Tony Mobily's articles

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Interview with Robert Fanini @ GroundWork

The world of free software and the world venture capitalism don’t seem to have much in common. However, they are not as far from each other as it seems. Venture capitalists are getting more and more interested in free software. Robert agreed on answering a few questions to shed light on this issue.

TM: Please introduce yourself, tell our readers who you are and what you do.

Interview with Miguel De Icaza

Miguel is one of the founders of the GNOME project. His enthusiasm and leadership have been crucial for the development of GNOME. He also started the MONO project, which is one of the key technologies behind GNOME at the moment. Miguel kindly agreed on answering some of our questions about MONO.

TM: Miguel, first of all I’d like to ask you a personal question: are you enjoying yourself at the moment? How are the United States treating you?

Letters

Inaccuracies in “Promoting free software on non-free platforms”

Dear FSM,

Chris J. Karr’s article, “Promoting free software on non-free platforms” makes several mistakes which I feel deserve a response. I am one of those who believe that free software is fundamentally about human freedom, so the question of whether or not to port free software to non-free platforms depends only on whether doing so would promote human freedom or not.

The internet’s plague: spam

When the internet became a “thing” for the masses, it was around 1995. Well, it was a little earlier for some, and later for some others, but I think 1995 is a pretty good point of reference.

At the time, we all thought the internet could be a_ utopia_, a place where nothing really bad could happen because we were all connected to one another - almost literally.

Anonymity made things even more exciting: there was the freedom to be however we wanted to be (who has never, ever lied on IRC?!?) and to join groups we’d never dreamed of joining before.

Enough is enough

I am upset. If you write quite a bit, you learn a rule: you must never, ever write when you are upset. In such a state, clarity simply goes out the window and what you think is a masterpiece turns out to be... a pile of incomprehensible, misspelled crap.

I am doing it anyway. A disclaimer: I'm publishing this article "as is" - no spell check, no Dave Guard turning my atrocious English into... well, English.

(Actually, this article has had minor editing after publication - D.G.)

I am deeply upset and saddened by O'Gara's article on Pamela Jones of GrokLaw.

What is the next (r)evolution?

I’m not sure if it’s correct to talk about the internet as a revolution. The internet is in fact the result of a slow, hard earned evolution which has lasted about 30 years (!). Slowly, during these years, the costs of laying cables has dropped, the CPU was... well, invented (in 1974, the Intel 4004), processing power and memory have increased exponentially and the basic protocols were created (in 1972, the telnet protocol).

Thank you!

Thank you!

This “thank you” is dedicated to all of the subscribers who are now reading issue 3 of Free Software Magazine. You have decided that it was worthwhile paying money for Free Software Magazine and have placed your trust in our project.

I appreciate your help, and I promise that we will do our very best to not disappoint.

We can all finally install

I’ve seen a lot of new users—and even kids—using Linux comfortably. And everything goes fine—until they decide to install new applications.

You see, in Mac people can install an application by simply downloading it, copying it wherever they like, and double-clicking on it. In Windows, it’s a matter of running an ugly installer, answering a few questions, and letting it copy a zillion files all over the place.

In Linux... it depends.

Creating Free Software Magazine

This magazine was inspired by a conversation I had with a great friend of mine called Massimo. I said to Massimo “I think it would be great to start a magazine. It’s my ideal job, and I think I know what the world needs right now. It’s a pity there’s no money in publishing, and I’m not willing to run a magazine that doesn’t pay it’s contributors well...”. His answer was very simple: “Tony, there’s money everywhere, as long as you do something good and promote it well”. Well, seeing that he has a successful business, I thought I would listen.

Welcome to the first Free Software Magazine

I would have liked to start this editorial defining what free software is, but I found myself writing – and deleting – my sentences time and again.

The problem is that free software means different things to different people. To some, free software is a way to save money in licensing fees and technical support. To some, it’s a way of sharing their skills (which they do for different reasons: research, personal development, money, etc). And to others free software is a movement, a way of life.

Creating Free Software Magazine

This magazine was inspired by a conversation I had with a great friend of mine called Massimo. I said to Massimo “I think it would be great to start a magazine. It’s my ideal job, and I think I know what the world needs right now. It’s a pity there’s no money in publishing, and I’m not willing to run a magazine that doesn’t pay it’s contributors well...”. His answer was very simple: “Tony, there’s money everywhere, as long as you do something good and promote it well”. Well, seeing that he has a successful business, I thought I would listen.

Case study: Mythic Beasts

Mythic Beasts is a UK company that provides Unix shells to their users. They offer fantastic service to people who need a shell account on a very fast server, and don’t want to fork out silly amounts of money. Let’s talk to Chris Lightfoot, one of the company’s owners.

TM: Who is behind “Mythic Beasts”? How did everything start?

What is Free Software Magazine?

Writing this editorial is much harder than I thought it would be. I made the mistake of leaving it last, and now the problem is that I have written so much over the last three months for this magazine (articles, emails, plans, business letters, personal diaries...) that I can’t think of anything I haven’t already said at least ten times.

Well, I have to start from somewhere, and I believe I ought to answer the most important question: what is Free Software Magazine?

Allow me to answer by explaining what Free Software Magazine is not.

Writing articles for Free Software Magazine

This article will try to give you some guidelines on writing articles. It is not meant to set down laws about how you must write; they are just recommendations. This article might be particularly useful for people who are new to writing for a magazine.

It is good to keep in mind the criteria that the editors follow when revising your article. Firstly, the article must be clear, well structured, and easy to read; it must be accurate; it must be at the right level for the target reader and it must use correct and appropriate English.

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