Category: Press Release

Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil – November 13, 2004 – Software developers, government leaders, university students and professors gathered in the south of Brazil this week to discuss the GNOME desktop.

The two day GNOME Forum opened yesterday on the border of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil where open source and free software personalities from ten countries were welcomed by Rogério Santana, Secretary of the Ministry of Planning for Logistics and Technology from Brasilia, Paulo Macdonald, Mayor of Foz do Iguacu, Marcus Mazoni, President of CELEPAR, and Jon “Maddog” Hall, President of Linux International.

“Brazil maintains the largest deployment of the GNOME desktop in the world.” said Timothy Ney, Executive Director of GNOME Foundation, “We are pleased to bring local training for young software developers in South America and share experiences on implementing GNOME in schools and community telecenters, as well as giant hydroelectric power facility here in Foz do Iguacu.

GNOME co-founder Frederico Mena Quintero, from Mexico, leads a volunteer team of international experts who are providing training for students and developers at the event. The conference is organized under the auspices of GNOME Foundation with corporate and government support.

“We are very happy to host the first Forum GNOME in the State of Parana, where we are using GNOME in our schools. We expect with this Forum that more people will get to know this important international project.” Said Marcos Mazoni – Paraná State Strategic Issues Advisor.

In Europe, the GNOME desktop is also being discussed at GNOME Days, organized by GNOME España along with groups of users the Encuentro GNOME at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid. Today, participants at the two conferences in Spain and Brazil are working together on GNOME’s e-mail and calendaring software through an online conference.

The complete schedule and further information about the first GNOME Forum are available at:http://forumgnome.com.br/.

About GNOME

GNOME is a free software project that is developing a complete, easy to use desktop for GNU/Linux (more commonly known as Linux), BSD, Solaris, HP-UX and a variety of other Unix and Unix-like operating systems. The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. More than 700 computer developers, including over 100 full-time, paid developers, contribute their time and effort to the project.

About the GNOME Foundation

Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. GNOME is an entirely free user environment for desktops, networked servers and portable Internet devices. The modern architecture and design of GNOME includes a technically advanced application development platform and a powerful end-user desktop environment. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers. More information on GNOME is available at www.gnome.org.

BOSTON, Mass – September 15, 2004 – The GNOME Foundation today released the latest version of the GNOME Desktop and Developer Platform. Version 2.8 adds greater usability, speed and better internationalization to the desktop environment.

“Once again, GNOME has delivered more features and usability, on a predictable schedule,” said Nat Friedman, GNOME Foundation Chairman. “GNOME 2.8 provides a comfortable environment in which users can achieve their everyday goals.”

Users can look forward to:

• Automatic detection of removable devices.
• Automatic detection of local servers.
• The Evolution email client, calendar, and address book.
• Improved internationalization support. GNOME 2.8 fully supports 40 languages, with improved support for an additional 50+.

System Administrators will welcome:

• Remote control of users’ desktops via the VNC server.
• Network tools that allow users to provide diagnostic information.

Developers will see:

• Incremental backwards-compatible API additions.
• The ability to develop GNOME software in C++, Java, Perl, and Python, as well as C.

“This release demonstrates GNOME’s major steps toward ‘just works’ hardware support, system configuration and deep collaboration integration”, said Jeff Waugh, GNOME Release Team Manager. “These features will have immediate value for our users, and long-term value for application developers who will be able to integrate important user data such as contacts and calendaring into their applications.”

GNOME is supported on a variety of platforms, including GNU/Linux (more commonly referred to as Linux), Solaris&tm; Operating Environment, HP-UX, Unix, BSD and Apple’s Darwin. GNOME is distributed as part of their offerings by leading Linux distributions worldwide.

Availability

GNOME 2.8 will soon be available via popular Linux distributions as part of their offerings.

Developers, system administrators and advanced users wishing to install the GNOME 2.8 Desktop and Developer Platform now may freely download the software at www.gnome.org. The software includes the GNOME 2.8 desktop interface, file manager, menus and utilities, as well as the complete set of development tools and libraries.

About GNOME

GNOME is a free software project that is continuing to develop a complete, easy to use desktop for use on a variety of platforms. The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. More than 500 software developers from every corner of the globe, including more than 100 full-time, paid developers, contribute their time and effort to the project.

About the GNOME Foundation

Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation is a member directed, non-profit organization that provides financial, organizational and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. GNOME is an entirely free user environment for desktops, networked servers and portable devices. The architecture and design of GNOME includes a technically advanced development platform and a powerful end-user desktop environment. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers and paid developers. More information on GNOME and the GNOME Foundation can be found at www.gnome.org.

Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Kristiansand, Norway – June 29, 2004

The open source community is gathering in Kristiansand for three days to exchange ideas and enjoy Rock’n Roll. This year’s GNOME Users and Developers European Conference is the most international in five years. Delegates from Brazil, Chile, China, Japan and Peru join the many European and North American participants.

Friends from all over the world, who meet only over the web through the year, gather to meet in Kristiansand to shape our future software, to make new friends and to have fun.

The conference links the creative energy of free software with the power of Rock’n Roll. The Norwegian band Salvatore will give an awesome conference concert, and development of an open culture multimedia calendar is already underway.

Free Software used in Extremadura has led to the highest number of PCs per student in Spain. In Extremadura 80.000 PCs are using GNOME in Schools, public administration, and in enterprises. This good example is spreading from school children to grand parents, government administation to enterprises, and from Spain to other countries. Saving taxpayers’ money is a good reason for the recent dramatic increase of public interest. In Norway, the City of Bergen has decided to use Free Software on 20 new servers replacing 100 old ones, both in the city administration and in schools. 50.000 users will be connected to the servers. The Chinese government plan to use GNOME on 200 million desktops.

Free Software encourages sharing of computer programmes and knowledge, just like scientists have always shared their work. The GNOME desktop is designed to be accessible for all users and is already available in 28 languages. The desktop is also highly popular among blind users.

Highlights from the program of Users day:

• Dr. Villanueva, vice president of the congress in Peru, is famous for his proposed law requiring open source software in the public administration.
  http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6099
• “I’m looking forward to meeting developers, industry, and government leaders in Kristiansand.” said Eva Hildrum, Director General of the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications. Hildrum will present her Key note on Wednesday.
• Bruce Perens, Desktop Linux Consortium. Formerly leader of Debian. (Note that Skolelinux is based on Debian)
  http://perens.com/
• Bdale Garbee, is the CTO of HP for Linux. Formerly leader of Debian
  http://www.gag.com/~bdale/
• Bob Stack, CTO Commonwealth of Massachusetts
  http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.php?id=87471
• Nat Friedman, co-founder of Ximinan and chairman of GNOME foundation.
  http://www.nat.org/
• Mikael Snaprud, Agder University College, co-author of a Software policy for the future for the Norwegian board of technology
  http://teknologiradet.no/html/493.htm

GUADEC 2004 Announces International Slate of Speakers. No. 1 European open source desktop event will draw worldwide attendees.

Boston, Mass – May 6, 2004 – Hundreds of software developers, enterprise and government leaders will gather on the coast of Norway to discuss the rapid adoption of the world’s most popular open source desktop, GNOME. The Fifth Annual GNOME User and Developer Europe Conference (GUADEC), will be held at Agder University College from June 28-30th, 2004 in Kristiansand, Norway.

“I’m looking forward to meeting developers, industry, and government leaders in Kristiansand.” said Eva Hildrum, Director General of the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications, “The conference can provide important fuel for innovative use of IT in an information society for all.”

GNOME adoption has been rapidly expanding worldwide. Recent examples include successful deployments by governments in Brazil and Spain in public telecenters, schools and government offices. The GNOME desktop environment is also being deployed by the Chinese government on over 1 million desktops over the next year.

Marking the growing acceptance of the Linux Desktop around the world, the GNOME Foundation, which organizes the conference in a different country each year, will host over 60 presentations on cutting-edge technologies and case studies on migration to an open source desktop.

“I have to choose my conferences and pick the most strategic ones to attend,” said Bob Stack, CTO for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, “GUADEC is one of the most important open source conferences in the world.” Mr. Stack will lead a roundtable policy workshop on “Defining Open Standards” with open source evangelist Bruce Perens and representatives from Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Spain.

Other highlights of this year’s conference include:

• Keynotes by Dr. Edgar Villanueva, Vice-President of the Congress in Peru and Bdale Garbee, HP’s CTO for Linux.
• Cost-saving technology solutions such as how GNOME can cut information technology costs with thin client computing and HAL, a plug-and-play desktop device support for widespread use.
• GIMPCon – GUADEC will host developers working on the freely-distributed graphics program GIMP which is used for photo retouching, image composition, image authoring and animation. The GIMP Developers Conference 2004 will be held as a sub-event of GUADEC.

Registration for GUADEC is open to the public. Special student registration and housing is available. Discounts on flights to Norway is available through SAS, the Official GUADEC Airline.

###

About GNOME

GNOME is a free software project that is developing a complete, easy to use desktop for GNU/Linux (more commonly known as Linux), BSD, Solaris, HP-UX and a variety of other Unix and Unix-like operating systems. The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. More than 700 computer developers, including over 100 full-time, paid developers, contribute their time and effort to the project.

About GUADEC

The GNOME User and Developer Europe Conference (GUADEC) is an annual gathering of GNOME developers, enthusiasts and individual, business, education and government users worldwide. It provides a forum for members of the GNOME project to showcase their work and to discuss the future of GNOME development. Housed in a different European country each year, GUADEC is a catalyst for the future development and direction of GNOME.

About the GNOME Foundation

Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. GNOME is an entirely free user environment for desktops, networked servers and portable Internet devices. The modern architecture and design of GNOME includes a technically advanced application development platform and a powerful end-user desktop environment. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers. More information on GNOME is available at www.gnome.org.

About Agder University College

Agder University College (http://www.hia.no) is a three campus University College. GUADEC will be held at the brand new Kristiansand campus. The University College offers a wide range of programmes including development aid, Business, Fine arts, Humanities and Natural Sciences, and Information technology from Bachelor to PhD level.

San Francisco, CA – April 16, 2004 – An increasing number of developers worldwide are interested in GNOME, the user-friendly GUI and desktop development platform for UNIX and Linux. However, the development documentation for GNOME, while voluminous, is intimidating to a developer not wholly familiar with the GNOME development process. To help rectify this situation, No Starch Press and the GNOME Foundation announce the release of The Official GNOME 2 Developers Guide, the first English-language book about developing with GNOME 2. With this book, current and would-be GNOME developers can come up to speed with the building blocks of GNOME development: GLib, GTK, and the GNOME API’s.

The GNOME 2 Developer’s Guide gives the reader a solid introduction to these GNOME building blocks and teaches the reader how to fully understand the various libraries and API’s that are used to build GNOME applications:

• Use the GTK widget set to design user-friendly interfaces
• Learn the GNOME framework, extension widgets, and GConf to build graphical applications
• Discover the GNOME virtual file system (GNOMEVFS), a powerful means of navigating the system
• Learn the GLib standard data structures, algorithms, utilities, and the GObject system
• Point and click with Glade and libglade for GNOME-style rapid application development
• Learn the roles of pkg-config, GNU Autotools, and other software building automation tools

This book contains numerous well-annotated examples that clearly demonstrate each GNOME feature, with an accompanying reference section to support each topic. A detailed glossary and extensive index round out the book, making it a necessary addition to every GNOME developer’s library.

“We’re very happy that No Starch Press is publishing this book,” said Timothy Ney, GNOME Foundation executive director. “GNOME deployment and development has been growing rapidly around the globe. This book will be useful to developers who are new to GNOME, as well as those who have experience with the development platform.”

The GNOME community has been very involved with the creation of this book. Miguel de Icaza, GNOME Project founder, contributed the foreword to the book, and Michael Meeks, a respected GNOME developer, technically reviewed the book for accuracy. Moreover, No Starch Press will be donating a portion of the proceeds from sales of the book to the GNOME Foundation. “We’re pleased to have the support of the GNOME Foundation on this project,” explains No Starch Press publisher William Pollock, “and to be able to offer them our support in return.”

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Table of Contents

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matthias Warkus has been using Linux since the age of sixteen. He has worked with the GNOME Foundation to produce the German localization of GNOME, published articles and lectured on GNOME, and spent considerable time working on the GNOME source code.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Brian Ward translated The Official GNOME 2 Developer’s Guide from the original German, updating and adding to the book in the process. Ward has been working with Linux since 1993 and has a Ph.D. in computer science from The University of Chicago. He is author of the Linux Kernel-HOWTO, How Linux Works (No Starch Press), The Book of VMware (No Starch Press), and The Linux Problem Solver (No Starch Press).

ABOUT NO STARCH PRESS

Since 1994, No Starch Press has published unique books on computing, with a focus on Open Source, security, hacking, web development, programming, gaming, and alternative operating systems. Our titles have personality, our authors are passionate, and our books tackle topics that people care about.

ABOUT THE GNOME FOUNDATION

The GNOME Project is an effort to create a complete, free and easy-to-use desktop environment for users, as well as a powerful application development framework for software developers. GNOME is part of the GNU Project, and is Free Software. The GNOME Foundation works to further the goal of the GNOME Project: to create a computing platform for use by the general public that is completely free software.

BOSTON, Mass. – November 25, 2003 – The third annual GNOME Summit wrapped up yesterday, drawing a record number of GNOME developers to the NYLXS Education Center at Kings Games, and Brooklyn College in New York City.

The GNOME Summit is an intensive working laboratory where members of the GNOME project get together to discuss development issues and demonstrate their work. The summit gives developers from around the globe,who work together via the Internet, a chance to meet face-to-face, accelerating the development and planning work that will lead to future GNOME innovations. Accessibility, quality assurance and usability initiatives were among the many topics covered during the conference.

“GNOME developers have two gatherings a year,” said Timothy Ney, executive director of the GNOME Foundation. “We meet in Europe at GUADEC and in the United States and the GNOME Summit. Meeting together helps us focus and accelerate our work on the GNOME desktop and developer platform. The dedicated volunteers who helped put together the GNOME Summit deserve a very big congratulations for the success ofthis year’s gathering.”

The GNOME Summit featured three days of sessions, as well as a keynote by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation. More than 120 GNOME developers attended.

One highlight of the event was the announcement that the GNOME Foundation is launching first-ever opensource desktop integration bounty hunt.

“The goal of this contest is to help improve the level of integration between some of the core components ofthe Linux desktop,” said Havoc Pennington, former GNOME Foundation board member and systems developer, desktop/UI tech lead at Red Hat. “Our specific aim is to improve the experience of collaboration in the desktop environment. We believe that communicating and working with other people is not simply a function of a single application that sits in a rectangular window on your screen, but is one of the primary functions of a computer.”

A number of specific tasks have been set out in the Desktop Integration Bounty Hunt, each carrying its own cash value. More information on the bounty can be found at www.gnome.org/bounties.

The next gathering of GNOME developers and users will be at GUADEC, which will be held in Kristiansand, Norway in late June. More information on GUADEC can be found at www.guadec.org.

About GNOME

GNOME is a free software project that is developing a complete, easy to use desktop for GNU/Linux (more commonly known as Linux), BSD, Solaris, HP-UX and a variety of other Unix and Unix-like operating systems. The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. More than 700 computer developers, including over 100 full-time, paid developers, contribute their time and effort to the project.

About the GNOME Foundation

Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. GNOME is an entirely free user environment for desktops, networked servers and portable Internet devices. The modern architecture and design of GNOME includes a technically advanced application development platform and a powerful end-user desktop environment. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers. More information on GNOME is available at www.gnome.org.

The fifth annual GNOME User and Developer European Conference (GUADEC) will draw businesses, government, education and end users to Kristiansand

BOSTON, Mass. – 3 November, 2003 – The fifth annual GNOME User and Developer European Conference (GUADEC), will bring developers, GNOME Foundation leaders and individual, business and government GNOME and open source software users to Kristiansand, Norway June 28-30, 2004. The conference is a unique forum for highlighting the capabilities and direction of GNOME, the user environment for desktops, networked servers and portable Internet devices. GUADEC will also feature meaningful discussions of the future direction of open source development.

“GUADEC has enjoyed an exponential growth over the past four years, and has had a real impact on open source development and deployment in the countries we’ve held the conference,” said Timothy Ney, GNOME Foundation executive director. “GUADEC is a unique event that brings the people who are creating GNOME together to discuss and demonstrate their work and to build roadmaps for future development. Pair these developers with IT leaders and government officials and you see some real electricity.”

GUADEC is being held June 28-30, 2004 at Agder University College in Kristiansand, Norway in co-operation with the Grimstad Campus Linux User Group (GLUG), Agder LUG and Norwegian Unix User Group (NUUG). The program will boast a stellar lineup of speakers, from GNOME leaders to IT industry movers and shakers. Additional information on GUADEC can be found at www.guadec.org.

“We’re excited to host GUADEC in Kristiansand”, Ernst Håkon Jahr, rector of Agder University College says. “GUADEC will sharpen our focus and enhance our efforts working with Open Source in education, business and in eGovernment projects. We expect the GUADEC conference in Kristiansand to have a decisive impact on the understanding and use of Open Standards and Open Source in Europe in general and in Scandinavia in particular.”

About GNOME

GNOME is a free software project that is developing a complete, easy to use desktop for GNU/Linux (more commonly known as Linux), BSD, Solaris, HP-UX and a variety of other Unix and Unix-like operating systems. The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. More than 700 computer developers, including over 100 full-time, paid developers, contribute their time and effort to the project.

About GUADEC

The GNOME User and Developer Europe Conference (GUADEC) is an annual gathering of GNOME developers, enthusiasts and individual, business, education and government users worldwide. It provides a forum for members of the GNOME project to showcase their work and to discuss the future of GNOME development. Housed in a different European country each year, GUADEC is a catalyst for the future development and direction of GNOME.

About the GNOME Foundation

Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. GNOME is an entirely free user environment for desktops, networked servers and portable Internet devices. The modern architecture and design of GNOME includes a technically advanced application development platform and a powerful end-user desktop environment. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers. More information on GNOME is available at www.gnome.org.

About Agder University College

Agder University College (http://www.hia.no) is a three campus University College. GUADEC will be held at the brand new Kristiansand campus. The University College offers a wide range of programmes including development aid, Business, Fine arts, Humanities and Natural Sciences, and Information technology from Bachelor to PhD level.

Grant will be used to develop interoperability test suite

BOSTON, Mass. July 24, 2003 The GNOME Foundation announced that the Gnumeric project has received a grant from the Open Source Application Foundation. The $4,000 grant will be used to develop a test suite to enhance interoperability between Gnumeric and other spreadsheet programs, particularly the market leading spreadsheet program. The goal of the grant and test suite is to ensure that values and functions translate seamlessly between proprietary and open source spreadsheet programs. Funds from the grant will be used to pay spreadsheet users to create files that test one or several of the more than 350 functions available in the market-leading proprietary spreadsheet software.

“This grant will be used to ensure that calculated values are the same between spreadsheets created on the market leading proprietary program and Gnumeric.” said Jody Goldberg of Ximian, Inc., Gnumeric Project lead and GNOME Foundation board member. “The test suite that will be developed through this grant will be available to all open source spreadsheet programs.”

Gnumeric is a free software spreadsheet program with better analytics than the leading proprietary spreadsheet programs. The project, which was founded five years ago, is a leading open source spreadsheet program, and is available on a number of popular open source desktop environments, including GNOME.

“The availability of a strong set of interoperable productivity applications is key to the success of Linux on the desktop,” explained Mitch Kapor, chairman of the Open Source Applications Foundation. “Because of my background in spreadsheets, I have a particular interest in open source spreadsheet applications. I am therefore pleased to be able to make a small contribution to strengthening not just the Gnumeric spreadsheet, but interoperability among the different open source spreadsheet programs, and compatibility with the leading commercial product. We also hope that this project will help build the community of volunteers contributing to these projects, and lead to even closer collaboration between OpenOffice, Gnumeric, Kspread and other open source spreadsheet projects.”

The grant will give open source spreadsheet developers an invaluable testing tool and will give Gnumeric users confidence that they have true interoperability with other spreadsheets.

URLs of Organizations Listed in this Press Release

GNOME: http://www.gnome.org
Gnumeric: http://www.gnumeric.org
Open Source Applications Foundation: http://www.osafoundation.org
OpenOffice: http://www.openoffice.org
KDE: http://www.kde.org

About GNOME

GNOME is a free software project that is developing a complete, easy to use desktop for GNU/Linux (more commonly known as Linux), BSD, Solaris, HP-UX and a variety of other Unix and Unix-like operating systems. The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. More than 700 computer developers, including over 100 full-time, paid developers, contribute their time and effort to the project.

About the GNOME Foundation

Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. GNOME is an entirely free user environment for desktops, networked servers and portable Internet devices. The modern architecture and design of GNOME includes a technically advanced application development platform and a powerful end-user desktop environment. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers. More information on GNOME is available at www.gnome.org.

The regional government of Extremadura, Spain has put 80,000 computers in schools, loaded with GNOME, Linux and other open source software. The ratio is one computer for every two students.

Regional government installs one computer for every two students, all running open source software. Additional initiatives put computers in hands of general population.

DUBLIN, Ireland June 18, 2003 Representatives of the Junta of Extremadura (regional government) announced that a sweeping initiative has put 80,000 computers in schools across that region. The announcement came at the 4th annual GNOME Users and Developers European Conference (GUADEC) in Dublin, Ireland.

The program, which was instituted last year, has just completed installation in schools, with a ratio of one computer for every two students. All of the computers are using a customized version of Linux, called GNU/LinEx, and features the GNOME desktop. Other free software productivity programs are also installed on every computer. The total cost savings exceeded 18 million euros, or nearly one third of the total budget of 67 million euros.

“For us, software libre (open source software) was the only choice,” said Francisco A. Huertas Mendez, technical coordinator of GNU/LinuEx of the Junta de Extremadura. “We were able to stretch our budget very far and provide a powerful and easy-to-use environment with Linux and GNOME. We are also able to give the students all of the productivity programs they need.”

The Junta of Extremadura has also created 33 computing centers for the general population. The centers feature one-on-one computer assistance, so users who are unfamiliar with computers can learn computer and e-mail basics. The centers have drawn citizens of all ages and walks of life. The oldest user of the centers is 99 years old.

“Extremadura has launched a very significant initiative, and we are extremely pleased that they chose to use GNOME as their desktop environment for Linux,” said Miguel de Icaza, CTO of Ximian, Inc. and GNOME Foundation president. “This initiative not only gives computing ability to all of its students, it also has the potential to grow a local IT industry in Extremadura. This is an excellent example of the control and flexibility that Linux and open source give governments and public sector institutions.”

More information on the Junta de Extremadura’s computer initiative can be found at www.linex.org.

About GNOME

GNOME is a free software project that provides a complete, easy to use desktop for a variety of operating systems, including GNU/Linux (more commonly known as Linux), BSD, Solaris ™ Operating Environment, HP-UX, UNIX, BSD and Apple’s Darwin. The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. More than 700 computer developers, including over 100 full-time, paid developers, contribute their time and effort to the project.

About the GNOME Foundation

Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. GNOME is an entirely free user environment for desktops, networked servers and portable Internet devices. The modern architecture and design of GNOME includes a technically advanced application development platform and a powerful end-user desktop environment. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers. More information on GNOME is available at www.gnome.org.

LogOn’s successful Linux@work to be held at Fourth Annual GUADEC conference in Dublin on June 18, 2003

BOSTON, Mass. – The fourth annual GNOME User and Developer European Conference (GUADEC) has joined forces with LogOn to bring the successful, pan-European Linux@work to Dublin. Linux@work will be held on GUADEC’s User Day, June 18, 2003 at Trinity College in Dublin. GUADEC and Linux@work will bring developers, GNOME Foundation leaders and individual, business and government GNOME users together to discuss open source software advantages and issues. Technology luminaries like Alan Kay, one of the earliest pioneers of personal computing; Curtis Saski – VP of desktop solutions for Sun Microsystems, Inc. and a host of IT leaders from around the globe are slated to speak at Linux@work /GUADEC. The conference will feature a comprehensive tutorial program as well.

Some of the highlights of Linux@Work/GUADEC include:

• IT leaders from Europe, Asia and South America will discuss how they have implemented open source software in their cities, states and/or countries.
• Business leaders will discuss how they have increased their ROI by incorporating open source software solutions into their IT strategy.
• Case studies and executive briefings will give real information on how to incorporate open source software into any size business, enterprise or government.
• Open source leaders will discuss the latest developments in Linux and open source software development and provide a vision for the future.
• Panel discussions will provide a big picture roadmap for open source software, giving attendees needed insight.
• An exhibition area will allow sponsors to highlight their company and offerings.
• Tutorials on GIMP, the open source graphics program and GTK+ development.

“LogOn has produced the very successful Linux@Work series in Europe for years,” said Timothy Ney, GNOME Foundation executive director. “We’re very pleased to partner with them at GUADEC, bringing Linux@work to Dublin for the first time.”

GUADEC is being held June 16-18, 2003 at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. The program will boast a stellar lineup of speakers, from GNOME leaders to IT industry movers and shakers. Additional information on GUADEC can be found at www.guadec.org.

“GUADEC has enjoyed tremendous growth since it’s inauguration four years ago.” Roberto Zicari, president of LogOn said. “We’re very pleased to partner with a show that has made a real impact, not only on the development of GNOME, but also on the adoption of open source software around the globe.”

About GNOME

GNOME is a free software project that provides a complete, easy to use desktop for a variety of operating systems, including GNU/Linux (more commonly known as Linux), BSD, Solaris ™, Operating Environment, HP-UX, Unix, BSD and Apple’s Darwin. The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. More than 700 computer developers, including over 100 full-time, paid developers, contribute their time and effort to the project.

About the GNOME Foundation

Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. GNOME is an entirely free user environment for desktops, networked servers and portable Internet devices. The modern architecture and design of GNOME includes a technically advanced application development platform and a powerful end-user desktop environment. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers. More information on GNOME is available at www.gnome.org.

About GUADEC

The GNOME User and Developer Europe Conference (GUADEC) is an annual gathering of GNOME developers, enthusiasts and individual, business, education and government users worldwide. It provides a forum for members of the GNOME project to showcase their work and to discuss the future of GNOME development. Housed in a different European country each year, GUADEC is a catalyst for the future development and direction of GNOME.

About LogOn

LogOn Technology Transfer (LogOn), founded in 1991, is a privately owned company focused on the Information Technology market. LogOn’s core business is the creation, promotion, and execution of IT Events in Europe and Worldwide. LogOn is organized into two operating divisions: Trade Shows & Events, and Marketing.

LogOn owns and manages pan-European Events like the OMG Information Days, Linux@work, XML Days, Java(tm) Information Days and Storage Days, attended by over 15,000 IT professionals in the year 2002.

LogOn is the official representative of the Object Management Group (OMG) for Continental Europe. OMG is the largest software consortium worldwide with more than 750 company members dedicated to promoting the theory and practice of object technology (OT) for the development of open distributed computing systems. LogOn Technology Transfer is acknowledged for the high quality of its services. More information on LogOn’s services is available at: http://www.ltt.de.