Free Software Linux

Some suspicious lack of transparency here: The Italian open source advocacy group Associazione per il Software Libero is protesting two memoranda of understanding (MOU) signed this summer by the Italian government and Microsoft. The group last week published a public protest letter. The association explains that over the past three months it has in vain tried to raise the issue with the minister of public administration and innovation, Renato Brunetta. "We now publish this letter to get his attention on the benefits of open source software."

Italy is famous for its glorious art, fine food, and friendly people; maybe we should add “enlightened uptake of open source” to that list. Here are two more data points....On Open Enterprise blog.

OpenOffice.org has always been something a Cinderella in the free software world. Partly this is because it started out as a proprietary program, and partly because it took a while for its code to be sorted out (although the same is true for Mozilla/Firefox). Whatever the reason, it's not had as high a profile as other major open source programs. But that looks like it is about to change, thanks to the interest in the recently released version 3.0....On Open Enterprise blog.

All around the world, it seems, people just can't get enough of this amazing free office suite, which is now turning in serious market shares in some countries. For, example, according to this report, there are now 12 million users in Brazil, representing fully 25% of the entire office market there. Meanwhile, plucky little Italy has notched up 4 million downloads in the last 12 months (that's downloads, not users, but still impressive)....On Open Enterprise blog.

You CAN’T miss FBCon 08 - 6th Firebird International Conference that will be held in Bergamo from 25 to 27 september. Conference will be from thursday september 25 till saturday Every day have a special theme with best italian and worldwide firebird-world expert! Here some of our sessions, for a detail go to www.firebirdconference.net: Italian sessions : CTE [...]

Just a few years ago, getting complex legal assistance from a lawyer you never met in person would have been unthinkable. Today, however, many people carry on relationships online; why not conduct business with your lawyer online as well? One Italian firm already works this way, using open source software as much as it can. AdvertisementYour ad here!

"Lately Giulio and I have been busy helping with the organization of BookCamp, a barcamp focused on books, ebooks and digital publishing. [...] Richard Stalmann, President of the Free Software Foundation, will deliver a speech (via phone) with a quite straight title: 'Fighting the Swindle of DRM on E-Books' ..."

The Chamber of Commerce of Ferrara, the first PloneGov Italian member, invites 100 representatives from the public sector and open source experts to participate to the official launch of PloneGov in Italy on September 16, 2008.

"...Please consider how you can contribute to our movement. You can visit http://fsfeurope.org/contribute for suggestions of ways to get involved... 1. FTF workshop leads to broad agreement on European licensing infrastructure 2. Lack of quality in standardisation a serious problem 3. Licensing as a strategic imperative, speech at FISL 4. Fellowship Group at Ubuntu Release Party in Berlin read more

In this video an Italian TV program, NeaPòlis, talks about ubuntu as a very stable, high performance and easy to install operative system.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Even if we don't necessarily want to copy everything the Italians do (the approach to rubbish disposal in Naples, for example), this is certainly something we can learn from: 100 Italian candidates signed Assoli’s letter engaging themselves to promote the use of free software. I wonder what would happen here in the UK if we tried something similar? At least John Pugh would sign it....

I have been saying this for many years: free software must not be associated with an ideology or political party.

"a new initiative promoted by the italian association for free software for the next italian political elections (provided that they will actually take place…). the initiative consists in asking the candidates to sign a letter where they engage themselves, in case they will be elected, to promote the use of free software through their political activity. read more

News that the Italian Corte dei Conti is adopting Red Hat Enterprise Linux is interesting. Even more so when you consider the role the Corte dei Conti plays and recent complaints regarding the apparent re-allocation of state funds previously committed to open source development.