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<h2 align="justify"><a
href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/replicant-needs-your-help-to-liberate-android-in-2020"
title="Font original" moz-do-not-send="true">Replicant needs
your help to liberate Android in 2020</a></h2>
<p align="justify"><em>The Free Software Foundation (FSF) supports
the work of several
important free software projects through fiscal sponsorship
in a program we call <a
href="https://www.fsf.org/working-together/fiscal-sponsorship"><strong>Working
Together for Free Software.</strong></a></em></p>
<p align="justify"><em>Donations to any of the <strong>Working
Together for Free Software</strong>
projects directly benefit the work that can be done. Too often,
these projects are underfunded and developers are putting in a
lot of personal time and effort to keep the project moving
forward. Because of the FSF fiscal sponsorship, they can receive
donations and apply for funding.</em> </p>
<p align="justify"><em>Our annual <a
href="https://www.fsf.org/appeal?pk_campaign=frfall2019&pk_source=project">fundraiser
is happening right now</a>. If you're
able to, please consider making a <a
href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=19">donation
to
Replicant</a> through their dedicated sponsorship page. Every
dollar you contribute helps this inspiring project work towards
a
freer mobile future.</em></p>
<p align="justify"><em>Associate members are at the heart of our
foundation and
strengthen our ability to help other free software projects like
Replicant. <a
href="https://my.fsf.org/join?pk_campaign=frfall2019&pk_source=project">Join
today</a> to help us
reach our goal of welcoming 600 new associate members before
December 31st. As a special bonus, all new and
renewing annual associate members ($120+) can choose to receive
one of our exclusive year-end gifts. If you get a minimum of
three people to mention you as a referral, you can get them too!</em></p>
<p align="justify"><em>Below is an update from developer Denis
"GNUtoo" Carikli, who is
one of three people on the "steering committee" of
<a href="https://www.replicant.us/">Replicant</a>: a fully free
Android distribution running on
several devices. It is a free software mobile operating system
putting the emphasis on freedom, privacy, and security.</em></p>
<hr align="justify">
<p align="justify">Mobile devices such as phones and tablets are
becoming an
increasingly important part in our computing, hence they are
particularly subject to freedom and security concerns. These
devices aren't simply "phones" or "tablets." They are full
computers with powerful hardware, running complete operating
systems that allow for updates, software changes, and installable
applications. This makes it feasible to run free software on
them. Thus, it is possible to choose a device that runs a free
bootloader and free mobile operating system -- Replicant -- as
well
as fully free apps for the user. You can read more about privacy
and security on mobile phones and the solutions that Replicant
offers, as well as learn some valuable lessons on how better to
protect your freedom on mobile devices on the <a
href="https://www.replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php">Replicant
Web site</a>.</p>
<p align="justify">Replicant is currently steered by a team of three
people: Fil Bergamo,
Joonas Kylmälä (Putti), and myself. At the beginning of this year,
we
successfully applied for funding from a program from the European
Union called <a href="https://www.ngi.eu/">Next Generation
Internet</a>. We also received a
sizeable donation from <a
href="https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/2019-January/001774.html">Handshake</a>,
which allowed us to make some
significant investments.</p>
<p align="justify">The most notable changes we are working on are
building a new version
of Replicant based on Android 9, which will enable a wider range
of users to use a fully free Android distribution for the first
time.
We are also reducing maintenance costs to increase sustainability.
The
Replicant project is now using the official linux kernel with
very few patches, and we contribute patches upstream as well. This
means we send our work back to the main developers of the kernel
Linux
so that everyone can benefit. This allows us to create a virtuous
circle that makes Replicant benefit GNU/Linux and GNU/Linux
development benefit from Replicant. Working with upstream would
not be possible without funding, as it requires a lot more work
than what we used to do with previous Replicant versions.</p>
<p align="justify">Getting people more acquainted with the work we
do helps us source new
contributors, as well as convince people to use Replicant. This
year,
we managed to travel to a few important conferences, as well as
organize our own <a
href="https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/ContributorsMeetingJuly2019">Replicant
conference</a>. A full report of the
conference is available, along with slides, videos, and a summary
of
the discussions that took place. The conference allowed us to
bring
together the people who care about Replicant and who understand
the
importance of the work we do. Watching these presentations can
help
any new Replicant developers to contribute to the project, as they
explain a lot about our architecture, our history, and how to
begin making
a version of Replicant for newer devices and Android versions.</p>
<p align="justify">Being awarded a large grant is a highly
competitive process,
which means we cannot rely on that for continuous funding to pay
for all of our work, so we choose to spend money on tasks that
have a long-term impact. For instance, this could include
completing the library that communicates with the Samsung IPC
modem protocol (<a
href="https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/Libsamsung-ipc">libsamsung-ipc</a>),
which would enable other
Android distributions to use it and share the changes they make
with us. It could also help us to continue our work on free WiFi
firmware. These investments will ensure that developers can
continue to maintain Replicant even when larger donations are not
available.</p>
<hr align="justify">
<p align="justify"><em>Projects like Replicant rely on individual
donations like yours to continue
their work independent of large donations and funding. They can
always use your help, whether that help is <a
href="https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=19">financial</a>,
or provided in time and
effort. To further assist them, you can use Replicant and become
part of the project's
community by using its <a
href="https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/boards">forums</a>,
contributing to its
<a href="https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki">wiki</a>,
and <a
href="https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/issues">submitting
any bugs</a> you discover.</em></p>
<p align="justify"><em><br>
</em> </p>
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