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.
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).
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.
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.
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
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!
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?
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.
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.
Comments
Why do you love free software?
Do you use free software because you have a highly developed ethical compass? Or because it’s light on your wallet? Maybe you like the support that's available or like to help people yourself. Tell us what you think!
because we have the
because we have the choice.and its free as freedom or free beer
Free as in Free Speech
M$-DOS to Win3.11 to Win 95 to 98, I could see that I was not allowed to do what I want to do with my computer. I can do something with my computer only if some capitalistic pig allows me to do it & that too after I make him more richer.
Hey it is my computer. I will do what I want to do with it. Software should be free (as in speech as well as in beer)
Thats is the main reason that I moved to GNU/Linux initially in a dual boot config & finally kicked the dual boot so that I have only GNU/Linux on my thinkpad.
Why use LINUX
LINUX is the best platform for developing unique products.
Patents and closed source.
I dont like patented and closed source software, its stops and blocks innovation. Linux is better for me and my PC hygiene.
Techincal Merits?
I use free software ( OpenSolaris ) simply because it's the best performing/most stable/most scalable operating system ever developed, and I'm not legally forced to pay for anything if I don't need to
The Best One
Why use open source? What many "normal users" don't seem to understand about it is that most of it is of better quality than commercial software is. In addition, it is free of cost and free as in freedom, with an excellent support community. Open-source will take over, it is just a matter of educating people on the benefits of open source software and how much open source software is avalible.
I prefer Foss because of all
I prefer Foss because of all of the options given plus the fact that I can modify or help to modify the code to my own way of working not be stuck with having to use my computer the way someone else wants me to
Why I do love Free Software?
- I am able to check/verify, it does what I want it to do
- I am able to modify/adapt/extend it to my needs
- I do not expect to fall prey to all those "MS Windows" like loopholes;
and if there are failures, those are usually disclosed and corrected pretty soon,
in any case I can work around the flaw if only I have access to the source
Why use open source software?
I use open source, free software because it is vetted and scrutinised by the people who are both interested in it and know what they are talking about, instead of being mislead by biased marketing hype. The support community is wonderful and we all add to the development of freely available, useful tools that actually help us do something, not just line some big corportaions pockets. If I want to add a feature, then it's available to everyone, which makes the end result even better.
Using free software
It is not the cost.
It is the difficult way of paying on line. Furthermore, my English is poor and I shall never be sure of understanding everything I could agree.
Thanks
Felix M Gallegos
It works better
After having to use windoze programs for most of my adult career, I find that Open Source software, in almost all cases, simply works better than most of the proprietery software that I've used in the past.
Other kind of business
I think that free software helps to break the de-facto monopoly that has existed
in software since the days when IBM selected Microsoft as their operating system provider.
Give me freedom or give me death.
Greetings,
Q.
The name of the game is Quality!
Why purchase inferior commercial software? Open Source provides the quality that has been missing from Microsoft (and other vendors) software from day one. I've not been able to comprehend why so many put up with inferior and buggy products.
Why do I use free software?
For all of the above reasons and also because of the vastly improved security as well as never having to read the self-congratulating BS that is part and parcel of every M$ program.
Richard Stallman is my hero!
I use free software because I'm addicted!
Definitely "freedom"
Definitely "freedom". I develop free software because I want to support the community, and I want to support the community, because I respect its fundamental commitment to freedom.
I do think that cost has to be figured in as well, though.
There are no real examples of "non zero cost but free" software. When you do pay money "for software", you are really paying for media and/or services -- ancillary products, as it were -- not software. Software can't really be "non-zero cost but free" because cost is a restriction on your freedom.
The closest thing to "non zero cost but free" is when you actually sponsor the writing of the software, but then you're really contracting a programmer to do a service for you (writing the program), not buying the program.
As an individual, it's usually a much better deal for me to learn how to use the software without paying for support services. Most of the time it's more fun, too. However, if I were to need the software in a mission-critical application in a commercial environment, I'd be deciding between paying an employee to learn the software or "outsourcing" the work to the commercial software provider. It's easy to see in that situation why it's generally a better deal to hire the people who already know the software rather than to pay for someone to learn the software on my nickel. ;-)
because of freedom too! i
because of freedom too!
i may create something cool, but u may improve it to better since the source code is open! and the development is faster in open source community rather than private codes, but still all developers are volunteers and the cost of developments sometime drive the project to be cancellation.
Because it works!
And I'm not forced to use any programs or have items installed on my computer that I don't want. Programs do what they say they do without trying to sell me something. And, I learn from the software whereas with win, for example, a user is shielded from knowing how things work. Anyway, I'm no techie, just a recent desktop linux convert who will never use any other operating system again.
Many reasons why I use free software
I use free software for a variety of reasons. Of course, it being free in cost is a benefit, but that is not the major reason why I use it. I think that FOSS is in most cases of a better quality than proprietary software. It is also a lot easier to participate in the development of it via feedback. The worry about losing a registration key no longer exists, and there is less chance of good software disappearing as someone will usually take over development if the original author is no longer able to.
I've also found that support is a lot better via places like forums than you get with non-free software.
I really just love being a participant in something that is not controlled by mega-corporations such as Micro$oft.
Free as in everything
I'm free from viruses.
I'm free from paying (it's not a big deal in Belarus, where you can buy or copy any software cracked, but anyway I'm free from compunctions).
I'm free from "features" I don't really need.
I'm free from spending a lot of money on phone calls while guy or girl from the support is asking what is the type, number and terms of my license agreement, if I have switched my PC before using their product, if I do like using the product (Do they really care about that?) and so on.
I'm free from "guru's" advises such as "reinstall windows".
I prefer to manage the system, and I hate when the system trys to manage me.
I spent my freshman year of
I spent my freshman year of college as a creative writing major afraid to open her writing projects on her own computer because it had come with student-teacher Microsoft Office and any of those projects might potentially become a profitable enterprise at some point in the future. The next year I discovered OpenOffice and I've slowly been converting over to free bit by bit ever since. I just spent my first grad school Christmas break converting to an Ubuntu/XP dual boot on my own. I like being able to use programs to do things without having to worry about if a personal project turning into a profit project will violate a EULA I couldn't understand with a BA in English.
And, best of all, I can often find what I need online without needing a credit card number.
Luckily I haven't had to ask for support yet, but having the forum archives and a user-generated wiki available when I was trying to set up wireless? Priceless, particularly since others had already tried to set up the exact device I was working with.
The Applications
It has a great support community = Depends on the project. Several project also have great documentation.
To be part of and support the free software movement. = No. I am not political.
Great applications and Variety: There are tons of great applications in the world of FOSS.