LinuxTag 2012: Open-Source-Community with a strong performance in Berlin

Berlin, 10. April 2012 – 65 free projects from the Open-Source-Community have so far received acceptance to exhibit at the LinuxTag 2012. The project-team of the LinuxTag is pleased with the wide range of applications: hardware and gadgets, system management, web technologies, software development, desktop applications and distributions, as well as a number of initiatives, who advocate free knowledge, free software or also free work, will be represented.

Projects live community thoughts

„Our approach, summarising thematically similar projects to joint stands, has proven itself“, stated Elke Moritz from the work of the project team. Therefore there were distributions this year, which already wished for a joint stand with other projects in their application form.

For example, Debian wants to perform along with Kanotix and Siduction. Siduction singned with the firm name before Sidux did and has now come together under a new name. The Ubuntu community wishes for a common lounge this year, which combines all projects from the Ubuntu family and where visitors can get to know all facets of Ubuntu in a comfortable atmosphere.

“This shows that the LinuxTag is a suitable platform for the projects: They do not only want to present themselves with members of their own project family, but also with similar projects and want to exchange ideas”, said Moritz.

Companys fill „Where .com meets .org“ with life

“This year there are more Open Source companies, which present themselves both with their own stand, as well as introducing their community projects to deploy the synergies of the motto of the LinuxTag ‘Where .com meets .org’”, Elke Moritz points out. An example is the ownCould Inc., the company behind the correspondent Open Source project, in which community activists and Linux business people offer a new approach for the services in the cloud.

The project OpenSlides, which is on site for the first time this year, is being supported by Intevation VLC. OpenSlides helps to create presentations with an application and selection system and is being used in delegate meetings, major or general meetings as well as party conferences. The software is therefore also of great help for organisations and associations: “It is quite possible that OpenSlides will also be used at the LinuxTag 2012, as many of the exhibiting projects are organised in associations”, said Moritz about the practical relevance of the project. The LinuxTag offers the opportunity to hold a member meeting in one of the workshop rooms.

Projeks range: From robots and knitting needles

Of course the LinuxTag is not just about software, but also about all aspects of free software and the Open Source community. Therefore, projects are participating at the LinuxTag which are dealing with hardware (OpenEmbedded), robots (freedroidz), IP telephony (Kamailio) and wireless networks (Freifunk). Due to this great success at the last LinuxTag, visitors will again will try out again the “art” of opening a lock at the stand of the Lockpicker.

„Knitting“ is a very fashionable trend: At the LinuxTag 2011 the first Stricktux – the knitted version of the famous Linux mascot – was developed. The demand has grown so much, that a project was created. At the LinuxTag 2012 free knitting patterns will be distributed at a stand, to give visitors the opportunity to knit their own Tux, with an expert on their side to give guidance.

Current Project list for the 18. LinuxTag 2012

From the field of hardware: OpenEmbedded, Freifunk, the Freerunner-replacement OpenThoenux with the Mobile-Motherboard GTA04, as well as the robot-programming-learning-project freedroidz.

From the field of programming: the Python-Web-Framework Django, Python, the Python-Webframework Pyramid, the Mediator-Project BerliOS, the Online-App-Modular appMo.de with its runtime environment appMode, as well as the library- and codec-collection Libav.

From the field of web: The Web-CMS TYPO3, the science-CMS ScientificCMS, the groupware Horde, the C++-web application server Tntnet, the search engine software YaCy, the Zope-based CMS Plone, as well as the Berlin user group of the Content-Management-Platform Drupal.

From the field of system-management: The distribution dispersion m23, the mailserver-manager Postfix Admin, the cloud service ownCloud, the system manager FusionDirectory, the SIP-server Kamailio, the SIP-media-server SEMS, the augmented-deployment-tool YADT, Clonezilla and the OTRS-community alias OtterHub.

Distributions to come: the German speaking Kubuntu-Community, Gentoo Linux, the Ubuntu-Community, the Ubuntu user platform Communtu, NetBSD, the German speaking Mandriva-User-Community, the community-distribution Mageia, CentOS, FreeBSD, the openSUSE-project, Debian GNU/Linux, Kanotix, seduction, the Fedora-Project and the adjusted Debian distribution Skolelinux.

The range of desktop applications are representing: LibreOffice, the child-friendly learning platform sugar, the Terminalserver-project x2go, the media platform XBMC, the desktop interfaces GNOME and KDE, the online-banking-program Mon€yP€nny, the Univeristy of Applied Sciences Südwestfalen, the multimedia-project VideoLAN, OpenStreetMap, the Linux gaming holarse, the car navigation system Navit, as well as the web-based presentation-software OpenSlides.

Initiatives on site: the Berlin office-community Büro 2.0, the Free Software Foundation Europe, Lockpicking alias ‘Sportsfreunde der Sperrtechnik Deutschland association (SSDeV)’, the Wikimedia Deutschland association, the Berlin Linux User Group association alias BeLUG with Open Printing and others, a data security corner of the ‘Aktion Freiheit statt Angst e.V.’ (= Campaign Freedom instead of Fear association), the community certification centre CAcert, the enlightenment project secure-u association, Forth Gesellschaft association, the German speaking user group TeX association (DANTE), the substitute FOSSGIS association of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), as well as the project Stricktux.

About the LinuxTag

The LinuxTag is Europe’s leading exhibition and conference on topics relating to Linux and Open Source. The four-day event has been taking place since 1996, annually on the Berlin fair grounds since 2007. It offers updates for professional users, decision makers, developers, beginners and the community. The LinuxTag association is the ideal host for the event and is doing so alongside with the Messe Berlin VLC. For more information pelase visit http://www.linuxtag.org/2012/en.html.