Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
curl celebrates ten year anniversary
The curl project has announced its ten year anniversary. "Like many other projects, this started because of an itch. I wanted to get currency rates off the internet to allow an IRC bot to be able to provide an exchange service for users with accurate up-to-date rates. I thought the existing projects I found all did too much or did the wrong thing. That bot and service is now gone since long." (Thanks to Daniel Stenberg).
Document Freedom Day
The Free Software Foundation Europe has sent out a press release stating that March 26 is Document Freedom Day. "In a world where records are increasingly kept in electronic form, Open Standards are crucial for valuable information to outlive the application in which it was initially generated. The question of Document Freedom has severe repercussions for freedom of choice, competition, markets and the sovereignty of countries and their governments."
Audacious joins 2008 Google Summer of Code
The Audacious audio player project will take part in the 2008 Google Summer of Code. "Due to the success we've had in last year's Summer of Code, we are pleased to announce that we are participating in it again, and this time we're not limited to just Audacious. Atheme.org, the development teams who work on Audacious, charybdis, Atheme IRC Services, and other projects, is the mentoring organisation this year."
Audacity joins 2008 GSoC
The Audacity sound editor project has announced its participation in the Google Summer of Code 2008. "Students! Interested in supporting Audacity and earning a stipend this summer? Apply by 5:00 PM PDT on March 31, 2008 (00:00 UTC on April 1, 2008)! Audacity is a mentoring organization for the Google Summer of Code 2008! GSoC offers student developers $4,500 stipends to write code for various open source projects."
KDE Looking for Google Summer of Code Students (KDE.News)
KDE.News has announced the KDE group's participation in the 2008 Google's Summer of Code. "Google's Summer of Code will begin accepting applications soon and KDE will be participating for this fourth year. If you are a student over 18 and want to work on KDE this summer take a look at our ideas page. You are not restricted to what is listed there, other projects are welcome. Take the opportunity to talk to potential mentors over e-mail & IRC to see how feasible your project is, then write a project proposal for your application. You will have a week to apply starting from Monday, March 24."
KDE and OpenUsability offer summer stipends for students (KDE.News)
KDE.News has announced the Season of Usability coding project. "Our friends over at OpenUsability have just started a call for students of usability, user-interface design, and interaction design or related subjects for the Season of Usability. Season of Usability is a project that offers mentoring students that want to work on usability aspects of various projects, including KDE. Students are offered a stipend worth $US1000. KDE is involved in the Season of Usability with three possible stipends, two for students who want to work on the KDE 4 Human Interface Guidelines, another project aims for improving the toolbox and palette interaction KOffice."
Perl Foundation Summer of Code call for proposals (use Perl)
The Perl Foundation has announced its participation in the Google Summer of Code. "The Perl Foundation is participating in Google's 2008 Summer of Code(tm) and we have a lot of capable, willing mentors looking forward to working with some talented, driven students. So, we would like you to help find those students (and quickly -- the application period opens March 24th and closes March 31st.)"
PostgreSQL Summer of Code 2008
The PostgreSQL DBMS project has announced its participation in the 2008 Google Summer of Code. "For Summer of Code, Google will be paying for student internships to work on PostgreSQL features and applications. We've put up a list of ideas, including guidelines for submissions and more. Applications for students open March 25th, and close March 31, so urge any students you know to get your applications prepared right away!"
Samba participates in GSoC 2008
The Samba project has announced its participation in the 2008 Google Summer of Code. "Samba is again participating as a mentoring organization for the Google Summer of Code. If you are a student and interested in participating, check out our ideas list. We would appreciate if you could drop by on the samba-technical mailing list or in #samba-technical on Freenode and have a chat with us on the project you are interested in. The Samba Team would like to thank Google, Leslie Hawthorn in particular, for organizing this great project yet another year."
XMMS2 accepted to Google Summer of Code
The XMMS2 music player project has announced its participation in the 2008 Google Summer of Code. "Google has just announced the mentor organizations for Summer of Code 2008 and we are happy to announce that XMMS2 was selected to participate this year as well."
Commercial announcements
CodeWeavers announces CrossOver Games
CodeWeavers has announced their new CrossOver Games product. "CrossOver Games will allow you to install and play some of the most popular games available for Windows on your Mac or Linux system, all without needing to buy or run a copy of Windows. This includes support for Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, and many games through Steam, including Team Fortress 2, Portal, Half Life 2, Civilization IV, Peggle, and many others."
Likewise launches Open Spring '08
Likewise Software has announced the availability of their Open Spring '08 product. "Likewise Software, formerly Centeris, a leader in delivering authentication and audit solutions for mixed networks, today announced the availability of Likewise Open Spring '08, an Open Source offering that provides fast and easy integration of Linux, UNIX and Mac systems with Microsoft's Active Directory. This release brings the platforms supported by Likewise Open from a few to over 110 Linux, UNIX and Mac Platforms, or virtually all non-Windows enterprise platforms. Likewise Open Spring '08 is available today as a free download from http://www.likewisesoftware.com/download/index.php"
Linux Box Corporation announces partnership with Nagios Enterprises
The Linux Box Corporation has announced it has joined Nagios Enterprises in a partnership that will help both companies provide open source support for Nagios products to customers nationwide.A tour of the Microsoft open source lab
Microsoft's Port 25 weblog is carrying a tour of the company's open source software lab. "To some folks outside of Microsoft, the Open-Source Software Lab has been a sort of mysterious place. A place where we study Linux and open-source software, cursing our enemies while brewing our malevolent plans to combat those nasty FOSS developers. Oh, and we also have a death ray on the roof of building 17. It's Linux-powered, of course, just to add a little irony."
SFLC Announces Formation of Moglen Ravicher LLC
The Software Freedom Law Center has announced the formation of Moglen Ravicher LLC. "The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), provider of pro bono legal services to protect and advance free and open source software (FOSS), today announced the formation of Moglen Ravicher LLC, a law firm which will represent select for-profit clients that support FOSS but are not eligible to receive SFLC's pro bono services. An initial client of Moglen Ravicher LLC is OpenNMS, an open source enterprise grade network management platform. OpenNMS has retained the firm for representation regarding violations of the GNU General Public License (GPL)."
Oracle releases Clusterware for Oracle Unbreakable Linux
Oracle has announced the availability of Oracle Clusterware for its Oracle Unbreakable Linux support customers. "Oracle Clusterware is portable cluster software that groups together individual servers so they can cooperate as a single system. A fundamental component of Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Clusterware can operate independently and helps ensure the protection of an application, Oracle or third-party."
REvolution Computing establishes advisory board
REvolution Computing has announced the establishment of a new advisory board. "REvolution Computing, a New Haven, CT-based provider of software for computational statistics, today announced the formation of an advisory board that includes many of the leading figures in the creation and development of open source communities. David Henderson, Director of Community for REvolution Computing, will be the director of the board, charged with coordinating the exchange and discussion between the board, the 'R' community and developers."
Trusted Computer Solutions announces Security Blanket 1.2 for Oracle Enterprise Linux
Trusted Computer Solutions has announced Security Blanket 1.2. "Security Blanket enables systems administrators to automatically configure and enhance the security level of their Linux operating platform by simplifying the current arduous methods for "hardening" systems that must be undertaken on a regular basis to meet security compliancy requirements."
Vyatta: Open-source Router for SMB Market
Vyatta has introduced the Vyatta 514, a networking appliance that combines Vyatta's open-source routing and security software with a small form factor hardware platform. "With integrated routing, firewall, and VPN features, the Vyatta 514 is ideally suited to connect small businesses and branch offices to the Internet or private networks. The Vyatta 514 provides all the security, performance, and functionality of proprietary networking solutions at a fraction of the cost."
Contests and Awards
FSF awards for Harald Welte and Groklaw
The Free Software Foundation has announced that Harald Welte is the recipient of this year's Award for the Advancement of Free Software, and Groklaw has won the groups Social Benefit Award. "The awards committee honored both Welte's technical contributions to projects like the Linux kernel and the OpenMoko mobile platform project, and his community leadership in safeguarding the freedom of free software users by successfully enforcing the GNU General Public License in over one hundred cases since the gpl-violations.org project began in 2004."
Plasma Themes Contest (KDE.News)
The KDE Plasma Themes Contest has been announced. "The KDE Plasma team is inviting everyone to participate in a contest to create Plasma themes from which a select few will be chosen to be included as a part of the upcoming KDE 4.1 release. This is a great opportunity to contribute to a very visible component of the KDE project, the Plasma desktop. A great feature of Plasma is the ability to theme components of the desktop using Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs). This means there is no need for you to know C++ or any other programming language to create a great looking theme."
Upcoming Events
ELC 2008 Program Announced
The Embedded Linux Conference 2008 has announced its program for the conference being held April 15-17 in Mountain View, California. The conference features keynotes from Henry Kingman, Andrew Morton, and Tim Bird along with more than 50 sessions on a variety of embedded Linux topics. Click below for more information.The Linux Foundation hosts Spring Legal Summit
The Linux Foundation has announced a spring 2008 legal summit. "The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced the details for its second Legal Summit, which will be held at the Motorola Customer Briefing Center in Schaumburg, Ill. on April 23, 2008."
LinuxWorld accepting applications for the Linux Garage
The LinuxWorld Conference & Expo is accepting applications for the Linux Garage. "Linux is now a part of phones, cars, satellite TV, multimedia, and more gizmos and gadgets than anyone can imagine. As embedded Linux continues to grow, the Linux Garage is the new demonstration area where the newest and coolest gadgets will be showcased at LinuxWorld 2008. The goal of the Linux Garage is to provide a forum for the creators of innovative devices that employ embedded Linux and to provide attendees a peek under the hood at gadgets they can be coding for. Established companies showcasing real products can buy space in the area, while early stage companies and pre-revenue inventors can apply for free space awarded on coolness factor."
Events: April 3, 2008 to June 2, 2008
The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
| Date(s) | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| April 3 April 4 |
E-Mail Systems Conference 2008 (Exim and other mail systems) | Birmingham, England |
| April 4 April 5 |
openSUSE Packaging Days II | IRC, Everywhere |
| April 7 April 9 |
IT360 Conference & Expo | Toronto, Canada |
| April 7 April 11 |
Django Bootcamp with Juan Pablo Claude | Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
| April 8 April 10 |
Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit | Austin, TX, USA |
| April 10 April 13 |
Go-OO Conference 2008 | Prague, Czech Republic |
| April 12 April 13 |
Open Source Developers Conference Taiwan, 2008 | Taipei, Taiwan |
| April 12 April 13 |
LugRadio Live USA 2008 | San Francisco, CA, USA |
| April 12 April 18 |
KDevelop Developer Meeting 2008 | Munich, Germany |
| April 14 April 18 |
Embedded Systems Conference - Silicon Valley | San Jose, CA, USA |
| April 14 April 17 |
MySQL Conference and Expo | Santa Clara, CA, USA |
| April 14 April 18 |
Samba eXPerience 2008 | Göttingen, Germany |
| April 15 April 17 |
Embedded Linux Conference 2008 | Mountain View, CA, USA |
| April 15 April 17 |
SOA in Health Care | Chicago, IL, USA |
| April 16 April 18 |
X Developers' Conference 2008 | Mountain View, CA, USA |
| April 16 April 18 |
X Developers' Conference for 2008 | Mountain View, USA |
| April 16 April 18 |
Croatian Linux User Conference | Zagreb, Croatia |
| April 17 April 19 |
9th International Free Software Forum | Porto Alegre, Brazil |
| April 18 April 19 |
Third Annual Silicon Valley Ruby Conference | San Jose, CA, USA |
| April 18 April 20 |
National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition | San Antonio, TX, USA |
| April 18 April 20 |
Penguicon 2008 | Troy, Michigan, USA |
| April 21 April 25 |
Open Source meets Industry: Application Park and International Congress | Hannover, Germany |
| April 22 | The Mobile Future | Santa Clara, CA, USA |
| April 22 April 25 |
Web 2.0 Expo | San Francisco, CA, USA |
| April 22 | OSADL International Congress | Hannover, Germany |
| April 23 April 24 |
Troopers 2008 Security Conference | Munich, Germany |
| April 23 | Linux Foundation Spring Legal Summit | Schaumburg, IL, USA |
| April 25 April 29 |
Open Tech Summit Taiwan 2008 | Taipei, Taiwan |
| April 25 April 26 |
Guademy 2008 | Valencia, Spain |
| April 27 May 2 |
INTEROP Las Vegas 2008 | Las Vegas, NV, USA |
| April 28 May 4 |
Monotone Developer Summit | Wuppertal, Germany |
| May 2 May 3 |
Maker Faire Bay Area | San Mateo, CA, USA |
| May 5 May 9 |
Ruby on Rails Bootcamp with Charles B. Quinn | Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
| May 8 | Embedded Masterclass 2008 | London, UK |
| May 8 May 11 |
Libre Graphics Meeting 2008 | Wroclaw, Poland |
| May 8 May 9 |
IV WHYFLOSS CONFERENCE MADRID 08 | Madrid, Spain |
| May 9 May 11 |
Pycon Italia Due | Firenze, Italy |
| May 12 May 14 |
Where 2.0 Conference | Burlingame, CA, USA |
| May 13 | Embedded Masterclass 2008 | Bristol, UK |
| May 15 | NLUUG spring conference 2008 | Ede, the Netherlands |
| May 15 May 16 |
YAPC::Asia 2008 | Tokyo, Japan |
| May 15 May 16 |
V WHYFLOSS CONFERENCE CORRIENTES 08 | Corrientes, Argentina |
| May 16 May 17 |
FOSSCamp 2008 | Prague, Czech Republic |
| May 17 May 18 |
4th Int. Workshop on Software Engineering for Secure Systems (SESS'08) | Leipzig, Germany |
| May 17 May 18 |
French-speaking Python Days | Paris, France |
| May 19 May 23 |
AFS and Kerberos Best Practices Workshop 2008 | Newark, NJ, USA |
| May 20 May 23 |
PGCon 2008 | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
| May 20 May 21 |
Digital Standards Organization (Digistan) Workshop | The Hague, The Netherlands |
| May 21 May 22 |
EUSecWest 2008 | London, England |
| May 21 May 22 |
linuxdays.ch Genève | Genève, Switzerland |
| May 28 May 31 |
LinuxTag 2008 where .com meets .org | Berlin, Germany |
| May 29 June 1 |
RailsConf 2008 | Portland, OR, USA |
| May 29 May 30 |
SyScan08 Hong Kong | Hong Kong, China |
| May 30 May 31 |
eLiberatica 2008 - The benefits of Open and Free Technologies | Bucharest, Romania |
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Event Reports
PyCon 2008: A look back (AMK's Journal)
Andrew Kuchling covers the PyCon 2008 Python conference. "With every PyCon the organizers try various innovations, some of which work and some of which don't. Now that PyCon 2008 is over and I've had a chance to recover from sleep deprivation, here's my re-cap."
Page editor: Forrest Cook