Uso GNU/Linux há uns 8 anos. Dizem-me que não fiz a transição para SL e Linux da forma normal.
Mudei porque me fartei de Windows é certo. Mas principalmente porque eu sou daqueles que vem para a informática pela mão dos Spectrum. Dos scriptzinhos em basic. Do Chucky Egg, do Kunk-fu Knights e do Renegade. Do aprender, experimentando.
Um dos primeiros websites sobre GNU/Linux que encontrei na internet foi o Distrowatch. E o que me chamou à atenção foi o título (que ainda hoje mantém): “Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.”. E juntamente com o conceito político, social, científico de Software Livre transformei-me num NIX.
Já experimentei as distribuições Slackware, Red Hat, Suse, Debian, Caixa Mágica, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Knoppix e actualmente Fedora. Na República Popular da China espero experimentar a distribuição Red Flag.
De resto, por isto também.

Chama-se a isto luta consequente.

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Cuba está organizando la migración progresiva de las computadoras instaladas en los organismos de la Administración Central del Estado hacia el software libre, sobre la base del sistema operativo Linux, eliminando así la presencia casi exclusiva del Windows en las máquinas.

La noticia trascendió durante una conferencia ofrecida por Roberto del Puerto, director de la Oficina para la Informatización de la Sociedad, en el III Taller de Software Libre, el cual tuvo lugar durante la recién finalizada Convención Internacional Informática 2005.

El sistema operativo Linux, creado en la década de 1980 por Linus Torvalds, se diferencia de similares como Windows, de Microsoft, en que su código fuente es totalmente abierto, y por tanto puede ser modificado y distribuido por el usuario cuantas veces quiera.

La Isla, que posee actualmente más de 1 500 usuarios de Linux y una comunidad de desarrolladores fuerte en varias provincias del país, ya cuenta también con su propia distribución de Linux —un conjunto de programas agrupados de acuerdo a sus prestaciones y calidad— que fue presentada ayer.

Además, la Oficina para la Informatización ha diseñado una estrategia que comprende acciones de organización, técnicas, diseño de un marco legal, así como la capacitación y el cambio paulatino de los sistemas de Windows a Linux.

La política será rectoreada por un Grupo Nacional, que integran entre otros la propia Oficina, los ministerios de Justicia, del Interior, de Informática y las Comunicaciones, la Red Telemática de Salud (Infomed), la CUJAE, los Joven Club y la Universidad de las Ciencias Informáticas. Esta última, con más de 6 000 estudiantes, ya ha destinado una de sus facultades para el desarrollo de programas sobre Linux.

Amaury E. del Valle

Fonte: http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=31918

O formato do OpenDocument foi aprovado como standard internacional ISO (ISO/IEC 26300). Mais um passo na direcção certa.

get openoffice.org

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WASHINGTON, May 3 /PRNewswire/ — The OpenDocument Format Alliance (ODF Alliance), a broad cross-section of associations, academic institutions and industry dedicated to solving the problem of improving access and retrieval of electronic government documents, today congratulated the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for its sweeping approval of the OpenDocument Format as an international standard.

Since its launch in early March, the ODF Alliance has grown to over 150 members worldwide. The Alliance was created to resolve the problem of governments’ and their constituents’ limited ability to access, retrieve and use critical records, information and documents in the future. To enable the public sector to have greater control over and direct management of their own records, information and documents, the ODF Alliance seeks to promote and advance the use of OpenDocument Format (ODF). ODF enables the retrieval of information and exchange of documents without regard to the application or platform in which the document was created – both now and in the future.

“Approval of the OpenDocument Format by ISO marks an important milestone in the effort to help governments solve the very real problem of finding a better way to preserve, access and control their documents now and in the future,” said Marino Marcich, Executive Director of the ODF Alliance. “There’s no doubt that this broad vote of support will serve as a springboard for adoption and use of ODF around the world. At the same time, it also represents a milestone for the ODF Alliance, which in just weeks has seen a groundswell of support and continues to grow everyday.”
The OpenDocument Format emerged from work done at the open source OpenOffice.org project. This work was later submitted to, and further
developed at, OASIS, where it was accepted as an official OASIS standard in May 2005. The six-month approval ballot for its adoption as a standard by the International Standards Organization and the International Electrotechnical Commission ended on May 1.

In May 2004, the then European Commission’s IDA (Interchange of Data between Administrations) Management Committee “TAC” had publicly encouraged OASIS to submit the OASIS ODF standard to ISO once it had completed its work on the standard. The ODF Alliance believes that approval of ODF by the ISO standards body as an international standard will thus have a particularly strong impact in Europe where ISO standards enjoy official recognition under European Union Directives.In related news, the ODF Alliance also applauded the “Regional Open ICT Ecosystem” Conference currently convening in Bangkok. Attended by a number of Asian governments, this conference (organized by the United Nations’ Asia- Pacific Development Information Programme, and hosted by Thailand’s government) brings together experts, executives, and policy makers from government, business and academia. Within it, ODF is being discussed as a vehicle for universally compatible, innovative and cost effective technology used within governments.

“The examples of the conference taking place right now in Asia and the positive ISO vote clearly demonstrate the momentum behind the OpenDocument Format,” added Marcich. “The ODF Alliance intends to build on this successful vote by working with governments around the world to adopt the OpenDocument Format. We believe access to public records and essential services should never be restricted to users of a particular brand of software or computer platform.”
For more information about the ODF Alliance, please visit our web site at http://www.odfalliance.org.

SOURCE ODF Alliance

O documentário sobre o SL na Venezuela.

Pode ser descarregado aqui, aqui ou aqui.

Brussels, 12 May 2005. The Commission's recently relaunched "Enforcement Directive" (IPRED2, 2005/0127 (COD)) proposal aims to criminalise all intentional and commercial IP infringements in order to "combat organised crime" and to "protect national economies and governments". This however results in the Commission exceeding its competence and is criminalising many EU businesses with unjustified and ill-conceived measures.

A company may infringe on a patent if it thinks the patent would not stand up in court. This is common business practice, in particular in the software industry where most patents are granted on insufficient legal grounds. And while Commission is seeking to criminalise this practice, the US is reconsidering its "treble damages" policy in such cases precisely because of widespread abuse.

Jonas Maebe, FFII board member, comments: "Does the Commission really intend to criminalise Europe's entire software industry? Can it name even one computer program which does not infringe on a single patent granted by the European Patent Office? It seems they want to replace the Lisbon goals with an Alcatraz program."

"The EU-Commission proposed means which divert law enforcement resources and which are not well suited to combat organised crime" adds André Rebentisch, FFII WIPO representative. "Appropriate definitions for counterfeiting and copyright piracy are already available in other EU regulations, but here the Commission prefers rather vague terminology which puts our knowledge economy at risk." http://wiki.ffii.org/Ipred2060510En

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Background information
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* Patent infringements currently constitute a criminal offence in 10 of the 25 member states. In the Netherlands the government previously already proposed to take patent infringements out of criminal law, exactly because in practice criminal provisions are generally unsuited and unused for handling such issues.

* The proposal stresses that law enforcement bodies should start investigations at their own initiative, i.e. without a complaint from right holders. Law enforcement officials however are often unaware, and rightly so, about private or even public licensing agreements. See e.g. a UK Trading Standards official having a hard time believing that ",1] ); //–> Ante Wessels, FFII analyst, notes: "In only 10 of the EU's 25 member states patent infringement is a crime today. Does this lead to distortion in trade, does it give the countries in which it is not a crime a competitive advantage? Nobody has ever claimed such a thing. Therefore there is no legal ground for including patent infringement in this directive. There are 10 more IP rights for which this question has to be answered."

Pieter Hintjens, FFII President, concludes: "We're very concerned when we see IP enforcement being idolized like this, regardless of the consequences. There is a huge and vital debate about whether we need patents at all in the software industry. This law ignores that debate and seeks to enforce those patents, labeling businessmen as common criminals, terrorists, or mafiosi."

A full analysis is available at http://wiki.ffii.org/Ipred2060510En