GNOME Foundation Launches Tomboy Online Alpha

BOSTON, Mass — September 17, 2010 — The GNOME Foundation has launched an alpha for Tomboy Online this week as a first step towards an integrated Web and desktop free software stack. Just in time for Software Freedom Day on September 18, the GNOME Foundation is taking a major step towards the future of client computing.

The Tomboy Online service integrates with the Tombody notetaking application for the GNOME desktop. Available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X, Tomboy allows users to jot down notes quickly and easily, but also has rich functionality and a plugin architecture that enables more detailed note-taking.

Tomboy Online allows users to view, edit, and synchronize their Tombody notes online. Tomboy Online is powered by Snowy, a Web application written in Python on the Django Web framework and licensed under the Affero General Public License (AGPL). The AGPL is key to ensuring user freedom via Web services, so that any implementation of Snowy (like Tomboy Online) will be open and provide users with full source code on demand. Tomboy users can take full advantage of the convenience of Web applications while still enjoying the freedoms they’ve come to expect from the GNOME desktop and application stack.

“The GNOME Project is thinking hard about how to ensure user freedom in the face of highly functional and ubiquitious Web applications,” said Stormy Peters, Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation. “While GNOME already provides a user-friendly and full-featured desktop and application set, users are embracing online services en masse. The GNOME Project wants to continue protecting user freedom and providing quality tools via online services, and Tomboy Online is just one of the ways we can do that.”

The launch comes the same week as Software Freedom Day, an annual celebration of Free Software. Free and open source software advocates around the world work focus on Software Freedom Day to demonstrate software and spread the word through events and demonstrations.

Tomboy Online is currently in limited alpha while the service undergoes extensive testing. The beta phase does not yet have a firm date, but availability is expected near the launch of GNOME 3.0.

About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation

GNOME is a free-software project whose goal is to develop a complete, accessible and easy to use desktop for Linux and Unix-based operating systems. GNOME also includes a complete development environment to create new applications. It is released twice a year on a regular schedule.

The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. GNOME is a standard part of all leading GNU/Linux and Unix distributions, and is popular with both large existing corporate deployments and millions of small business and home users worldwide.

Composed of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation is a member directed, non-profit organization that provides financial, organizational and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap.

More information about GNOME and the GNOME Foundation can be found at www.gnome.org andfoundation.gnome.org.

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