In this version of our open supply information roundup, we check out Barcelona booting Microsoft, open sourcing a traditional OS, Nextcloud Chat, and extra.
City of Barcelona ditching Windows for Linux and open supply
Barcelona, Spain’s second most populous metropolis, is saying bye-bye to proprietary software program and embracing Linux and open source. The transfer, which is anticipated to be accomplished within the spring of 2019, will see Open-Xchange changing Microsoft Exchange, LibreOffice nudging Microsoft Office out the door, and Firefox turning into the town authorities’s default browser. After that, “Barcelona’s council will make Ubuntu Linux its operating system of choice.”
The metropolis’s Commissioner of Technology and Digital Innovation Francesca Bria, a powerful advocate of open supply and open information, told the El País newspaper that “funds that come from the citizens have to be invested in systems that can be reused and be open to a local ecosystem.” Bria added that any open supply software program developed for Barcelona might be used “in other municipalities in Catalonia or the world.”
Apple’s Lisa OS to be open sourced
While Apple has a status for creating digital hit after hit, the corporate has additionally been recognized to launch some duds. One of the earliest of these flops was the Apple Lisa, which paved the best way for the rather more profitable Macintosh.
While the Lisa is gone, it is working system is not useless. In truth, the Computer History Museum is resurrecting Lisa’s operating system and might be releasing it as open supply. Well, most of it. The museum’s software program curator Al Kossow mentioned that the museum most likely will not be capable of embody “the American Heritage dictionary for the spell checker in LisaWrite (word processing application)” with the supply code bundle it plans to make public. That code continues to be being reviewed by Apple, however the Computer History Museum will “release it to the public with a blog post explaining its historic significance” as soon as Apple clears the code.
Nextcloud provides help for audio and video chat
Nextcloud, the favored open supply file syncing and sharing platform, has taken one other step in direction of turning into a real collaboration platform by integrating audio and video chat. The chat system, referred to as Nextcloud Chat, makes use of WebRTC for audio/video communication, together with screen-sharing help. There are additionally cellular apps for Android and iOS, so you may talk wherever and on a spread of units.
Nextcloud’s managing director Frank Karlitschek said that “Nextcloud Talk lowers the barrier to self-hosting a privacy-respecting audio/video communication service for home users and enterprises alike.” Nextcloud customers can install Nextcloud Talk from the platform’s app retailer. The supply code is available on GitHub.
Open supply router tasks merge
What occurs when you’ve two competing open supply tasks with a historical past of acrimony? They can both maintain competing and combating, or they will work collectively. The OpenWRT and LEDE open supply router firmware tasks have chosen the latter. They’ve put apart their variations and joined forces “to become more than the sum of their constituent parts.”
The aim of this mixed undertaking, which matches by the identify OpenWRT, is to “come forward with a major software release at some future point in 2018.” That means, according to the project’s website, persevering with to “work on improving stability and release maintenance while aiming for frequent minor releases to address critical bugs and security issues.”
In different information
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