Thursday, February, 24th
With the strong government support for Software Livre, a growing Linux market in Brasil and modest acquisition price, one wonders why Conectiva has only been acquired now. In buying this South American distributor, Mandrakesoft co-founder Gael Duval reaffirms a presence in a country where the Mandrake brand is already known and Debian has more Linux market share than Red Hat or Novell.

Mandrakesoft and Conectiva have downsized considerably since their start-up days. What the combined company will offer by way of development and services remains to be seen. Brazilian media have not rushed to cover this announcement, although a press call was scheduled for today.

» PermaLink

Thursday, February, 10th

GUADEC Blotter is back for another season.

Getting GUADEC 6 connected this year is strong support by public agencies in Germany. Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart, the Stuttgart Region Economic Development agency that is hosting this year's GNOME User and Developers European Conference (29-31 May) with GNOME Deutschland, e.V. has an open source initiative that is gaining traction. An area primarily known around the globe for its automobiles is quietly working to transform a challenged old economy with the same free software that is removing the digital barrier in developing countries. GUADEC is locating to the regal building called Haus der Wirschaft with the strong support of lead Cornerstone Sponsor Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs.

As Haus der Wirtschaft has no network available for the hundreds of developers meeting over three days, a team of local volunteers are working on delivering the required bandwidth in May.  Hanno Wagner, Joerg Hoh and Murray Cumming surveyed the building for electrical outlets and potential access points on Wednesday afternoon.

Assisting GNOME Foundation in the outreach to German businesses for User Day will be MFG Baden-Württemberg, the federal agency working for IT and media.

» PermaLink

Tuesday, February, 1st


Don't live to geek; geek to live.
- lifehacker
Umm. Ok.

For the early adopter who has everything, Gawker Media brings you lifehacker. Sponsored by Sony, the site explains blog, quotes Richard Stallman and is under a Creative Commons license.

The Good Fight

Eric Raymond
has stepped down as President of the Open Source Initiative and a new team is in place. OSI established the Open Source Definition and has set the metric on licenses.

There is no shortage of intelligence at the newly established Software Freedom Law Center. Headed by Eben Moglen in New York, the center stands to protect software freedom. The GNU General Public License and its license siblings, have created a multi-billion dollar revenue stream for the members of Open Source Development Lab, which is bankrolling the effort.

Welcome SFLC and good speed!

» PermaLink

 

Archives
2004: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2005: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2006: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2007: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2008: January February March April May June July August September October November

Curitiba Brazil

web news: