Welcome to another of Free Software Magazine’s fortnightly newsletters, keeping you up to date with us, and all things free software... enjoy!
General announcements
Once again this week we have implemented two new features to the site to further enhance your experience—live discussion, and tagging!
Our live discussion feature allows you the subscriber, when logged in, to view all articles that have comments that are new to you. This will allow you to keep up to date with all of the discussions happening on the site, so you won’t have to miss a thing! You use this feature by clicking on the “Live discussion” link in the left-hand navigation menu when you are logged in. The code was written for us by Earl Dunovant at Code by P6. The code has also been returned to the community: it’s all released under the GPL.
We have also implemented tagging, and are currently undergoing the arduous process of tagging all of our old articles. All of the article tags should be complete by the time the next newsletter is released.
Speaking of articles, this fortnight, our bloggers really got into the spirit of things and we have plenty of new and interesting posts to keep you all interested!
Latest content
Making money on free art—Terry Hancock explores how free culture can potentially allow artists to both create and make money. read more...
Apples and bananas—Eddy Macnaghten takes on some free software naysayers who have completely missed the point... read more...
Ethics, employment and free software—We all want to be ethical, but we also need to eat... Tim Cowlishaw asks how it is the readers reconcile these dilemmas. read more...
Flying high with FlightGear—Scared of heights? Alan Berg explores FlightGear—the very realistic free software flight simulator. read more...
Rabbits and Foxes—Pieter Hintjens explores the government-sanctioned notion that more patents mean more innovation, and considers what that means for software development.read more...
Digital TV, Media Center and how to save a few bucks—Mitch Meyran documents the trials and tribulations of getting his Digital TV to work... and how important it is to know how to do stuff... read more...
Who’s playing whom?—Terry Hancock weighs in on the Novell/Microsoft deal debate; is a Microsoft win a sure thing? read more...
Message to the Novell executive who signed the agreement with Microsoft—Tony Mobily expresses his concern about Novell’s future considering Microsoft’s previous track record... is free software protected? read more...
Microsoft’s perfect timing—Anthony Taylor considers the Novell/Microsoft deal from a different angle... is it actually a massive FUD campaign on behalf of Vista? read more...
...but before I start, let me thank someone important—Marco Marongiu dedicates his first blog for FSM to somebody who was important to free software. read more...
Free tanks for everyone! Good gas mileage—Scott Carpenter looks at free software in Neal Stephenson’s work, and gets excited about the future. read more...
Distributed search follow-up—Terry Hancock looks at an alternative to centralised searching—Majestic 12. read more...
Latest content continued...
From freedom to slavery; a week of two distros—David Sugar explores what the Microsoft/Novell deal really means for free software. read more...
Amarok integrates Magnatune store—Tim Cowlishaw relays some exciting news from Amarok. read more...
Greeks bearing gifts (updated)—Eddy Macnaghten gives some persuasive arguments for why a Microsoft gift should be looked upon with suspicion... read more...
A change of pace in the UK copyfight—Tim Cowlishaw asks the question—is the UK getting ahead with digital copyright law? read more...
GNU/Linux and WiFi: WiFi maniac needs aspirin and emotional support—can Alan Berg build his own little GNU/Linux based wireless network in a spare five minutes? read more...
Linuxworld Expo London 2006—Eddy Macnaghten reports on the Linuxworld Expo... with pictures! read more...
We are free software, you will be assimilated... you are assimilated—Robin Monks explains why you might as well just give in to free software. read more...
That darn startup sound (Knoppix vs Vista)—David Sugar talks startup sounds... and freedom. read more...
What’s wrong with software patents?—Pieter Hintjens has an in depth look at software patents. read more...
Does free software taste great, or is open source less filling?—Scott Carpenter considers that age old question—free software, or open source? read more...
Free software and world peace—Terry Hancock asks if it’s futile to think about free software when there are bigger issues at stake... read more...
Latest book reviews released
**The Official Ubuntu Book by Benjamin Mako Hill et al** Brian Turner explores the large amounts of information that this book can provide for you while working on Ubuntu. read more...
**SELinux by Example: Using Security Enhanced Linux by Frank Mayer, Karl MacMillan and David Caplan** Brian Turner reviews a book for those of us with serious security concerns. read more...
Book competition announcement for this fortnight
This week we are giving away a copy ofBeginning Ubuntu Linux: From Novice to Professional by Keir Thomas and a copy of AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications by Christian Darie, Bogdan Brinzarea, and Flip Chereches-Tosa.
All you need to do to enter is check out the latest book competition announcement on our blogs page.
GOOD LUCK!
Thanks go to _Apress and Packt for providing these fantastic prizes._
Winner of the book competition from last fortnight
Thanks to all those who entered, unfortunately there can only be one winner...
Congratulations Tinku Sampath of Kerala in India!
Tinku has won copies of Pro PHP Security and Foundations of AJAX.
Thanks to all who entered.
Thanks also go to Apress for providing these great prizes.
Please comment wherever possible and don’t forget to log in so that you’ll be in the running to win the latest book competition
Poll results—Do you help friends and family with their GNU/Linux problems?
The results on this week’s poll were Often (41%), followed by both Never and Constantly (both 20%) closely followed by Sometimes at (18%). These results could say many different things. The fact that you all often help could mean that you are nice people, or could mean Linux has some issues. A lot of you said in your comments that if you can get your family and friends to use Linux, then you are the helpdesk... but a lot of you have friends and families who still have the Windows bug. Read more here and stay tuned for...
This fortnight’s poll
The Novell/Microsoft deal was big news... everybody’s talking about it and everyone has a different opinion, but the opinions around here range from cautiously optimistic to very forboding. Microsoft has a demonstrated history for asking the little guy to play then pushing him around and walking off with his toys grinning. How long do you think it’ll be before Microsoft starts playing rough?
Reminders
Comments
Your comments on articles, issues, and blog entries are very welcome. They provide other readers with insightful suggestions, further information, and the feeling that they are not alone. They also provide our authors with the feeling that they are being heard. Please comment wherever possible and don’t forget to log in so that you’ll be in the running to win the latest book competition.
Avatars
Avatars are a great way of expressing your personal identity, whether it be a photo or an image that you feel represents the you you want to be. Read more about avatars here. To add an avatar: log in, go to “my account” in the menu on the left, go to the “edit” tab and scroll down to where it says “Upload picture”. Now, hit the browse button, find the image on your computer that you want to upload and go to the bottom of the page and hit the submit button. That’s it; you now have an avatar image.
Donate
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Thanks
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