Codeweavers, Inc. --- Jon Parshall in conjunction with the rest of the Great Leadership Triad at Codeweavers has graciously offered to be a generous sponsor of Lindependence 2008. Not only are they lending their assets, they are presenting the fine residents of Felton California free subscriptions to this fine product. These guys not only produce one of the coolest pieces of software code in existence, they know how to have fun doing it. Their presence at LINdependence 2008 will insure a smooth transition to Linux for the folks that make the switch.
Thanks Codeweavers! You guyz rock.
HeliOS Solutions and HeliOS Solutions West --- Larry Cafiero and Ken Starks, being a couple of the original founders of Tuxproject.com, got an idea. Then again, that is why Landy DeField worked his tail off to produce and maintain the site...to foster and build upon ideas that help in the proliferation of Linux. These two expanded on a marketing idea posted at Tux Project and after some discussion, ran with it. What if an entire town could fire Microsoft for a period of time and put Linux on their computers? What if the people and logistics were in place to physically support them in doing so? With substantial leg work by Larry and Ken tirelessly haranguing the Linux Community, the project slowly built momentum. The weeks and months of effort have paid off. With distributions and Open Source companies taking part, The contributions and efforts of HeliOS Solutions will make LINdependence 2008 the largest effort of it's kind to date.
OpenOffice
We all know what OpenOffice is...not many of us know who they are. OpenOffice has notified us that they will be happy to represent themselves on one level or another at LINdepndence 2008. We think this is cool for many reasons but mostly because while Linux may be what everyone thinks about when they think "Open Source"...more people have been drawn to Open Source via OpenOffice than any other application (however Firefox is catching up fast.) CEO's all over the world are discovering that they can have 97 percent of Microsoft Office functionality with Zero of the cost. Have you priced the latest, greatest MS Office lately? We are finding that "zero cost" is a powerful incentive to give MS the boot. Especially when the functionality is there and you don't have to listen to some wimpy little paper clip complain that you don't seem to know what you are doing.
These guys have been absolutely stellar in their support of LINdependence 2008. They have went out of their way to make sure that their listeners know about the program and our need for funding. This project has been more expensive than any of us imagined...but we've continued with it because it represents a huge opportunity to market Linux to the general computing public. While donations have been meager and disappointing to be honest, this project will go forward regardless. Larry and Ken have decided that they will pay for it out of their pockets and have done just that to this point....Larry especially. TLLTS has helped lessen their burden by their support and community announcements. Heartfelt thanks to all the guys that make up this excellent show.