Blue Systems is a German IT company. It is most prominent as a major KDE supporter and previous driving force behind Kubuntu 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]
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'sboard 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]
Historyedit
Blue Systems became first known as creator of Ubuntu/Kubuntu-based Linux distributionNetrunner 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, operated by Blue Systems’ “sister company” Pling GmbH.[26][27]
Referencesedit
^"Ubuntu based Netrunner becomes Maui Linux". netrunner.com. 14 August 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
^"Netrunner". netrunner.com. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
^ ab
"OpenDesktop.org Acquired By KDE-Loving Blue Systems". Phoronix.
^ ab
"Clemens Tönnies: Der neue Philanthrop hinter Kubuntu" (in German). Golem.de. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
^"RHEDA-WIEDENBRÜCK: Familienstreit bei Tönnies lähmt Schlachtkonzern" (in German). Neue Westfälische. Archived from the original on 2012-09-26. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
^HDNET GmbH & Co. KG. "About Tönnies Lebensmittel GmbH & Co. KG". Toennies.com. Archived from the original on 2019-02-09. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
^"Landgericht Bielefeld: Wende bei Tönnies: Onkel und Neffe stimmen Mediation zu" (in German). T-Online.
^
"Tönnies steigert Umsatz auf 4,3 Milliarden Euro" (in German). Neue Westfälische. 2011-02-16. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
^Clemens Tönnies Jr. (using Starbuck as alias) (2010-03-18). "Netrunner 1.0 (Albedo)". Netrunner-os.com. Archived from the original on 2013-01-06. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
^
"Linux Mint signs a partnership with Blue Systems". Linux Mint. 2012-01-07.
^
"Blue Systems becomes Linux Mint partner and sponsor". H-online.com. 2012-01-09. Archived from the original on 16 January 2012.