[GNU/FSF Press] Windows 7 Sins Campaign launches international awareness effort with translations made available in eight languages

[Matt Lee]

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Tuesday, December 15th,
2009 -- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today
announced that its campaign for computer user freedom,
Windows 7 Sins, has launched internationally with
translations and press releases being made available in
over eight languages, with several more on the way.

The Windows 7 Sins campaign outlines seven major areas
where proprietary software in general and Microsoft
Windows in particular hurt all computer users: invading
privacy, poisoning education, locking users in, abusing
standards, leveraging monopolistic behavior, enforcing
Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), and threatening
user security.

These points are outlined in the text of a letter the
campaign previously mailed to the leaders of the Fortune
500 companies and leading NGOs in the United States. The
letter warns "Windows 7 decision makers" about the "lack
of privacy, freedom, and security" they will suffer
should they adopt Windows 7, and makes the case that they
should instead adopt free software such as the GNU/Linux
operating system and the office productivity suite
OpenOffice.org.

The FSF is asking concerned citizens to help get this
message out by nominating other organizational leaders
who are also "Windows 7 decision makers" to receive a
version of the letter. FSF executive director Peter Brown
explained, "Many people are frustrated by the
organizations they interact with and their support for a
software industry that works against the freedom of
citizens. Our national and local governments, NGOs, and
our universities and schools that use proprietary
software are undertaking bad public policy, often through
ignorance or misplaced values. We hope to alert these
decision makers to the positive contribution they can
make to society by switching their organizations to free
software."

"By translating Windows 7 Sins into as many languages as
possible, we are making this an international campaign
for computer user freedom," said Matt Lee, campaigns
manager at the FSF. In addition to the Web site
translations, the FSF is also distributing this press
release in the same languages, with local representatives
in each area of the world.

The translation effort, coordinated by FSF campaigns
staff working with volunteer translators, has been done
over the last few months, using free software tools and
collaborating via the GNU Mailman software. The first
translation to go live was French, translated by members
of the French free software activist organization, April.

Interested parties can join the translation effort by
visiting <http://meta.windows7sins.org/> -- the site has
already been translated from English into Arabic, French,
Italian, Russian, Spanish and German.

"Translations allow non-English speaking readers to
understand the stakes of the FSF's campaign. April and
Framasoft call on their members and the French-speaking
free software communities to take advantage of the
release of Microsoft Windows 7 to inform their friends,
family, colleagues about the dangers of proprietary
software, Microsoft's unfair practices, and the existence
of free software," said Frédéric Couchet, executive
director of April.

Volunteers willing to translate Windows 7 Sins and other
FSF materials into their local language should write to
address@hidden

### About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is
dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use,
study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer
programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of
free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU
operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free
documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to
spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites,
located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source
of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the
FSF's work can be made at <http://donate.fsf.org>. Its
headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

### About Free Software and Open Source

The free software movement's goal is freedom for computer
users. Some, especially corporations, advocate a
different viewpoint, known as "open source," which cites
only practical goals such as making software powerful and
reliable, focuses on development models, and avoids
discussion of ethics and freedom. These two viewpoints
are different at the deepest level. For more explanation,
see <http://gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html>.

### Media Contacts

Matt Lee
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942 x24
address@hidden