Tony Mobily’s recent FSM post A future without Microsoft and the resulting comments have caused me to consider the way we use numbers to argue for free software in the marketplace. I’m not convinced that it’s the best strategy because those waters are particularly muddy when it comes to comparing free and proprietary software.

It’s June 2008, and it’s not a good time to be a Microsoft shareholder or employee. The computing industry is changing very, very quickly, creating new opportunities and killing once-prosperous markets. In this short article, I will outline these changes in relation to free software and Microsoft. If you can think of more changes, or if you don’t agree with some of my forecasts, please let me know!

I read a piece in which the author criticized the free software world for not being innovative enough; needless to say this angered me, so I decided to try and demonstrate that this is not the case. Over the next few weeks I’m going to post a series of e-mail interviews with developers who are driving forward the ideas and expectations of the computer industry as a whole, in new and exciting ways! This week’s interview is with Havoc Pennington, who’s currently working on a number of great projects related to the idea of an “online desktop”: read on to find out more!

I’ve been really lucky today: I was trying to decide what to write about in this post and all sorts of ideas crossed my mind ranging from making regular back-ups (yes, my website went down this weekend when I attempted to upgrade Drupal without making a back-up first!) to the recent report by the European Commission into the contribution of free software to the European economy. Then I opened up my newspaper this morning and found that they had a feature entitled What are you optimistic about? and it gave me the inspiration I was looking for!

Since my first exposure to an Apple ][ in sixth grade, I haveinteracted with computers primarily through a text-basedinterface. From my first `PR#6’ command to this little journal entry(I tend to use Emacs for writing), I eschew fancy heavy-weightprograms in favor of the simplest program possible. (I know, I said Iuse Emacs. Within that contradiction is the essence of simplecomplexity. Substitute vi if you wish.)

Software bills got you down? Here at Intellectual Property Magazine (championing intellectual investment since 2012!), our studies show that the share of an average household’s budget for software rental has increased from 10% to 23% from 2040 to 2056. Today our experts will share* some money-saving ideas!

*Please note a licensing fee of $50 for initial use of the ideas in this list, and an ongoing monthly charge of $5.