More keynotes on technological and politics, and more room for free projects: this was Linuxtag in its eleventh year. But attendance was down because Europe’s biggest Free Software event charged an admission fee for the first time.

This column looks into projects and current affairs in the world of free software from the perspective of the GNU Project and the FSF. In this issue, we take a look behind the drapes at the FSFE Annual General Meeting.

The city of Stuttgart may not be known as a tourist destination, but Gnome developers from around the world still arrived on schedule for this year’s Gnome User and Developer European Conference.

Free software covers such a diverse range of utilities, applications, and assorted projects that it is sometimes difficult to find the perfect tool. We pick the best of the bunch. This month we cover blogging – the latest buzz, the latest on the DPL elections, and more trouble at Debian.

The conference sessions were less than inspiring, but the show had plenty of chemistry.

The annual winter meeting of Europe’s open source developers took place February 25-27 in Brussels, Belgium. Again the event was a mustn’t miss for thousands of contributors to free projects and a welcome opportunity for developers to exchange ideas outside the borders of their own communities.

Booths, tools, toys, conference sessions, and birds of a feather – this year’s LinuxWorld provided few surprises. But a look beyond the routine revealed some emerging new perspectives on the state of Linux.