Free Software Linux

How about a professorship in source? University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany Applications are invited to fill a permanent position asProfessor (W 2) in Open Source Software at the Computer Science Department in the Faculty of Technical Engineering, beginning at January 1st, 2009. The successful applicant will be expected to represent his discipline both in research and teaching. He has actively worked in a major Open Source project and has excellent scientific qualifications in this area, including research experiences in at least one of the following areas:

"I'm giving a talk at the Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research in Cologne on Monday 3 August, 1.30-3pm. Here's the abstract: Emacs in Scientific Research ..."

"...Damn, I find it so cool when people combine all those free as in freedom things! In my opinion this is exactly the goal we wanted to achieve with the free software movement and which many of its naysayers and opponents did not get. :-) AdvertisementYour ad here! read more

Remember Munich, and its city council's 2003 decision to rip out Microsoft Windows and Office, and to replace them with free software? It was a seminal moment for open source, when Microsoft brought its heaviest guns to bear – in the shape of Steve Ballmer, no less, who made the city an offer it couldn't refuse – and failed

One reader is suggesting that there might now be 5 (formal appeals against OOXML); Germany's DIN jumps in to the debate also

On Open Enterprise blog.

"We will not be in a position to process OOXML unless it is available independently of the platform", said Rolf Theodor Schuster, who heads the IT department of the German Foreign Ministry. "There must exist an Open Source implementation that can be used without any restrictions, regardless of the platform or Linux distribution."

Here's an intriguing hint of what may be to come, in Europe at least. First, in Belgium and Holland: Belgium and the Netherlands will not yet consider OOXML, Microsoft's format for electronic documents, it appears from comments by the Belgian Federal ICT advisory body Fedict and the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs. Asked to comment on last week's ISO approval for OOXML, Fedict's chief IT architect, Peter Strickx, said: "There will have to be multiple implementations, in order for us not to become dependent on a single vendor. It will also have to be compatible with open standards that we already use, in this case Open Document Format ODF." Also in Germany: The German Foreign Ministry will not be using OOXML, at least for now.

Here's an intriguing hint of what may be to come, in Europe at least. First, in Belgium and Holland: Belgium and the Netherlands will not yet consider OOXML, Microsoft's format for electronic documents, it appears from comments by the Belgian Federal ICT advisory body Fedict and the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs. Asked to comment on last week's ISO approval for OOXML, Fedict's chief IT architect, Peter Strickx, said: "There will have to be multiple implementations, in order for us not to become dependent on a single vendor. It will also have to be compatible with open standards that we already use, in this case Open Document Format ODF." Also in Germany: The German Foreign Ministry will not be using OOXML, at least for now.

Interesting: KDE e.V and Wikimedia Deutschland have opened a shared office in Frankfurt, Germany. As two organizations that share similar goals and organizational challenges, they hope that working out of the same space will strengthen and expand their links to the Free Culture community, as well as allowing them to share resources, experience and infrastructure.

Interesting: KDE e.V and Wikimedia Deutschland have opened a shared office in Frankfurt, Germany. As two organizations that share similar goals and organizational challenges, they hope that working out of the same space will strengthen and expand their links to the Free Culture community, as well as allowing them to share resources, experience and infrastructure.

If Microsoft gets this OOXML format "approved", it will be by irregularities in the voting, it seems. Here's more on what happened in Germany and a report on what is being called a scandal in Norway. And another odd process in Croatia.

If Microsoft gets this OOXML format "approved", it will be by irregularities in the voting, it seems. Here's more on what happened in Germany and a report on what is being called a scandal in Norway. And another odd process in Croatia.

I always did admire those sensible Teutons: The Federal Constitutional Court in Germany has ruled that the identities of file-sharers must remain private and can longer be revealed to media companies who accuse them of copyright infringement. In future, only those accused of ‘heavy’ crimes such as murder, child pornography or kidnapping will be revealed. This is eminentally sensible, but the content industries will doubtless keep trying to equate file-sharing with those "heavy" crimes - with the result that they will make themselves look even more ridiculous.