Press "Enter" to skip to content

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

Microsoft & Friends Define ‘Commitment to Openness’

By Christine Hall on November 5, 2013 |

Business and Patents

On Halloween, the day after we posted an article on Ross Gardler’s presentation on Microsoft’s behalf before an open source audience in North Carolina, a FOSS Force reader posted a comment:

“Microsoft has made a lot of upstream contributions in the last two years, a lot more than our friends at Canonical have.

“I’d say that Microsoft is very difficult to trust, but they are probably more committed to FOSS than Canonical.

“‘We will know that day has arrived when Microsoft quits threatening every open source project under the sun with patent litigation.’

“They haven’t done that in years, unless I’ve missed something.”

Continue readingMicrosoft & Friends Define ‘Commitment to Openness’

Tuxmachines Tentatively Sold to Techrights

By Christine Hall on November 4, 2013 |

Business, Media and News

The passage of time is sometimes just too sad, but we must accept the inevitable.

One of the most popular Linux sites, Tuxmachines.org, announced on October 28th that it has been tentatively sold for $1,000. The Clarksville, Tennessee based site, owned and operated by Susan Linton, made the announcement in a short post on the site:

“I guess tuxmachines.org has been sold for $1000. I know it’s kinda low, but times have changed and the new owner plans to carry on the tuxmachines tradition.

“I suppose that’s all I should say for now until the deal is written in stone.

“Thanks everyone for everything: all the visits, all the jokes, comments, and donations. But more on that later as well.”

Although Ms. Linton doesn’t identify the purchaser, it was evidently bought by Roy Schestowitz who is perhaps best known for publishing the FOSS site Techrights. Mr. Schestowitz blogged about the purchase of the site on October 30th.

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 readingTuxmachines Tentatively Sold to Techrights
Is Microsoft Committed to Open Source?Ross Gardler, speaker for Microsoft at All Things Open

Is Microsoft Committed to Open Source?

By Christine Hall on October 30, 2013 |

Business, Internet and Web Apps

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.

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 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’