GNOME Receives €1M Funding from Sovereign Tech Fund
Heard of the Sovereign Tech Fund? I hadn’t, however the GNOME undertaking has bagged itself a whopping €1 million funding from them.
GNOME plans to make use of the money to “modernize the platform, enhance tooling and accessibility, and help options which might be within the public curiosity”, including that the next tasks and initiatives will profit immediately throughout 2024:
- Enhance the present state of accessibility
- Design and prototype a brand new accessibility stack
- Encrypt consumer house directories individually
- Modernize secrets and techniques storage
- Enhance the vary and high quality of {hardware} help
- Spend money on High quality Assurance and Developer Expertise
- Develop and broaden freedesktop APIs
- Consolidate and enhance platform part
Whether or not you’ve been utilizing Linux for a recent minute or a veritable eon you’ll know GNOME is a core pillar within the FOSS motion.
GNOME is the default desktop setting in the most well-liked Linux distributions, its apps are utilized by hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide, and GNOME-backed applied sciences underpin experiences throughout a dizzying array of gadgets, platforms, and industries.
With the Sovereign Tech Fund’s goal of supporting the “…growth, enchancment and upkeep of open digital infrastructure”, its synergies with the GNOME undertaking are clear.
Sovereign Tech Fund
The Sovereign Tech Fund is a German government-funded initiative run by Adriana Groh and Fiona Krakenbürg, who’ve ‘a few years of expertise in selling open-source applied sciences’ at nationwide and worldwide ranges.
On its web site, the Fund notes: “…the open supply ecosystem, whereas extremely profitable, can be more and more fragile. Many extra individuals are utilizing the software program than contributing to it. It’s time to spend money on digital commons, volunteer communities and [open source] to construct the digital world we need to see.”
Earlier recipients of funding from the fund embody curl, Fortran, WireGuard, OpenSSH, the Yocto Challenge, and a collaboration with OpenJS Basis to ‘improve Javascript Ecosystem Infrastructure and Security‘.
So whereas I won’t have heard of it, I’m glad I’ve. The Sovereign Tech Fund helps open-source infrastructure in essentially the most essential method: with cash.
Funding Our Futures
It is a main win for the GNOME undertaking, for open-source, and for all of us who use and depend on the applied sciences it oversees.
With this funding, GNOME will be capable to additional deal with the issues it does nicely, develop new options, and make it simpler for individuals to contribute to the undertaking.
Nice stuff!