I’ve been a free software advocate for nearly two decades. Supporting and promoting free software hasn’t been easy. Some effort and actions were more successful, some less. But we’ve achieved a lot during the time and we might get satisfied with the results.
But after continual raise and success of free software in the last years we are probably in a period of its decline now. While new free software still gets written and improved, proprietary software strikes to push it into irrelevance. Although free software is common on PCs now, most other devices like phones, tablets, routers, multimedia players, GPS units, e-ink readers, TVs, printers, etc. are basically proprietary software devices (despite the fact they are often built on top of free software products such as Linux and BusyBox), without possibility to replace the proprietary environment by a free operating system. DRM is still not dead. The patent wars continue. And even our basic PC software freedom can become inconspicuously stolen by proprietary software hidden in the form of some software as service products. We are in danger to be thrown back to the beginning.
So I started the new year with increasing my yearly donations to Free Software Foundation and donating to its current fundraising campaign. I believe that what Free Software Foundation does makes sense and supporting it financially is in some sense the simplest thing to do. If you care about the future of free software, please help FSF to reach its current fundraising goal as well or try helping free software in any other way.
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