Hello readers, and welcome once again to Free Software Magazine's fortnightly newsletter, keeping you up to date with all things free software... and our new extra features! Enjoy!

General announcements

We have just implemented some cool extra features! These include: the reinstatement of print friendly versions of each article and blog entry; access to an automatically generated PDF of each article and issue; access to the website without ads; the ability to post unmoderated comments; and more! How do you access all these new features?

[Update 2008-03-06: All the extra features are now available to all logged in users]

Latest content

Generating cool fractals - by Xavier Calbet read more...

Dual-booting Kubuntu and Windows - by Andrew Min read more...

Gnome panel mania - by Jonathan Roberts read more...

Latest content continued

Fighting OOXML - by Pieter Hintjens read more...

A revolutionary idea for tomorrow's PCs - by Matthew Roley read more...

Latest book reviews released

Linux Programming by Example by Arnold Robbins reviewed by Alan Berg read more...

Backup & Recovery by W. Curtis Preston reviewed by Jeremy Turner read more...

Winner of the book competition from last fortnight

Thanks to all those who entered, unfortunately there can only be one winner...

Congratulations Mahesh of Kerala, India!

Mahesh has won copies of Qmail Quickstarter and Practical> Packet Analysis: Using Wireshark to Solve Real-World Network Problems.

Thanks to all who entered.

Thanks also go to No Starch Press and Packt for providing these great prizes.

Poll Results—How do you feel about the GPLv3?

Last fortnight we decided to poll you about the immensely controvertial GPL version 3 license. While there has been a lot of press hoo-haa about the license, a massive 72% of you have no qualms about calling GPL version 3 a fantastic, much needed license. This was followed by a modest 13% of you believing that the license is good, but has some problems. 11% of you didn't have an opinion. Finally 2% of you decided that the GPL version 3 makes no difference, and another 2% of you think it's a bad thing. Read more here and stay tuned for...

This fortnight's poll

The FSF has (among other things) designed the GPLv3 to prevent tivoization. What do you think about this?

When designing the GPLv3 the FSF intentionally included measures to prevent Tivoization. Some people think that TIVO-like companies shouldn't be allowed to create hardware that only runs specific software, because doing so renders modified software useless. Other people feel that TIVO-like companies should be able to do so, that hardware and software are two different things, and that the GPL is stepping out of the software boundaries. What do you think about this? Good, bad, in between or neither?

Reminders

Comments

Your comments on articles, issues, and blog entries are very welcome. They provide other readers with insightful suggestions, further information, and the feeling that they are not alone. They also provide our authors with the feeling that they are being heard. So please comment wherever possible.

Avatars

Avatars are a great way of expressing your personal identity, whether it be a photo or an image that you feel represents the you you want to be. Read more about avatars here. To add an avatar: log in, go to “my account” in the menu on the left, go to the “edit” tab and scroll down to where it says “Upload picture”. Now, hit the browse button, find the image on your computer that you want to upload and go to the bottom of the page and hit the submit button. That's it; you now have an avatar image.

Invite a friend

Share Free Software Magazine with your friends! We have a really strong community and we want it to grow and grow, and with your help, it can! When you are logged in to Free Software Magazine, you should have a feature called “Invite Your Friends” showing on the left hand side in your navigation menu. If you click on this feature, you will be taken to a page where you can insert your friends' email addresses and a personal message, and they will receive an invitation from you! You can also keep track of which of your friends have accepted your invitations. Go on, spread the free software word today!

Subscriptions

Ever wanted to follow that story, or blogger, or be informed when a change appears to some content that you want to keep up with? Now you can. Using our new “Subscribe” feature, you can receive an email update every time a blog or page is updated or when a comment is added, so you can keep up with all the latest changes. You can manage your subscriptions by logging in and going here.

Donate

As you might know already FSM is a low profit project with all funds raised going back into producing the fine magazine you can read for free.

Think about how much you would normally have to spend buying a magazine of this quality. We provide it for free!

Your donations will help us to continue spreading the word about free software and producing more fantastic issues.

Contacting us

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Thanks

Thank you for subscribing to Free Software Magazine. You are a part of a growing community who help to raise the awareness of, and educate new users in, the joys of free software. Without you we would not have this community and without you we would not have a magazine. Happy reading!

FSM Newsletter 30th July 2007