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Posts published by “Christine Hall”

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

Is Microsoft Committed to Open Source?

By Christine Hall on October 30, 2013 |

Business, Internet and Web Apps

Is Microsoft Committed to Open Source?Ross Gardler, speaker for Microsoft at All Things Open

It would’ve been very easy to just ignore the presentation titled “Microsoft and Open Source” at the All Things Open conference in Raleigh last week, except for one thing–the presenter.

The folks in Redmond didn’t grab just anybody to speak for them. They sent someone with some serious open source cred, Ross Gardler, who is currently President of the Apache Foundation and is a co-founder of the OpenDirective project. He’s been employed by Microsoft Open Technologies for the past year or so.

Continue readingIs Microsoft Committed to Open Source?
All Things Open: On Vendor Mistrust, Containerization & Profiting From Open SourceAll Things Open

All Things Open: On Vendor Mistrust, Containerization & Profiting From Open Source

By Christine Hall on October 25, 2013 |

Security and Software

The first ever All Things Open conference in Raleigh, North Carolina is now history–but it’s history that will repeat itself. At the sendoff after the last workshops had finished, Conference Chair Todd Lewis announced that the event had been a bigger success than expected, with something like 800 in attendance, and that the event would definitely be returning to the Old North State’s capital city in 2014.

The three presentations I was able to attend at the afternoon session started with “Open Source Communities in a For Profit World” led by John Mertic, a Solutions Architect for SugarCRM. Although Mr. Mertic is a personable enough person and his presentation was well thought out, his ideas were a bit disturbing to this dyed-in-the-wool open sourcer. I’ll save the whys and wherefores for next week’s in depth look at this workshop. Suffice it to say, right now I’m hoping that when I review his presentation I’ll find I misunderstood some of his ideas.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingAll Things Open: On Vendor Mistrust, Containerization & Profiting From Open Source
All Things Open: Microsoft Explains Open SourceAll Things Open

All Things Open: Microsoft Explains Open Source

By Christine Hall on October 24, 2013 |

Business and Politics

Here on the morning of the second and last day of the All Things Open conference I took advantage of the opportunity to hear Microsoft’s take on open source. The presentation was offered by Ross Gardler who’s worked for Redmond for about a year. Mr. Gardler is also President of the Apache Foundation.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingAll Things Open: Microsoft Explains Open Source
ATO: Weathersby on Firefox OS and Clark on Open Source HardwareAll Things Open

ATO: Weathersby on Firefox OS and Clark on Open Source Hardware

By Christine Hall on October 23, 2013 |

Business, Hardware, Internet, Mobile, News and Web Apps

The All Things Open conference is off and running!

If there was any doubt that Raleigh would be the perfect place to hold a major tech conference, an open source conference at that, those doubts are now laid to rest. In spite of a super large room, this morning’s keynote addresses, by Andy Hunt and Whurley, were presented to a standing room only crowd. The line lor lunch, provided free with admission, was…well, let’s just say something about the mouth of a gift horse, if you catch my drift.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingATO: Weathersby on Firefox OS and Clark on Open Source Hardware
Our Coverage of ‘All Things Open’All Things Open

Our Coverage of ‘All Things Open’

By Christine Hall on October 21, 2013 |

Site News and

The All Things Open conference is this Wednesday and Thursday and I’m looking forward to being there.

Although Raleigh, where the conference is happening, is only an hour and a half from my home, I haven’t been there since the mid-nineties. That would’ve been back when I was living and hanging-out in Chapel Hill, the southwestern point of the region called the Triangle which includes Raleigh and Durham as it’s other two points. Chapel Hill is an über cool blend of students from the University of North Carolina and old hippie-leftie types–perfect for an old devotee of Leary and Ram Dass like myself. Alas, as much as I’d like, I won’t have time nor money to visit my old stomping grounds. I’ll be in the area to work and get back home. No playing or partying will be on the agenda for this trip. Oh well…

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingOur Coverage of ‘All Things Open’
Watching the Penguin’s Back at All Things OpenRoss Gardler, speaker for Microsoft at All Things Open

Watching the Penguin’s Back at All Things Open

By Christine Hall on October 14, 2013 |

Business and Site News

You can be certain of one thing; if you’re a penguinista I’ll have your back at the All Things Open conference. I’ll be paying attention. Plenty of good companies and organizations will be represented at the the conference, to be held next week in Raleigh, but it is an enterprise conference so there will be a few snakes slithering about.

Mainly I’m talking about Oracle and Microsoft.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingWatching the Penguin’s Back at All Things Open

IT-oLogy: Opening Doors in Raleigh With ‘All Things Open’

By Christine Hall on October 9, 2013 |

Business and Software

The story behind All Things Open (ATO) is IT-oLogy, the nonprofit behind the conference coming to Raleigh later this month. This occurred to me last week as I was preparing for the event, on a night when I’d decided I knew as much as I wanted to know for the moment about the speakers and their workshops and started to look into IT-oLogy.

IT-oLogy school kids
IT-oLogy working with grade school students
Like most, I imagine, I was basically ignorant about the organization. I knew a few scattered facts. I also knew that in our dealings with them, FOSS Force has been treated with respect and encouragement. As I read about them, and started to connect the dots, I began to realize that IT-oLogy and All Things Open are joined at the hip. This conference isn’t separate from them; it’s just part of what they do.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingIT-oLogy: Opening Doors in Raleigh With ‘All Things Open’
Facebook Gives ‘Social Fixer’ UltimatumSocial Fixer graphic

Facebook Gives ‘Social Fixer’ Ultimatum

By Christine Hall on October 7, 2013 |

Browsers, Business, Internet, News and

Things aren’t going well for Matt Kruse, the developer of the über-popular Social Fixer browser extension which gives users control over how their Facebook pages and news feeds appear to them. It works within the browser and doesn’t affect the experience of anyone on Facebook other than the user. With it, status updates can be tabbed, items can be filtered, and it allows hiding or blocking sponsored stories and other advertising that runs through the news feed.

The last we heard, about three weeks ago, Zuckerberg’s people had taken down Social Fixer‘s popular Facebook page, a place for users to testify for the app and seek help and for Mr. Kruse to make announcements about updates and so forth. FB was claiming it removed the page due to reports of spamming, but was offering no way for him to plead his case.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingFacebook Gives ‘Social Fixer’ Ultimatum
Zen Cart Migration: When the Manual FailsZen Cart Logo

Zen Cart Migration: When the Manual Fails

By Christine Hall on October 1, 2013 |

Tutorial and Web Apps

RTFM.

Anybody who’s played with computers outside of surfing, sending emails and doing some word processing has run across these initials at least once or twice. Put politely, they mean, “Read the manual.”

Sometimes the manual is of little use, however. Such was the case in a recent Zen Cart migration I undertook. However, even in cases where the manual is being ignored, it should still be read first. Before going off book, it helps to understand the process behind what you are doing.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com
Continue readingZen Cart Migration: When the Manual Fails