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POWER TO THE PEOPLE
,----[ Quote ]
| In todayâs world, we have a âdigital divide,â
| wherein some people have the means and tools
| to exploit technology and others do not. In
| most developing countries, people still pirate
| software because they cannot afford to pay for
| it. Since the software they pirate is
| typically closed source, they cannot change it
| to meet their needs.
`----
http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Issues/2010/110/POWER-TO-THE-PEOPLE
Seven Observations On Software Maintenance And FOSS
,----[ Quote ]
| The piece got me thinking about FOSS (Free and
| Open Source Software) and âcontinuous
| upgradingâ. Here are seven observations on
| FOSS software maintenance that occurred to me
| as I reflected on the CACM article:
|
| 1. FOSS projects âcontinuouslyâ apply bug
| fixes and feature enhancements at no
| additional cost to their users. By applying
| these improvements âcontinuouslyâ, the user
| reaps a steady stream of âinterest
| paymentsâ providing ever-improving
| security, performance, and functionality.
| 2. Since FOSS incurs no licensing or
| license management costs, upgrading FOSS is
| not hindered by capital expenses.
`----
http://blog.remoteresponder.net/2009/11/30/seven-observations-on-software-maintenance-and-foss/
Recent:
Some nice things happened on the way through life.....
,----[ Quote ]
| He reminded me that I had taken him to visit
| my two goddaughters, and as we sat on the
| floor playing with them, their father, Linus
| Torvalds, came into the room and talked with
| us a bit. Afterwards we left the house and
| he said that I was "never to do that to him
| again". "Do what?", I asked, "I told you I
| was going to see my god-daughters...."
|
| I had "forgotten" about these times, but of
| course I remembered them when he told me. I
| am glad when I can influence someone's life
| in a positive way.
|
| When I met Mark Spencer, the creator of the
| Asterisk project, he told me that a talk I
| gave at a conference in 1999 convinced him
| to make the project Free and Open Source. It
| is revelations like this that keep me going.
`----
http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Blogs/Paw-Prints-Writings-of-the-maddog/Some-nice-things-happened-on-the-way-through-life
I never won a Nobel Peace Prize.
,----[ Quote ]
| I woke up on the morning of October 9th to
| find that President Obama had won the Nobel
| Peace Prize.
|
| There was a lot of discussion about whether
| President Obama had "earned" the honor or
| not, and a lot of discussion about how the
| Nobel Peace Prize is not always for what
| you have done, but encouraging you to keep
| going in what you are doing.
|
| As I read his acceptance speech, I thought
| about Free and Open Source Software, and
| applied parts of his speech to my favorite
| subject.
|
| "Let me be clear, I do not view it as a
| recognition of my own accomplishments"
|
| A lot of people have said to me, "Thank you
| for what you do for Free Software". I tell
| them that I was someone who was in a
| particular place at a particular time. I
| did what I thought needed doing, and what I
| had skills to do.
`----
http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Blogs/Paw-Prints-Writings-of-the-maddog/I-never-won-a-Nobel-Peace-Prize
This takes the cake (and make mine chocolate!)
,----[ Quote ]
| I heard recently, and could not really believe it until
| I saw it, that Microsoft was encouraging people to throw
| "Tupperware(R) parties" at their homes in order to
| launch the new version of Microsoft's products.
|
| [...]
|
| Linux can't do that, since anyone that anxious to get a
| fresh distribution of Linux just pulls it down off the
| Internet. This also allows the Linux user to get their
| beauty sleep instead of standing in line outside some
| store for hours.
`----
http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/Blogs/Paw-Prints-Writings-of-the-maddog/This-takes-the-cake-and-make-mine-chocolate!?blogbox
Winners of maddogs Colombian Multimedia Challenge
,----[ Quote ]
| The fact that the contestants learned about the use of Free Software
| multimedia tools, Creative Commons and understand media licensing more, made
| the effort of putting on the Challenge worthwhile.
`----
http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Blogs/Paw-Prints-Writings-of-the-maddog/Winners-of-maddogs-Colombian-Multimedia-Challenge
What a long, strange trip it has been...and continues to be
,----[ Quote ]
| While a lot of people are still using closed source, proprietary software,
| the message of Free Software is becoming better understood by more people. I
| believe we are gaining the critical mass needed to provide good jobs for
| anyone writing and contributing to Free Software.
|
| On Tuesday, May 26th I leave for a conference in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
| There, as I have for a couple of conferences this year and will for a couple
| more conferences this year, I will be talking to young people (and
| not-so-young people) about both the past history and the future promise of
| Free Software.
`----
http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/online/blogs/paw_prints_writings_of_the_maddog/what_a_long_strange_trip_it_has_been_and_continues_to_be?blogbox
Paw Prints: Writings of the maddog
,----[ Quote ]
| I was working for Digital Equipment Corporation when I first met Linus and
| facilitated the port of Linux onto the Alpha processor.
|
| During the port, a member of the community contacted me and asked if Digital
| would contribute their math library to the Linux project, since Digital's
| math library was a great deal faster than the one currently in use on the
| Alpha Linux port. I easily got Digital to contribute the Digital Unix math
| library in binary form, but they refused to make the library "open source"
| because of the investment that they had put into it.
`----
http://www.linux-magazine.com/online/blogs/paw_prints_writings_of_the_maddog/diy?blogbox
When Linux fails
,----[ Quote ]
| Jon âMaddogâ Hallâs keynote talk at the Ontario Linux Fest also made this
| point in a very powerful way. Jon is a wonderfully entertaining speaker, and
| not afraid of controversy. Showing a picture of a child in the African bush
| holding a âOne Laptop per Childâ laptop he said, âI donât care about this
| kid.â The audience drew a shocked breath. âHeâs screwed,â continued
| Jon. âFive hundred miles of bush behind him, five hundred miles of bush in
| front of him. Thereâs nothing I can do to help hereâ. Jon flipped the slide
| to show a Brazilian âfavelaâ, or slum city, with an incredibly dense
| population, seeming to cling to the side of a nearby hill. He said, âThis is
| where I can help. These kids have electricity. They can get a network
| connection. I can do something with Open Source and Free Software hereâ.
|
| Jon isnât a callous person. Heâs just decided to focus his resources on
| somewhere he knows he can help today. Itâs hard to find fault with him for
| that.
`----
http://www.tuxdeluxe.org/node/287
Show me the Code
,----[ Quote ]
| I was probably always subtly aware of the abilities of some free software
| programmers, so I should not continue to be amazed by what they can do. But I
| must admit they do continue to astonish me.
`----
http://www.linux-magazine.com/w3/issue/96/Doghouse_Open_Einstein.pdf
Open Source Software and Africa
,----[ Quote ]
| As an advocate for free, open-source software, I have run into
| Microsoft's "battles" many times, and your article ("Microsoft Battles
| Low-Cost Rival for Africa," page one, Oct. 28) made visible many of the
| issues around money-poor African nations being wooed by a large, powerful
| monopoly.
|
| However, your article doesn't go into the deeper value of using FOSS in
| Africa. Because FOSS supplies the source code for the software used, end
| users have the choice of using the software as it exists on the Internet or
| changing the software to meet their needs. Getting security fixes for
| software running on older systems (a natural need when you make $3 a day),
| changing the software to support your native language (not everyone speaks
| English), getting ancient peripherals to work long after the vendor lost
| interest in them (usually less than a year after the product ships), and
| developing a software economy in their own economic terms (creating high-tech
| jobs inside of their countries, instead of sending the money out of their
| countries) are all things that should be considered in the argument of free
| versus closed-source software.
|
| The public should ask how a company like Microsoft can continue to justify to
| their shareholders creating needed changes to their software for people who
| can't pay for those changes? The answer is that they can't justify it. In the
| future they will have to either start charging for the software on which
| people are now dependent or abandon the effort.
`----
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122602569707107649.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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