Google Summer of Code 2010 for Freifunk and LXDE

Submitted by Mario Behling on Fri, 05/03/2010 - 07:05

Freifunk.net and LXDE, the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment, are taking part of this years Google Summer of Code.

Freifunk is an initiative to support the development of tools for free mesh networks. The initiative supports communities developing know-how to set up their own networks. The freifunk community is acting as an entry point to a network of projects developing tools for mesh networks including the Freifunk Firmware and OpenWrt projects, routing protocols such as OLSR and B.A.T.M.A.N., tools like Maps for networks (e.g. freimap), scanning tools like the horst tool and many more. Recently people also started to develop Open Hardware like the Mesh Potato for villagetelco. With the freifunk firmware it is relatively easy to bring up new wireless mesh networks using ad-hoc WLAN communication layer 2 and layer 3 routing with OLSR, BATMAN and other protocols. Originated in Germany, Freifunk has been deployed successfully in many countries. The OLPC project in Afghanistan uses freifunk for its mesh deployments to distribute digital books, news and educational media. In Ghana freifunk is used to bridge the digital divide in villages. In Vietnam freifunk is used to offer Internet connections at Free and Open Source events like FOSSASIA. In Europe and the Americas city and village networks lower costs for communities and small and medium sized companies, that share common Internet connections, ADSL, Telephone or Satellite uplinks in remote regions.

The "Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment" (LXDE) is a fast-performing and energy-saving desktop environment. Maintained by an international community of developers, it comes with a beautiful interface, multi-language support, standard keyboard short cuts and additional features like tabbed file browsing. As "green software" LXDE uses less CPU and less RAM than its competitors. It is especially designed for cloud computers with low hardware requirements, such as, netbooks, mobile devices (e.g. MIDs) or older computers. Installed with distributions like Ubuntu ("lubuntu") or Debian LXDE provides a fast desktop experience; it connects easily with applications in the cloud. The source code is licensed partly under the terms of the the General Public License and partly under the LGPL. LXDE is ranking among the top 2% of active projects internationally according to Ohloh.

Links

* Freifunk Summer of Code Site: http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/org/home/google/gsoc2010/freifunk

* LXDE Summer of Code Website: http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/org/home/google/gsoc2010/lxde