there's
something here for everybody to do. Also, head over to our campaigns
section and take action on software
patents, Digital Restrictions
Management, free
software adoption,
OpenDocument,
and more.
Do you read and write Portuguese and English? The FSF is looking
for translators for the Free Software Supporter. Please send an
email to [email protected] with your interest and a list of your
experience and qualifications.
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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