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 [...]
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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 [...] 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 [...] (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 [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] 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. [...] After sale to Attachmate, has Novell changed its business model? Spotted near Puerta de Sol in Madrid, Spain. Dec 3, 2010. 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 [...] |
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Copyright © 2004-2012 Karsten Gerloff - You're welcome to distribute everything here under CC-BY (Creative Commons - Attribution) unless marked otherwise. |
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