+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | ______ ______ _ _ _ | | /\ / _____) ___ \| | | | | /\ | | / \ | / ___| | | | | | | | / \ | | / /\ \| | (___) | | | | | | | / /\ \ | | | |__| | \____/| | | | |___| | |_____| |__| | | | |______|\_____/|_| |_|\______|_______)______| | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ [Sorry for cross-posting. Feel free to forward around] Florence, 1 April 2004 +++ AGNULA and Microsoft to partner for R&D The AGNULA project [0] and Microsoft Corporation [1] are proud to announce that the AGNULA team will be merged as a research & development unit inside the Windows Media department. +++ The AGNULA project [0] and Microsoft Corporation [1] are proud to announce that the AGNULA team will be merged as a research & development unit inside the Windows Media department. At the party that was held in Stockholm, Sweden, to celebrate these news Tom Valenti, chief strategist for Microsoft Media, said that "[Microsoft] is excited at the idea of being able to proprietarize so many Open Source programs in one shot". Later on, Mr. Valenti's office sent an official statement claiming the above sentence was just "the result of mixing too many swedish and american drinks in just one shot". When asked for an opinion on the merge, Andrea Glorioso (former technical manager of the AGNULA project) just said that "[people] can do whatever they want with AGNULA - I just want this damn project to disappear from my life". Nicola Bernardini, former Project Coordinator, was reached on the telephone while he was on a train towards Moscow. The line was quite disturbed, but Mr Bernardini seems to have said something like "Yes, you know, the point is that AGNULA as a project was finished for me the day after it got approved - please talk to Mr. Glorioso about these things (and so on and so forth)". Rumours abound that the next big step for the AGNULA project is a DRM-capable version of AGNULA Libre Music [2]. Stay tuned for more exciting news from the Microsoft-AGNULA Media research unit! +++ About AGNULA: Agnula (acronym for A GNU/Linux Audio distribution, pronounced with a strong g) is the name of a project funded until April 2004 by the European Commission (number of contract: IST-2001-34879; key action IV.3.3, Free Software: towards the critical mass). After the end of the funded period, AGNULA is continuing as a volunteer based project, aiming to spread Libre Software in the professional audio/video arena. About Microsoft: Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software -- any time, any place and on any device. Best regards, -- The AGNULA Team info(a)agnula.org Our mailing lists: http://lists.agnula.org/ Our web site: http://www.agnula.org/ "There's no free expression without control on the tools you use" [0] http://www.agnula.org/ [1] http://www.microsoft.com/ [2] http://muzik.agnula.org/