GUADEC highlights the capabilities and direction of GNOME - the user environment for desktop computers, networked servers and portable Internet devices. GUADEC also features discussions of the future of Free Software and Open Source development in general.

The History of GUADEC

This is the seventh year in which the developers and users of GNOME will gather in person to discuss the future direction of the project, and to spread word of GNOME and the benefits of Free Software.

The story of GUADEC begins in Paris in 1998, where a number of GNOME developers, who had worked together via the internet, thought it might be nice to finally meet in real life. They have met at the GUADEC conference every year since then.

Four years later GUADEC 5 in Kristiansand, Norway brought together more than 500 people, with a dazzling array of keynote speakers from disparate sectors such as government and education, as well as GNOME community leaders. We were also pleased to welcome several key KDE and FreeDesktop.org developers, resulting in some important advances in desktop interoperability for GNU/Linux and Unix.

In Stuttgart (2005) GUADEC continued on this path. One of the key focusses of the conference was how we can better integrate with the lower levels of the operating system, as well as with other desktop environments, to provide a seamless desktop computing experience.

• 6UADEC 2005: Stuttgart, Germany
• GVADEC 2004: Kristiansand, Norway
• GU4DEC 2003: Dublin, Ireland
• GUAD3C 2002: Seville, Spain
• GUADEC 2001: Copenhagen, Denmark
• GUADEC 2000: Paris, France