Open Source > Linux > LQ
June 14, 2005 Leave a comment
A little late, but I just booked my Gnomedex trip. So late in fact, that I'll be in the “cove” (aka in the room next door with a live A/V feed). Better late than never though. If you'll be attending, so you there.
–jeremy
Gnomedex Gnomedex
June 11, 2005 Leave a comment
It's been quiet here for a little while now. I didn't go anywhere, but sometimes life gets in the way. I should return to my normal posting frequency “real soon now”.
–jeremy
June 2, 2005 2 Comments
We're all quick to bash Microsoft when they do something silly, so we should also pay attention when they do something good. I was happy when I saw an article entitled “Microsoft Ends Era Of Closed File Formats”. Could it be true, I thought?? Are they finally starting to get it? I read the announcement, but there's not too much detail in there. So I started digging around. In the end I think this is, unfortunately, being a little bit over-hyped. There is some good though: Word, Excel, and Powerpoint will get a new file format all based on XML. The new file format is actually enclosed in a ZIP file. Change the extension name to .ZIP and you'll be able to double-click and get access to all the pieces of the new format. The new file format will be usable on existing versions of Office (all the way back to '97) and the format will be document and available gratis. So far, so good. The bad news? First, one has to wonder if this patent will come into play here. I hope not. If they wanted true interoperability, wouldn't they have adopted the OASIS standard? I think they want to appeal to all the large corporations and Governments who are demanding open formats, while still retaining a lot of control over that format. Additionally, reading the FAQ, it looks like the license is completely incompatible with the GPL. Once again, this really seems like something we'll have to wait out and keep a close eye on to see how it plays out. One thing is for sure though, the importance of open document formats can no longer be denied.
–jeremy
May 29, 2005 1 Comment
Good to see that the Indian government is distributing free CDs that contain localized versions of popular open-source applications. From the article:
The government has started distributing CDs containing Tamil-language versions of various open-source applications, including the Firefox browser, the OpenOffice.org productivity suite and the Columba e-mail client. It plans to freely distribute 3.5 million copies of the CD to Tamil speakers worldwide
Eventually, the government plans to release CDs in all of the 22 official languages of India. The great thing here from my point of view is that “cost” does not seem to be the main driver for this decision. The ability to modify the code, in this case to do UI changes to suit a different culture and do localizations, was the deciding factor here. The fact that we are seeing more and more Open Source adoption for reasons besides “it's cheaper”, to me means that many Open Source apps are indeed ready for prime time adoption.
–jeremy
May 28, 2005 1 Comment
We often hear the question “Is Linux ready for the desktop. Robin 'Roblimo' Miller asks a different question. What do you think ;)
–jeremy
May 24, 2005 Leave a comment
Chatted with Doug Kaye from IT Conversations a little today about the audio quality of LQ Radio. He had given me a few tips in the past, and I just purchased the same audio processor that he uses for ITC to use for LQ Radio. I'll be using his suggestions for knob turning for the next Podcast. If you've never heard the quality releases that Doug does at IT Conversations, I encourage you to go take a listen. Thanks Doug.
–jeremy
Podcast, Podcasting
May 23, 2005 Leave a comment
I mentioned Simula Labs in the latest LinuxQuestions.org Podcast, but looking a little closer at the article, this is not exactly what I thought it was at first. From the article:
The business model Simula intends to set up with these planned ventures is very similar to that of Gluecode. Companies will employ the important engineers behind an open-source project and sell subscription services for support, training and more functional products based on the open-source code.
Simula executives will take an active role in company creation, acting as co-founders and providing expertise.
This means, they aren't looking to do what a traditional venture capital firm does (ie. give money to a team of entrepreneurs who have a good idea in the hopes they will eventually turn a humongous profit or get acquired), they are looking to start the companies themselves and hire members of the projects they decide to use. This invariably will mean less money for the people from the projects (as opposed to if they started the company) but also, of course, much less risk too. Not sure how I feel about this one quite yet, but it's a much different thing than I thought at first.
–jeremy
May 22, 2005 Leave a comment
As Jeremy points out, Google is on the slippery slope to “Portaldom”, despite what CEO Eric Schmidt says here. The thing is, I don't really see anything wrong with this. They say that the clean search-only page will be the default and until they prove otherwise, I believe them. Somewhere along the bubble, “portals” became bad. But I don't think they are bad, they were just done poorly and over-hyped (to say the least). A clean, well thought out, page where you can see a bunch of different things that interest you and access a bunch of tools you use just makes sense. It's great for the vendor too, since if you use their portal you are more likely to use more of their services. The battle here continues to heat up, and the winner is us.
–jeremy
May 20, 2005 Leave a comment
Looks like it happened again. While Microsoft employees were off in one direction (in my opinion the correct direction) and doing something good, an exec goes and says something completely opposite and contradictory. This seems to be happening a lot lately. It's hard to argue with the fact that Gates and Ballmer have lead the company to huge successes, but one has to wonder – are the two holding Microsoft back at this point? Their vision and need to dominate are really stopping Microsoft from changing, and change in some areas they need quite badly. What was at one point one of their biggest strengths may in the end turn into their biggest weakness.
—jeremy
May 20, 2005 Leave a comment
Looks like Michael Dell has commented on the Red Hat investment I blogged about a little while back. From the article:
Dell played down the investment, however, saying that while he meets with MSD's management once every couple of months, he is not personally involved in its investment choices. “I didn't know they had made this investment,” he said. “That's not the sort of thing we talk about.”
That news sure hasn't slowed down the stock, which has gone up considerably in the last week. Whether or not he knew about the deal before hand, I still see the investment as an affirmation of the business potential that Linux holds. As I mentioned earlier, I thought the acquisition rumors were a bit far fetched anyway. This is still good news.
–jeremy
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