FSM Newsletter 19 November 2007

FSM Newsletter 19 November 2007


Mon, 2007-11-19 06:25 -- admin

Hello everybody, and welcome once again to the fortnightly newsletter of Free Software Magazine: keeping you well informed about the realm of free software... AND the top 10 FSDaily announcements for this week! Happy reading!

Top ten Free Software Daily stories this week

  1. Computer role-playing games for GNU/Linux - Of all the various types of computers games out there, my favorite is the computer role-playing game, or CRPG for short. Read more...

  2. Microsoft and "Interoperability"...LOL! That's a good one! - MS has been doing their usual patent FUD, while Novell is sprouting how wonderful interoperability is. Same agreement, two different views. Read more...

  3. Top-10 gift ideas for the Linux Gadget Geek - Got a Linux Gadget Geek on your shopping list? You can't fail with a gift from this guide to the ten hottest Linux-powered devices gleaned from LinuxDevices.com's news throughout 2007. Read more...

  4. Recordings about our Philosophy - "...If you have a good recording from a GNU event, and you would like to share it with us, please send an email to audio-recordings@gnu.org ..." Read more...

  5. Fedora Linux 8 hits back at Ubuntu - The Red Hat-sponsored Fedora Linux project has released version 8 of its operating system with a host of new features aimed at raising the bar over rival Ubuntu. Read more...

  6. Too many free operating systems? I don't think so. - Some people say that there are too many GNU/Linux distributions, too many people just doing their own instead of joining an existing effort. Read more...

  7. NNSquad: Network Neutrality Squad - "The Network Neutrality Squad (NNSquad) is an open-membership, open-source effort, enlisting the Internet's users to help keep the Internet's operations fair and unhindered from unreasonable restrictions. [...] Read more...

  8. Perception of Free/Libre Software - "...In my recent public speeches I focused on one value of Free Software: business ethics within digital society." Read more...

  9. Google offers $10 million for best Android mobile phone applications - Google will give $10 million to the developers who build the best applications for Android, the open source platform Google designed for building mobile phones. Read more...

  10. Why you should buy an OLPC XO Laptop - "...So, why would you want such a machine? If one were to play devil's advocate, one might say that it is underpowered, has too little storage, too small a screen, is too much like a toy, etc, etc." Read more...

Thanks to can.axis, Bridget, extra, Jimbob, missgeek, C733tus, and dave for these stories!

Latest content

Today's Perl problem is popularity, not power - The best thing for a programming language is to be powerful and popular at the same time. Perl was like that some time ago, but over the years it has slowly lost its appeal, even while retaining and increasing its power. And Perl 6 has just come too late to save the day. By Marco Marongiu. Read more...

Tips and Tricks - This is a collection of tips and tricks written by Andrew Min and Gary Richmond. Read more...

The Matrix strikes back, or: the return of AIGLX - My last post was about Mandriva 2008.0 and Ubuntu 7.10 - and I let slip a little bit about trying drivers with them. By Mitch Meyran. Read more...

Computer role-playing games for GNU/Linux - Of all the various types of computers games out there, my favorite is the computer role-playing game, or CRPG for short. Read more...

Run any GNU/Linux app on Windows without any virtualization - Using SSH to access programs from an Ubuntu box. By Nathan Sanders. Read more...

Mandriva 2008 VS Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon - For those of you that follow my blog, you must have noticed that I’m a Mandriva user. Recently though, I took an interest in Ubuntu: I installed version 7.04 on a laptop, and it did look interesting, enough to make me doubt my commitment to Mandriva’s products. By Mitch Meyran. Read more...

How to host a free software advocacy event - On 2 Nov 2007, the Free Software Foundation Europe held an event in London, UK called "Free Software as a Social Innovation" to which I was fortunate to be invited. By Ryan Cartwright. Read more...

So, why, why do people and company develop free software? - More and more people are discovering free software. Many people only do so after weeks, or even months, of using it. I wonder, for example, how many Firefox users actually know how free Firefox really is - many of them realise that you can get it for free, but find it hard to believe that anybody can modify it and even redistribute it legally. By Tony Mobily. Read more...

HealthVault: software freedom and personal health records - Free software is about freedom from control. This article discusses how the free software ideals should be applied to hosted personal health record software and how Microsoft's newest PHR, HealthVault, is a threat to free software. By Fred Trotter. Read more...

Latest book reviews released

**Security PowerTools by Nicolas Beauchesne et al** Security has always been a concern when using a computer. First, we thought physical security was enough. After all, if the computer is in the house, how could anyone else get to it? Review by Brian Turner. Read more...

Reminders

You can read this and previous newsletters online here.

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.

Avatars

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Thanks

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Most forwarded

Interview with Dave Mohyla, of DTIDATA

Dave Mohyla is the president and founder of dtidata.com, a hard drive recovery facility based in Tampa, Florida.

TM: Where are you based? What does your company do?
DTI Data recovery is based in South Pasadena, Florida which is a suburb of Tampa. We have been here for over 10 years. We operate a bio-metrically secured class 100 clean room where we perform hard drive recovery on all types of hard disks, from laptop hard drives to multi drive RAID systems.

Anybody up to writing good directory software?

Since the very beginning, directories (of any kind) have had a very central role in the internet. (I have recently grown fond of Free Web Directory. Even Slashdot can be considered a directory: a collection of great news and invaluable user-generated comments. As far as software is concerned, doing a quick search on Google about software directories will return the free (as in freedom) software directories like Savannah, SourceForge, Freshmeat and so on, followed by shareware and freeware sites such as FileBuzz, PCWin Download Center and All Freeware (great if you're looking for shareware and freeware, but definitely less comprehensive than their free-as-in-freedom counterparts).

Interview with Mark Shuttleworth

Mark Shuttleworth is the founder of Thawte, the first Certification Authority to sell public SSL certificates. After selling Thawte to Verisign, Mark moved on to training as an astronaut in Russia and visiting space. Once he got back he founded Ubuntu, the leading GNU/Linux distribution. He agreed on releasing a quick interview to Free Software Magazine.

Is better education the key to finding better software?

I read David Jonathon's article Anybody Up To Writing Good Directory Software? the other day, which got me thinking about software directories in general. As David mentioned, many of the software directories one finds when doing a quick google search are free as in beer, not as in freedom. But what interests me is the software directories that already exist, providing a combination of both free as in beer software, and open source software. Sites such as Freeware Downloads and Shareware Download don't advertise themselves as providing free as in liberty software, but each of them have a good selection of open source software available... if you know where to look.

Most emailed

Free Open Document label templates

If you’ve ever spent hours at work doing mailings, cursed your printer for printing outside the lines on your labels, or moaned “There has got to be a better way to do this,” here’s the solution you’ve been looking for. Working smarter, not harder! Worldlabel.com, a manufacture of labels offers Open Office / Libre Office labels templates for downloading in ODF format which will save you time, effort, and (if you want) make really cool-looking labels

Creating a user-centric site in Drupal

A little while ago, while talking in the #drupal mailing list, I showed my latest creation to one of the core developers there. His reaction was "Wow, I am always surprised what people use Drupal for". His surprise is somehow justified: I did create a site for a bunch of entertainers in Perth, a company set to use Drupal to take over the world with Entertainers.Biz.

Update: since writing this article, I have updated the system so that the whole booking process happens online. I will update the article accordingly!

So, why, why do people and companies develop free software?

More and more people are discovering free software. Many people only do so after weeks, or even months, of using it. I wonder, for example, how many Firefox users actually know how free Firefox really is—many of them realise that you can get it for free, but find it hard to believe that anybody can modify it and even redistribute it legally.

When the discovery is made, the first instinct is to ask: why do they do it? Programming is hard work. Even though most (if not all) programmers are driven by their higher-than-normal IQs and their amazing passion for solving problems, it’s still hard to understand why so many of them would donate so much of their time to creating something that they can’t really show off to anybody but their colleagues or geek friends.

Sure, anybody can buy laptops, and just program. No need to get a full-on lab or spend thousands of dollars in equipment. But... is that the full story?

Fun articles

Santa Claus - the most successful open source project

It dawned on me the other day, as I was shopping for the dozens of gifts it seems I have to buy every December, that Santa Claus is the most successful open source project in history. (Bridget @ Illiterarty would agree with that). Santa Claus is essentially a marketing development that is embodied by everyone who stuffs a sock, gives a gift, hosts a dinner or wishes Merry Christmas over the holiday season.

Most emailed

Editorial

When I first started thinking about Free Software Magazine, I was feeling enthusiastic about the dream. I had Dave, Gianluca, and Alan willing to help me, I had established members of the free software community willing to help me out, I had writers volunteering their time and energy for free, and I had a generous offer from OpenHosting for servers, all before I'd proved myself. There was a sense of excitement in the air, and I thought maybe, just maybe, I could make this work.

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