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Group:
Freedom Ladder
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This list is a work in progress and a result of a collaborative effort between the FSF and the free software community.
Contents
Latest updates on the campaign
Introduction
Collaborate with us to build the ladder
Steps
4.1
1. Understanding nonfree software
4.2
2. Finding your own reason to use free software
4.3
3. Free replacements and installing your first free program
4.4
4. Understanding encryption
4.5
5. Mobile phone freedom
4.6
6. Learning how to find help
4.7
7. Trying a free operating system
Latest updates on the campaign
Check our recommendations for
free software in the workplace
We recently expanded step 5 with a list of mobile phone apps that respect the user's freedom and are easily adopted
We're still collecting
free software stories
, both fictional and real-life to help us categorize and identify many of the different kinds of free software users. Share yours to help the campaigns team.
We're also collecting
resources
, large, small, FSF origin or from other organizations that can help anyone take a step forward with free software, you can add Web sites, forums, videos, graphics, etc.
Read the
latest blog post
from the FSF on the Freedom Ladder
We encourage you to think with us on what this ladder should include, and what else to highlight by
leaving notes on
the discussion page
, by joining us in the
IRC meetings
, or by emailing
campaigns@fsf.org
with your thoughts.
This page is a shared resource, and we encourage others to add to the discussion pages, but it is possible that some entries here may be added by members of the community. We check this resource periodically, and process the comments we receive. We know that others check it too, but it's a wiki, so errors may be added before they're fixed. We encourage you to review licenses and information about resources you add, and to update this page with your findings.
Introduction
The “freedom ladder” is a new method the FSF campaigns team has developed to help users get their first start in software freedom.
One problem with most guides introducing newcomers to GNU/Linux is that they stop them too soon on their “journey to freedom,” and end up suggesting that a partially nonfree setup is a desirable outcome. By contrast, our guide’s focus is to encourage users to not rest content with nonfree software, while at the same time recognizing that they have other pressures and obligations. We want to help them stay both motivated and determined in their gradual process to eliminate nonfree software from their lives.
Collaborate with us to build the ladder
The FSF campaigns team held a series of IRC meetings about the draft schema:
Upcoming events:
Past events:
Share your free software story, January 20, 2:00pm EST
20210715-irc July 15 - Understanding nonfree software / Finding your own reason to use free software (
Meeting Notes
20210722-irc July 22 - “Free replacements” and installing your first free program (
Meeting Notes
20210729-irc July 29 - Understanding encryption / mobile phone freedom (
Meeting Notes
20210805-irc August 5th - Learning how to find help / Trying a free operating system (
Meeting Notes
Join us in #fsf on Libera.Chat to contribute to these conversations!
Steps
This is what we’ve developed so far, and we’re asking the community to weigh in with their thoughts and suggestions.
1. Understanding nonfree software
2. Finding your own reason to use free software
3. Free replacements and installing your first free program
4. Understanding encryption
5. Mobile phone freedom
6. Learning how to find help
7. Trying a free operating system
1. Understanding nonfree software
When is a program free or nonfree? What are the dangers of nonfree software, and why should a user be bothered about it?
2. Finding your own reason to use free software
To stay motivated on their journey to freedom, each person needs to have a compelling reason to use free software. That reason could be the philosophy of freedom, or it could be a more practical concern like desiring security or using gratis software wherever possible.
3. Free replacements and installing your first free program
The first step we recommend a user to take on their journey to software freedom is by replacing
one
nonfree program they use with a free replacement. As we assume these users are on a nonfree operating system like Microsoft Windows or macOS, it is acceptable to recommend a program that is mostly free software, but that poses certain problems to the more experienced free software user (e.g. Mozilla Firefox).
Some free programs that are easily adopted:
Office suite:
LibreOffice
Media player:
VLC
App store:
F-droid
Graphic editors:
GIMP
Inkscape
Krita
Video editing:
Blender
Kdenlive
Recording and simple audio editing:
Audacity
Game engine:
Minetest
Capturing and streaming videos:
OBS studio
Note that this is a nonexhaustive list of programs which have proved to
be easily adopted by newcomers.
A community maintained list of free software replacements by operating systems can be found on this
Free Software Directory page dedicated to free software replacements
For a full list of free software programs the FSF recommends, see the over 17,000 entries in the
Free Software Directory
4. Understanding encryption
On this step, users are encouraged to try encrypting some device or program they use on a day-to-day basis. This could be learning how to encrypt one’s email with the
Email Self-Defense Guide
, or using GPG to encrypt a file they would like to remain private.
5. Mobile phone freedom
This step does not build off of a previous one, but is important enough of an issue that it deserves consideration. True mobile phone freedom is an impossibility at the moment given the nonfree “baseband” operating system that runs at the ring-0 level of every cell phone. However, this doesn’t mean that mobile phone freedom is a lost cause.
Here we encourage the user to use free repositories like F-Droid, and at least be aware of the free Android distribution
Replicant
. Other mobile free operating systems can be covered in this step. Even if they have certain issues, it’s important for the user to be aware of them:
PureOS
Mobian
LineageOS
Ubuntu Touch
postmarketOS
GrapheneOS
Havoc-OS
, etc.
Some mobile phone apps that respect the user's freedom and are
easily adopted:
Music player:
Vanilla Music
Video player:
VLC
Podcast player:
AntennaPod
Watching YouTube videos:
NewPipe
Messaging:
GNU Jami
XMPP
Silence
Matrix
, or
Tox
guarantee free messaging, unfortunately, newcomers often struggle with them. Therefore, an app like Signal may be a good starting point for a smooth transition, although it is centralized, which is problematic.
Navigation:
OsmAnd~
Proxy app to protect your privacy:
Orbot
For a more extensive list of popular free software applications that run on Android see the collection
Replicant-expanded
on the Free Software Directory.
6. Learning how to find help
One common reason for burnout when it comes to learning free software is getting hung up on a technical problem, and being unable to progress. If the user isn’t especially tech-savvy, this can sometimes cause them to accept defeat and go back to a nonfree operating system. Here, we make sure the user is aware of how to find program documentation (such as through websites, manpages, or Texinfo), and also how to seek help on communication mediums used in the free software community like IRC, mailing lists, and forums.
7. Trying a free operating system
During this step, the user will be encouraged to write a USB drive of the Trisquel GNU/Linux operating system and see if their hardware is compatible with it. They can then choose to install the operating system, or if there is a compatibility issue, some things they can do to address it, even if that involves a
“deal with the devil.”
This page was a
featured resource
in July 2024.
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