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Posts published in “Video”

Journalist Tom Henderson on Cloud Vendor Lock-In

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on September 29, 2016 |

Business, Interview, Software and Video

Journalist Tom Henderson on Cloud Vendor Lock-InGom Henderson on vendor lock-in

There is little worse than deciding “you’ve had it up to here” with a particular vendor, only to discover that due to vendor lock-in, migrating away from the vendor’s proprietary platform would cost enough to put your company in the bankruptcy courts.

The Video FOSS Force Interview

This video is not technically about free or open source software, but it’s 100 percent about the danger of falling victim to proprietary vendors and their habit of making it hard to leave their sweet embrace once they get their paws on you. The Network World column by Tom Henderson that generated this interview is titled, The Many Dimensions of Cloud Value, and is subtitled, “Put your snorkels on: The marketing for cloud services is getting deep.” So is the marketing for many other proprietary something-as-a-something offerings ranging from operating systems to (obviously) cloud platforms.

Continue readingJournalist Tom Henderson on Cloud Vendor Lock-In
Contributing to an Open Source ProjectJavaOne logo - open source

Contributing to an Open Source Project

By Phil Shapiro on September 27, 2016 |

Community, Software and Video

There are many ways to contribute to an open source project. There are also many reasons for doing so. But before jumping in, you might want to know how things generally work within these projects.

The Video Screening Room

If you’re interested gaining some tips and insights into how to contribute to open source, this video of a presentation given on September 19 at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco by Gunnar Wagenknecht, a software engineer at Salesforce, and Wayne Beaton, director at the Eclipse Foundation, might be useful to you.

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Blender: An Introduction for Final Cut Pro UsersBlender video editing

Blender: An Introduction for Final Cut Pro Users

By Phil Shapiro on September 23, 2016 |

Software, Tutorial and Video

Have you often considered quitting your day job to begin an exciting career as a filmmaker? You don’t need the resources of a Hollywood studio anymore. In fact, you can do it all with free and open source software.

The Video Screening Room

Blender is a very popular 3D animation program, but not many people know that this open source, cross platform software also works well as a video editor. Some people consider Blender to be the best open source video editor available. (See the comments at the end of this article on Opensource.com).

To quickly get you up to speed, this well-done 23-minute video explains Blender to people who are already familiar with Final Cut Pro video editor — as well as with others.

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John Weathersby: Selling Open Source to the Federal GovernmentJohn Weathersby Open Technology Center

John Weathersby: Selling Open Source to the Federal Government

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on September 22, 2016 |

Hardware, Interview, Software and Video

It’s a no-brainer to us that free and open source should be the default for governments, because governments should be…well, open. With the Open Technology Center, John Weathersby is working to help bring open source to national defense and security.

The Video FOSS Force Interview

John Weathersby founded and ran the Open Source Software Institute to “promote the development and implementation of open source software solutions within U.S. federal, state, and local government agencies.” A worthy goal!

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Carla Schroder: On Farming and LinuxCarla Shroder

Carla Schroder: On Farming and Linux

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on September 15, 2016 |

Interview, Operating Systems and Video

One of the many things we like about Ms. Schroder is that she makes difficult technology easy to understand. She’s also fun to read. And as you’ll discover in this interview, she’s also a quick wit who won’t be backed into a corner.

The FOSS Force Video Interview

Carla Schroder sometimes describes herself as an “Ace Linux guru,” which is as good a way to tell you who she is as any — at least in the Linux context. She’s written so much, in so many places, that it’s easier to give you a single Google link to her work than to list a whole stack of articles, plus three O’Reilly books. The single article I’ll point you to on its own is one Schroder wrote for Opensource.com in July, 2016, titled I’ve Been Linuxing Since Before You Were Born.

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Just Because It Says ‘Open Source Hardware’ Doesn’t Mean It Really IsOpen Source Hardware logo

Just Because It Says ‘Open Source Hardware’ Doesn’t Mean It Really Is

By Phil Shapiro on September 13, 2016 |

Community, Copyright, Hardware, Maker Movement, Patents and Video

Is it “organic,” or just merely “natural?” Is it really “open source hardware,” or merely hardware with a degree of openess? David Jones explains the problem in identifying which is which and who is whom.

The Video Screening Room

David L. Jones, an electronics design engineer based in Sydney Australia, explains his pragmatic solution to the use of the open source hardware logo — inspired by the varying gradations of the Creative Commons licenses.

Continue readingJust Because It Says ‘Open Source Hardware’ Doesn’t Mean It Really Is
Krita 3.01 Beta ReleasedKrita logo

Krita 3.01 Beta Released

By Phil Shapiro on September 9, 2016 |

Software, Tutorial and Video

Around since 2005, and with its Kiki the Cyber Squirrel mascot since 2012, Krita is a free and open source raster graphics editor designed to be a digital painting application similar to Corel Painter.

The Video Screening Room

The popular Krita painting program keeps getting even better. This new beta release of 3.01 includes features added from Google Summer of Code programmers. This screencast does a very good job explaining the new features, including new animation tools.

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Christine Hall: FOSS Force’s Grandmama FrumpGrandmama Frump

Christine Hall: FOSS Force’s Grandmama Frump

By Robin "Roblimo" Miller on September 8, 2016 |

Interview, Media and Video

All we can say is watch this interview with Christine Hall and you’ll know what we have to put up with on a daily basis — equipment that’s not quite up to par and a boss who’s a refugee from The Addams Family.

The FOSS Force Video Interview

Yes, that Christine Hall. The one whose byline you often see on this very site. Recorded under lousy lighting with a 10-year-old (or older) webcam that was probably lousy new, this video is about information, not cinematography. So meet Christine Hall. Listen to what she says about looking for contributing writers. Does she mean you? It’s possible. If you have a story idea, please send it to her. We could see [YOUR NAME] in lights right here on FOSS Force!

Continue readingChristine Hall: FOSS Force’s Grandmama Frump
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