1. Introduction
1.1. Why this document?
Since there was no information anywhere on the net for Belgian Linux
users around 1998, we started to collect stuff that we thought could
be important.
This HOWTO aims to be the definitive list of all Belgian-related Linux
information. If you think not, you have no excuse to complain and
certainly not to not contribute. ;)
1.2. New versions of this document
If you need to know more about the Linux Documentation Project or
about Linux HOWTO's, feel free to contact the supervisor Tim Bynum
<linux-howto@sunsite.unc.edu>.
Tim Bynum will post the listing to several national and international
newsgroups on a monthly basis. In addition, the Belgian HOWTO can be
found on the World Wide Web at
http://dag.wieers.com/howto/.
New versions of the Belgian HOWTO are always placed at this site
first, so please be sure to check if the copy you are reading is
still up to date!
1.4. Contributions
A few people mailed us their suggestions and improvements, thanks go
to:
Many thanks go to Ivo Clarysse <soggie@iguana.be>
who started something similar earlier (LinBel)
and his project helped us a lot to get this document online.
1.5. The Linux.be-domain debacle
As you might have heard, Belgium also has its problem with the Linux.be
domain. Similar to the Linux.nl case. Around March 1999, someone tricked
the DNS administration about the trademark 'Linux' in Belgium by using
'Linux' as a commercial representation of the company ('uithangbord')
which was according to the rules of the DNS administration at that time.
The company in fact was one that sold motor-parts and the registration was
done with a fake fax containing a penguin.
It is sad that the person who registered the Linux.be-domain name,
did this behind the back of some Open Source volunteers who
were planning to register a not-for-profit organisation to hold the domain
name to prevent any abuse.
Afterwards there were several meetings with this person to work out an
agreement so that the domain was not used for commercial purposes and
handed over to a neutral organisation. But after several attempts it
was very clear that the owner wanted full control over the domain, which
he later emphasized by 'handing it over' to his own not-for-profit
organisation. He stated several times he wanted to keep the right to add
advertissements to the website, but wouldn't mind that volunteers added
content to the site (that was empty at the time). After this, no one was
willing to work voluntarily for the content of the site. Sadly he managed
to get some people volunteer for it after all.
1.6. Feedback
If some information seems to be wrong, deceptive or missing, we'd
appreciate if you mailed us the improvements. Since we're just human
this document isn't bug-free, but your contribution can and will make
a difference.
To add yourself to the Linux user groups or businesses, collect all
necessary information and mail it to us.
1.7. Copyright information
This document, Belgian HOWTO, is copyrighted (c) 1998 - 2002 by Dag Wieërs.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the
terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 published by the
Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being "New versions of
this document", "Contributions", "Feedback" and "Copyright information"
with no Front-Cover Texts and with no Back-Cover Texts.
A copy of the license is available at
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html.
Trademarks are owned by their owners.
Although the information given in this document is believed to be
correct, the author will accept no liability for the content of this
document. Use the tips and examples given herein at your own risk.
1.8. Todo
There are some things I'm planning to add to this document, if you're
interested be sure you're reading the most current version of this
document. (This todo-list is only a reminder to myself, it is not in
the translated documents!)
