Austria — the name itself conjures up images of edelweiss, the Von Trapps in “The Sound of Music,” a certain boys’ choir from Vienna, and now Free/Open Source Software.
On November 29, in Dornbirn, Austria, there’s a Linux Day scheduled from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the University of Applied Sciences there. Dornbirn is at the far western tip of Austria, meaning that the event will probably spill over into the surrounding areas in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
In fact, Linux Days in Europe are an almost common occurrence, predating our efforts in Felton by years, and occurring all over Europe year-round. It’s certainly speaks volumes about the reason that Europe is head and shoulders above us in North America in the acceptance of FOSS. It explains why whole towns and cities are using FOSS, ignoring OOXML formats in favor of ODF and, in some communities in Spain, developing their own free-as-in-freedom-AND-beer distros.
But what it tells us — or at least me, anyway — is that we’re doing the right thing to get GNU/Linux and FOSS out to people.
18 Celsius in Dornbirn, Austria, which is about 65 degrees Fahrenheit
