free software

  • LibreOffice 5.1 – first bug hunting session announced

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Tech

    Writing on The Document Foundation blog, Italo Vignoli has announced that a bug hunting session will take place from 30th October to 1st November for LibreOffice 5.1, the next planned major release of this popular open source office productivity suite.

    LibreOffice 5

    Over those 3 days, volunteers and members of the LibreOffice community will check the first alpha of LibreOffice 5.1 for bugs and flaws.

    On those dates, mentors will be available on the QA IRC channel and via email on the QA mailing list from 08.00 a.m. UTC to 10.00 p.m. UTC to help less experienced volunteers to triage bugs.

    People who cannot participate the bug hunting session are always welcome to help chasing bugs and regressions when they have time. There will be a later bug hunting session in December this year to test LibreOffice 5.1 Release Candidate 1.

    Additional information on bug hunting is available on The Document Foundation wiki.

  • A world without Linux – episode 1

    Steve WoodsLinux, Media, Open Source, Tech

    Below is the first of what will a series of videos seeking to depict what the world would be like had Linus Torvalds not released his kernel 24 years ago, with that kernel then being combined with the tools produced by the GNU project to create a powerful and reliable operating system.

    A World Without Linux is a web series that flips this reality on its head to illustrate entertainingly just how pervasive Linux is today.

    The video itself reminds your correspondent of how much time he used to spend doing work research in reference libraries before the advent of the internet: now the internet comes to him, which is much more convenient. 🙂

    Linux is the world’s largest collaborative project in the history of computing. It runs most of the world’s technology infrastructure and is supported by more developers and companies than any other platform. It’s everywhere – from your phone to your car and your office. It also powers the internet, the cloud, the world’s stock exchanges, supercomputers, embedded devices and more.

    Reposted from Bristol Wireless.

  • Linux kernel is 24 years young on Monday

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Although Linus Torvalds, the originator of the Linux kernel, announced his initial work on the kernel on 25th August 1991, it was not until 5th October 1991 that Linus actually released his code: Linux kernel 0.01.

    Linus Torvalds gives a photographer the finger
    Linus Torvalds in combative mood

    With this October anniversary in mind, it’s worth taking a bit of time to review what’s changed to the kernel over the intervening years.

    Version 0.01 of the kernel had 10,293 lines of code. In contrast, version 4.1, released in July 2015, has more than 19 million lines of code, according to Phoronix. That’s quite spectacular!

    The current Linux kernel is the result of one of the largest collaborative projects ever attempted and since tracking began 10 years ago, more than 10,000 developers working from more than 1,200 companies have contributed to the kernel.

    Furthermore, the speed of Linux kernel development is breathtaking. The average number of changes accepted into the kernel per hour is 7.71, equivalent to 185 changes every day and nearly 1,300 per week.

    This rapid development and collaboration have been a spur to others. Writing yesterday on the Linux Foundation blog, Jennifer Cloer states: “In recent years, the powerful growth of the Linux kernel and resulting innovation has inspired others to adapt the principles, practices and methodologies that makes Linux so successful to solve some of today’s most complex technology problems,” and, “We’ve learned so much from Linux and have no doubt that learning will continue.”

    Originally posted on Bristol Wireless.

  • ODF is a “financial and social responsibility”

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Politics, Tech

    ODF logoThe Dutch government wants to accelerate the adoption of Open Document Format by the country’s public sector according to a press release by the government’s Standardisation Board.

    On behalf of the government, the Standardisation Board is determined to speed up ODF’s adoption throughout the government.

    This was one of the most important announcements made at the 11th ODF Plugfest held in The Hague, where a group of international developers, EU policy-makers, digital archivists, academics and other experts assembled to discuss the Open Document Format, an XML-based file format for spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents that was developed with the aim of providing an open, XML-based file format specification for office applications.

    “In view of its extent, the public sector is an important stakeholder when a sound future for office applications is involved”, says Steven Luitjens, the director of Logius, the largest operational IT organisation within the Dutch government. “It is our financial and social responsibility to bring about an improvement. We are therefore increasing our efforts in the Netherlands. We want to play an important role in the huge transition from commercial productivity packages to better, bespoke solutions based on open standards which lies ahead of governments and the private sector.”

    ODF is top priority

    “The need to adopt ODF speaks for itself,” says Nico Westpalm van Hoorn, Chairman of the Standardisation Board, which is concerned with the choice of IT standards for the government. “However, the adoption is proceeding too slowly. ODF is therefore out top priority”.

  • LibreOffice 5.0.2 announced at LibreOffice Conference

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Tech

    To underline the importance of the event for the community, The Document Foundation (TDF) has today announced the release of LibreOffice 5.0.2 during the opening session of the 2015 LibreOffice Conference in Aarhus, which runs until Friday 25th September.

    LibreOffice 5.0.2 is the second minor release of the LibreOffice 5.0 family, with a large number of fixes over the first minor (5.0.1) release announced in August. Based on feedback from the marketplace, the LibreOffice 5.0 family has so far proved the most popular LibreOffice release ever.

    LibreOffice 5

    LibreOffice 5.02 will offer OpenGL rendering by default on Windows for the first time for those with the very latest Windows drivers. In the event of problems, this functionality is easy to disable by accessing Tools > Options.

    LibreOffice 5.0.2 is aimed at technology enthusiasts, early adopters and power users. For more conservative users and for enterprise deployments, TDF recommends the “still” version: LibreOffice 4.4.5. For commercial deployments, The Document Foundation recommends the backing of professional support by certified people.

    People interested in technical details about the release can access the change logs via the following links: bugs fixed in RC1 and bugs fixed in RC2.

    LibreOffice 5.0.2 is available for immediate download from http://www.libreoffice.org/download/.

  • FSFE elects new top officials

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Tech

    FSFE logoMatthias Kirschner and Alessandro Rubini are the new President and Vice-President respectively of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). They were elected last week in Bucharest during FSFE’s General Assembly, while Reinhard Müller was re-elected as Financial Officer. They will serve FSFE in those capacities for the next 2 years.

    Matthias Kirschner has been an FSFE employee since 2009. He started using GNU/Linux in 1999 and realised that software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives. Matthias is convinced that this technology has to empower society rather than restrict it. While studying Political and Administrative Science, he convinced the FSFE to accept him as its first intern in 2004. Since then he has been helping other organisations, companies and governments to understand how they can benefit from Free Software and how those rights help to support freedom of speech, freedom of the press and privacy.

    Alessandro Rubini is an electronic engineer and holds a Ph.D. in computer science. He was an early Linux adopter, installing Linux 0.99.14, is an active Free Software user and developer, and author of the book “Linux Device Drivers”. After his doctorate, he left the university as he did not want to just write academic papers and now works as an independent consultant in the industrial use of GNU/Linux, mainly on device drivers and embedded system as well as on micro-controllers and PCB design. Recently he has been working with CERN within the White Rabbit project, aimed at sub-nanosecond synchronisation of I/O cards. One reason he enjoys working with CERN is the organisation’s policy of releasing all their work as Free Software and Free Hardware.

    Alessandro was previously a member of the Free Software Foundation Europe from 2001 to 2006 and recently rejoined. He felt that FSFE is the right place for positive and constructive discussions about Free Software.

    “I am happy to welcome both Matthias and Alessandro to their new roles,” says Executive Director Jonas Öberg, “both have been instrumental in shaping the organisation into its current form and I look forward to the expertise they will bring as we go about empowering users to control technology.”

    Reposted from Bristol Wireless.

  • Tomorrow is Software Freedom Day 2015

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Tech

    Besides being International Talk Like a Pirate Day, 19th September 2015 is also a date for the diaries of people advocating free and open source software; it’s Software Freedom Day 2015.

    Software Freedom Day 2015 bannerThe idea of Software Freedom Day (SFD) is for everyone without a vested interest in proprietary software to unite and educate the world about the ideals of Software Freedom and the practical benefits of Free Software. August 28th 2004 was the first ever Software Freedom Day and was initiated group of FOSS believers – Matt Oquist, Henrik Omma and Phil Harper – with the idea of distributing The OpenCD – a collection of free and open source software for Windows – to everyone.

    SFD has since extended around the world with events being organised on every continent.

    Why is software freedom important?

    The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a set of basic human rights that most people would agree would be a bare minimum. Not often are our basic rights thought of in the context of technology, but as more and more our lives are dependent on technology, it is a rapidly growing concern. Technologies that matter to our freedom are used in our voting systems, our leisure, our work, education, art and our communication. What does this mean to you? It means that the basic human freedoms you take for granted are only as free as the technologies you use.

    Transparent and sustainable technologies are vital to ensuring we can protect our freedoms.

    Think about any software you use everyday that is proprietary and the consider that you can’t be sure what it is actually doing. Does your email system send copies of your mail to a third party? Is your web browser, logging and automatically sending your browsing history to someone?

    As more and more of the world’s population starts using technology, getting online and developing the next major life-changing event of the future (such as the internet was for many of us), ensuring open, transparent and sustainable approaches are considered best practice is important; i.e. important to a future where technology empowers everyone equally, where knowledge is forever and where our basic human freedoms are strengthened, not hampered, by technology.

    Reposted, with some edits, from Bristol Wireless.

  • FSFE supports recognition for User Data Rights

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Tech

    FSFE logoThe Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has announced today that it supports the publication of the User Data Manifesto 2.0, which aims at defining basic rights for people to control their own data in the internet age. The manifesto is published today and also supported by GNOME, KDE, Netzpolitik.org, ownCloud, Spreed, “Terms of Service – Didn’t Read” and X-Lab.

    Whether for social networking, collaboration or for sharing pictures, among many other activities, users are nowadays increasingly using online services and are thus at more risk than ever of losing control of their own data.

    According to the User Data Manifesto, people should have:

    • Control over user data access;
    • Knowledge of how user data is stored and which laws or jurisdictions are applicable; and
    • Freedom to choose a platform, without experiencing vendor lock-in. The FSFE believes that Free Software is necessary to guarantee this.

    “The recognition of the User Data Rights defined in the manifesto is an important block to build a free society in the digital age”, says Hugo Roy, deputy coordinator of FSFE’s Legal Team and co-author of the User Data Manifesto.

    The manifesto is a good starting point for an important debate about users’ rights online. The FSFE anticipates other organisations joining the effort to promote online services that respects users’ rights and freedoms.

  • LibreOffice 5.0.1 released

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Tech

    Yesterday The Document Foundation, the German non-profit organisation behind the LibreOffice productivity suite, announced the release of LibreOffice 5.0.1, the first minor release of the LibreOffice 5.0 family.

    This version comprises a number of fixes compared with the major release – version 5.0.0 – announced on 5th August 5. So far, LibreOffice 5.0 is the most popular version of LibreOffice ever, based on the feedback from the marketplace.

    LibreOffice 5.0.1 is aimed at technology enthusiasts, early adopters and power users. For more conservative users and commercial deployments, The Document Foundation recommends LibreOffice 4.4.5. For commercial deployments, The Document Foundation suggests engaging certified professional support.

    Those interested in technical details of the release can consult access the change logs at https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.0.1/RC1 (fixed in RC1) and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/5.0.1/RC2 (fixed in RC2).

    LibreOffice 5

    LibreOffice 5.0.1 is immediately available for download and users, free software advocates and community members are encouraged to make a donation to The Document Foundation.

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