Current campaigns — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software

Current campaigns — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software
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Current campaigns
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Free Software Foundation
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Published on
Jan 25, 2013 03:52 PM
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The FSF's campaigns target important opportunities for free software
adoption and development, empower people against specific threats to
their freedom, and move us closer to a free society.
Our successes
are driven by the efforts of
supporters
and activists like you all
around the world. Please take a moment today to make a contribution,
by
joining the FSF as an associate member
making a tax-deductible donation
and
volunteering your time
What are the latest things happening for the campaigns team? Check out the
FSF Community Blog
, maintained by the campaigns team. Have an idea for something we should cover?
Drop us an email
. Looking for simple action items, or have an idea for a simple action item for free software supporters? Check out the
Action items page
at libreplanet.org.
Table of Contents
Freedom Ladder
Librephone
Fight to Repair
Free JavaScript
High Priority Free Software Projects
Secure Boot vs Restricted Boot
Surveillance
Upgrade from Windows
Working Together for Free Software
GNU
Defective by Design
PlayOgg
End Software Patents
Campaign for OpenDocument
Campaign for Hardware that Supports Free Software
Free BIOS
Freedom Ladder
The "
Freedom Ladder
" is a new method the FSF campaigns team is developing to help users get their first start in software freedom. Its focus is gently guide users into GNU/Linux, while at the same time encourage them to not rest content with nonfree software. We want to help them stay both motivated and determined in their gradual process to eliminate nonfree software from their lives.
Librephone
Librephone
is an FSF initiative to research and reverse-engineer proprietary firmware used by common Android devices. Librephone's goal is not a new Android distribution, but a long-term project to understand and write free implementations for the binary blobs used in virtually all mobile phones today.
Fight to Repair
As the world becomes more software-driven, an individual's right to repair both the hardware and software components of the devices they rely on becomes crucial.
Fight to Repair
is our campaign to support right to repair initiatives around the world, and warn against the day-to-day use of proprietary software in hardware as diverse as self-driving cars, printer cartridges, and "smart" home assistants.
Free JavaScript
The
Free JavaScript campaign
is an ongoing effort to persuade organizations to make their Web sites work without requiring that users run any nonfree software. By convincing influential sites to make the transition, we raise awareness of the need for free software-friendly Web sites and influence the owners of other sites to follow.
High Priority Free Software Projects
The FSF's
High Priority Projects list
and
Reverse Engineering Task List
serve to foster the development of projects that are important for increasing the adoption and use of free software and free software operating systems. Some of the most important projects on our list are "replacement projects". These projects are important because they address areas where users are continually seduced into using nonfree software by the lack of an adequate free replacement. These are critical projects that
need your help
Secure Boot vs Restricted Boot
When done correctly, "Secure Boot" is designed to protect against malware by preventing computers from loading unauthorized binary programs when booting. In practice, this means that computers implementing it won't boot unauthorized operating systems -- including initially authorized systems that have been modified without being re-approved.
This could be a feature deserving of the name, as long as the
user
is able to authorize the programs she wants to use, so she can run free software written and modified by herself or people she trusts. However, we are concerned that Microsoft and hardware manufacturers will implement these boot restrictions in a way that will prevent users from booting anything other than Windows. In this case, we are better off calling the technology Restricted Boot, since such a requirement would be a disastrous restriction on computer users and not a security feature at all.
Learn more about
Secure Boot vs Restricted Boot
Join over 30,000 others and sign the statement,
Stand up for your freedom to install free software
Read our white paper to find out about our
recommendations for free operating system distributions considering Secure Boot
PDF
See the
winning entry
of our webcomic contest.
Surveillance
If we want to defang surveillance programs like PRISM, we need to stop using centralized systems and come together to build an Internet that's decentralized, trustworthy, and free "as in freedom." Check out the
surveillance campaign area
to get involved with the effort to make the Web in general safer and from surveillance.
On an individual level, we also need to start encrypting our personal communication to make bulk surveillance much more difficult and to protect the people we communicate with. Try
Email Self-Defense
, our beginner's guide to email encryption, to get started in less than an hour.
Upgrade from Windows
Microsoft uses draconian law to put Windows, the world's most-used operating system, completely outside the control of its users. Neither Windows users nor independent experts can view the system's source code, make modifications or fixes, or copy the system. This puts Microsoft in a dominant position over its customers, which it takes advantage of to treat them as a product.
Windows comes with plenty of "features" Microsoft won't tell you about. Because Windows is proprietary software, you can't modify Windows or see how it is built, which means Microsoft can use its operating system to exploit users and benefit special interests. Windows 10's privacy policy asserts the privilege to sell almost any information it wants about users. And starting with Windows 10, Microsoft will begin forcing lower-paying users to test less-secure new updates before giving higher-paying users the option of whether or not to adopt them.
Learn more about our campaign and pledge to upgrade away from Windows at
Working Together for Free Software
Free software is simply software that respects our freedom — our freedom to learn and understand the software we are using. Free software is designed to free the user from restrictions put in place by proprietary software, and so using free software lets you join a global community of people who are making the political and ethical choice assertion of our rights to learn and to share what we learn with others.
To make donations to specific free software projects while supporting the FSF at the same time, learn more about the
Working Together for Free Software Fund
. Projects interested in joining the fund can visit
our fiscal sponsorship page
for more information.
This is a campaign aimed at getting new users into free software.
The GNU Operating System
The GNU operating system is a complete operating system made entirely of
free software
. Millions of people are using GNU every day to
edit their documents, browse the web, play games, and handle their
email, or as part of a GNU/Linux system on their home computer. Even people who have never heard of it use GNU everyday, because it powers many of the sites
they visit and services they use.
Learn more about GNU
, and support progress on fully free operating systems by
volunteering
or
donating
to the FSF.
Defective by Design
Digital Restrictions Management
(DRM) robs us of control over the technology we use and the culture we live in. DRM and the
DMCA
can make it illegal to share an article, back-up your kids' favorite DVD, or move your music from one player to another. Since DRM is inherently incompatible with free software, it also excludes free software users from equal participation in culture. Now, we are facing a new threat:
DRM in HTML5
. Millions of Internet users came together to defeat SOPA/PIPA, but now Big Media moguls are going through non-governmental channels to try to sneak digital restrictions into every interaction we have online.
DefectiveByDesign.org
is our anti-DRM campaign, where we mobilize large vocal communities to reject products from businesses that insist on using to DRM to control their customers. Learn more at
DefectiveByDesign.org
and the
campaign wiki
PlayOgg
The PlayOgg campaign (
playogg.org
) promotes the use of free audio and video formats unencumbered by patent restrictions, rather than MP3, QuickTime, Windows Media,
and AAC, whose patent problems threaten free software and hinder progress. We also
promote the use of the new
"video tag"
standard as an alternative to
Adobe Flash for embedding audio and video in webpages. Find out more about PlayOgg at
playogg.org
or at the
campaign wiki
. You can also join the PlayOgg volunteer team to push companies and services to use Ogg by
joining the mailing list
End Software Patents
Software patents create a legal nightmare for all software developers and pose particular problems for the free software movement. So as the FSF campaigns for formats that are free of software patents, we also work on the more fundamental task of ending software patents entirely, through legal and legislative action. Learn more at
endsoftwarepatents.org
, see the
wiki
, join the
action alert mailing list
Campaign for OpenDocument
Our
OpenDocument campaign
fights for the use of free formats in government
documents, pushing governments to adopt policies requiring that all digital public documents and information be stored and distributed in formats that are standard, open, and
royalty-free. OpenDocument Format (ODF) is one such format.
Get
involved
and take action against Microsoft Office Open XML.
Campaign for Hardware that Supports Free Software
Hardware manufacturers are often negligent in offering support for free software. Our
hardware directory
helps people identify hardware to buy that works with their free software operating system. It is also an important part of the FSF's ongoing work to persuade hardware vendors to respect free software users. For more information on the FSF's plans, read our whitepaper:
The road to hardware free from restriction
, or see its most recent revisions on its
LibrePlanet wiki page
Free BIOS
The BIOS is a computer's Basic Input/Output System, which boots the operating system and provides the interface between it and the hardware components. Though users are rarely aware of the BIOS, its foundational role makes it a user freedom chokepoint; if it is not free, users cannot trust it not to modify their computers on behalf of the company that wrote it. Our Free BIOS campaign promotes free BIOSes like
GNU Boot
or
Canoeboot
The FSF
welcomes volunteers
in all of its campaigns. You can keep up with
the most important happenings in our campaigns by following our
news feed
blogs feed
, and the
#fsf IRC channel
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Plan a LibreLocal 2026 meetup!
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Free software campaigns
Freedom Ladder
Fight to Repair
Free JavaScript
High Priority Free Software Projects
Secure Boot vs Restricted Boot
Surveillance
Upgrade from Windows
Working Together for Free Software
Defective by Design
End Software Patents
OpenDocument
Free BIOS
Past campaigns
News
Job opportunity: Engineering and Certification Manager at the Free Software Foundation
Mar 10, 2026
The FSF announces global call for FSF's LibreLocal 2026 meetups
Feb 24, 2026
Eko K. A. Owen joins the FSF board as the union staff pick
Dec 29, 2025
More news…
Recent blogs
RAIL: Nonfree and unethical
You cannot use the GNU (A)GPL to take software freedom away
Relicensing versus license compatibility
March GNU Spotlight with Amin Bandali featuring eighteen new GNU releases: Autoconf, PSPP, and more!
Recent blogs -
More…
Upcoming Events
Free Software Directory meeting on IRC: Friday, April 24, starting at 12:00 EDT (16:00 UTC)
Apr 24, 2026 12:00 PM - 03:00 PM
#fsf on libera.chat
LibreLocal meetup in Beijing, China
May 01, 2026 02:00 PM - 09:00 PM
META SPACE Coffee&Bar, Dong Sheng Yuan Gong Yu, Heqing St., Haidian District, Beijing
Previous events…
Upcoming events…
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