Penguin Liberation Front

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Penguin Liberation Front logo

The Penguin Liberation Front (PLF) provides packages of "endangered software" (i.e. free software with a questionable legal status in some countries) for Linux users and developers. This software cannot be included in GNU/Linux distributions for various reasons, such as:

Software patents, prohibiting the use of abstract algorithms regardless of implementation.
Corporate interest protection laws, such as DMCA in the United States, and EUCD in Europe.
Privacy restriction laws, such as strong cryptography prohibition in many countries.

Much free software falls under one of these threats, and thus becomes illegal in parts of the world. This restricts their worldwide distribution, making their use impractical, if not impossible, for all but seasoned developers.

Says the PLF on its website, "We don't resign to this situation however, and we provide first-class packages for all these endangered software. Wherever you are, there is always a PLF mirror near."[1]

The PLF currently focuses on Mandriva Linux and uses urpmi for distribution. An effort to provide packages for Ubuntu was started, but later shutdown due to lack of time to maintain it. The Ubuntu repository is in the process of being revived under new maintainers.

Although the group's logo may suggest otherwise, the PLF does not promote violence. The significance of the Anarchist star behind Tux is unknown (see [2] for a history of anarchist symbolism). In alternate versions of the logo, the star is solid red or black[3].