Summercoders for 2006 were chosen in a final contest held in Helsinki at 7th of March 2006. The five chosen students got a ”summer job” doing an open source project. The applications gave the students a chance not only to suggest the project of participation, but also the particular tasks. The criteria stressed on business viewpoints though subjects of applications weren’t chosen in advance.
This time the spotlight stopped on projects in which all end user applications are developed. Tuukka Hastrup developed Compiz -window managering, Lauri Kainulainen gDesklets -add ons to Linux desktop environment, Riku Leino Scribus desktop publishing program, Harri Pitkänen Finnish proofreading and hyphenation software and Henri Sivonen Mozilla Firefox properties.
– The quality of the final applicants was especially high. A small surprise was, that applications were so much about end user software. This too is a tell tale sign of open source development expanding from infrastructural solutions towards the end user, told the chairman of the council behind the selections, COSS director Petri Räsänen.
Selecting counsil included representatives of the funders IBM, Nokia, Ericcson, Novell and Technology Centre Hermia. The counsil consulted also the representatives of FLUG (Finnish Linux User Group), Linux-aktivaattori and TKO-Äly.