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Tag Archives: open source

June sees Brussels Open standards for ICT procurement conference

If you work in public sector ICT procurement and can be in Brussels from 10.00 a.m. onwards on Friday 12th June this year, then there’s a forthcoming event that may be of interest to you. It’s entitled Open Standards for ICT Procurement: Saving While Reducing ICT Lock-In and is being organised by DG Connect, otherwise […]

The next Debian testing stable version’s codename is stretch

With Debian 8, codenamed ‘jessie’, currently frozen and due for release as the next stable release at the end of April (news passim), many may have been wondering what the next Debian testing stable release will be. However, this particular question has now been answered. Writing on reddit, user dimitrifromparis has revealed the next character […]

Hungarian universities adopt ODF

Joinup, the EU’s public sector open source news site, reports that Eötvös University and Szeged University in Hungary are increasing their use of Open Document Format (ODF). Between them the 2 universities have some 45,000 students. In addition, both universities have also signed licences with MultiRáció of Budapest for the deployment and support of 34,000 […]

Hate DRM? Tell the world on May 6th

On Wednesday, May 6th, 2015, activists across the world will come together to say no to Digital Rights Restrictions Management (DRM). In the last year, DRM has spread to more types of products; developments include Mozilla giving in to DRM in its Firefox web browser and the sycophantic media fawning over Apple’s DRM-laden “smart” watch. […]

Evolve OS to change name to Solus

This blog reported yesterday that the developers of the Evolve OS Linux desktop operating system had received a letter from lawyers acting for the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation & Skills informing them that BIS’ OS trade mark was being infringed and that the developers would have to pick a new name. Ikey Doherty of […]

FSFE gives cautious welcome to Commission’s new free software strategy

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has given a cautious welcome to the EU Commission’s new version of its strategy for the internal use of free and open source software covering the period 2014-2017 (news passim). FSFE has provided extensive input to the Commission during the update process. While the new strategy is broadly similar […]

Evolve OS name change forced by trade mark dispute with UK government

The Evolve OS desktop Linux distribution is being forced into a change of name due to potential trade mark problems with the UK government, Softpedia reports. The bone of contention is not the Evolve element, but OS, which is apparently a trade mark registered to registered to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and […]

Another Microsoft open source release

Microsoft, purveyor of insecure proprietary operating systems and annoying, overpriced office suites, has not always had an easy relationship with the concept of open source. Indeed, its first forays into the field were taken reluctantly since it was ordered by the European Commission to disclose interoperability information to third parties under an unfair competition ruling […]

Commission updates open source strategy

The European Commission has announced the updating its strategy for internal use of open source software. The Commission, which is already using open source for many of its key IT services and software solutions, will further increase the internal role of this type of software. The renewed strategy puts a special emphasis on procurement, contribution […]

LibreOffice to take to the cloud

Google Docs and Microsoft’s Office 365 could soon face proper open source and open standards opposition to cloud-based office productivity services according to the post below from yesterday from the chief scribe’s own blog. LibreOffice, the best free and open source office suite produced, is set to become the cornerstone of the world’s first global […]

Document Freedom Day: why open standards matter

Today is Document Freedom Day, an annual international celebration of open formats and open standards and an opportunity to promote their use. The use of open standards is definitely gaining ground, particularly where it matters, such as in dealings with government bodies. This was amply illustrated last year by the UK Cabinet Office’s announcement of […]

Make an origami unicorn and win an Ubuntu Phone

An Origami Unicorn Challenge has been announced by the Ubuntu Insights website. Origami has long been associated with good fortune and represents the visual style for the Ubuntu Phone and Ubuntu is inviting people to create their own Origami Unicorn for the chance to win an Ubuntu Phone. The stages to participate include: Create a […]

More on open standards at Bristol City Council

The Secretary has just blogged again about Bristol City Council and open standards on account of fresh information that came to light over the weekend. It is reproduced verbatim below: Following the post on Friday on Bristol City Council‘s response to my open standards FoI request (posts passim), more information has come to light. It […]

Open standards at Bristol City Council

Bristol Wireless’ secretary has just published the post below on his blog concerning his recent Freedom of Information Act request to Bristol City Council on the local authority’s use of open standards: A response has been received today to my FoI request to Bristol City Council on open standards (posts passim). The reply was received […]

City of Light makes enlightened move

The City of Paris has become a member of April, the leading French free and open source advocacy organisation. Making the announcement, April reported that the council wants to intensify its commitment in favour of free and open source. Following a resolution in December 2014 from the council’s Green group and subsequent negotiations conducted by […]

Auntie to give away 1 mn. ‘Micro Bit’ computers

Readers of more mature years will remember the BBC Micro, which was launched in the early 1980s. It was originally designed and built by the Acorn Computer company for the BBC’s then Computer Literacy Project. This machine is reputed to have inspired many of the UK’s leading programmers and games developers. News now arrives via […]

GnuPG can now employ second developer

GnuPG, the most important free encryption program, will in future be developed by two paid employees, German IT news site heise reports. After a flood of donations he has been able to employ a second developer, programmer Werner Koch stated in a blog post. “The financial crisis of The GnuPG Project is over”, he wrote. […]