Group: Giving Guide Suggestions
Note: This page is not the guide; it is for giving recommendations of products we should consider for the guide. The items listed here should not be taken as FSF recommendations.
The FSF is working on a giving guide with recommendations of products that respect your freedom. We plan for the guide to cover audio, video and ebooks as well as computers, consumer electronics and software. To get all this information together, we need your help. This group is a place for you to provide your ideas for the buying guide.
Part of the guide is already completed and visible at fsf.org/givingguide. Some of the products in the guide, including the ones already posted, will be listed with a ">" symbol, showing that they are better for your freedom than another more common product. It's fine to put recommendations in this group without a "lesser" product to go along with them, but if you can think of one, please mention it.
Thanks for helping your fellow FSF members make ethical choices this holiday season. Happy holidays!
Guidelines
- Make a new category if necessary, but please check existing ones first
- Provide links to detailed descriptions ofthe products when possible.
- If it's not obvious, provide an explanation of why you chose the product(s) for the section you put it/them into.
- For "greater than" pairs, the items should be relatively interchangeable as far as functionality is concerned.
Ideas
Software
- Electronic Design Tools: download gEDA ( http://www.geda-project.org ) or Kicad ( http://www.kicad-pcb.org ) > Eagle ( http://www.cadsoftusa.com )
- 3-D CAD/CAM: download FreeCAD ( http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/free-cad/index.php?title=Main_Page ) > CorelCAD ( http://www.corel.com/corel/product/index.jsp?pid=prod4120067&cid=catalog20038&segid=752 )
- Animation: download Blender ( http://www.blender.org ) > Adobe ( http://www.adobe.com/products/flash.html )
Hardware
- Devices from h-node
- LulzBot AO-100 3D Printer (3D printer certified by the FSF) and possibly other freedom-respecting 3D printers
- Computers with Trisquel preinstalled from http://www.gnu.org/links/companies.html
- Replicant compatibles phones(beware, not all phones have the same freedoms, before buying, check with the replicant project)? (assuming someone is able to install replicant, since no companies sell devices with replicant preinstalled yet.)
- Devices with free OSs preinstalled from http://swappa.com/
- If you can't find a device with a free OS preinstalled, get one and install the OS yourself, then give it to your friend. This makes an even better present than something you paid for but didn't work on.
- Arduino boards?
Other
- FSF membership dues for a friend (include the LibrePlanet conference logo in this bc members get to attend LP gratis)
- Donations to the FSF or free software development projects in friend's names
- Gifts from the shop.fsf.org
- Give your friend a homemade coupon promising to set up their computer with a free GNU/Linux distribution, help them learn to use it and help them maintain it.
- Clothes from this http://www.freewear.org/ . You'd have to mention that freewear donates some money to the FSF.
- DRM-free ebooks, including books about free software
- Recommending a hosting service that respects people's freedom to be in control of their machine
- A trip to free software conferences such as FOSDEM?
- Real books(for instance normal books, or books on free software, preferably under a free software license )
Similar guides and other resources for inspiration
- http://blog.makezine.com/2008/02/29/the-open-source-gift-guid/
- http://www.defectivebydesign.org/holiday
- http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Printer_buying_guide
- https://uniluug.org/wiki/2012_libre_gift_guide
"issue" is not in the list (interest, location, project, school) of allowed values for the "Organized around" property.
