The European Commission’s locked-in syndrome

Now it’s official: The European Commission will migrate to Microsoft Windows 7 without considering alternative offers. In a reply to questions asked by MEP Bart Staes (Greens/EFA), the EC on May 27 confirmed that it has awarded contracts for the upgrade to Microsoft and reseller Fujitsu-Siemens on behalf of 55 other European institutions and the [...]

Techno-activism: Why tools matter

Will technology make us freer? Cory Doctorow has a nice little article about the role of Free Software as a tool for social activism. In particular, he’s writing about why it’s important that the tools we use for activism should be free:

Herein lies the difference between a ‘‘technology activist’’ and ‘‘an activist who uses [...]

Art and fun at Mediamatic, Amsterdam

Yesterday, I hopped over to Amsterdam to speak at Mediamatic about Free Software and FSFE at one of their Ignite events. The format was interesting: A strict time limit of five  minutes per speaker, with slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds.

The Mediamatic Bank is an art and exhibition space in central Amsterdam. Most or [...]

Bundeskartellamt: Freie Software schützt den Wettbewerb

(Article originally published on netzpolitik.org) Das Bundeskartellamt und das US-Justizministerium haben gestern den Verkauf von 882 Novell-Patenten genehmigt. Die Software-Monopolrechte gehen an eine Firmengruppe namens CPTN. Die wiederum besteht aus Microsoft, Oracle, Apple und EMC. Das Erfreuliche: Offenbar unter massivem Druck aus der Freie Software-Welt mussten sich die CPTN-Firmen offenbar auf Bedingungen einlassen, die den [...]

When suing your customers is good for business

At FSFE, we’re closely watching how the public sector goes about buying software. A lot of money changes hands here, so it’s worth paying attention, especially since a couple of studies have shown that public authorities frequently get the process wrong.

Fortunately, there are legal remedies available. If your company bids for a contract, and [...]

UK finally moves on Open Standards

When it comes to Free Software and Open Standards, the UK has long lagged way behind other countries. There were a few policies that sounded good on paper, but that’s exactly where they stayed.

This may be finally changing. The UK Cabinet Office has issued a “procurement policy notice” (.pdf) that is, well, surprising. In [...]

FOSDEM talk on “Power, Software, Freedom”

On the invitation of the GNU hackers, I spoke today in the GNU DevRoom at FOSDEM. The talk was on “Power, Software, Freedom — Why we need to divide and re-conquer our systems”. Here are the slides.

What makes a free service? If we do our computation on machines that we don’t control, how can [...]

Assessing the new European Interoperability Framework

Yesterday, the European Commission finally published the new version of the European Interoperability Framework [pdf]. We at FSFE have been working on this document for a long time. When it was published yesterday, we gave it a welcome despite some reservations. Whether to welcome EIFv2 or not is a question of what you take as a baseline for comparison, and if you view the document isolated or in context. A lot will also depend on how the EIF is implemented. But let’s take the issues in turn. [...]

Novell: After sale, new business model?

After sale to Attachmate, has Novell changed its business model?

Spotted near Puerta de Sol in Madrid, Spain. Dec 3, 2010.

WIPO CDIP/6: Moving the glacier

Progress sometimes comes very gently. Last week’s session of the WIPO committee in charge of implementing the Development Agenda (CDIP) was a case in point.

As in previous sessions, a lot of the discussion still revolved around procedural issues. Member states are battling over the question of how much power the committee should have, and [...]