http://www.osnews.com/story/16153/European_Commission_Boosts_Open_Source Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:07:12 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://osnews.com/thread?171168 http://osnews.com/thread?171168 I then wonder why they are trying to allow software patents via the EPLA...
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/79377

It's german only, sorry. Thu, 12 Oct 2006 18:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Benjamin_Lebsanft) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?171186 http://osnews.com/thread?171186 Sadly, European Commission != European Parliament.

I just don't get how one can let those jerks in the parliament decide about software patents. I'm not sure whether half of them really know about the subject. We're not speaking about speed limits of highways here. Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Daniel Grimm) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?171189 http://osnews.com/thread?171189 I think they were 101 and 1/2 % dedicated to MSFT in last years Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:16:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (fyysik) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?171196 http://osnews.com/thread?171196 By the time they get through messing around, computers will not be needed.

EU needs to give it up and go away. Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:31:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Southern.Pride) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?171199 http://osnews.com/thread?171199 The parliament clearly rejected the previous vote on software patents with something like a 700 to 50 votes, so don't spread this misinformation, they know about the subject. But, frankly, I was positively surprised myself back when I heard the result of the vote.

And also, the parliament is the most democratic part of the EU. The members are elected directly by the people in the countries, contrary to the Council (the ministers of each country) and Commission (elected by the parliament, but chosen by the national governments).Edited 2006-10-12 19:45 Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:44:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Simon Gray) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?171215 http://osnews.com/thread?171215 ...how long it will be before Microsoft manages to worm its way into this process and wreck it, like it tries to do with every other open-source initiative? Thu, 12 Oct 2006 20:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ccchips) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?171225 http://osnews.com/thread?171225 Microsoft may be a moneymaker as an American tax payer, it is much less to European countries. Some clever people in the EU elite have seen that open source is an opportunity for European software makers. Mandriva, Suse, for example, started out as European firms.

Europe wants to be a little more competitive in hi-tech and as it's hard to beat the giant in its own proprietary field, it now stimulates the public sector to use open source, hoping it will stimulate innovation in the European software/IT sector in turn. A sort of software Keynesianism so to speak.

Unfortunately, the quality of (esp. 'beta') education, and the investments in it, in Europe leave much to be desired.
One notable exception is Finland. Guess which OSS figure comes from there. Thu, 12 Oct 2006 21:22:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (h3rman) Comments