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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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Mozilla speaks out against the free but proprietary Web
1 week, 6 days ago
Mozilla Europe's founder Tristan Nitot has no problem with free software. Indeed, his organization has created some of the best of it.... -
Is Linux worth the effort?
4 months, 2 weeks ago
"I've spent the better part of the past 2 weeks banging away on 2 LTSP servers for our school district. I find myself lamenting to those around me, and being an otherwise cranky guy as well..." -
A logo program I can get behind
4 months, 4 weeks ago
Neuros has proposed a new logo to identify DRM-free content and the devices that play it. -
Stallman: students should be taught to share with the class
6 months, 4 weeks ago
"Richard Stallman, in receiving an honorary Doctorate from Italy's University of Pavia, brought back memories of the basic primary school principle that students bringing cookies to class should bring enough for everyone .... " -
Collaboration: best reason for government open source?
6 months, 4 weeks ago
"Ask a software vendor why governments need open source, and the answer will likely be collaboration. But public agencies may be more interested in the bottom line .... " -
13 reasons why Linux should be on your desktop
6 months, 4 weeks ago
"A couple of years ago, the Linux desktop was a pimply adolescent with half-baked ideas. Today we see a handsome, well-dressed grown-up who handles a range of tasks with confidence and even performs fancy tricks. No longer need we make allowances for his dress sense or his strange habits ... " -
Women of Tech: Hear Us Roar
8 months, 2 weeks ago
There's no doubt that women coders, developers, designers, and programmers are a powerful force in the modern tech industry, despite their smaller numbers compared to men. At the same time many of the major impacts and innovations of women at every level of the development and evolution of technology--from the first female coders to today's Web 2.0 pioneers--aren't all that well known.
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Poland votes for Microsoft OOXML
8 months, 2 weeks ago
Technical Committee 182 decided on August 30th to accept Microsoft format Office Open XML as an ISO standard. Another committee already voted against OOXML last week, but the KT 182 decision is the final vote of Poland (most likely). -
Two document standards means continued interoperability gap
8 months, 2 weeks ago
"A recent News.com article by Martin LaMonica reports on the ODF vs OOXML war. The report mentions the arguments over one standard vs two competing standards. But shouldn't we be trying to solve - not prolong - the interoperability gap?" -
Is free and open code a form of infrastructure? How about the humans who write it?
8 months, 2 weeks ago
"Here in the free software and open source (FOSS) worlds, we're used to making, and employing, building materials that are products of human mentation. There are dependencies here, and the primary ones are on the human beings who write code. And patch it. And rewrite it. And continue to improve it, making it more and more useful .... " -
In defense of Open Source
8 months, 2 weeks ago
"The topic around which the most discussion encircled was open source, and boy were there divergent views among the week’s ensemble. MBW regulars Scott Bourne and Andy Ihnatko took allegiance to cutthroat capitalism, while host Leo Laporte and the reigning jokester Merlin Mann took too trumpeting openness everywhere and hippie love for all. Alright, maybe things didn’t go exactly that way, but the synopsis presented above is close enough .... " -
Competition is not good
8 months, 2 weeks ago
"I hear often that when something new appears that "competition is good". The primary reasons competition is seen as good, are: it drives down prices; it gives consumers more choice; it pushes technology forward, quicker. Competition is not good because: competition is why consumers have to choose between HD-DVD and BluRay; competition is why DRM exists; and more. In this article, each of the supposed benefits of competition will be looked at in more detail.... " -
Taking the open source message on the road
9 months, 2 weeks ago
"The Open Solutions Alliance has launched a series of Customer Forums on behalf of open source around the country .... " -
Open source and scratching itches in the cloud
9 months, 2 weeks ago
"I read a couple of posts today which made me think about open source in web 2.0 - the first is Tim O'Reilly on Yahoo supporting Hadoop and the other is Dare on 'Free Data' .... " -
At least 8 percent hypocrisy: the GPLv3 jumpers
9 months, 2 weeks ago
"Consulting gpl3.palamida.com, a site who monitors the conversions to GPLv3 and LGPLv3, he notes: "out of the 3,205 projects licensed under GPLv2 or later, about 8 percent of them have moved to the GPLv3 ... " - More News
Linux.com : Advocacy
Bdale Garbee: A fascinating 'open source celebrity' (video)
Let's get the first Bdale question out of the way right now: no, he didn't sell half the vowels in his name. His birth name was Barksdale, later shortened to B'dale, then to Bdale. The next thing you notice (in person) about Bdale Garbee is his size. He's a very large person. But all that aside, look at his personal home page and Wikipedia entry and you'll realize that this man is one of the most prolific contributors to Linux and open source in the world. Besides all that, he's nice (and often funny), too.
Meet Inna Kuznetsova, IBM's Linux Strategy Director (video)
I always ask people who market (as opposed to develop) GNU/Linux and open source products or services what Linux distribution they use on their own computers. More often than not, the answer is along the lines of, "I'm a marketing person so I use Windows. The techies use Linux." Inna, on the other hand, uses not one, not two, but three different Linux distributions on her home computers. When she tells an IBM client Linux is the way to go, she obviously means it, and this surely makes a difference -- even if it's only a subtle one -- in her work.
Tim Bray provides a bridge between Sun and developers
"I'm a genuine old fart," says Tim Bray as he looks back at his three decades in computing. Widely known for his standards work on XML and the Atom syndication format, at an age when many former developers have moved entirely into management, he seems to have found a niche that takes advantage of his experience. As director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems, his job is to keep current with Web and general programming and to encourage adaptation of new developments within the corporation. At the recent Open Web Vancouver conference, Bray talked to Linux.com about how he fills his role at Sun, and the trends he sees in computing.
Desktop Linux strategies for marketplace success
What strategy is needed to really spread desktop Linux to average home users? Here are some ideas that just might work.
Open source diva Danese Cooper (video)
We first met Danese Cooper when she was working for Sun, where she was a major internal open source advocate and often Sun's major spokesperson to the rest of the world about open source. She's currently doing something similar at Intel, besides serving on the Open Source Initiative board and generally being a popular speaker at GNU/Linux and open source conferences. She's also quoted now and then about open source, often on licensing matters.
Bradley Kuhn makes a better world through software freedom
Bradley Kuhn is one of the founding team members of the Software Freedom Law Center, and a longtime advocate for the cause of Free Software. Many consider him one of the most influential voices in the worldwide FLOSS community. Kuhn, formerly the executive director of the Free Software Foundation, took some time recently to catch us up on his latest work.
Bruce Perens tells how he got involved with Linux and Free Software (video)
You've probably seen quotes from long-time Linux and Free Software advocate Bruce Perens, and you may have even have seen his picture a few times. Now, in this exclusive Linux.com video, you have a chance to "meet" him in a little more personal way, and to learn how Bruce got interested in Linux and FOSS -- and why he stays both interested and involved.
Comic strip aims for a fun way to educate new Linux users
Jeremiah Gray wants to provide an interesting way to learn about Linux, so he's created a new comic strip, called Hackett and Bankwell, about the open source operating system. The strip will be published as a series of comic books that Gray hopes will appeal to new Linux users, but he says it is "more than just a comic book version of a Linux training guide."
Document Freedom Day is more than a single day
Today marks the first Document Freedom Day. Inspired by Software Freedom Day, which is now is now in its fifth year, DFD is intended as an annual series of grass root events worldwide "to educate the public about the importance of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general," according to the About page on the DFD Web site. The day is planned not as an end in itself so much as the highlight of year-round efforts, many of which predate DFD itself.
Linus Torvalds keynote speech -- from 2000 (video)
While looking through the Linux.com video archives a few days ago, we found a digital video tape we shot of Linus Torvalds speaking at the first New York City LinuxWorld Expo in 2000. Back then, of course, we (at least some of the same people) worked for a company called Andover.net, which got absorbed by VA Linux, which has now morphed into SourceForge, Inc. Things have certainly changed since then, haven't they?
Government/corporate project declares plan to promote OSS within the EU
An ambitious initiative that aims to bring open source software to a new level in Europe hopes to make competition with US companies more interesting. QualiPSo is a four-year project partly funded by the EU. Its mission is to "bring together the major players of a new way to use and deploy open source software (OSS), fostering its quality and trust from corporations and governments."
Rare Jon 'maddog' Hall video interview - and an even rarer maddog video speech excerpt
He's a popular guy, that maddog. And with good reason. It's a little surprising that there is nary a video of him speaking to be seen anywhere on the Web. So here you go, video-lovers and maddog fans. These videos are for you.
Linux.com chats with new OpenSUSE community manager Joe Brockmeier (video exclusive)
Yes, it's the same Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier who used to be editorial director of Linux.com, and was later editor in chief of Linux Magazine. This week he was named openSUSE community manager, a position analogous to the one held with great distinction by Max Spevack at Fedora until just a few weeks ago. Just about every publication that covers Linux and FOSS has been clamoring to interview Joe, and he's been typing email interview answers like crazy. As a break from that routine he stopped by the Linux.com editorial office and talked a bit about how the new job is going, what he expects to do, and how it feels to be the interviewee instead of the interviewer.
An oral history of LinuxCabal (video)
In today's world of corporatized GNU/Linux and FOSS, it's easy to forget that Linux was originally "marketed" by decidedly non-mainstream people, many of whom are now ignored or forgotten. Richard Couture (check this old bio page for him) is one of the more colorful members of that elite group. He co-founded LinuxCabal in San Francisco in 1996 and moved it -- and himself -- to Guadalajara (Mexico) in 2005, where LinuxCabal is once again a notable force in grassroots Linux evangelism. But that's enough talk from us. Richard tells the story better than we do, which is why we were pleased to get him to talk into the Linux.com video camera between sessions at the 6º. Festival GNU/Linux y Software Libre, held in Puerto Vallarta (Mexico) in November 2007.
Tech charities to consider this giving season
As part of my year-end planning I look at what charities to donate to, since charitable contributions are tax-deductible. Here's a list of charities with ties to free software, open source, and information technology.
The day of the Linux desktop
I've been hearing the phrase "This is the year of the Linux desktop" for 10 years. For me, it's been a true statement for each of those years, because GNU/Linux has been my primary desktop operating system since 1997. But for most people around the world, this is the year of the the Windows desktop, same as it was last year and the year before. But if we each spent one day telling others about GNU/Linux, could we make a difference in the lives of at least a few people? I think so. That's why I'm promising -- right here and right now -- to spend at least one day in the next three months handing out free GNU/Linux install CDs, and why I invite you to join me in this effort.
Forbes columnist Dan Lyons says he really likes Linux, no matter what anyone else says (video)
During a session at the 2007 Online News Association conference in Toronto, Canada, I had a chance to point my video camera at Forbes columnist (and Fake Steve Jobs blogger) Dan Lyons. He told me that people who say he dislikes Linux are not being fair to him; that out of 70 articles he's written about Linux, 67 have been positive, and he absolutely denies that he is paid by Microsoft to write what he does about Linux, Apple, or anything else.
FSF links up with environmental groups
Continuing its efforts to connect with social activists, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has released an open letter signed by major environmental organizations. The letter urges activists to reject lockdown technologies in general and Windows Vista in particular as hostile to their ethics and the causes they support, and to support free software instead. The letter is only the first in a series that the FSF plans to release in the coming months, each of which will be crafted to make an ethical or pragmatic appeal to a specific group's concerns.
OSI email group gets catty over Microsoft's Permissive License request
The OSI License-Discuss mailing list has been ablaze for the past few days since Microsoft submitted its Permissive License (MS-PL) to the OSI [Open Source Initiative] for official open source license approval. Jon Rosenberg, source program director for Microsoft, posted, "Microsoft believes that this license provides unique value to the open source community by delivering simplicity, brevity, and permissive terms combined with intellectual property protection."
Ubuntu tries to go LoCo in all 50 states
The Ubuntu community is seeking to get approved Local Community (LoCo) teams in all 50 states in the US by the end of this year, and it's making impressive progress.
