The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is launching the Librephone project, which aims to bring maximum freedom to mobile computing by creating a new «completely free» version of the operating system compatible with Android.
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is launching the Librephone project, which aims to bring maximum freedom to mobile computing by creating a new «completely free» version of the operating system compatible with Android.
As Neowin writes, more and more users now rely on their mobile phones to do most of their computing, rather than their computers. With the Librephone project, the FSF has pledged to bring its four freedoms — to study, change, distribute, and modify programs — to mobile devices.
«Forty years ago, when the FSF was founded, our focus was on providing an operating system that people could use on desktops and servers in freedom. Times have changed, technology has advanced, but our commitment to freedom has not,» says Zoe Kooyman, FSF Executive Director. «The FSF is now ready to do whatever it takes to bring freedom to mobile phone users. Given the complexity of the devices, this work will take time, but we are used to playing the long game.»
The practical goal of the Librephone project is to close the last gaps between existing Android distributions and complete software freedom.
One of the so-called freedom projects that the FSF will start with is LineageOS, which has already done a lot of work to prioritize free software, but still uses proprietary modules copied from the phone’s firmware.
The FSF wants to reverse engineer and replace the remaining non-free software components to create a fully free operating system compatible with Android.
To launch the Librephone project, the FSF hired veteran developer Rob Savoy to lead the technical aspects of Librephone. Savoy has extensive experience in the FOSS world, working on DejaGNU, Gnash, OpenStreetMap, embedded systems, and as a project manager. He said he looks forward to helping users gain control over their phone hardware.
The initial work of this project will be funded by a donation made by FSF board member John Gilmore. Gilmore is known as one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The Librephone project will also help existing developers and projects working on creating a fully free and functional OS compatible with Android. To this end, Savoy asked the community to join in through code or financial contributions.
