FOSDEM 2006 in Brussels
FREE SOFTWARE ON THE CAMPUS
Non-commercial, uncomplicated and ever popular, 3,500 developers met on the campus of the Free University of Brussels for FOSDEM 2006.
Raphael Bauduin has a big smile on his face: the event he launched in 2000 as a free software meeting at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) has just celebrated its sixth birthday. At the Free and Opensource Software Developers’ European Meeting (FOSDEM) February 25 and 26, some 3,500 participants invaded the narrow corridors of the university buildings – not only developers from Europe, but many guests from the USA and all over the world. In his keynote FSF President Richard Stallmann lashed out against software patents, which he referred to as a “threat to anyone who uses or develops free software”. Unfortunately, for most developers, avoiding or licensing patents were not acceptable approaches to handling patent issues, he continued. And most people just could not afford to battle over patent issues in court. This is what caused Stallman to call on Europeans to fight software patents on a political level. He went on to introduce the audience to the latest developments in version 3 of the GPL, calling on them to post their comments on the latest draft of the license at http:// gplv3. fsf. org. The draft process will be entering the next round in July.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux
If you're looking for an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is hardened for business use, there's a new version of Rocky Linux that's sure to make you and your company happy.
-
Gnome’s Dash to Panel Extension Gets a Massive Update
If you're a fan of the Gnome Dash to Panel extension, you'll be thrilled to hear that a new version has been released with a dock mode.
-
Blender App Makes it to the Big Screen
The animated film "Flow" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards held on March 2, 2025 and Blender was a part of it.
-
Linux Mint Retools the Cinnamon App Launcher
The developers of Linux Mint are working on an improved Cinnamon App Launcher with a better, more accessible UI.
-
New Linux Tool for Security Issues
Seal Security is launching a new solution to automate fixing Linux vulnerabilities.
-
Ubuntu 25.04 Coming Soon
Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) has been given an April release date with many notable updates.
-
Gnome Developers Consider Dropping RPM Support
In a move that might shock a lot of users, the Gnome development team has proposed the idea of going straight up Flatpak.
-
openSUSE Tumbleweed Ditches AppArmor for SELinux
If you're an openSUSE Tumbleweed user, you can expect a major change to the distribution.
-
Plasma 6.3 Now Available
Plasma desktop v6.3 has a couple of pretty nifty tricks up its sleeve.
-
LibreOffice 25.2 Has Arrived
If you've been hoping for a release that offers more UI customizations, you're in for a treat.