They've done dozens of events at Apple Stores, including the huge Apple store about 100 metres from this Microsoft store.

"free enough to be distributed with the Linux kernel sources"

the firmware files are typically under a license that prohibits modification and even redistribution.

> A desktop os needs a browser (Firefox), text editor (vim), office suite (OpenOffice), PDF reader (evince), window manager (kde), etc

Browser: GNU Icecat, text editor: emacs, office suite: GNOME Office, PDF reader: GNU PDF, window manager: GNOME.

I found its actually hard to get a machine that's decent these days, unless you're prepared to put up with a bit of crap.

The solution is to build your own custom laptop -- http://www.avadirect.com/gaming-laptop-configurator.asp?PRID=25095

If you go for the "VISIONTEK Killer" wireless card, it has an Atheros chipset, so you can distro-hop to your hearts content. They also ship it with no OS if you like.

Rip it all and then use something like beats to figure out the audio fingerprinting and correctly tag things for you.

If you press stop twice, then hit play, you can generally skip that stuff.

GNU is working on a project to replace Flickr and such sites.

http://mediagoblin.org/

Their DAR.fm thing is also neat.

I hope this means they'll be able to ramp up the service now, as their support sucks.

He used proprietary software to get the GNU project up and running. First thing he wrote was an editor, then a compiler using that editor, then tools using that compiler and editor, then more tools using the existing tools, compiler, editor, etc.

> Another thing that bothers me is that the FSF stuff almost comes across as negative, so 3DS is evil, iPad is evil, Kindle is evil, etc. Great, but what hardware is actually ok to buy? Why is there still no hardware database of the good stuff that doesn't limit my rights?

http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw

But Google is distributing proprietary software!

Like all proprietary software distributors, we want them to stop and release free software instead. That's why we take up the argument with them.

You know that Free Software is about freedom and not price, right?

But this is Google's code that its running on MY computer. I should be able to control it.

The code is already in your browser and you can already look at it. That's not the issue.

The issue is that without the essential freedoms to study, modify and distribute copies of the software, users are at a disadvantage to the developer and that's unjust.