Freedom from Digital Capitalism

Oct 25, 2026 · @OleAamot

About gPhoto 3.0.1

gPhoto 3.0.1 is the GNU Digital Camera Software for GNOME: a desktop app that talks to digital cameras and phones over USB through libgphoto2 and lets you browse the files on the device.

This guide covers installing gPhoto 3.0.1 from source on Fedora 44, freeing the device from the GNOME desktop so gPhoto can use it, and browsing a device’s directory. It was tested with a Motorola Moto 60 phone connected in USB PTP mode.

Requirements

Install everything in one go:

sudo dnf install libgphoto2 libgphoto2-devel gcc make autoconf automake libtool gettext-devel pkgconf-pkg-config wget

If ./configure later reports a missing library, install its -devel package with dnf and run ./configure again.

Installing from source

The build takes six commands and installs gPhoto under /usr/local by default.

1. Download the release tarball:wget https://www.gnomephoto.org/gphoto-3.0.1.tar.xz
2. Unpack it and enter the source folder:tar xvf gphoto-3.0.1.tar.xz && cd gphoto-3.0.1/
3. Generate the build system:./autogen.sh
4. Configure the build. Add --prefix=/usr if you want gPhoto installed alongside system packages instead of under /usr/local:./configure
5. Compile:make
6. Install:sudo make install

Keep the gphoto-3.0.1 folder; you need it to uninstall later.

Preparing the desktop

Stop GNOME’s GVFS camera and phone monitors before starting gPhoto. When a camera or phone is plugged in, GVFS claims the USB device so it can show up in Files, and only one program can hold it at a time.

pkill -f gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
pkill -f gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
pkill -f gvfsd-mtp

This is safe: the commands only end your own session’s background helpers, and they start again the next time you log in. Close the Files app first if it is showing the device.

Connecting your camera or phone

Connect the device by USB, put it in PTP mode, then confirm gPhoto can see it with gphoto --auto-detect.

1. Plug the camera or phone into the computer with a USB data cable.
2. On a phone, unlock it and set the USB mode to PTP. On the Motorola Moto 60, tap the USB notification and choose the photo transfer (PTP) option. On a camera, PTP is usually the default; check its USB or connection menu if not.
3. Stop the GVFS monitors (see Preparing the desktop) if they started again when you plugged in.
4. Check detection:gphoto --auto-detect

The command lists each detected device with its model and port, for example a usb: port number. An empty list means gPhoto cannot see the device; see Troubleshooting.

Note: the option has two hyphens, --auto-detect. Web pages often turn them into a single long dash (–), which the shell will not accept.

Using gPhoto

Start gPhoto from a terminal with gphoto once the device is detected.

gphoto

gPhoto opens a window showing the connected device. Use Directory Browse to walk the folders stored on it; on a phone in PTP mode this is typically the camera folder (DCIM) and its subfolders.

Keep the device unlocked and connected while browsing. Unplugging it or letting a phone switch USB mode ends the session; reconnect and start gPhoto again.

Open question: menu names and steps for copying photos to the computer are not yet documented here.

Troubleshooting

Most problems come from GVFS holding the device, the phone being in the wrong USB mode, or a missing build dependency.

Uninstalling and getting help

To remove gPhoto, run sudo make uninstall from the source folder you built in:

cd gphoto-3.0.1/
sudo make uninstall

The GVFS monitors you stopped return on your next login, so no cleanup is needed for them.

For releases, source tarballs and project news, see gnomephoto.org. The original install notes are in GPhoto 3.0.1 on Fedora 44.

How do I develope digital photos in GPhoto 3.0.1 on Fedora 45?

Open Terminal and run the following commands:

sudo dnf install libgphoto2

wget https://www.gnomephoto.org/gphoto-3.0.1.tar.xz

tar xvf gphoto-3.0.1.tar.xz

cd gphoto-3.0.1/

./autogen.sh

./configure

make

sudo make install

pkill -f gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor

pkill -f gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor

pkill -f gvfsd-mtp

gphoto –auto-detect

gphoto

Programvarepatenter er patenter på ideer, ikke på kode. Det er derfor de er så farlige for alle som skriver programvare, og det er derfor to av de mest respekterte stemmene i informatikken har advart mot dem i over 30 år.

Donald E. Knuth, forfatteren av The Art of Computer Programming og skaperen av TeX, og Richard M. Stallman, grunnleggeren av GNU-prosjektet og Free Software Foundation, kommer fra hvert sitt hjørne. Knuth argumenterer som matematiker. Stallman argumenterer som programmerer og frihetsforkjemper. De ender likevel på samme sted: programvare hører ikke hjemme i patentsystemet.

Kampen er ikke over. Europa sa nei til programvarepatenter i 2005, men patentkontorene har fortsatt å innvilge dem. Det gjelder også i Norge.

Knuth: algoritmer er matematikk

Knuths kjerneargument er enkelt: en algoritme er matematikk, og matematikk kan ikke eies. Han la det fram i et brev til det amerikanske patentkontoret 23. februar 1994, skrevet på vegne av en uroet fagmiljø.

Brevet har fire hovedpoenger:

• Skillet er umulig å trekke. Domstolene forsøkte å skille mellom «matematiske» og «ikke-matematiske» algoritmer. Knuth mente det var like absurd som da delstatsforsamlingen i Indiana på 1800-tallet prøvde å vedta at π er lik 3. Det finnes heller ikke noe meningsfullt skille mellom numeriske og ikke-numeriske algoritmer.
• Byggesteiner kan ikke ha eiere. Knuth sammenlignet algoritmepatenter med patenter på enkeltord: «Algoritmer er like grunnleggende for programvare som ord er for forfattere.» Ingen kunne brukt matematikk om man måtte betale lisens hver gang man brukte Pytagoras’ læresetning.
• Det ville stoppet hans eget arbeid. Knuth skrev at han ikke kunne ha laget TeX om programvarepatenter hadde vært vanlige i 1980. TeX brukes fortsatt til det aller meste av publisert matematikk og fysikk.
• Konkrete skader allerede da. Han pekte på patentene på Lempel-Ziv-komprimering og RSA-kryptering, som hindret andre programmerere i å bruke viktige algoritmer.

Knuth er ingen prinsipiell patentmotstander. Han har selv patenter på maskinvare. Poenget hans er at programvare er en annen type ting. Han mente at hele programvarebransjen slik vi kjenner den ikke ville eksistert om algoritmepatenter hadde vært utbredt på 1960- og 70-tallet.

Brevet har også en europeisk side. I april 2009 sendte Knuth det samme brevet til presidenten i Det europeiske patentkontoret (EPO), som innspill til EPOs storkammer i sak G 3/08, der nettopp grensene for programvarepatenter ble prøvd.

Enhetspatentet. Siden 1. juni 2023 har EU hatt et felles enhetspatent og en felles patentdomstol, Unified Patent Court (UPC). Én rettssak kan nå gi forbud i et stort antall land samtidig. Det gjør et innvilget programvarepatent mer verdt for den som eier det, og farligere for alle andre.

Norge: samme smutthull, mindre debatt

Norge har det samme unntaket som resten av Europa, og det samme smutthullet. Patentloven § 1 andre ledd sier at det som «bare utgjør» programmer for datamaskiner, ikke regnes som en oppfinnelse. Bestemmelsen er en gjennomføring av EPC artikkel 52 og skal tolkes i lys av konvensjonen og EPOs praksis. Norge har vært medlem av EPC siden 2008.

I praksis betyr det at norske regler følger EPO. En doktorgrad fra Universitetet i Bergen konkluderte med at adgangen til å patentere informasjonsteknologi går lenger enn mange tror. Den omfatter oppfinnelser som gjelder hvordan en datamaskin håndterer data, uansett formål. Ifølge avhandlingen kan man i Norge få patent på det som i realiteten er «ren programvare», for eksempel algoritmer for rangering av nettsider.

Norge står utenfor EUs enhetspatent og patentdomstolen. Patentstyret presiserer at enhetspatenter ikke gjelder her, og at UPC-avgjørelser ikke gjelder norske valideringer. Et europeisk patent må valideres i Norge for å gjelde her. Det gir en viss beskyttelse. Men norske utviklere som selger til EU-markedet, er like utsatt som alle andre.

For norske utviklere betyr dette:

• Opphavsretten er det reelle vernet. Koden din er beskyttet etter åndsverkloven fra første linje. Det er nok for de aller fleste.
• Patentrisikoen er reell, men usynlig. Den treffer gjerne først når et produkt har blitt populært nok til å være verdt et søksmål.
• Fri programvare er spesielt sårbar. Et prosjekt uten inntekter kan verken betale lisens eller føre en patentsak.
• Debatten er nesten fraværende. Der Europa hadde en stor folkebevegelse mot direktivet i 2005, har det vært lite offentlig debatt i Norge om hvordan Patentstyret og domstolene tolker «som sådan».

Hva vi bør kreve

Knuth og Stallman ba ikke om strengere eller bedre programvarepatenter. De ba om at programvare skulle holdes utenfor patentsystemet. Det kravet er like riktig i dag.

Konkret bør vi kreve:

1. At «som sådan» tolkes etter ordlyden. Unntaket i patentloven og EPC bør bety det det sier: programvare kjørt på en vanlig datamaskin er ikke en oppfinnelse, uansett hvor «teknisk» den beskrives.
2. At politikerne tar ansvar. Grensen for hva som kan patenteres, er et politisk spørsmål. Den bør ikke avgjøres stille av patentkontorer og storkamre.
3. At offentlige standarder er frie. Formater og protokoller som det offentlige krever, må kunne implementeres fritt, uten patentlisenser.
4. At norske myndigheter følger med. Når EPO og EU utvider praksisen, påvirker det også Norge. Det fortjener en åpen debatt her.

Knuth kunne skrive TeX fordi ideene han bygde på, var frie. Stallman kunne bygge GNU av samme grunn. Neste generasjon utviklere fortjener den samme friheten.

Kilder

• Donald E. Knuth: brev til U.S. Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, 23. februar 1994
• Knuths innspill til EPO i sak G 3/08 (2009)
• Richard Stallman: «Software patents – Obstacles to software development», Cambridge 2002
• Europaparlamentet: forkastelse av programvarepatentdirektivet, 6. juli 2005
• LWN: The European software patent vote (2005)
• Osborne Clarke: EPO Decision G1/19 (2021)
• Universitetet i Bergen: «Programvare kan patenteres»
• Patentstyret: Enhetspatentet og den felles patentdomstolen
• Thommessen: EUs nye patentsystem og norske virksomheter

📻 GNOME Radio Studio

This centennial, GNOME Radio Studio is now available on the web, making it possible to listen to Internet radio stations directly from your browser. The studio currently features stations including NRK P1+ (Norway), BBC World Service (United Kingdom), and NPR (United States), with simple playback controls and volume adjustment. GNOME Radio continues its mission of helping users discover and listen to free, non-profit, and public radio from around the world through GNOME technologies and open standards.

Try it online:
https://www.gnomeradio.org/studio.html

GNOME Radio is free and open-source software and is part of the broader effort to make global radio accessible across desktop and web platforms. The latest releases include hundreds of international radio stations and interactive map-based discovery features.

#GNOME #OpenSource #InternetRadio #GTK #ThisWeekInGNOME

By Ole Kristian Aamot

Today I am pleased to announce the release of GNOME Radio 78.0, the latest version of the free and open-source Internet radio application for the GNOME desktop environment.

GNOME Radio 78.0 continues the project’s mission of providing easy access to public Internet radio stations from around the world through a simple, integrated desktop experience. The release includes 244 international radio stations and more than 100 city map markers, making it possible to discover radio broadcasts across continents directly from GNOME. GNOME Radio 78.0 is available for GNU/Linux, macOS, Windows (via WSL2), and the Web.

Screenshot

The screenshot above shows GNOME Radio 78.0 running on GNOME with the interactive world radio map and station browser.

What’s New in GNOME Radio 78.0

GNOME Radio 78.0 for GNOME 50 introduces updated station data, improved geographic radio discovery, expanded international coverage, and continued support for modern desktop platforms. The release also includes Vatican City radio coverage and ongoing improvements to the user experience.

Installation

Debian 14 / Ubuntu 26.04

“`bash
wget https://www.gnomeradio.org/~ole/ubuntu/gnome-radio_75.0-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i gnome-radio_75.0-1_amd64.deb
“`

Fedora 44

“`bash
sudo dnf install https://www.gnomeradio.org/~ole/fedora/RPMS/x86_64/gnome-radio-78.0-1.fc44.x86_64.rpm
“`

Fedora Asahi Remix 43

“`bash
sudo dnf install https://www.gnomeradio.org/~ole/fedora/RPMS/aarch64/gnome-radio-76.0-1.fc43.aarch64.rpm
“`

macOS (MacPorts)

“`bash
sudo port install xorg-server
sudo port install gnome-radio
“`

Windows 11 (WSL2)

“`bash
wsl.exe –install Fedora-43
sudo dnf install gnome-radio
“`

Build from Source

“`bash
git clone https://github.com/aamotsoftware/radio.git
cd radio
autoreconf
./configure
make
sudo make install
gnome-radio
“`

Installation instructions are available from the official GNOME Radio website.

Project History

GNOME Radio is the continuation of a long-standing effort to provide free access to public Internet radio broadcasting through GNOME. The project originated from work on GNOME Internet Radio Locator and has evolved through many major releases, presentations, and research efforts over the years. Publications associated with the project include presentations at GUADEC 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2026, as well as academic work exploring public Internet radio access and free speech through digital broadcasting technologies.

The project has grown from an experimental radio locator application into a cross-platform radio platform featuring hundreds of stations from around the world while remaining committed to free software principles and open standards.

Get GNOME Radio

Project website:

GNOME Radio Official Website

Source code:

GNOME Radio Git Repository

Thank you to everyone who has contributed code, testing, packaging, translations, documentation, and feedback throughout the development of GNOME Radio.

Happy listening!

Ole Kristian Aamot
GNOME Radio Project Founder and Maintainer

After twenty-five years of development, experimentation, documentation, and innovation, the GNOME Radio project has reached an important milestone: the original vision has now been completed.
GNOME Radio was conceived as a long-term effort to explore the relationship between geography, history, technology, culture, and digital knowledge. Over the course of a quarter century, the project evolved through multiple generations of software, research, web technologies, mapping concepts, and historical documentation.
At its core, GNOME Radio has sought to make information more accessible by connecting places, events, people, and historical developments within a common digital framework. The project combines elements of geospatial computing, historical exploration, digital archiving, and educational technology.
Throughout its history, GNOME Radio has reflected the dramatic transformation of the Internet itself—from the early web of the 2000s, through the rise of open-source software, mobile computing, cloud infrastructure, and modern web applications. The project has continuously adapted to new technologies while maintaining its original mission: helping people understand the world through geography and history.
The completion of the twenty-five-year development cycle represents not an ending, but the fulfillment of a long-term vision. The accumulated knowledge, software, documentation, and historical material produced during the project now form a lasting body of work that can continue to inform future research and development.
GNOME Radio stands as an example of what can be achieved through persistence, open knowledge, and long-term commitment. Few independent projects remain active for a quarter of a century. Reaching this milestone is therefore both a technical achievement and a historical one.
The project’s legacy will continue through its published materials, online resources, and future community engagement.
For additional information, project history, and updates, visit:
https://www.gnomeradio.org/
June 2026
GNOME Radio Project

GUADEC 2026

A Coruña, Spain

July 16th – 21th, 2026

https://www.guadec.org

GNOME Radio

Apps/Radio – GNOME Wiki Archive

https://www.aamotinnovation.com/#products

https://www.gnomeradio.org

GNOME Radio 76

GNOME Radio 76.0 for GNOME 50

https://www.gnomeradio.org/src/gnome-radio-76.0.tar.xz

https://www.aamotinnovation.com/~ole/radio/gnome-radio-76.0.tar.xz

GNOME Radio 76.0 for Fedora 43

http://www.aamot.io/~ole/fedora/SRPMS/gnome-radio-76.0-1.fc43.src.rpm

http://www.aamot.io/~ole/fedora/RPMS/x86_64/gnome-radio-76.0-1.fc43.x86_64.rpm

GNOME Radio 76.0 for Windows 11

Powershell: wsl.exe –install Fedora

Fedora-43:

sudo dnf \ install http://www.aamot.io/~ole/fedora/RPMS/x86_64/gnome-radio-76.0-1.fc43.x86_64.rpm && gnome-radio

Happy hacking,

Ole Aamot

Product Engineer, R&D

Aamot Innovation

www.aamot.io

Software development has always felt less like a job and more like a craft. Not in the romanticized sense of artisanal mystique, but in the grounded, repetitive, deeply human sense: you learn by doing, you refine through failure, and you leave behind something others can build upon. After 30 years in the open source software world, that idea has only grown stronger for me.

The message that resonated isn’t new, but it’s easy to forget in today’s landscape. Software is not just a product to be consumed—it is a body of knowledge, a shared infrastructure, and a living system shaped by those who engage with it. The Free Software movement understood this early on, even if it didn’t always state it in explicitly political terms. At its core was a simple but powerful idea: if you use a tool, you should have the right to understand it, modify it, and share it.

That idea quietly challenges the assumptions of capitalism.

Capitalism tends to frame software as property—something owned, controlled, and monetized. It draws boundaries: licenses, restrictions, subscriptions. It tells users that their role is to consume, not to participate. But software, unlike physical goods, doesn’t degrade when shared. It improves. It evolves. Every bug report, every patch, every fork is part of a collective process that resists enclosure.

In that sense, Free Software has always been a kind of countercurrent. Not necessarily anti-market in every form, but deeply skeptical of systems that separate people from the tools they depend on. It insists on a different relationship: one where users are also contributors, where knowledge is not hoarded, and where improvement is a communal act.

There’s also a dignity in that. Craft implies ownership—not necessarily legal ownership, but intellectual and practical ownership. When you can read the code you run, when you can fix what’s broken, when you can share improvements with others, you are no longer just a user. You are a participant in the system. That changes how you think, how you work, and how you relate to technology.

Over three decades, I’ve seen this ethos persist, even as the industry around it has shifted. Open source has been commercialized, absorbed, and rebranded countless times. Companies build fortunes on top of it. Platforms centralize what was once distributed. And yet, underneath all that, the original idea still holds.

People still share code freely.
People still collaborate across borders and institutions.
People still believe that software should be something we can shape, not just something we rent.

That’s the craft.

And maybe that’s the quiet link: a recognition that building software is not just about efficiency or profit, but about agency. About having a say in the tools that shape our lives. About refusing to be locked out of the systems we depend on.

After 30 years, that still feels worth holding onto.

July 4th and the Long Road to Inheritance

In February 2026, I turned 48.

The celebration was simple: chocolate mousse cake and Poppa chips. No grand ceremony, no spectacle — just a quiet acknowledgement of years lived intensely. Later that same day, an invitation arrived: a farm party in Vågå on July 4th, 2026. The host was Lars Erik Kolden — philosopher, IT manager, and frontman guitarist. Once, long ago, I played drums in his band.

To understand why that invitation meant something deeper, you have to go back to 1998.

The Colloquium

In IN105 at the University of Oslo, we met for colloquium on Simula. Simula — the language that quietly shaped object-oriented programming long before it became mainstream. Inheritance. Polymorphism. Abstraction. These weren’t just technical constructs; they were ways of thinking.

Lars Erik understood it intuitively. He explained class hierarchies as if they were musical structures. A base class was a rhythm. A derived class — a variation. Override the method, keep the timing. Respect the interface.

Years later, those early lessons would resurface in my own work. Architecture first. Implementation second.

GNU/Linux and PHP

It was also Lars Erik who introduced me properly to GNU/Linux. Not just as an operating system, but as a philosophy: transparency, modularity, freedom. Later, he taught me PHP — and more importantly, how to think about inheritance and polymorphism in practice.

Code was not just instructions. It was structure over time.

That mindset followed me into what would eventually become Aamot Research & Innovation.

The Drummer Who Never Missed Practice

In 2004, I was working at Elkjøp ASA in Lørenskog. Long commutes. Early mornings. Physical exhaustion.

At the same time, I played drums at Amatøren in Sogn studentby. Lars Erik was on guitar. Travel distances were long. Energy was limited. But I never missed a band practice.

Not once.

Discipline in music mirrors discipline in code. You show up. You rehearse. You refine timing. You improve incrementally. You respect the ensemble.

The farm party invitation in 2026 was not just a social event. It was continuity. A reminder that the threads from 1998 to 2004 to 2026 are not broken.

Inheritance

Inheritance is not only a programming concept.

We inherit ideas.
We inherit discipline.
We inherit friendships.

Polymorphism, too, has its human analogue. The same person — student, drummer, retail worker, researcher — expressed in different contexts, responding to different interfaces, but retaining core identity.

At 48, I see the architecture more clearly.

The colloquium discussions on Simula were not isolated academic exercises. They shaped how I design systems. The band rehearsals were not youthful diversions. They shaped endurance. The long commutes were not wasted time. They shaped resilience.

On July 4th, 2026, in Vågå, surrounded by music and old friends, I will be celebrating more than a birthday year. I will be celebrating inheritance — technical, musical, philosophical.

And perhaps that is the quiet reward of persistence:
the realization that nothing was random.

Everything compiled.

— Ole Kristian Aamot