Many companies around the world use free and open source software (FOSS) to reduce costs, improve reliability, and free themselves from vendor lock-in. Today we talk to Iwan Tahari from FANS, an Indonesian shoe manufacturer, which has migrated to GNU/Linux and LibreOffice...

• Month of LibreOffice, November 2018: The winners!

  This is the best Month of LibreOffice we’ve ever had, reflecting our lively and growing community.

• LibrePCB 0.1.0 Released

  Since the release candidate 0.1.0 RC2 three weeks ago, no critical bugs were reported, so we decided to finally publish the stable release 0.1.0.

• LibrePCB 0.1.0 released with major changes in library editor and file format

  Last week, the team at LibrePCB released LibrePCB 0.1.0., a free EDA (Electronic Design Automation) software used for developing printed circuit boards. Just three weeks ago, LibrePCB 0.1.0 RC2 was released with major changes in library manager, control panel, library editor, schematic editor and more.

  The key features of LibrePCB include, cross-platform (Unix/ Linux, Mac OS X, Windows), all-in-one (project management, library/schematic/board editors) and intuitive, modern and easy-to-use graphical user interface. It also features powerful library designs and human-readable file formats.

• Darktable 2.6 Release Cycle Kicks Off With New Modules, PPC64LE Support

  Developers are beginning to firm up the Darktable 2.6 release as the next feature update to this amazing, cross-platform open-source RAW photography software.

  This open-source photography workflow software continues getting better and with Darktable 2.6 there are more features coming as outlined by yesterday's 2.6-RC0 tag.

Being the capital city, Tirana is the most populous city in Albania, known for its colorful, post-Communist buildings and Soviet-era architecture. In an attempt to adopt the Open Source way to save more money, Tirana has recently attempted to implement various free and open source solutions for their public IT infrastructure, by migrating to projects like Nextcloud and LibreOffice.

"Ermir Puka, the head of the ICT Department, believes that despite the resistance to change and the other big challenges facing the migration, using free and open source software and platforms like LibreOffice – supporting open standards – will guide the IT infrastructure of the municipality in the best interest of the citizens of Tirana," writes The Document Foundation's Italo Vignoli.

One of the biggest risks with using proprietary applications is losing access to your digital content if the software disappears or ends support for old file formats. Moving your content to an open format is the best way to protect yourself from being locked out due to vendor lock-in and for that, the Document Liberation Project (DLP) has your back.

According to the DLP's homepage, "The Document Liberation Project was created to empower individuals, organizations, and governments to recover their data from proprietary formats and provide a mechanism to transition that data into open and standardized file formats, returning effective control over the content from computer companies to the actual authors."