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Free & OpenSource Software Weekend

Posted by michael on from the what-else-were-you-doing-anyway dept.

FOSDEM Team writes "This week-end, the fourth edition of the FOSDEM (Free and Opensource Software Developers' European Meeting) is taking place in Brussels, Belgium. Once more, famous speakers will be present for this 2 days event to talk in the different tracks presented (Linux Kernel, Accessibility, Desktop, Java, Scripting languages and Security); on Saturday evening, the FS Award ceremony will be conducted by Richard Stallman. This year, the introduction talk will be made by Tim O'Reilly and the end talk by Jon Maddog Hall. Don't miss the interviews made by the FOSDEM guys : Hans Reiser, Ian Formanek, Keith Packard, Tim O'Reilly, Robert Love and many others."

4 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. As you know ... by gustgr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    there are a lot of foreign people who can't be there to watch the presentations, so I would like to know if some speech/talk will be recorded (in video or just the audio maybe) and have it avaliable on the net for those of us who are not in Europe download it and enjoy this meeting too.

  2. Re:Free Software is so mainstream by Sheetrock · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I've heard a rather convincing argument that the successes of Free Software have been where it is best able to conform to business mentality and shed that which people tend to misinterpret as 'elitism'. Companies get confused when they see a license that says they must share, and many no doubt have misconceptions about the degree of sharing that must occur (will employee files end up on the net?)

    To truly compete, perhaps it should arrive in binary-only form in 'commercial' style packing material, and mention the option for interested users to download the source in some obscure portion of the manual. Otherwise it's just too strange a concept to get a handle on for the average person (manager/boss) whose computing experience has been shaped by commercial software and practices.

    --

    Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
    -- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.




  3. Re:Free Software is so mainstream by lowieken · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What would you say if you saw the WordPerfect and MS Office teams get together to think about how to implement a feature in their programs? Fosdem is really much closer to that kind of activity than to a trade show. This is a "Free and Open Source Developer Meeting". That means it's targeted at _developers_. Maybe similar events don't exist in the proprietary software world? Or are they just less visible and accessible?

  4. New NetBeans Release by WilsonSD · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Everyone should check out the newest beta release of NetBeans (as mentioned in the interview with Ian Formanek). It really shows how nice a rich Java application can be.


    -Steve