Open Source Archive

On Tuesday, the FSF announced the creation of the global "GPL Version 3 Development and Publicity Project," which will help create the next version of the General Public License. The Dutch nonprofit NLnet foundation is donating €150,000 to the cause. The new project is meant to bring together thousands of organizations, software developers and software users to help suggest revisions to the GPL.

A week ago the news got out that Microsoft had approached OSDL for a comperative study between Linux and Windows. OSDL confirmed this, however, they did not provide an answer to Microsoft's request. On Friday, Joe Brockmeier had a chance to have a short talk with Cohen , and got a definitive answer. Cohen said that "there is no way we would do a joint research project with Microsoft."

A common reason why more governments and enterprises around the world are moving to open source software is unhappiness, it was revealed during a panel discussion at the LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco yesterday.

The first draft of the next version of the General Public License should be released for public comments in early 2006, according to a key player in the effort to modernize the foundation of the free and open-source programming movements.

There may not be fireworks. CIOs and IT directors may not be heaping their proprietary software on bonfires and dancing. Even so, the open source revolution is happening right now and will carry the day, said Bill Weinberg, open source architecture specialist and Linux evangelist for OSDL.

Registration has begun for those wanting to attend the first Open Source Desktop Workshop to be held on October 13th and 14th in San Diego, California! Open Source Desktop Workshops are affordable educational events that bring top-flight Open Source desktop developers together with those who are looking to gain the skills necessary to join them. With presenters from around North America speaking on a variety of practical topics this will be an exciting and worthwhile event.

Tim Butler knew when he mentioned something negative about the GNU Project’s General Public License (GPL), in his column on KDE last week, he would inevitably be accused of arguing the GPL was a bad license. What did not fit into that piece shall now be dealt with: is the GPL a bad license or is the issue he complained about something else?

The head of Open Source Development Labs, Stuart Cohen, has added weight to rumours of greater collaboration between Microsoft and the open source community. He said: "I would not be surprised to see them participate in software that runs on top of Linux in the future."

TheOpenCD team is pleased to announce the release of TheOpenCD 3.0, now featuring a live CD based on Ubuntu. TheOpenCD traditionally provides a handy collection of quality FOSS applications for Windows, professionally presented in an elegant CD browser.

By itself, the release of OpenOffice.org for Scots Gaelic is a small event within the communities of FOSS. However, the release shows a potential for FOSS that is often overlooked, particularly by those for whom English is their native language. Specifically, FOSS has the potential to help resuscitate a declining language and thereby aid in revitalizing a disintegrating culture.

The variety of open source offerings - from application servers and databases to security and content management - illustrate the community's commitment to meet business needs. We're ready to take the next step. But, first, there are a few things we'd like to see from you, the open source community, before free software takes on a higher profile in big IT departments.

Sun's president Jonathan Schwartz has angered some in the free software community for appearing to misrepresent what open source is. In Schwartz's opening keynote at the JavaOne conference on Monday he spoke about how free price is the most important feature of free and open source software.

Richard Stallman explains why the European parliament should vote to keep software patents invalid: "Microsoft will be one of thousands of foreign software patent holders that will bring their patents over to Europe to sue the software developers and computer users there. Of the 50,000-odd putatively invalid software patents issued by the European Patent Office, around 80% do not belong to Europeans."

If you're tired of all the reading, reading, reading, here's a chance to kick back and watch some TV. University of Washington TV recently ran a show produced by its computer science department called "Open Source: New Religion or Viable Business Model?" Their web site carries streams in various formats.