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FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

[Posted September 30, 2011 by ris]

From:  "Josh Gay" <campaigns-AT-fsf.org>
To:  info-press-AT-fsf.org
Subject:  [GNU/FSF Press] Free Software Foundation re-launches its Free Software Directory, with over 6500 programs listed
Date:  Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:23:59 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID:  <49879.74.94.156.210.1317331439.squirrel@webmail.fsf.org>


BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, September 29,
2011 -- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today
announced the re-launch of its Free Software Directory
at <http://directory.fsf.org>. The Directory lists over
6,500 programs that are free for any computer user to
download, run, and share. It was first launched nearly
a decade ago, but the new version brings a host of new
features designed to make it a more useful and current
resource for users, developers, advocates, and
researchers.

"Since its inception, the Directory has been one of our
most popular and important resources. Its careful
curation has made it a reliable place to find
applications for any purpose that are free -- as in
freedom -- for everyone. Users can find programs they
need, and advocates can find programs to recommend. But
with so much free software being written and shared
now, we wanted to update the technology we use for the
site so that contributors can participate in examining
and posting new entries, and users can more easily
search them," said John Sullivan, FSF's executive
director.

Because each entry is individually checked and tested,
users know that any program they come across in the
Directory will be free software  with free documentation
and without proprietary software requirements. Programs
that run on proprietary operating systems like Mac and
Windows are listed, but only if they also run fully on
GNU/Linux. The new version of the Directory will continue
to provide users these same assurances, but it has been
rebuilt so that members of the free software community
can become familiar with the criteria and then work
together to curate and grow the catalog.

The new site is based on MediaWiki, free software most
famously known for powering Wikipedia. It also uses a
set of extensions called Semantic MediaWiki that add
advanced search and presentation capabilities,
structured to be useful for reading by both humans and
data-mining programs.

"We're empowering contributors to improve every aspect
of the site, from its look and feel to enabling more
types of information and multimedia to be associated
with each individual listing," states campaigns
manager, Joshua Gay, who adds that "we also have plans
to collaborate around sharing data with GNU/Linux
distributions and other free software projects."

To most users of the Directory, the key aspect of the
new software is that it will make it easier for them to
find the program they need. An extensive and flexible
category system, plus over 40,000 keywords and more
than 40 different fields of information, enhance both
simple and advanced searching.

Yaron Koren, one of the free software developers behind
Semantic MediaWiki, gave support and help in the
re-launch effort. "I created the Semantic Forms
extension in order to allow for sites that combine the
collaborative nature of a wiki with the structure and
queryability of a database; so it's heartening to see
Semantic MediaWiki and Semantic Forms being used for
that purpose, and so comprehensively, in the Free
Software Directory," he said.

To learn more about the Directory, visit
<http://directory.fsf.org>. To find out how you can get
involved in helping the Directory, or suggest
improvements, visit
<http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:Participate> or send
email to <bug-directory@fsf.org>. Further technical
behind-the-scenes details about the re-launch of the
Directory can be found in a blog post by Sullivan at
<http://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/behind-the-scenes>.

### About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is
dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use,
study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer
programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of
free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU
operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free
documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to
spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites,
located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source
of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support
the FSF's work can be made at
<http://donate.fsf.org>. Its headquarters are in
Boston, MA, USA.

### Media Contacts

Joshua Gay
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942 x20
<campaigns@fsf.org>

###


_______________________________________________
FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press@fsf.org>
http://lists.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press

to post comments

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 3, 2011 23:37 UTC (Mon) by gerdesj (subscriber, #5446) [Link] (8 responses)

Perhaps the FSF could collaborate with freshmeat.net in some way. Maybe some sort of FSF approved search link. It would be a lot easier for us end user types to find stuff.

I doubt the FSF have the resources to make this sort of thing work properly. A good intention is great but their directory looks amateurish (but quick) and its a bit behind.

If I create a new app (har har), I'll register it on Freshmeat, host it on SourceForge and then not bother updating the wiki and rely on Google et al to get my user/distributions to it like everyone else.

Please don't do this FSF - announce a partnership with an acceptable resource and make that resource better.

Unfortunately, your effort is (probably) doomed to fail. I appreciate your efforts but I want a one stop shop. I already have far too many other shops to look at already.

Remember: embrace, extend ...

Cheers
Jon

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 4, 2011 13:50 UTC (Tue) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Quite. They've been publicising it frantically for years and spending who knows how much on it... and it always falls behind at once and is completely duplicative of freshmeat. Why bother reinventing this particular wheel? There are surely more important things to do.

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 4, 2011 19:24 UTC (Tue) by djs (guest, #80619) [Link] (6 responses)

The Free Software Directory only includes projects that are confirmed free. The curators make sure that the software listed is compliant with its licenses and that it doesn't require non-free dependencies.

I believe the Free Software Directory is a unique and important contribution to the free software community because similar services, like the one provided by freshmeat, include proprietary software in their listings.[1]

To my knowledge, there aren't any other services that only index free software, and that is why I feel the Free Software Directory is enormously beneficial and necessary. It exclusively contains free software, whereas a user on a site like freshmeat might go from viewing a free software project to a non-free software project with one accidental mouse click.

The Free Software Directory and freshmeat have different requirements and priorities; I think it's great that one can find free software through both services.

1. http://freshmeat.net/tags/proprietary

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 5, 2011 4:24 UTC (Wed) by k8to (guest, #15413) [Link] (5 responses)

But I don't think most people see the practical value of making sure that the database has no proprietary projects listed. To me, the ability to use the interface in a mode that it clearly is only returning free software results seems to satisfy the goals.

I mean, yes it has to share the database with listings of proprietary software, but I don't really see any end to that sort of purity. We hae to share the internet with proprietary software, right?

Is there some case where the goals sought by the different projects would not converge?

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 5, 2011 10:04 UTC (Wed) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link] (4 responses)

You could see it as about self-certification.

Self-certification (e.g. for the EU mark) is a popular approach to standards compliance. Most traders are law-abiding, they disobey regulations because they are ignorant of them, so attaching education campaigns to the self-certification process gets a fairly good compliance rate. Self-certification has a low barrier to entry for hobbyists and small businesses, and it's cost-effective. But it does mean accepting that a certain proportion of toys sold won't be safe, a certain proportion of household electrical items will catch fire for no good reason, and so on. For society at large this is a fair deal, but if you're a single issue organisation, the trade off looks different.

On Freshmeat, last time I used it, you just pick a license from a drop-down. You aren't quizzed on whether you understand what the implications are, there isn't even a perfunctory attempt to verify that you're the legitimate copyright owner, or that the owner or owners authorised distribution of this software under the specified license.

For example, it's not uncommon for a "Free Software" game to have just copied the entire artwork from a non-free game, with perhaps some half-considered intention to replace it later. Obviously the FSF does not want to list something like that, but Freshmeat are happy to until someone complains about it.

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 5, 2011 10:14 UTC (Wed) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link]

That should say CE mark.

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 5, 2011 15:13 UTC (Wed) by johnsu01 (subscriber, #34757) [Link] (2 responses)

Exactly. And the review process for getting into the Free Software Directory turns out to be a service we provide to the community, which helps make sure people are following good licensing practices. Historically, a high percentage of the projects end up making some improvements to their practices during the process of getting listed in the Directory. These improvements help make sure users downloading the software know all the freedoms they have with it, and have all the source code they need.

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 5, 2011 16:07 UTC (Wed) by njs (subscriber, #40338) [Link] (1 responses)

Do you have a sense of how thorough that review is compared to the review done by Debian and Fedora packagers? (My intuition is that the distributions do a pretty good job of this and likely scale better, though of course they aren't going to include things like FOSS apps for proprietary platforms.)

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 5, 2011 18:21 UTC (Wed) by johnsu01 (subscriber, #34757) [Link]

Sure, it's pretty comparable, and the future plan for the Directory is in fact to import information from distributions (automatically). But the Directory has also always had a lot of upstream unpackaged software in it, and given that the technical bar for being in the Directory is lower (you don't have to know how to build a .deb for example in order to have your program added, as long as you have a tarball of source), I'd expect that trend to continue. Which means, I hope, that the Directory will be a useful place to look for distro contributors to find new software to package, and because we've checked the licensing, their job will be easier.


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