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Posts published by “Robin "Roblimo" Miller”

Robin "Roblimo" Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he's mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.

Open Invention Network Helps Rid FOSS of Patent Lawsuits

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on August 18, 2016 |

Interview, Patents and Video

Open Invention Network Helps Rid FOSS of Patent LawsuitsSoftware patents - Open Invention Network OIN

Software patent issues aren’t in the news as much now as they were only a few years back, partly due to the Supreme Court’s 2014 Alice v. CLS decision. Another reason is the patent pool the Open Invention Network has amassed to discourage patent trolls.

The FOSS Force Video Interview

The Open Invention Network — OIN, as its friends call it — “is a defensive patent pool and community of patent non-aggression which enables freedom of action in Linux.” That’s what it says (among other things) on the front page of the organization’s website. Basically, if you join OIN (which costs $0) you agree not to sue other members over Linux and Android-related patents, and in return they promise not to sue you. Google, IBM, and NEC are the top three members shown on OIN’s “community” page, which lists over 2,000 members/licensees ranging from Ford to one-person Android app developers.

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How FOSS Influences All Aspects of Our CulturePaul Jones talks FOSS

How FOSS Influences All Aspects of Our Culture

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on August 11, 2016 |

Community, Interview and Video

In this fascinating interview, UNC’s professor Paul Jones explains that the concept of “free and open source” was a part of our culture long before there were computers, or even electronic technology, and that it’s actually a rich part of our heritage. As for FOSS, he makes the case that it’s now an ingrained part of the digital infrastructure.

The FOSS Force Video Interview

“Paul Jones,” according to the University of North Carolina, “is the director of ibiblio, a contributor-run, digital library of public domain and creative commons media in the Office of Information Technology Service at UNC. He is also a clinical professor in the UNC School of Information and Library Science.” He’s also been known to write erotic poetry, but we didn’t discuss that in this interview — which isn’t so much an “interview” in the traditional sense as it is a 24 minute soliloquy by professor “call me Paul” Jones on the nature of free/libre and open source software (FLOSS; his preferred term) and its relationship with other forms of human intellectual endeavor ranging from academic research to folk music.

Robin "Roblimo" Miller

Robin “Roblimo” Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he’s mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.

Continue readingHow FOSS Influences All Aspects of Our Culture
When Slashdot Was the Hub for FOSS News and DiscussionSlashdot Timothy Lord

When Slashdot Was the Hub for FOSS News and Discussion

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on August 4, 2016 |

Community, Distros, Internet, Media and Video

The original Slashdot crew was declared redundant in early 2016 by the site’s latest owner, Slashdot Media. Timothy Lord was the last of the early Slashdot editors to be let go, and has posted more stories on Slashdot than anyone else, ever, so we turned to him to learn how and why Slashdot helped the FOSS movement grow and eventually infiltrate mainstream IT.

The FOSS Force Video Interview

Starting in the last years of the last century, when Linux and free software were first making their mark on the world, a website called Slashdot was the king-hell news and discussion site for such things, along with a variety of other topics that interested the kind of people you might meet at a LUG meeting or in the CS department of your local university. The original Slashdot tagline (no longer visible on the site) was “News for nerds, stuff that matters.” And one of the people who worked on Slashdot during those heady days was Timothy Lord, who is such a devout Linux person that he has a Tux tattoo (which we forgot to have him show in the video, darn it).

Robin "Roblimo" Miller

Robin “Roblimo” Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he’s mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.

Continue readingWhen Slashdot Was the Hub for FOSS News and Discussion
Jono Bacon on Life After (and Before) GitHubJono Bacon

Jono Bacon on Life After (and Before) GitHub

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on July 28, 2016 |

Community, Interview and Video

It caused a bit of a splash in May when Jono Bacon abruptly left GitHub after serving as community manager for only six months. As we predicted at the time, he’s landed on his feet.

The FOSS Force Video Interview

Do you want to know what it takes to be a professional community manager? This interview will show you the kind of personality that does well at it, and how Jono Bacon, one of the world’s finest community managers, discovered Linux and later found his way into community management.

Robin "Roblimo" Miller

Robin “Roblimo” Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he’s mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.

Continue readingJono Bacon on Life After (and Before) GitHub
SJVN Talks FOSS, Linux, Microsoft & More…SJVN Steven J. Vaughan Nichols

SJVN Talks FOSS, Linux, Microsoft & More…

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on July 21, 2016 |

Interview, Media and Video

SJVN has been writing about Linux and FOSS since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and started writing about IT back when single-celled organisms and CP/M dominated the landscape.

The FOSS Force Video Interview

The official Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols LinkedIn page says, “I’ve written over 9,000 articles on business and technology subjects. Highlights include the first popular news story about the web and the first Linux benchmarks. My articles range from features to reviews to OpEd to news reporting.”

A large percentage of those articles have been about Linux and FOSS, so it was logical for us to ring up SJVN (as he is commonly known) and ask him what’s the biggest news about FOSS so far in 2016, and what we can expect in the rest of the year.

Robin "Roblimo" Miller

Robin “Roblimo” Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he’s mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.

Continue readingSJVN Talks FOSS, Linux, Microsoft & More…
David A. Wheeler: Working to Prevent the Next HeartbleedDavid A. Wheeler Core Infrastructure Initiative

David A. Wheeler: Working to Prevent the Next Heartbleed

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on July 14, 2016 |

Community, Interview, Security and Software

The Heartbleed bug revealed that some important open source projects were so understaffed that they were unable to properly implement best security practices. The Linux Foundation’s Core Infrastructure Initiative , formed to help open source projects have the ability to adopt these practices, uses a lot of carrot and very little stick.

Robin "Roblimo" Miller

Robin “Roblimo” Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he’s mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.

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LQ Turns 16 so We Talk With Founder Jeremy GarciaJeremy Garcia LinuxQuestions.org

LQ Turns 16 so We Talk With Founder Jeremy Garcia

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on July 7, 2016 |

Interview, and Video

Happy 16th Birthday, LinuxQuestions.org — a helpful site with over 600,000 members. Founder Jeremy Garcia is, not surprisingly, Member Number One.

The FOSS Force Video Interview

LinuxQuestions.org (LQ) recently turned 16, which means we can sing the Chuck Berry song “Sweet Little Sixteen” to it. Even better, this means the site is old enough to drive in most states. Hot stuff! And today’s interviewee, Jeremy Garcia, is the founder and still head LQ-er. In this video, he’ll tell you how he once expected to get *maybe* 100 members, and talks about how he would (or wouldn’t) do things differently if he was starting LQ today.

Robin "Roblimo" Miller

Robin “Roblimo” Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he’s mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.

Continue readingLQ Turns 16 so We Talk With Founder Jeremy Garcia
A Conversation With the Award-Winning Rikki EndsleyRikki Endsley

A Conversation With the Award-Winning Rikki Endsley

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on June 16, 2016 |

Interview

She won an award last month at OSCON, which means she really and truly is “the award-winning Rikki Endsley.”

The FOSS Force Video Interview

Rikki Endsley is modest enough that calling her “the award-winning Rikki Endsley” makes her blush. But it’s true. In May, 2016, she won an O’Reilly Open Source Award because she has “demonstrated exceptional leadership, creativity, and collaboration in the development of open source software.” (Those are O’Reilly’s words, not ours.)

Rikki started writing for SysAdmin Magazine back when it was all about Unix, because Linux hadn’t yet become a big deal. Her LinkedIn profile tells you what she’s been up to since then, up to her present-day position as a community manager and editor for the Red Hat-sponsored OpenSource.com website, a popular site that, Rikki claims, is operated without any help whatsoever from Red Hat marketing or PR people. It’s a good site, too, at least in part because of Rikki’s exceptional leadership.

Robin "Roblimo" Miller

Robin “Roblimo” Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he’s mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.

Continue readingA Conversation With the Award-Winning Rikki Endsley
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