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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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Microsoft pushes India toward Linux
3 months, 1 week ago
"One of India's 28 states plans to distribute 100,000 Linux laptops to students there. ELCOT (Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited) apparently decided to use Linux exclusively after being put off by Microsoft's bundling tactics for academic users .... " -
Five ways for Windows users to test drive GNU/Linux
3 months, 2 weeks ago
Which test drive you chose depends on how much you want to impress that adventurous Windows user. Vroom, vroom! -
Spread Firefox on Download Day 2008
4 months, 1 week ago
"Set a Guinness World Record, Enjoy a Better Web: Sounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours - it’s that easy .... " -
The meaning of open source
4 months, 2 weeks ago
"Like many Linux Journal readers, I have been upgrading my Gibbons to Herons recently. And like many readers, I imagine, I have been finding a few little challenges along the way .... " -
Mozilla speaks out against the free but proprietary Web
5 months, 1 week 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?
9 months, 1 week 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
9 months, 3 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
11 months, 3 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?
11 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
11 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
1 year, 1 month 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
1 year, 1 month 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
1 year, 1 month 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?
1 year, 1 month 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
1 year, 1 month 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 .... " - More News
Linux.com : Advocacy
Edward Cherlin expands the vision of OLPC (video)
You may know about One Laptop per Child (OLPC), Sugar, and the many projects inspired by this initiative. You may not know Edward Mokurai Cherlin or of his plans for OLPC: Education, economic development, global commerce, all in an environmentally friendly, fair-trade context -- plus ending poverty at a profit. All in less than 40 minutes of conversation.
Linux Foundation to host End User Collaboration Summit
The Linux Foundation plans to hold an End User Collaboration Summit in New York City in October. The press release we received introducing the event said, "It's by invitation, but registration is free, in keeping with the idea of opening it to 'real' end users."
Bradley Kuhn discusses software innovation, freedom, and the law (video)
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.
Meet Open Invention Network CEO Keith Bergelt (video)
Linux.com correspondent R. Scott Belford caught up with Open Invention Network CEO Keith Bergelt at the 2008 LinuxWorld Expo and had a pleasant (on-camera) conversation with him.
autonom.us aims to be think-tank on network service software licensing issues
Network services are one of the fastest growing areas in modern software. However, while network services have much of the convenience of free software, only a minority are available under a free license. In fact, it was only last November that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) released the GNU Affero General Public License for network services. Under these conditions, last week's announcement of the formation of autonom.us, a new activist group "to focus on issues of software freedom in network services," seems overdue. The group's immediate plans are still evolving, but currently, its main goal -- so far as it has one yet -- seems to be as a policy discussion and advocacy group.
Meet the people behind the Open Source Initiative (video)
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is the group that decides whether a software license merits a seal of approval as actual, genuine open source software. It has never been a secret group -- its license-discuss email list has always been open to all comers, for example -- but not many open source users or developers know who belongs to the board or what they do. This impromptu, hand-held video -- shot at OSCON 2008 -- is, we believe, the first time the OSI board has been introduced to the public on-camera as a single body. We may have missed a member or two, but this is still a valuable introduction to the people who run OSI and how their meetings work.
FSF organizes against Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
Nobody knows yet what the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will consist of, but the few available indications are so ominous that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has started a campaign to raise public awareness of the possibilities. According to Matt Lee, an FSF campaign manager, ACTA threatens to "create a culture of fear and suspicion," and, in the worst-case scenario, undermine and demonize free software.
Event aims to bring Lindependence to one California town
An enterprising group has taken on a radical approach in attracting users to Linux: switch a whole town! Dubbed "Lindependence 2008" (a.k.a. LIN08), this event strives to switch citizens in Felton, Calif., for at least a week from Microsoft Windows to Linux. The initiative, loosely led by Ken Starks in Austin, Texas, and Larry Cafiero in Felton, has taken the idea of introducing normal computer users to Linux to screaming heights. By July 28, those in Felton who decide to take the plunge will go Microsoft-free for a week or more.
Barracuda launches reluctant legal offensive against Trend Micro
The already vicious lawsuit involving Barracuda Networks and Trend Micro that is currently in discovery in front of the American International Trade Commission (ITC) just turned nastier. Barracuda has filed its own patent infringement claim against Trend Micro, based upon three recently acquired patents. The suit is in response to Trend Micro's allegation that its patent is being infringed by Barracuda shipping Clam Antivirus (ClamAV), the popular free software application, and appears designed to pressure Trend Micro to reach a negotiated settlement.
Portrait: Pia Waugh
Pia Waugh is a leading advocate for FLOSS in her home country, Australia, and all over the world. In addition to running a consultancy in partnership with her husband, she is the vice president of Linux Australia, the president of Software Freedom International (sponsor of the annual Software Freedom Day events), and on the board of directors of the OLPC Australia program. Perhaps because her activities are born out of a love for open source software, or maybe because her husband Jeff is also a major figure in global FLOSS, Waugh says the balance between work and life for her right now is "nonexistent. But we love what we do."
Advice for anyone who wants to put on a regional Linux show (video)
The first Florida Linux Show, held in Jacksonville earlier this year, drew more than 300 people and made enough of a splash that its organizers plan to repeat the experience in 2009. Those organizers, Rod Sharp and Don Corbet, sat down with Linux.com to tell us about their experiences -- good and bad -- putting their show together, and offered advice for others who want to put on regional Linux conferences.
Famelix and the dangers of combating Windows
One of the perennial debates about the GNU/Linux desktop is how much it should resemble Windows. Usually, the debate is framed in terms of whether the desktop should look familiar to new users, or be developed in whatever way seems most logical. However, if the experience of the Famelix distribution in Brazil is any indication, imitating Windows and outperforming it can also leave you open to other threats, including accusations of piracy and changes of policy by Windows-centric management.
New group advocates for FOSS in libraries
A new advocacy group, the Public Software Foundation (PSF), is working to make free and open source software available to local libraries so it can be checked out and used just like a book or video. The premise is simple: hand out one CD and maybe you've taught one person; make it available in a library and perhaps you'll reach hundreds or thousands.
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.
