LWN: Comments on "The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards"

The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards

farnz — Tue, 07 May 2024 14:47:49 +0000

If your peer comment by numgmt is accurate, then if yt-dlp stops working, so does Parabolic (it's a nice frontend for yt-dlp, not an independent implementation of the needed protocols).

And yes, the judging process is hard for all three of the awards; but if you step backwards and write the press release, only one of the three awards is one that I could explain to someone who is curious about what Free Software and the FSF are all about (the code.gouv.fr one). The other two are only relevant if you're already convinced that the FSF's philosophical positions are right; that's a bad position for the organisation as a whole to be in, since it means that these awards aren't great for bringing in new people to the movement.

The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards

coriordan — Tue, 07 May 2024 12:41:35 +0000

I think the "outstanding new free software contributor" award is a difficult category to judge. It's almost inevitable that the winner will be someone we've never heard of. And with their first contributions it's unlikely they'll have created something that amazes everyone.

But there are exceptions. In 2021 the award went to Alyssa Rosenzweig, who reverse engineered the Mali GPU's of some common Arm boards and wrote free drivers. And then it seems she went on to reverse engineer a bunch of other Apple GPUs to produce more free drivers. That's amazing for anyone, particularly a new contributor. https://www.fsf.org/news/free-software-awards-winners-ann...

I'm also quite happy to happy to hear about Parabolic. I was always concerned about what happens if yt-dlp stops being maintained or stops working for whatever reason.

The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards

numgmt — Tue, 07 May 2024 11:52:37 +0000

Parabolic is a frontend for yt-dlp, and it's licensed under MIT instead of the Unlicense. Both are pushover licenses.

The benefit of Parabolic is that you can use it without learning yt-dlp's command-line options.

The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards

farnz — Tue, 07 May 2024 09:47:28 +0000

If you look at the reasons for the awards, I'd agree; Mission logiciels libres clearly advances the Free Software cause as a whole. But Gnulib is only relevant within the FSF bubble, and Parabolic looks to be the same as the older project yt-dlp, just under different licensing terms.

This is, BTW, not to say that the people are undeserving - Bruno clearly is - just that the projects chosen are a bit weird as exemplars of why these people are awesome.

The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards

dd9jn — Mon, 06 May 2024 20:56:21 +0000

Congratulations Bruno,

I am pretty surprised that you received this award only now. You deserved it for much much longer.
Many of us learned from your solid code and your humble communication style.

Thanks, Werner

The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards

atnot — Mon, 06 May 2024 20:16:23 +0000

I don't mean that the contributors are detached from the FOSS world to be clear, but that the FSF is. I don't have any especific gripe with the FSF handing out a GNU contributor award at all and the awardees definitely do deserve it.

I just find it very emblematic of the general sad state of the FSF and their refusal to accept their declining relevance or to do anything about it, that's all.

The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards

coriordan — Mon, 06 May 2024 20:00:07 +0000

And the folk from code.gouv.fr too. I've spent many hours talking with them this past year to get their advice for how other countries can copy their work.

The French government serves 68 million people and that team has got the government developing free software, using it, publishing catalogues that can be re-used by other countries, providing support, and they contribute to the BlueHats movement that organises users groups so that different administrations can discuss the use of free software.

The catalogues ( https://code.gouv.fr/sill ) are excellent because when you look at a software package it tells you who else is using it, so you can ask for advice or think about co-financing development of a feature, etc. (a government account is needed to see that part of the data)

The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards

eru — Mon, 06 May 2024 17:37:01 +0000

Me, I first thought of CLISP when I saw Haible's name.

The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards

ballombe — Mon, 06 May 2024 17:36:41 +0000

> That is not to diminish the work of the people honored of course, I'm sure it's great.
But you do by stating incorrectly that they are detached from the FOSS landscape.

Bruno has been a major developer to GLIBC for more than 25 years and contributed also to many other Free Sofware projects, like gettext, common lisp, autotools, PARI/GP, etc.
For some examples, looks at http://codesearch.debian.net/search?literal=1&perpkg=...

His works is as relevant today than 25 years ago. He fully deserve this award.

The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards

ballombe — Mon, 06 May 2024 17:03:59 +0000

The code.gouv.fr project is the continuation of a 25 years old project to use Free software to power the French
national administration and the online services of the French government. It ensures interoperability of theses services with FOSS operating software and use program. They use Debian on the servers and Ubuntu on the desktop systems.

I have met the team frequently at French FOSS events.
The project started with moving the French Gendarmerie (the French rural police force)
with Free Software.

It was never hyped like the Munich Linux distribution but it grew much larger.
The goal of such project should be to make the transition seamless to users, not to be an opportunity of press release.

How many countries provide by law and fact that all online administrative task are interoperable with
Free Software ?

They fully deserve this award.

The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards

flussence — Mon, 06 May 2024 16:30:22 +0000

Haible also wrote libtextstyle (in gettext), which is another thing worthy of an award IMO. It's an entire CSS engine for the command line with provisions for user theming via consistent env vars and switches.

The 2023 FSF Free Software Awards

atnot — Mon, 06 May 2024 15:19:41 +0000

Every year these come around it feels like these awards become more and more detached from the wider FOSS landscape and the software that I use? I guess it makes sense with the declining amount of people who desire to put the "GNU" name on their project.

That is not to diminish the work of the people honored of course, I'm sure it's great.