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GameLayers gets on track with Ruby on Rails

Lee Schlesinger

December 11, 2008 7:00:00 PM

GameLayers' Passively Multiplayer Online Game (PMOG), which allows users to immerse themselves in a virtual world of adventures, challenges, and intrigue, has been picking up traction thanks in part to its robust open source framework. Underpinning the popular online game is Ruby on Rails, a full-stack framework for developing database-backed Web applications that works with a variety of Web servers and databases.

Indian GNU/Linux advocate and independent FOSS consultant Raj Mathur (video)

roblimo

December 03, 2008 8:00:00 PM

New Delhi resident Raj Mathur is living proof that a Free and Open Source Software advocate can earn a decent living working with clients who are using or planning to use FOSS. Raj has also been a member of the Open Source Initiative board of directors and is a leading member of his local Linux users group. He's also contributed to more than a few Free Software projects over the years. Raj is a "heartbeat of GNU/Linux" kind of guy -- not famous, but a stalwart soldier in the worldwide FOSS army. (And a nice person, too.)

Open source Untangle guard union's privacy

Lee Schlesinger

November 24, 2008 8:00:00 PM

When Maine State Employees Association SEIU Local 1989 needed software to safeguard confidential information and ward off online threats, it found an open source solution. The labor union, which represents more than 15,000 public and private sector workers throughout the State of Maine, chose Untangle's open source Gateway platform, a solution that not only helps keep confidential data away from prying eyes, but also protects against spam, spyware, phishing, and viruses.

The tanking economy and OSS

Lee Schlesinger

November 21, 2008 9:00:00 PM

The economy is falling as fast as temperatures in November. Recession seems certain, if it's not already here. The stock market's performance resembles Disney World's Space Mountain roller coaster. And every open source vendor, every Linux project, will be touched in one way or another.

Slumberland rests easy after move away from proprietary Unix

Lee Schlesinger

November 17, 2008 7:00:00 PM

In 2005, when Slumberland faced end-of-lifecycle replacements of its proprietary Unix platform, its warehouse management system (WMS) vendor suggested a move to Red Hat Linux and commodity x86 servers. Seth Mitchell, the infrastructure team manager at the large furniture retailer, gladly agreed. Upper management wasn't quite as quick to jump on the open source bandwagon, but once the cost savings started rolling in, everyone agreed that it was a profitable decision.

Levolor leverages Talend to better manage floods of data

Lee Schlesinger

November 11, 2008 7:00:00 PM

When Levolor, a maker of window coverings, was looking for a better way to manage floods of data more quickly and efficiently, it ended up swapping its homegrown application for an open source tool.

Winemaker wears a Joomla! developer hat

Lee Schlesinger

November 10, 2008 7:00:00 PM

Dave Whiting, the principal at Red Newt Cellars winery in upstate New York, was tired of chasing vendors to try to get them to support clunky custom content management systems on his site at RedNewt.com. The independent winemaker decided to branch out and teach himself site development skills, with the help of some popular open source applications. The happy result is a full-featured interactive ecommerce site that Whiting says is flexible, scalable, and secure.

How to get VC investment for your open source business

Lee Schlesinger

October 23, 2008 9:00:00 PM

So, you've got the greatest open source idea since Firefox. It's guaranteed to be bigger than TCP/IP. All you need now is some scratch to get your project off the ground. Given the genius of your idea, you're sure you'll have to beat off potential investors with a stick. If you think that's reality, I've got some subprime mortgages to sell you. Getting venture capital (VC) to fund your business is hard work, even if you have a commercial product to sell. The degree of difficulty ratchets up many times if you're an open source developer. It can be done, but it takes such single-minded focus that getting turned down multiple -- maybe even dozens -- of times won't faze you.

Indian political party turns to FOSS

Lee Schlesinger

October 20, 2008 9:00:00 PM

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is India's largest political party, with around 20 million Ordinary Members and about 4 million Active Members. In June, BJP announced its goal to become one of the most high-tech political parties in the next two years, and free and open source software (FOSS) will play an essential role in this project.

Selling GNU/Linux in a box

Lee Schlesinger

September 05, 2008 9:00:00 PM

Eight years ago, computer stores stocked a choice of GNU/Linux distributions -- established ones like Caldera, Red Hat, and SUSE, and newcomers like Corel, Progeny, and Stormix. Now, only Ubuntu and openSUSE offer box sets, and both face challenges that other distributions found unsolvable, ranging from reasonable prices and features sets through to getting into distribution channels and finding the right marketing approach -- all for an effort that may be only moderately profitable at best, and perhaps best undertaken for non-financial reasons.

Voiceroute execs talk about going (mostly) open source (video)

roblimo

August 27, 2008 9:00:00 PM

Voiceroute, a software PBX vendor, originally started as a proprietary software company but went (at least partly) open source earlier this year. In this video, CEO Ming Guang Yong says the company should have moved toward open source "a lot sooner," and explains why. He and CTO Navin Kumar also talk about some of the specific differences between their open source and proprietary versions, including how and where they draw the line between the two, and share their thoughts about dealing with open source developers and building a successful open source development community.

Cisco buys PostPath, targets Microsoft Exchange

Nathan Willis

August 27, 2008 7:00:00 PM

No one saw this coming. Cisco, the networking giant, announced today it was buying PostPath, maker of the Linux-based Exchange server replacement PostPath Server.

A business built on open source, virtualization, and clouds

Lee Schlesinger

August 26, 2008 9:00:00 PM

ReadyTechs provides network support services for companies that don't want the expense of hiring and caring for their own employees. Now CEO Gerry Libertelli says the company is using Linux virtualization to open a new income stream based on cloud computing.

Bradley Kuhn discusses software innovation, freedom, and the law (video)

roblimo

August 21, 2008 9:00:00 PM

Bradley Kuhn is not a lawyer, but he works at the Software Freedom Law Center and heads the Software Freedom Conservancy. He is fun to watch and listen to because he walks the tightrope between creative, carefree developers and cautious, legally-minded lawyers. Linux.com talked with Kuhn a few months ago, but he says lots more in this 30-minute video than in that interview -- including plenty of thoughts on how businesses based on free software can (and often do) turn a profit, plus some comments on how and why open source is helping the next generation of programmers develop and improve their skills.

Learn about the Open Source Census (video)

roblimo

August 14, 2008 9:00:00 PM

The Open Source Census goes way beyond the traditional, too rarely used Linux Counter. It claims to be "the first collaborative, global project to count the number of installations for each open source software package." A lofty (and possibly unobtainable) goal, perhaps, but in this video, shot at LinuxWorld 2008, OpenLogic's Kim Wein explains why OpenLogic, along with more than a dozen other companies and groups, is sponsoring the Open Source Census.

Fluendo walks the line between free and proprietary codecs

Lee Schlesinger

August 14, 2008 7:00:00 PM

Despite all its advances, GNU/Linux remains weak in its support for proprietary audio and video codecs. Because these codecs are often encumbered by patents, distributions must choose either to include support of questionable legality or else exclude it altogether. In the middle of this controversy sits Fluendo, a Catalan company of about 50 employees that is a main contributor to projects like GStreamer, and supports open formats, but also offers licensed, proprietary codecs such as Windows Media Video and MPEG4. While many would argue that this dual position is necessary, it's one that sometimes creates an unasy balance for the company, says Muriel Moscardini, Fluendo's sale director.

Business combats network management woes with open source GroundWork

Lee Schlesinger

August 11, 2008 9:00:00 PM

When Sam Lamonica stepped into the CIO role at Rudolph and Sletten five years ago, he set out to tame an ungainly network by using an orderly open source network monitoring solution.

Coverity's open source code audit efforts are funded by the US government (video)

roblimo

August 09, 2008 2:00:00 PM

Coverity famously helps open source projects audit their code and eliminate security holes and other bugs, and earns its corporate income by selling software that does the same thing to proprietary software companies. Few seem to realize, though, that Coverity started doing free open source code audits because it got a grant from the US Department of Homeland Security. Coverity's David Maxwell explains.

Open source technology is hungry for new college grads

roblimo

August 08, 2008 9:00:00 PM

Many college graduates are finding it difficult to enter the information technology world with little or no work experience. There is no such thing as an entry-level position anymore, and more and more graduates are finding themselves in a catch-22 situation because of this.

RipCode builds video transcoding device on Linux base

Lee Schlesinger

August 06, 2008 9:00:00 PM

When RipCode decided to build a video transcoding device three years ago, it used MontaVista Linux Professional Edition, a platform designed for developers who want all the benefits of an open source development environment.

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