May 2015 – GNOME Foundation

Goodbye Marco

The GNOME project is sad to have learnt that Marco Pesenti Gritti recently passed away after a long fight with cancer. Marco made major contributions to GNOME, having been the original author of both the Epiphany (also known as “Web”) browser and Evince, the GNOME PDF reader. Besides his significant contributions and technical ability, Marco was known as a good friend who served as an inspiration to many within the community.

Members of the GNOME community have expressed their sadness at Marco’s death. Xan López, the current Epiphany maintainer, wrote: “I remember fondly working with Marco on Epiphany many years ago. His patience and good character were instrumental in getting me involved with GNOME and Free Software”. Another contributor, Tomeu Vizoso, said: “He reviewed my first patches ever to a free software project and his contagious enthusiasm was what put into motion my career in open source.”

GNOME wasn’t the only community that Marco was a part of: he also played an important role in the development of Sugar, a platform which focused on education and the developing world.

Our thoughts are with Marco’s family and friends at this difficult time.

Pictures from GNOME.Asia Summit 2015

Last week GNOME.Asia Summit 2015 concluded in Depok, Indonesia. We now have a gallery with pictures from the Summit to share. Again, many thanks to everyone (including sponsors) who made the 2015 Summit possible!

With pictures like these its easy to feel optimistic about GNOME’s future in Asia.
Photo license note: CC BY-NC 2.0 by Herpiko Aguno if not otherwise noted

GNOME.Asia Summit 2015 concludes

After three intensive days the GNOME.Asia Summit 2015 have concluded in Depok, Indonesia.

The 2015 Summit started off with a series of workshops with a focus on how to start contribute to GNOME.

The second day included presentations about about Bug Triaging (Andre Klapper), Application Sandboxing (David King) and Using GStreamer in GNOME Apps (Nirbheek Chauhan).

In addition to the many presentations and workshops that covered GNOME there was several presentations about local Free and Open Source Software initiatives including the role of Free Software in the Shoe Industry (Iwan S. Tahari) and a presentation about BlankOn (Mohammad Anwari), a local distribution.

On the third day of the Summit representatives of the foundation held a open question and answer panel. Later on the afternoon there was series of lightning talks where Julita Inca and Bin Li presented their efforts of promoting GNOME in their respective country (Peru and China).

With over 300 people participating the organizers considered the 2015 edition of the Asia Summit a success.

“With hosting GNOME.Asia Summit 2015 we have hopefully contributed to increase awareness about GNOME and free software in Indonesia and the in region in general. It was a fun, interesting experience organizing the event, we hope everyone who participated had a great time.” – Estu Fardani local organizer

The foundation wants to thank everyone who made the 2015 Summit possible.

*Photo by Herpiko Dwi Aguno

GNOME.Asia Summit 2015 has started

The 2015 Edition of the GNOME Asia Summit that is taking place in Depok, Indonesia started today.

GNOME Asia Summit 2015 promises several days of learning, community building and fun.

In addition to the many local speakers, several established contributers including Tobias Muller, David King and Ekaterina Gerasimova participate. The Summit covers a wide range of topics related to GNOME and GNU/Linux operating systems, a complete schedule is available on the conference website.

“It feels great that the schedule includes a mix of talks from local speakers and speakers based in other countries. We hope everyone who attend the Summit will have a great time.” – Utian Ayuba, local organizer

The foundation wants to thank the volunteers and sponsors which make the Summit possible.