Is Ciphershed Free Software?
I am a member!
On their website, Ciphershed states the following: "CipherShed is free (as in free-of-charge and free-speech) encryption software for keeping your data secure and private"; however, on the page with the licensing information, it says that they are licensed under TrueCrypt License Version 3.0. So, I am confused; should this project be considered free software, or not?
I am a translator!
Checking if a particular program is free or not is very easy. Download the source code and look for the license. If the license is a free software license, then the program is free software. This is the reference page you want to check -> https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html
That one is a non free license and hence the program in a non free program.
CipherShed is based on TrueCrypt and is still a fairly new project aiming at replacing the entire code base currently licensed under the proprietary TrueCrypt license and migrate to a free software license like the GPL: https://wiki.ciphershed.org/License
There is another similar project called VeraCrypt, but the main author doesn't care about licenses and freedom (as he states in this interview: https://twit.tv/shows/floss-weekly/episodes/340), so I'd stay away from both at least until CipherShed has replaced the code base.
If you need a free/libre program similar to TrueCrypt, use for example the GPL licensed zuluCrypt: http://mhogomchungu.github.io/zuluCrypt/
Strongly recommend to just use LUKS / cryptsetup. Community developed, free and it's already baked into Trisquel.
Can you write more on cryptsetup? What package version is in the package manager? On cryptsetup's website, where are instructions? Is security as great as veracrypt? Does cryptsetup support hidden volumes?