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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?"

20 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Beautiful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Another step in the right direction for humankind.

    Open source does not have enough a coordinated information (and marketing) websites that have enough clout. This effort, as long it is kept up and improved with time, would be a precious resource for the average citizen and consumer.

  2. Re: JOBS by KoolDude · · Score: 5, Funny


    It looks like you are infected with the Programmer.NoJob.FUD32 virus. Please apply this patch immediately.

    Regards,
    admin@trollingfud.com

    --
    getSexySig(); /* returns sexy signature */
  3. It's all there! by gartogg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Having finally installed Mandrake over my windows partition on my computer, I have to say; What Software?

    I mean, Under M$ WIndows, I had to find:
    An Office Suite (replaced by Open-office)
    A Programming Environment (Replaced by QT Designer)
    and about 30 small shareware/freeware managers for Zipfiles, PDF files, MP3's, Instant Messaging, IRC, Decent FTP Client, and A News reader.

    Everything was Included in the ISO's for Mandrake I burned. The only problem people switching over will have is trying to understand that whatever it is they need, it's (Usually) already installed!

    --
    I'm a concientious .sig objector.
    1. Re:It's all there! by Rectum2003 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You're right, and I'd like to add something to it. I installed WindozeXP last week, and I noticed that fully patched with SP1 and Norton antivirus, the thing had a whoppin' 3.5 Gb. I tought: 3.5Gb and I just got media player and wordpad... When I install Linux on my box I usually do full install, for ~2.5Gb and I get an insane amount of software, anything I could think of 3 time each: 3 web browsers, 3 spreadsheets, tons of games, around 10 graphical environments... Where does all that space goes in windows??

    2. Re:It's all there! by eggstasy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      >An Office Suite (replaced by Open-office)
      wordpad, calc and outlook express =P
      i dont have an office suite installed and i dont need it. im not an accountant, i dont use spreadsheets and wordpad or even write are more than i'll ever need in terms of text formatting.

      >A Programming Environment (Replaced by QT Designer)
      notepad :D

      >Zipfiles
      builtin to windows xp

      >PDF files
      isnt the acrobat reader plugin instamagically downloaded when you first browse to a pdf?

      >MP3's
      WMplayer

      >Instant Messaging
      MSN messenger

      >IRC
      telnet =P

      >Decent FTP Client
      ftp.exe IS a decent ftp client. i thought we linux freaks enjoyed working with the console?

      >and A News reader.
      Outlook express?

      I know what you mean but you went about it the wrong way. With mandrake, i slap on the cd, press a couple buttons and it Just Works.
      With windows, I need to either rummage through my thousands of CDs in a vain attempt to locate my drivers, or download them from a working puter.
      Why on earth arent most drivers included with windows anyway? All builtin windows drivers are always really old and crappy. Unless you have a severely outdated computer, windows will be a 16 color, soundless, webless hell upon first boot. Except for XP which finally seems to get that no one sane uses 16 colors anymore, or even 640x480.
      I was using 1024x768 at 256 colors 10 years ago on my 486 under windows 3.1!
      With Linux, you instantly get sound and pretty true colour graphics, unless you have some really weird incompatible hardware.

    3. Re:It's all there! by dmaxwell · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Why on earth arent most drivers included with windows anyway? All builtin windows drivers are always really old and crappy. Unless you have a severely outdated computer, windows will be a 16 color, soundless, webless hell upon first boot. Except for XP which finally seems to get that no one sane uses 16 colors anymore, or even 640x480.

      When a major MS release debuts, it is like that. When 98 first came out, chances were there would be a driver for every device in a then current PC. After about 6 months, it starts getting time to trawl through vendor websites for drivers. Pretty much the same thing happened when 2000 then XP came out.

      Remember, most people just go with OEM installs on their new PCs which will have all the drivers. Its the likes of us that set up systems with full install CDs and the latest drivers from the vendors. MS doesn't really have to cater self-installers on their full install media. Anyone using it probably has enough clue to go find drivers.

      Linux distros on the other hand attempt to provide you with everything you need. However, the trick there is to use a current distro CD. The same thing happens with distro CDs that happens with new major MS releases. They just occur more frequently.

  4. Isn't Linus a Nord ? by Ignis+Flatus · · Score: 4, Funny

    I suppose it's true that prophets are always recognized last in their hometowns.

  5. Title, people, title! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    One of the first thing these guys need, like som many other sites is a descriptive title! "Welcome to nordicos.org" is *not* a good title - when are people gonna learn that?

    "Nordicos.org - Nordic open source software", or if you have to, "Welcome to Nordicos.org - Nordic open source software" is the title to have. Why? Well, not only because it makes for much better tabs, and better bookmarks, but because this is what you see in a search engine.

    And search engines also pay quite some attention to the title, especially when it comes to comparing to content and meta tags. Consistency.

    Please, ffs, do the world a favour and use informative titles! How hard can it be... sigh.

  6. Re: A Finn. by E_elven · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You're of course inferring the extensive governmental support for open source in, say, the US?

    --
    Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
  7. Won't change anything by Rectum2003 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "Normal" people don't give a sh*t about sites like that. What they need is cd's a la AOL filled with OpenOffice.Org, Mozilla Firebird&Thunderbird, a win32 port of Xine (Now THAT would be cool), ect... That and more exposure from mainstream media. I'm sorry but this is the only way OSS will really take off.

  8. Props to the North... by blcamp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As an American who studied for a year in Sweden, I can say first-hand that the Nordic have always been at or near the cutting edge where software and technological issues are involved.

    Sweden in particular is one of the most wired nations on the planet, and has been actively involved in open-source... anyone ever heard of MySQL?

    Skal till Norden!

    - Barry

    --
    The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
    1. Re:Props to the North... by rasjani · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Main coder of MySQL (afaik) Monty lives in Finland btw.. =)

      --
      yush
  9. 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/

  10. 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

  11. From the site by The+Famous+Brett+Wat · · Score: 5, Funny
    Mur shmeer de heer de heef de leenooks.

    Finally, a site that will pronounce "Linux" the way it was intended.

    --
    proof, n. A demonstration that a conclusion is implied by certain premises and axioms.
  12. Re: A Finn. by Moridineas · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Would you be referring to the DARPA support (some of the BSD projects have had DARPA support for instance, linux too--in case you didn't know, Rob Watson, core FreeBSD member and on Fbsd Foudation board of directors is a DARPA Principal Investigator ), NSA funding, or something else?

  13. snap back to reality oh there goes gravity.... by segment · · Score: 3, Funny
    wordpad, calc and outlook express =P i dont have an office suite installed and i dont need it. im not an accountant, i dont use spreadsheets and wordpad or even write are more than i'll ever need in terms of text formatting.

    Is this the same outlook that gets targeted by dozens of viruses, that takes someones list and sends out copies of the same virus?

    >Zipfiles builtin to windows xp

    I wonder does zip have better compression then say bzip, or gzip? Last I checked I saved more space using bzip than windows zip.

    >PDF files isnt the acrobat reader plugin instamagically downloaded when you first browse to a pdf?

    Good old Adobe PDF. I love the way it jacks up my processor in Windows, I guess this could be your reason to like it too, I mean who the hell needs free ram space?

    >MP3's WMplayer

    Oh man oh man, I loooove WMplayer spyware. I like the way it decides to just check up on album information when I'm playing it. I mean its not like the server that it's connecting to is snooping my information. Checking what I'm listening to maybe even putting together a massive list for the RIAA that says "Hey look at user foo, he's listened to 10,000 albums this month.

    >Instant Messaging MSN messenger

    How did you know another one of my favorites. I love getting a zillion 'Stop this Pop-up' ads from MSN. Yay "MS: Who do you want to spam today?"

    >IRC telnet =P

    Oh boy you're the best I mean why not use telnet and let everyone using a sniffer see my information coming down the pipes. Can I have your rocket science knowledge?

    >Decent FTP Client ftp.exe IS a decent ftp client. i thought we linux freaks enjoyed working with the console?

    FTP on any OS is rather dumb nowadays considering sftp is freely available under both OS'.

    >and A News reader. Outlook express?

    See above.

  14. Re:JOBS by WegianWarrior · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...just remember: when people stop buying photoshop and ms office, americans lose jobs.

    And why would people in the nordic countries even bother careing about that? It is not the responsibility of the nordic goverments to make sure you has a job - it is the responsibility of your goverment. Despite how much you may wish for it, it the world isn't here to provide the softwaregiants of the US with a ready marked for their badly translated programs.

    --
    Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
  15. 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!

  16. Re: No polar bears here... by more · · Score: 4, Funny
    Some more facts about Finland:

    Finland is only partially covered by glaciers, and polar bears and penguins are uncommon in the southern part of the country. The arctic region is called Lapland, the home of lap dancing. Natives travel by wolf or husky-dragged sleds, even though one guy persistently uses reindeers. Natives are on alert from the flesh-eating reindeer that hunt the penguins nesting in the arctic coconut palmtrees. Pohjanmaa ("the Northern Land", ridiculously flat plains of Northwestern Coast in the central Finland) are under water for three months at every spring when the damns broke, killing thounsands. Local houses are built on top of poles, and all the families still alive own boats.

    Polar bears have excellent sight and sense of smell. They are also very curious and always trying to find more food. Surprisingly, there is no record of a polar bear attacking a living human in Finland in the last 35 weeks. Loud noise, firecrackers and fire are commonly used to scare polar bears away, and a mere $699 for an official ABP (anti-bear-pack) including a multitude of bear intervention measures. Polar bears can be differentiated from the gray and black bears by their subtle color differencies. The easiest to differenciate is the local polar bear variant, the finbear, from its blue striping on otherwise white fur (ed. most laps still think it is white stripes on blue, even though a Swedish scientist has genetically proven the striping, giving an indication of the stubborn nature of the Finns).

    Tornados, blizzards, snowstorms, and earthquakes are more common in the spring (up to June or even early July), glacierquakes a bit less frequent at that time, but a couple feet snowfall in a few days is not uncommon even on other times of the year. Spring blizzards typically last for a week or so, during which time it is impossible to travel anywhere. Snowfall records for a single day is 3.14 metres, but about 1.41 meter is usual.

    The English word finish is originated by James Cook meaning the end of the Finnish winter, which usually comes a bit late, but in some years well before the start of the next winter. All the Finns, including young children and hospitalized (ed. if there was a hospital in Finland) elderly, drink plenty of potato-vodka poisoned with ammonium chloride as an anti-freeze measure, surprisingly inaffecting their marvelous, most definatly world-class sled-driving skills. Helsinki, hosting the only school, shopping mall, and museum in Finland, is also the Capital city hosting the King of Finland, Urho. Only noblemen and their huskies can vote.

    The phone system is based on mobile phones, since the native people steal any copper wiring and use it for snow shoes repair and jewelry for the huskies. The national computer is running Microsoft Windows 3.11 for workgroups, making the country only of its kind in being a 100% Microsoft market.

    Please consider, that there is absolutely no sunlight during the long winters. The natives navigate using ever-light bon-fires, which are now considered to be banned by the EU due to the planned cut in CO2 pollution - possibly leaving Finland completely dark during the winters.

    --

    -- Imperial units must die --