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GUADEC starts today!

GUADEC starts today, July 22nd! GUADEC is the main GNOME conference, bringing together users and enthusiasts from all over the world. GUADEC 2020 takes place online.

This GUADEC will feature an exciting set of speakers and sessions, which will bring you the latest news and updates about the project; introductions to open source collaborations; and explorations into free software thinking. Later in the week there will be Birds of a Feather sessions, where people get together around a shared interest, and workshops. After regular conference activities, there will be some special social events.

The full schedule for GUADEC 2020 is available online. If you would like to join the conference please register online and check your email for the links and access codes needed to join the conference.

You can learn more at the GUADEC web site and by following us on social media at @GNOME and @gnome@floss.social.

GitLab is a GUADEC 2020 Silver Sponsor

GitLab is joining GUADEC as a Silver Sponsor. Several years ago GNOME made the move to use GitLab for managing contributions including everything from conference organizing to code. GitLab provided invaluable support during this process. They continue to be there for the GNOME community with their Silver Sponsorship of GUADEC 2020.

GitLab provides Git infrastructure which you can host your own, or use their hosting. It includes wikis, issue-tracking, and a continuous integration/continuous deployment pipeline.

GUADEC is the GNOME community’s annual conference. The 2020 conference will take place entirely online, running July 22 – 28. The event will feature talks, workshops, Birds of a Feather Sessions, social events, and lots of space to collaborate and get to know the GNOME community. Register today!

Announcing openSUSE as a Silver Sponsor for GUADEC

OpenSUSE has joined GUADEC as a Silver Sponsor! OpenSUSE creates a Linux distribution and supports a community of contributors developing tools.

OpenSUSE, another longtime supporter of GUADEC, has joined us in many cities across Europe and Asia, with their sponsorships of GNOME.Asia. They continue to support GNOME and the GNOME community as we gather this year online.

We appreciate openSUSE’s ongoing interest in the GNOME community and dedication to building a strong free and open source ecosystem.

FOSS Responders joins GUADEC 2020 as a Gold Sponsor

We’re so happy that FOSS Responders is joining us as a Gold Sponsor at GUADEC 2020! FOSS Responders is an initiative powered by a group of individuals who “came together to support and celebrate our Free and Open Source Community affected by the COVID-19 economic fallout”. They are supported by a group of over twenty organizations and companies to help free and open source software (FOSS) projects through funding; connecting volunteers to projects; advising around moving events online; and momentum building for projects that no longer have the opportunity to do so through in-person events.

Sponsorship for GUADEC was provided by a coalition of companies and individuals, including: Indeed, Open Source Collective, Open Collective, Linux Fund, GitHub, Google, Sentry, Ethereum Foundation, Digital Ocean, and the Sloan Foundation.

In addition to the respect we hold for their efforts and thoughtfulness towards the FOSS community, we appreciate their generosity to GNOME.

Red Hat is a Gold Sponsor of GUADEC 2020

Red Hat is supporting GUADEC 2020 as a Gold Sponsor! Red Hat has long been a supporter of GNOME. They are a member of the Advisory Board, they are active contributors to many facets of the GNOME ecosystem,and they have sponsored GUADEC for many years. We’re excited to welcome them back for GUADEC 2020.

“As an active contributor within the vibrant GNOME community, Red Hat is very pleased to be among the sponsors of this year’s GUADEC event,” shared Veronica Cooley-Perry from Red Hat. “Community is about connections, and if this year has demonstrated anything, it’s that those connections are more important than ever. GNOME remains a vital part of the open source ecosystem, and the connections and conversations made at GUADEC amongst users and contributors are a big reason why GNOME continues to be successful! We are thrilled to be a part of these conversations and look forward to participating in the GUADEC 2020 online event!”

Throughout the conference, Red Hat will be hosting office hours, where you can speak directly with them about the exciting things they’re doing with GNOME. More details will be coming soon.

We must all speak up.

GNOME has long believed that we are stronger with a diverse contributor base. This mixing of ideas from a wide range of backgrounds is something that has improved free and open source software, and it should be highly valued.

Historically, free software has failed at engaging with Black, ethnic minorities, and marginalized communities. This is especially a problem when those who could benefit the most from a free and open software stack—to be in control of their own computing—are marginalized in their efforts to contribute towards that computing.

Thus, GNOME stands firm with #BlackLivesMatter. The exclusion and prejudice that is faced by millions of black and ethnic minority communities throughout the world is something that GNOME takes a stand against. We must all work together to ensure a future that is fair, equitable, and open for all, no matter what the color of your skin, your accent, or your background.

Annual Report 2019

What a wonderful year 2019 was!

We are excited to share some of our best moments, achievements, and great events that happened throughout the year in our annual report

Highlights include:

We increased the foundation’s staff with three new employees: a GTK Core Developer, a Program Coordinator and a Strategic Initiatives Manager.

We released Taipei (3.32) and Thessaloniki (3.34)

Technical achievements including GNOME Flatpak runtime, VM images, and Continuous Integration improvements.

Accessibility achievements including new ARIA support in ATK and AT‑SPI2, improving the accessibility of web browsers; Orca support for Chrome/Chromium; and a “Pointer Location” feature for Wayland sessions.

GNOME moved to communications to Discourse, a free web forum software. We have over 500 registered users making 70 posts per day.

We organized 10 events 13 hackfests.

We attended 11 conferences, where we presented, hosted a booth, and represented GNOME.

GNOME hosted eight students who successfully finished the Google Summer of Code and three who successfully completed Outreachy internships.

In August 2019, a patent assertion entity, Rothschild Patent Imaging, LLC, charged GNOME with patent infringement.

For more information and details please see the Annual Report

2019 wouldn’t have been this awesome without you!
Cheers and looking forward to coming years.

GNOME Welcomes Google Summer of Code 2020 Students

The GNOME Foundation is excited to announce that GNOME is participating in Google Summer of Code. We have participated every year since the program’s inception, and are proud to share with you our students for 2020!

Clarissa Borges – Evaluation of requirements, content, design and components for the refresh of gnome.org
Yetizone – UI improvements to Epiphany’s Preferences, History dialog and the Bookmarks popover
Apoorv Sachan – Port Nautilus Properties Dialog to Use GtkBuilder
S-Sai Vineet – Polish and optimise gitg files and diff plugins
Ujjwal Kumar – An adpative GTK widget
Kavan Mevada – Redesign Sound Recorder to make it adaptive.
José F Lorenzo-Hernández – Improvements to battery testing
Alejandro Domínguez – Support for multiple user accounts in Fractal
Mariana Pícolo – Redesign of the GNOME Shell Notification popover
Adwait Rawat Adding UI for importing and managing firmware in GNOME Games
Mahmoud Khalil – Detecting Differences Between Two Non-Consecutive Commits in Gitg
Neville Antony – Implement Collections in GNOME Games
Chinmay Gurjar – Add Support for Remote Sources in Music

Each project has an experienced community mentor working alongside the students.

To our new students, welcome! To our returning students, welcome back! We wish the students best with their respective projects.

You can follow the progress of each student by reading their blog posts on Planet GNOME.

A complete list of GNOME Summer of Code 2020 projects are available at the GNOME wiki.

The GNOME foundation is grateful for Google’s efforts and the mentors who make Google Summer of Code possible.

https://discourse.gnome.org/t/gnome-projects-for-google-summer-of-code-2020/2979

Help Grow GNOME in Africa

This spring we’re asking you to help us set our priorities when you donate to the GNOME Foundation. You have the option of asking us to focus on building GNOME in Africa or WebKitGTK development.

We want GNOME to be for everyone, regardless of where they come from. To achieve that, we work with contributors from all over the world. The GNOME community in Africa has grown significantly throughout 2019, and we’re excited to help them continue that growth!

Sigu Migwa and StellaMaris Njage spoke at GUADEC 2019 about growing a GNOME community in their home country of Kenya, and the challenges they have to think about. This was the first time many of us learned about what people are doing with GNOME in any African context and this talk brought up concerns we hadn’t considered. However, many of these issues are the same faced by every community looking to grow. While free software is by no means new to Africa, the GNOME community wants to do more in that area.

At the Open Source Source Festival in Lagos, Nigeria, Regina Nkemchor Adejo spoke about desktop applications using GNOME, targeting the experience specifically for the African user.

2020 also brought the launch of the Pan African GNOME Summit, which was postponed due to COVID-19. However, the team is still working on the event and plans to proceed with it when possible.

We want to celebrate what happened in 2019 and so far in 2020, but we know it’s not enough and that we can do more to grow a GNOME community across Africa. A vote to support GNOME in Africa is a vote for building more initiatives across the African continent. Examples of possible activities include:

travel sponsorships to bring people from Africa to GNOME events;
assisting in the organization of events in Africa, including hackfests and conferences;
university outreach targeted at African universities; or
translations specifically for African languages.

The most important thing for us is working with GNOME contributors and members who are already in Africa to bring the GNOME software, project, and community to them in the ways that work for their local communities, and to support their leadership in the best ways we can.

Patent case against GNOME resolved

Today, on the 20th of May 2020, the GNOME Foundation, Rothschild Patent Imaging, and Leigh M. Rothschild are pleased to announce that the patent dispute between Rothschild Patent Imaging and GNOME has been settled.

In this walk-away settlement, GNOME receives a release and covenant not to be sued for any patent held by Rothschild Patent Imaging. Further, both Rothschild Patent Imaging and Leigh Rothschild are granting a release and covenant to any software that is released under an existing Open Source Initiative approved license (and subsequent versions thereof), including for the entire Rothschild portfolio of patents, to the extent such software forms a material part of the infringement allegation.

Neil McGovern, Executive Director for the GNOME Foundation said “I’m exceptionally pleased that we have concluded this case. This will allow us to refocus our attention on creating a free software desktop, and will ensure certainty for all free and open source software in future.”

Leigh Rothschild said “I’m pleased that we have managed to settle this issue amicably. I have always supported the innovation of open source software and its developers and encourage its innovation and adoption.”

GNOME was represented pro-bono by Matt Berkowitz, Kieran Kieckhefer, Joy Wang and Larry Crouch from Shearman & Sterling LLP. GNOME and the wider free and open source community owes its thanks and gratitude to their tireless work over the past 10 months.