* Learn more about desktop applications and new mobile solutions.

* Take part in a FOSS course and get your own course certificate during the event.

* Participate in the install fest of new programs and make your computer faster and more secure.

* Meet us at the FOSS party and celebrate the fun of getting together with people from all over the world.

* Learn about job opportunities with global and local companies and get in touch with representatives.

The event brings together free and open source software projects from Asia and around the world. More than 1400 participants from 15 countries participate in the summit, which is the first international community event of its kind in Vietnam.

Following the successful GNOME.Asia Summit 2008 in Beijing, China, the 2009 summit takes place in the Quang Trung Software Park. The event explores the future of FOSS community in Asia and offer insights into new ideas of the FOSSASIA community that will make gtk-based system including XFCE, GNOME and LXDE even faster and easier to use.

FOSS projects already allow hundreds of millions of people to participate in the information society. Distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, RedHat Enterprise Linux, Mandriva, OpenSolaris and many others implement GNOME and contribute to the desktop leading the market with virus resistant operating systems.

During the three day event there are a variety of presentations, workshops and a free FOSS course, where successful participants will receive a certificate.

Companies have the opportunity to present themselves, meet highly trained students and developers and engage in matchmaking with local projects and enterprises.

What is the objective of the GNOME.Asia Summit

At a very high level, the objectives of the GNOME.Asia Summit can be put across as follows:

* To gather open source developers and contributors from Asia

* To attract new Asian contributors to the project

* To promote awareness of FOSS in Asia

* To allow developers and contributors to have face-to-face discussions

* To showcase latest gtk-based technologies

* To highlight new ideas and cutting edge developments in desktop computing

* To improve cooperation between gtk-based desktop development projects including GNOME, XFCE and LXDE

* To boost the local Vietnamese FOSS Community

* To involve international and local businesses in community activities

What is GNOME?

The GNOME project provides two things: The GNOME desktop environment, an intuitive and attractive desktop for users, and the GNOME development platform, an extensive framework for building applications that integrate into the rest of the desktop.

Free

GNOME is Free Software and part of the GNU project, dedicated to giving users and developers the ultimate level of control over their desktops, their software, and their data. Find out more about the GNU project and Free Software at gnu.org.

Usable

GNOME understands that usability is about creating software that is easy for everyone to use, not about piling on features. GNOME’s community of professional and volunteer usability experts have created Free Software’s first and only Human Interface Guidelines, and all core GNOME software is adopting these principles. Find out more about GNOME and usability at the GNOME Usability Project.

Accessible

Free Software is about enabling software freedom for everyone, including users and developers with disabilities. GNOME’s Accessibility framework is the result of several years of effort, and makes GNOME the most accessible desktop for any Unix platform. Find out more at the GNOME Accessibility Project.

International

GNOME is used, developed and documented in dozens of languages, and we strive to ensure that every piece of GNOME software can be translated into all languages. Find out more at the GNOME Translation Project.

Developer-friendly

Developers are not tied to a single language with GNOME. You can use C, C++, Python, Perl, Java, even C#, to produce high-quality applications that integrate smoothly into the rest of your Unix or GNU/Linux (commonly referred to as Linux) desktop.

Supported

Beyond the worldwide GNOME Community, GNOME is supported by the leading companies in GNU/Linux and Unix, including HP, IBM, Mandriva, Novell, Red Hat, and Sun. Find out more at foundation.gnome.org .

A community

Perhaps more than anything else, GNOME is a worldwide community of volunteers who hack, translate, design, QA, and generally have fun together. Find out more at GNOME Developer’s site .