2005 Linux and free software timeline: December [LWN.net]

This "users are idiots, and are confused by functionality" mentality of Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it. I don't use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do.

--Linus Torvalds stirs things up

FOSS.IN concludes in Bangalore (LWN report).

Ruby on Rails 1.0 is released (announcement).

Xen 3.0 is released (press release).

DCC 3.0 is released by the DCC Alliance (press release).

Slackware founder Patrick Volkerding becomes a father, announces it via the changelog.

June 1st. A huge flamewar, the fourth on this topic since January, happens on the linux-kernel mailing list. Users and some developers are demanding that the kernel.org kernel adopts either the existing RHEL or the SLES module ABI. Investigation shows that this is not possible, and the thread turns into a discussion on designing a new ABI versus freezing the existing one.

--Arjan van de Ven gets dystopian

Novell signs a deal with the Swiss federal government; over 3000 SUSE servers will be deployed (press release).

The European Union adopts a harsh data retention directive (FFII dispatch).

The Massachusetts open formats battle continues (Groklaw timeline).

[seamonkey] Seamonkey 1.0 beta is released, showing that the Mozilla suite has life in it yet (announcement).

A new broadcast flag bill enters the U.S. House of Representatives in the form of the "Digital Transition Content Security Act of 2005" (EFF).

NetBSD 3.0 is released (announcement).

The Free Software Foundation, Latin America is founded (announcement).

The compensation for XCP purchasers includes the replacement of the CD with a version without copy-protection and the choice of either (i) US$7.50 plus one free album download or (ii) three free album downloads (Sony will select at least 200 eligible titles). The compensation for Media Max offers fewer free album downloads.

--SonyBMG settlement; mildly better than nothing

X11R7.0 is released (announcement).

Fluendo releases an MP3 decoder for GStreamer which can be used by people who worry about patent claims more than non-free software (article).

Git 1.0 is released; the kernel source code management system comes of age (announcement).

Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn resigns, having had enough of the open document fight.

A settlement is proposed for one SonyBMG class action suit; the EFF signs on (article).

The 2.6.15 kernel is released ...on January 2, fifteen years to the day after Linus bought his first development machine (announcement).

<== November

Timeline home

(Log in to post comments)