Blue Systems

Not to be confused with Blue System.
Blue Systems
GmbH
Industry Free software
Founder Clemens Tönnies, Jr.
Headquarters Bielefeld, Germany
Area served
 Worldwide
Products
Owner Clemens Tönnies, Jr.
Website blue-systems.com

Blue Systems is a German IT company. It is most prominent as a driving force behind Kubuntu and a major KDE supporter with a number of KDE developers working for Blue Systems. According to Blue Systems employee Aurélien Gâteau, "Blue Systems does not have a business model, at least for now".[4]

Background

Blue Systems was founded by German businessman Clemens Tönnies Jr. He is a son of the deceased Bernd Tönnies who founded meat production heavyweight Tönnies Lebensmittel in 1971.[5][6] Clemens Tönnies Jr. inherited 25% but left the company by transferring his shares to his brother Robert, who now owns 50% of Tönnies Lebensmittel.[7] The other 50% are owned by Bernd’s brother Clemens Tönnies Sr. who is also the chairman of FC Schalke 04's board of directors. Tönnies Lebensmittel generated 4.3 billion Euro revenue in 2011.[8]

German IT website Golem.de did a feature about Tönnies Jr. in July 2012. According to the feature, Tönnies Jr. studied computer science, was 36 years old at the time of publication, and was described as a philanthropist.[4]

History

Blue Systems became first known as creator of Ubuntu/Kubuntu-based Linux distribution Netrunner whose first release was in March 2010.[9]

In February 2012, Clement Lefebvre of Ubuntu/Kubuntu-based Linux Mint announced that Blue Systems would become a sponsor to help Mint's KDE edition.[10][11]

After Canonical Ltd. stepped down as the main sponsor of Kubuntu in February 2012,[12] Blue Systems stepped into that role in April 2012.[13]

In 2012, Blue Systems gained more attention by hiring at least nine KDE developers.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Among the hired KDE developers are former Canonical employees Jonathan Riddell and Aurélien Gâteau, who joined in April 2012,[22] as well as long-time KWin developer Martin Grässlin who announced in October 2012 to switch to Blue Systems to work full-time on KWin beginning January 2013.[23]

On 13 January 2016 openDesktop.org founder Frank Karlitschek announced that his company hive01 GmbH along with openDesktop.org and related web sites has been bought by Blue Systems.[3][24][25] Later that year, in September 2016, KDE e.V. announced that the former openDesktop.org site "kde-look.org" now operates under KDE’s umbrella as KDE Store at https://store.kde.org, operated by Blue Systems’ “sister company” Pling.it.[26][27]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.netrunner.com/netrunner-lts-becomes-maui/
  2. ↑ http://www.netrunner.com
  3. 1 2 "OpenDesktop.org Acquired By KDE-Loving Blue Systems". Phoronix.
  4. 1 2 "Clemens Tönnies: Der neue Philanthrop hinter Kubuntu" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  5. ↑ "RHEDA-WIEDENBRÜCK: Familienstreit bei Tönnies lähmt Schlachtkonzern" (in German). Neue Westfälische. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  6. ↑ HDNET GmbH & Co. KG. "About Tönnies Lebensmittel GmbH & Co. KG". Toennies.com. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  7. ↑ "Landgericht Bielefeld: Wende bei Tönnies: Onkel und Neffe stimmen Mediation zu" (in German). T-Online.
  8. ↑ "Tönnies steigert Umsatz auf 4,3 Milliarden Euro" (in German). Neue Westfälische. 2011-02-16. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  9. ↑ Clemens Tönnies Jr. (using Starbuck as alias) (2010-03-18). "Netrunner 1.0 (Albedo)". Netrunner-os.com. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  10. ↑ "Linux Mint signs a partnership with Blue Systems". Linux Mint. 2012-01-07.
  11. ↑ "Blue Systems becomes Linux Mint partner and sponsor". H-online.com. 2012-01-09. Archived from the original on 16 January 2012.
  12. ↑ "Kubuntu Status". Lists.ubuntu.com. 2012-02-06.
  13. ↑ "Kubuntu to be Sponsored by Blue Systems". Kubuntu. 2012-04-10.
  14. ↑ Ignat Semenov (2012-02-20). "Polishing KDE: FolderView Fixes Part I".
  15. ↑ Shaun Reich (sreich) (2012-03-07). "Runners? Internets? YouTube? Both". Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  16. ↑ "Explore applications with Muon Discover". TheBlindCow. 2012-04-27. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  17. ↑ Àlex Fiestas (2012-06-04). "Joining the Blue". Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  18. ↑ Vishesh Handa (2012-07-24). "A few updates". Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  19. ↑ "Joining Blue Systems". shadeslayer's Blog. 2012-07-25. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  20. ↑ "Blue Systems, the Muon Suite, and Kubuntu". Jonathan's Blog. 2012-08-19. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  21. ↑ "KDE Telepathy 0.5 released". Marty's typepad. 2012-08-29. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  22. 1 2 Aurélien Gâteau (2012-04-11). "Into the blue". Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  23. ↑ Martin Grässlin (2012-10-07). "KWin Hacking++". Martin’s Blog. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  24. ↑ Frank Karlitschek. "openDesktop.org changes".
  25. ↑ Frank Karlitschek. "openDesktop.org. 15 years in review".
  26. ↑ "KDE Software Store Announced, AGPL Licensed". Phoronix.
  27. ↑ Jonathan Riddel (3 September 2016). "KDE Software Store". KDE.
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