You may have seen that the Debian project (my particular GNU/Linux distribution of choice) has decided to schedule fixed time-based releases in future. This has come as a surprise to many -- including possibly some Debian developers -- largely because of Debian's long-standing "we ship when it's ready" policy. So what caused this change of heart and is it a good idea.
The creator of the C++ programming language brings us a new textbook in programming principles that could well become a classic tome.
Social networking, micro-blogging and other such buzzwords abound across web development these days, and the "public" is a fickle as ever. The darling of the media-driven, web-based section of the public is dropped as soon as it gets popular or as soon as somebody figures out a way to make money out of it -- money usually involves advertising, which usually ends up bombarding users with spurious post-mercials. How can free software make an impact in such an environment and create forms of social business? Enter Identi.ca
Latest from the Bizarre Cathedral.
A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced that Windows 7 would not ship with Internet Explorer 8 within the European Union. This is to comply with EU demands following the anti-trust case some time back. On the immediate face of this seem like good news for users of other browsers -- but is it?
Latest from the Bizarre Cathedral.
Latest from the Bizarre Cathedral.
Latest from the Bizarre Cathedral.
Latest from the Bizarre Cathedral.
If you haven't heard yet, Google have released a developer preview of their new social networking and collaboration tool - Wave. What impact might this have on free software users and developers?
Latest from the Bizarre Cathedral.
Latest from the Bizarre Cathedral.
Latest from the Bizarre Cathedral.
Latest from the Bizarre Cathedral.
At a recent free software advocacy event I encountered a great example of free software being used in the community. Chris Kilby has been running an IT suite for residents of his local housing estate in Stepney, east London. A suite of desktop PCs running Edubuntu with a Fedora-based server has been built and runs on a shoestring budget. I recently caught up with Chris to ask him more about the project.
In the first part of this piece I introduced zenity : the handy tool for providing GUI interaction with your shell scripts. In this second part I'm going to delve a little deeper into the type of things you can do with this versatile tool.
Latest from the Bizarre Cathedral.
Latest from the Bizarre Cathedral.
Latest from the Bizarre Cathedral.
Whilst an increasing number of recent converts are avoiding it (and I don't blame them really), the shell is still a key tool for the majority of GNU/Linux users. Shell scripts are knocked-up, shared and deployed in all sorts of circumstances -- some simply time-saving, others life-saving. But even if the shell script has been written by somebody else, running it can be a cumbersome and frightening exercise for users of lesser experience or confidence. How do we bring the flexibility of the shell script to the GUI-only user?
