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Nordic Countries to Promote Open Source

Nordic Avenger writes "The Nordic countries have launched a website to promote open source software to consumers and small businesses. People can submit open source software links as well as exchange information in the forums section. As the website states: 'Nordicos.org is a project of the Nordic Ministerial Council, and addresses the need for a comprehensive overview of open source software available for consumers'. Now, anybody eager to make good suggestions about software that normal people could find useful and live happily ever after in the open source world?"

10 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. like this... by thegoldenear · · Score: 4, Informative

    "What they need is cd's a la AOL filled with OpenOffice.Org, Mozilla"

    We're about to distribute a collection like this, called the Windows Toolbox: http://thegoldenear.org/toolbox/windows/

  2. Well...... by gotr00t · · Score: 2, Informative
    That and more exposure from mainstream media.

    I think that we can thank SCO for all that.

  3. The Windows Toolbox is similar by thegoldenear · · Score: 5, Informative

    We provide a similar site to what these people offer (tho nowhere near as polished, and only for Windows) in the form of the Windows Toolbox, distribution of predominantly Free software for Windows, and especially its list of software

  4. Re:It's all there! by Russ+Steffen · · Score: 2, Informative
    ftp.exe IS a decent ftp client

    I do hope you're kidding. FTP.EXE (still) does not support passive mode. The rest of the world's had that since before Windows had a TCP/IP stack.

  5. OSS and small languages by WegianWarrior · · Score: 2, Informative

    Open-source programmes for small language areas have the advantage over license-based programmes that the users are allowed to adapt the source code. This means that the programmes can be translated and play an important role in the struggle by small countries to maintain their linguistic and national identities.

    And boy do we need that up here in Ultima Thule. Lets count shall we? On the surface, we have swedish, danish, norwegian, icelandic and finnish to take into account - thats five major launguages (allthought norwegians, danes and swedes can understand eachother - we just choose not to).
    However....
    In sweden, sami is an offical second language. In Norway, we have bokmal (mainstream 'wegian), nynorsk ('new norwegian', based on the dialects) and sami as official launguages. In Finland, you have both finnish and 'finlandssvenska' (finlandswedish) to cope with. The danes and icelanders are easily the best off, with just one launguge each. So that gives us a total of nine launguage-variants that the writer of software ought to cater for... in a region with just over 25 million inhabitants. Can we seriously expect the big corps to cater to this marked? Not really, and that makes OSS the best alternative in order to make sure we get software in our own language.
    --
    Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
  6. Just what the hell is a Nordic country? by LeoDV · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Nordic countries? So what are they? The three Scandinavian countries? The three Scandinavian countries and Denmark? The three Scandinavian countries and Iceland? Two Scandinavian countries and Denmark but not Iceland?

    Apparently according to their page, it's the Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Iceland and Groenland. So that's okay. But please mention it, because I'm European and I only just found out about this Nordic Council of Ministers.

    It's really irritating when people use mindlessly generic terms like that. "Other countries like Europe--" GRR!

    1. Re:Just what the hell is a Nordic country? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Scandinavia is DK, SE and NO.
      Nordic is scandinavia + Fin, Ice and Groenland.

    2. Re:Just what the hell is a Nordic country? by Jussi+K.+Kojootti · · Score: 2, Informative

      Just to nitpick:
      Nordic countries consists of five countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland ) and three autonomous territories: (Gronland, Faroe Islands, Aland).

  7. Not a generic term by Earlybird · · Score: 2, Informative
    Although both Random House Webster's Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary both list "Nordic" as being synonymous with "Scandinavian", on this side of the Atlantic the phrase "Nordic countries" ("norden" in most Scandinavian languages) specifically denotes the Western-Europe countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, which the Nordic Council of Ministers describes as consisting "of five sovereign states and three autonomous territories: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, along with the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Aland". Scandinavia, for the record, is Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

    If you read the Council pages, you will notice that these states and territories communicate and co-operate, often in a cultural and economic context.

  8. Hey, I guess it's easier... by ninejaguar · · Score: 2, Informative

    to say Nordic rather than Scandinavian.

    Germans are also considered "Nordic", so this is probably a misnomer. Scandinavian indicates non-German Nordic peoples who speak northern/western germanic languages with the exception of the Brittish Isles.

    Yet another example of sacrificing accuracy for the sake of brevity.

    Now the Italians will want to be called Romans.