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15-687: According to the Free Software Foundation Latin America , Linux-libre is a modified version of the Linux kernel that contains no binary blobs , obfuscated code , or code released under proprietary licenses . In the Linux kernel, those types of code are mostly used for proprietary firmware images. While generally redistributable, they do not give the user the freedom to audit, modify, or, consequently, redistribute their modified versions. The GNU Project keeps Linux-libre in synchronization with

30-607: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about an organization in South America is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Federico Heinz Fundación Vía Libre of Córdoba , Argentina , is an NGO working on the social implications of information and communication technologies throughout Latin America , with very strong ties to the region's digital rights and software libre community , to academia, to other civil society organizations, and to

45-524: Is provided as a substitute, such as the openfwwf for b43, carl9170 and ath9k_htc wireless card drivers . Reviewer Ramces Red summarized the issue with Linux-Libre, writing, "it does not always have the best hardware support." Linux-libre does not suggest the user install CPU microcode update bundles, since the code is proprietary. Microcode update bundles have been used in the mainline Linux kernel version, among other things, to mitigate hardware vulnerabilities . The source code and precompiled packages of

60-614: The BLAG Linux and GNU distribution. There is another script called deblob-check , which is used to check if a kernel source file, a patch or a compressed sources file still contains software which is suspected of being proprietary. Aside from the primary intended effect of running a system with only free software , the practical consequences of removing device firmware that a user is not allowed to study or modify has both positive and negative effects. Removal of device firmware can be considered an advantage for security and stability. When

75-518: The Free Software Foundation (FSF) as a valuable component for the totally free Linux distributions. It became a GNU package in March 2012. Alexandre Oliva is the project maintainer. The removal process is achieved by using a script called deblob-main . This script is inspired by the one used for gNewSense . Jeff Moe made subsequent modifications to meet certain requirements for its use with

90-538: The mainline Linux kernel . The Linux kernel started to include binary blobs in 1996. The work to clear out the binary blobs began in 2006 with gNewSense 's find-firmware and gen-kernel. This work was taken further by the BLAG Linux distribution in 2007 when deblob and Linux-libre was born. Linux-libre was first released by the Free Software Foundation Latin America (FSFLA), then endorsed by

105-701: The Council group is formed by Richard Stallman , Georg Greve , Adriano Rafael Gomes, Franco Iacomella , Alejandro Forero Cuervo, Alvaro Fuentes, Anahuac de Paula Gil, Christiano Anderson , Eder L. Marques, Elkin Botero, J. Esteban Saavedra L., Fabianne Balvedi, Felipe Augusto van de Wiel, Nagarjuna G., Glauber de Oliveira Costa, Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri, Henrique de Andrade, Harold Rivas, Jansen Sena, Marcelo Zunino, Mario Bonilla, Daniel Yucra, NIIBE Yutaka, Beatriz Busaniche, Octavio H. Ruiz Cervera, Omar Kaminski, and Roberto Salomon. This free and open-source software article

120-645: The FSFLA's Council. After that the original directives were modified to the current ones. A new position of “Observer of the Council” was created in the organisation to allow other important people in the free software community to participate, observe and advise the Council. The current members of the Council are Alexandre Oliva , Andres Ricardo Castelblanco, Exal Garcia-Carrillo , Octavio Rossell, Oscar Valenzuela, J. Esteban Saavedra L., Luis Alberto Guzmán García, Quiliro Ordóñez and Tomás Solar Castro. The actual Observers of

135-493: The deblobbed Linux kernel are available directly from the distributions which use the Linux-libre scripts. Freed-ora is a subproject which prepares and maintains RPM packages based on Fedora . There are also precompiled packages for Debian and derived distributions such as Ubuntu . Considered small distributions Historical These distros do not use the packaged Linux-libre but instead completely remove binary blobs from

150-492: The development of a free ERP tailored to their needs. Vía Libre cooperated heavily with Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung for nine years, working on publications, events and conferences on issues related to copyrights and patents all over Latin America . From February 2008, Vía Libre takes part of FLOSSInclude Project, another European Project within the 7th Framework Program. As a civil rights advocacy group, Vía Libre campaigns for human rights, civil liberties, access to knowledge and

165-416: The firmware cannot be audited for bugs, security problems, and malicious functions such as backdoors , or when the firmware cannot be fixed by the Linux kernel maintainers themselves, even if they know of problems, it is possible for the entire system to be compromised by a malicious firmware. Without the ability to perform a security audit on manufacturer-provided firmware, even an innocent bug could undermine

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180-507: The global Free Software movement . It was founded in 2000. Via Libre's work on the role of software libre for the public administration has led to numerous legislative projects demanding the use of free software for all public administration work. The template "free software bill" that Vía Libre together with lawmakers and a large international group of software supporters helped to create, introduce and promote in several Latin American countries

195-770: The mainline Linux kernel. The source is then compiled and the resulting free Linux kernel is used by default in these systems: Historical Distributions in which Linux is the default kernel used and which propose Linux-libre as an alternative kernel: Free Software Foundation Latin America The founding general assembly of FSFLA elected Federico Heinz as President, Alexandre Oliva as Secretary and Beatriz Busaniche as Treasurer. The Administrative Council consisted of them as well as Enrique A. Chaparro , Mario M. Bonilla , Fernanda G. Weiden and Juan José Ciarlante . In 2006, Beatriz Busaniche, Enrique A. Chaparro, Federico Heinz , Juan José Ciarlante and Mario M. Bonilla left

210-432: The safety of the running system. Removing proprietary firmware from the kernel will cause loss of functionality of certain hardware that does not have a free software replacement available. This affects certain sound , video , TV tuner , and network cards, especially in the case of recent Intel Wi-Fi cards and recent Nvidia graphics cards, as well as some other devices. When possible, free software replacement firmware

225-867: Was mentioned in the FLOSS report as recommended legislation for all European Union member countries. Vía Libre took part in the international consortium that executed the FLOSSWorld program within the European Union's 6th Framework Program , led by the University of Maastricht and also was a partner at SELFProject between years 2006/2008. Vía Libre's Support Program for Small and Medium Organizations, co-funded by AVINA Foundation of Switzerland and Argentina's National Agency for Science and Technology, aims at helping small businesses and NGOs introduce libre software in their operations through training, preconfigured software packages and

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