Episode Details

CIW - Folge 172 - 04.03.2026 - Ralf at Software Freedom Podcast

• We welcome all listeners to episode 172 of “Captain it's Wednesday,” the podcast about free software and free society from GNU/Linux.ch, recorded on March 3 by Bonnie Mehring and Ralf Hersel. This episode is a rushing ahead publication of the Software Freedom Podcast episode.

Subject: Ralf at Software Freedom Podcast

1. You are part of the local FSFE group in Zurich. Could you very briefly tell us how you got involved there?

   About twenty years ago, I became interested in free software and wanted to join the community. At that time, I discovered the “Gnus und Pinguine” group in Zurich and met up with the people there a few times. That's where I found out about the ‘Ubunteros’ group, which I joined. We organized three “Ubucon Conventions” in Switzerland (Winterthur, Zurich, Basle). A few years later, we renamed the group “Tuxeros” because we didn't want to focus solely on Ubuntu. As fewer and fewer people joined Tuxeros, the remaining members joined the “FSFE Local Group Zurich.”

2. You have just recently participated in the "I Love Free Software Day" 
   events. How was it?

   We have been celebrating “I Love Free Software Day” at the FSFE for a long time, including in Zurich. In previous years, we usually met for dinner and invited other interested parties to join us. That changed in 2025, when we organized talks whose content matched the theme of “I Love Free Software Day.” This year's theme was “Maintainers,” which is why we brought four talks on this topic to the stage. They were about Xournal++, OpenBSD and LibreSSL, NewPipe, and GNU Taler. Admittedly, the last talk was not about maintainers. But Lioh and I had experimented a lot with GNU Taler beforehand and didn't want to withhold our findings from the community. We would have liked to see more visitors and more diversity at “I Love Free Software Day” (there were 15 men present).

3. What do you as FSFE local group do in Zurich?

   First of all, I would like to emphasize that the activities of FSFE Zurich are transparent and public. We meet monthly, alternating between in-person and online meetings. Minutes are taken at our meetings; you can find the link in the show notes. We have carried out many projects over the years. Among the most important are:

   - “Learn Like the Pros,” a project on free software in schools and universities,

   - “EndOf10,” where we held three workshops to help people switch to Linux,

   - “Free your Android,” a workshop on Google-free smartphones,

   - “Photo book,” a printed booklet in which people tell their stories about free software,

   • “FreedomVote” was a survey in which candidates for the Swiss parliamentary elections could express their stance on free software and a free society,

   - and “FediGov,” an initiative that aims to get the government to use the Fediverse for public communication.

   We have also appeared on many stages and given presentations on a wide range of free topics. Currently, we would like to focus on young people again, because we see a lack of information about free software in this area.

4. You are also not only part of the FSFE but also the founder and an 
   active write on the well known GNU/Linux.ch. And of course also podcast 
   host of the Captain it's Wednesday Podcast from GNU/Linux.ch. How did 
   GNU/Linux.ch kick off and how did it all started?

   GNU/Linux.ch (GL) was not founded by me, but by Lioh Möller in May 2020. After Prolinux.de came to an end, we wanted to fill a gap. In the beginning, GL was a news blog about free software. In summer 2020, I added the podcast to offer another format. We soon realized that there was some duplication because Linuxnews.de offered similar content. We the