The government of Extremadura is making plans for the long-term sustainability of its LinEx Linux distribution, aiming to build a community to take over the distribution's ongoing development. The Spanish region intends to play an active part in this new community, the administration said in a statement on 9 June.
"The plan is to ensure the continuing evolution of this project, managing the distribution of free software in Extremadura, and that this evolution continues to meet the needs of the citizens."
The government of the autonomous region says that its plans for the transfer of LinEx to the open source community will be ready before the end of the year. The blueprint will contain guidance on legal aspects that affect distribution of software, for example on ownership of code and on licences. The government would also define short-term goals as well as strategic goals to ensure the project's sustainability and that includes forecasting of income and costs.
e-Signature
On 9 June, the government also made available an update to the 2013 version of LinEx. The distribution is based on Debian Linux and tailored towards Spanish speaking computer users. Some of the applications included in the distro are made compatible with the Spanish national e-ID system and the system for electronic signatures (Sinadura). Also included in LinEx is Gong, project and financial management tools for Non-Governmental Organisations.
The distribution comes with software to allow it to be used by people with visual or motor impairments. This includes Dots, a braille transcriber, Caribou, offering an on-screen keyboard and Dasher, for those who have difficulties using a keyboard.
Extremadura on 16 June said it would contact the research community in the region, to develop a version of LinEx that meets the needs of those working in research, innovation, business and technology centres.
Migration
The current region's People's Party government, elected in May 2011, was criticised by opponents that feared the party would abandon the region's move toward free software. LinEx is already being used on over 70,000 desktop computers in secondary schools and on 15,000 desktops in the health service. However, the region's CIO, Teodomiro Cayetano López, has since started a project to implement free software also on the 40,000 desktop PCs used by the public administrations desktops. That would make it Europe's second largest open source desktop migration.
More information:
Press release from the Government of Extremadura (in Spanish)
Press release from the Government of Extremadura (in Spanish)
LinEx2013RC1 (iso image)
Joinup news item
Joinup case study
Comments
Votes up for Extremadura for this move :)