Made with the GNU
Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)

ARELY should politicians get involved in the software industry. Ever. As a matter of fact, they generally fear that unknown as seldom will they be familiar with the latest technology. Everyone steers away from anything which can expose ignorance and lead to an embarrassment, at peer or public level.

Last Friday, however, marked a turning point — a remarkable exception. The US Government served as the spokesman of Microsoft Corp. Granted, the Department of Homeland Security encouraged people to receive some ‘binary blobs’ from our friends at Redmond. Now, I would not like to baselessly step forward and nag about nepotism and ill conduct over at Microsoft and the US Government. However, knowing the historical background of both Microsoft and — more latterly — the US Government (heavy eavesdropping comes to mind), I would barely hesitate.

Bill Gates is an immoral, irritable person. Steve Ballmer is not any better. He never steered away from or averted any controversy. Both have proven that they have a real spark for incompetence and unethical business practices. More broadly speaking, the Draconian Microsoft was never afraid of altercations or was rarely deterred to embrace questionable behaviour. Over the years they disrupted the equilibrium in industry, shrewdly exploiting loopholes in American capitalism, through apathy amongst the American government, as well as its blind eye (Gates’ grandfather was a State Senator). Fortunately, on the other side of the Atlantic, the European Commission has watched over Microsoft like a hawk. This is well overdue. The EU/EC is also fining that ‘evil empire’ for outmuscling its competition quite aggressively, as well as for hiding key information. It is doing the job that the American government was supposed to do, but chose to turn a blind eye to.

Alas, IANAL (I am not a lawyer). Discussions in some legal forums were never fruitful as they didn’t end up leaning in my favour. I hope people can judge for themselves and realise that Windows is inclined towards a spy-friendly ideaology and, for real privacy, Open Source must be welcomed with open arms. The other gripe I have with Microsoft is its ruining of the World Wide Web as it also heavily affects those who turned their back on Microsoft.

Related items: Vista Encryption and Back Doors

UPDATE: Just noticed a similar blog post somewhere else

ERE is the latest find (a video) which illustrates how beautiful and powerful Linux has become. It is a showcase of dual-head with Compiz/XGL, all under a GNOME desktop. Some continue to argue, backed by myths, that GNOME and KDE are ugly and/or hard to use. I refuted both claims, I hope. Some would say that Fedora does not look so nice ‘out of the box’ (truly a matter of personal opinion). Nevertheless, just like any Linux distribution, it’s extensible and customisable. Here are two visual examples that I could quickly find on KDE-look.org:

1. I Love My Fedora
2. Metal Fedora

Related item: GNOME and XGL Showcases

I learned to love the mockup that I had prepared with
the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) last month

TEREOTYPES are hard to fight, but logical inclinations are even harder to change. Everyone wishes to push away the enemy, whatever or whoever that enemy may be. First they ignore, then they ridicule and laugh at the enemy. Finally, they fight, before inevitably conceding and losing (attribution: Ghandi was among some people to use this 4-step breakdown, but he was not necessarily the first).

What point am I approaching here? Nobody likes foreseeing change. Change can leave one behind. Windows-defending ‘Internet trolls’ , and Windows advocates alike, fear becoming newbies so they will utter “Linux is terrible, hard, not ready for the desktop and so forth”. Maybe if they push it hard enough, they believe, one can win time for Microsoft to catch up, yet they most probably will not. This commotion has the adverse effect. The sooner people upgrade to Linux, the better. The world is heading towards open standards, Open Source, and one vocation that is opened by such migration — the Free Open Source: GNU/Linux.

As I said once in the past, I do not perceive myself as a typical, largely-ridiculed ‘Linux fanboy’. What I do appears to be constructive and beneficial for society’s computing infrastructure, as well as for quicker innovation in science and technology.

In recent months I have had the pleasure of sending Pamela Jones some news items on a daily basis. What a nice person she is! This morning I decided to learn a little more about her (non-personal) background and the following interview caught my mind (only a fragment appears beneath). I believe it supports the main point that I address above, as well as my previous post from yesterday.

(PJ:) They were always getting viruses and other malware, and eventually I learned why and how and what to do (not that they cooperated much), and one day I realized, “I really love this stuff.” When I discovered dual booting or a Knoppix CD meant you could see what went wrong on the Windows side, it changed my life. Eventually, I couldn’t enjoy Windows any more, partly because I saw finally there really was no way to secure a Windows 98 box no matter what you do, and partly because upgrading beyond Windows 2000 meant licenses to choke on, a lot because of privacy concerns, and also because I started resenting typing in numbers to prove I had paid for the software and feeling like I was being treated like I was criminally-inclined. The difference in how I felt using the two OSs was striking.

One day, I realized that this difference was “It”. Proprietary software and all the laws that back it up are designed to enforce restrictions on users. And that’s just what it felt like. For personal pleasure, I always turned to GNU/Linux, which felt like breathing clean air. No restrictions.

S a programmer in training and background, I have always been told that I must keep up with the latest and the greatest — technology-wise that is — in oder to remain marketable. The way I perceive it, Windows technology that excludes the competition is a dying breed. I would not want to expand my knowledge in that area, which is why I continue to urge people to upgrade to Linux. At the same time, I rarely bother to keep up with advancements in the Windows world and yet I keep an eye on features and demonstrations that permit me to make a comparative analysis.

A mockup I prepared using the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)

Today in the news:

• Microsoft CEO seeks to reassure analysts
• Ballmer: Windows releases must come more quickly
• Microsoft fails to ease Vista fears
• Beijing Co-Create Claims 50,000 Linux Desktops

And that, mind you, is just half a day in the news. It is representative of merely any day in the year 2006. The world changes more quickly than most people care to realise.

NE thing that keeps striking me as surprising is that people’s habits supersede all logic. I will provide an example from technology.

How can anybody argue that drive A for floppy disk and C for primary hard-drive is more rational than the rhetorical and self-explanatory /dev/floppy/ (for floppy device) and /dev/hd0/? This comes the prove that it is all just a matter of habits. People refuse to accept new things that they are not already used to, irrespective of their reasoning. In fact, the hierarchy of a computer (abstraction) in the *nix world is far more robust. It may also be easier for a new user to ‘digest’ and everything stems from the root of a single tree.

OME people might argue that I am “some Linux fanboy”, or at least have me characterised in this way. In reality, I care for far more than just an operating system. I care for technology, communication, and openness as a whole.

Among the things that I try to encourage and/or promote:

• Open Source development models and software. This includes the operating system (which in this case, in the Open Source arena, Linux is The operation system).
• (Preferably open) Protocols. For chips, processor, including their underlying designs.
• Standards and formats. I don’t care for people who send me a Word file or a WMV files, which are proprietary. Sadly, people send them innocently, not realising what they do. They can’t wholly take the blame for ignorance, on which software monopolies capitalise.
• I loathe the idea of encrypting one’s data without consent or genuine purpose, e.g. digital right management (DRM). If I wish to engage in a private conversation with someone, we can mutually choose to encrypt it. Applying this ‘crippling stage’ to other people’s personal media and information without their knowledge is just another black area.
• Neutrality and end of discrimination. Against platforms, regions, etc. The idea of Net neutrality is like that of a fast lane for those who pay more, e.g. First Class in airlines. This augments the barrier between the rich and the poor and creates another technological (or digital) divide, which bridging projects like the One Laptop Per Child are stubbornly trying to annihilate.

HEN was the last time you revised your résumé? Here comes a personal rant. Explicitly putting in skills such as “Word” and “Photoshop”, rather than “office/authoring/WYSIWYG tools” and “graphical design/editing applications” (respectively), is just plain silly. Competence in industry is about skills that are independent of just one commercial application. Times are changing and preferred software changes in accordance. Businesses evolve. Adaptability and familiarity with diversity is where true merits lie. Common function names and icons can help the user quickly familiarise and re-orientate, so generic skills are what truly counts. Think memorisation of menus versus understanding. The paradigm and terminology, as well as menu layouts, will typically remain uniform, owing to the nature of the task at hand.

In conclusion, I would suggest omitting brand names from any curriculum vitæ. Programming languages might be the exception, yet it’s the paradigms that count (e.g. object oriented, scripting, declarative). In programming languages, it’s largely syntax that varies, much as in menus in various applications and common utilities. Avoid being assigned to a vendor, whether it is commercial or not. Failing to do so is pretty much like saying that you can drive a Corsa rather than saying that you are in possession of a drivers’s licence.

An example of a poor user interface
in The GIMP (version 1.2.3)