Thursday, 13. August 2009
GNU Generation, an open source community for teens!
The Free Software foundation has launched a community for teens ages 13 to 18 that are interested in contributing to open source. It’s goal is to give kids interested in open source development, a place to exchange ideas and participate in open source projects. GNU Generation isn’t just for coders. It will encourage kids to contribute art and documentation, and promote advocacy as well.
In a time where Open Source is starting to get a real foot hold on the American computer frontier, it’s good to see organizations reaching out to our youth with constructive ideas.
GNU Generation is holding annual contests and award the participants with free memberships and prizes.
Good going GNU!
– Stu
Tuesday, 11. August 2009
Why it’s important to pay for every copy of software you use.
Recently, I was chatting with some ‘Non Geek’ friends about the software they run on their home PCs. I was not surprised to hear that most of them ran a Microsoft OS and almost all Microsoft software. What was a surprise, was how many of them did not purchase the software for their PCs, or did not pay the license fees for every PC that was running the software on.
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Wednesday, 5. August 2009
Why do I even try…
As my dad used to say, “Sometimes, the Dragon, he wins…”. For quite a while now, I have been on a mission to try to move my wife over to Open Office. She is a devoted Microsoft user, and runs the only jointly owned PC that has Windows as it’s primary operating system. Now, I’m not a totally anti-Microsoft, and I do believe that a person has the right to use whatever software they like, and are willing to properly license. But I really have a problem with paying for any software license when an equivalent Open Source option is available. I can’t seem to get through to my lovely wife, that Open Office will do all the things she uses MS Office for. The really sad thing, is she won’t even try Open Office. She gets mad if it’s on her PC! And when I ask her why she is against using it, she has the following reasons:
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Monday, 3. August 2009
Firefox Web Browser enjoys it’s 1 Billionth download.
Wow, who would have thought that an open source project could do so well against the big “M”. Experts are saying that Firefox now has 32% of the browser market. This is probably the net result of all those crap plugins and the rest of the shoddy code that Micro$oft has been dumping on to the Internet these last 15 years. Looks like people are finally getting wise, at least when it comes to browsing…
Maybe this is a sign that the end user is starting to get it. Maybe Open Office, with it’s safer interface to the network, and it’s open standard file format will make a play for the end user desktop… Or maybe not…
Regardless, with this news, we can all say that open source has made a difference in a lot of peoples lives, and will continue to do so for a long time to come!
Congratulations Mozilla developers, you’ve done good!
– Stu
Tuesday, 21. July 2009
Microsoft submits thousands of lines of code for inclusion in the Linux Kernel.
Yep, you’re not seeing things. On July 20, 2009 at OSCON, Microsoft announced their submission of three drivers to the Linux kernel. These drivers are licensed under the GPL2, and according to the group that handles such submissions, they have met all criteria for the drivers to be excepted in to the main line kernel.
At first glance, it would appear that all that screaming and jumping around that Ballmer is famous for managed to cause him to burst a blood vessel in his brain, but after reading the stories surrounding the submission, it turns out that this is no act of charity by Microsoft.
Why would Microsoft want to help Linux?
The short answer here is that they aren’t helping Linux, they are submitting code that’s sole goal is to make Linux run better under the Microsoft Virtualization platform. The drivers submitted are to allow Linux to work with Microsoft’s hypervisor. This will give Microsoft an advantage over competing virtualization platforms such as VMWare.
So, if this will give Microsoft an advantage, why would Linux except the code?
Most of the people I know, are asking why the kernel project would even consider accepting the code? Well, because Microsoft played by the open source rules, that’s why. Unlike Microsoft, the open source community sets guidelines to protect from discrimination. Unlike corporate models that favor certain groups over others when it comes to code or driver submission, most open source projects have a more down to earth approach. Check out what the rules are for submitting drivers to the Linux kernel, and you’ll understand why.
So, even though Microsoft’s intentions are not what I would consider angelic, as long as they meet the requirements for inclusion, they get to play on our field as well.
– Stu
