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FOSS Force

The Ongoing Wars Against Free Tech

By Christine Hall on December 4, 2014 |

Internet, Politics and Security

After a few months of not hearing much from Microsoft, the company has been in the news a bit recently. First there was the brouhaha when it announced it was offering the .NET framework as open source. Then there were several big security problems with Windows, with one serious vulnerability going all the way back to Windows 95.

Although this would’ve been big news in the old days, the FOSS press has been relatively quiet about all this. There were a few articles about the .NET thing, with some writers pointing out that the MIT license which Redmond is using will offer no patent protection for Redmond owned .NET related patents, and the Windows security issues got next to no FOSS coverage at all.

My how times have changed.

A decade ago the open sourcing of any major program by Microsoft would have FOSS writers in a dither, even if released under the GPL. We would’ve been uber suspicious, certain that this was only the front end of a plan to end Linux and FOSS as we know it. As for the Windows security woes, we’d be rubbing our hands with glee, writing paragraph after paragraph on how much this proves the inferiority of Windows and the superiority of our beloved Linux. In those days, we had to take our good news wherever we could find it.

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A Devuan and A-two…

By Larry Cafiero on December 3, 2014 |

Community, Distros and Operating Systems

debian forkAnd the beat goes on…

By now, much of the news and commentary is already out there about a fork of Debian called Devuan — pronounced Dev-One (sharp, folks) — and what it means to the newly minted systemd/anti-systemd rift in the FOSS world. I can’t add anything to the news part, but leave it to me to add to the commentary.

Forking is commonplace in the FOSS world, a part of its natural process. Someone thinks they can do something better — or it may be a group of folks of like mind thinking they can do something better — and they do it for reasons ranging from rational improvement to unabashed ragequit.

Continue readingA Devuan and A-two…
Friendship & the Linux CommunityCircle of Linux friends

Friendship & the Linux Community

By Ken Starks on December 2, 2014 |

Community and Internet

friend

noun
1. A person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
2. A person who gives assistance; patron; supporter: friends of the Boston Symphony.
3. A person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile: Who goes there? Friend or foe?

It would seem a simple thing, defining who and what a friend is. Deciding who is your friend is a fairly simple process.

Do I like that person?

Linux friendsYes.

Does that person like me?

Allegedly.

Do we enjoy each other’s company?

Mostly.

Okay…then, I think we can safely assume that the two people cited above are friends.

Friendships have been forged since man decided to get up off his haunches and walk on two legs. Of course, back then deciding who was your friend had more to do with the amount of trust in mutuality. Could you go to sleep knowing that person will remain awake and alert to danger? Will that person share his food when you have none? Will that person help or protect you in times you are not able to help or protect yourself?

Those were weighty considerations and friendships were born more out of the ability to survive another sunset rather than if they made a good Spades partner.

People have become friends basically the same way for hundreds or thousands of years. But that all changed not too long ago. The method by which many people became friends happened with the flip of a switch…the switch that turned on the Internet.

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Debian, Ubuntu Touch & More…Debian community distro

Debian, Ubuntu Touch & More…

By Christine Hall on November 28, 2014 |

Business, Distros, Mobile and News

FOSS Week in Review

Larry’s taking a much deserved day off, so I got elected to do this Week in Review. Glad to be back in the saddle.

Here’s hoping that all in the U.S. had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and that those of you who don’t live here managed to make it through all of the online articles on our quaint little holiday. As always, one thing leads to another. In this case, giving thanks for what we have morphs into the great Christmas shopping race, in which we make a grab for stuff we don’t yet own.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Google and the EU

Google logoWhile we in the States were dealing with family and turkey, the EU was busy working on preparing Google’s head for the platter. The European Parliament yesterday passed by a wide margin a non-binding resolution urging anti-trust regulators to break up the company. For those keeping score, the final vote was 384 yeas and 174 nays.

Yesterday also saw France and Germany seeking a review, from the European Competition Commission, of the EU’s rules to ensure that international Internet companies could be targeted in the olde world.

Google has been tangling with our friends across the pond since at least 2010 on a host of subjects, which include privacy issues, “right to be forgotten” rules, copyrights, tax questions and more. The resolution didn’t mention Google by name, but asked for the Commission to consider proposals to separate search engines from their other services.

Continue readingDebian, Ubuntu Touch & More…
32-bit Man in a 64-bit World32-bit or 64-bit

32-bit Man in a 64-bit World

By Larry Cafiero on November 26, 2014 |

Distros, Hardware and Operating Systems

We’re going to go off the beaten path a little bit here and start with Joe Walsh — the musician, not the politician — of all people.

In his latest album, Joe proclaims he’s an “Analog Man.” He’s an analog man in a digital world, and that’s something to which I can clearly relate. Here’s why: Until yesterday, all of my non-Macintosh hardware in the “Jungle Room” — I call it a lab because it’s filled with hardware, though I really don’t do anything in this room that remotely resembles research-and-development — is of 32-bit vintage.

32-bit or 64-bitIn comes a castoff ThinkPad T500 from a friend in Seattle and I’m now in the 64-bit club.

I get the advantages of the better/faster/stronger processor capacity, obviously: From Computers 101, say it with me, “The number of bits in a processor refers to the size of the data types that it handles as well as the size of its registry. A 64-bit processor is capable of storing 264 computational values, including memory addresses. This makes it capable of accessing over four billion times as much physical memory than a 32-bit processor.”

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A New Thanksgiving Traditionopen door stairs

A New Thanksgiving Tradition

By Ken Starks on November 25, 2014 |

Community

In 2010, Reglue began working with the various foster care organizations in and around Austin. We were overwhelmed with the number of requests received, just in the first week. The person ageing out of the foster system here in Texas faces a number of challenges. Having a computer to begin adulthood/college shouldn’t be one of them.

The kids we focused on were those within a few months of ageing out of the foster care system…that magic age where the young adult is eighteen. If the foster kid is going to college, the age for ageing out of the system is 24, or at least it was the last time I checked. As well, foster kids who face challenges of one type or another can apply to stay with the foster family if they are not financially or scholastically prepared to leave.

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Weighing in on SCALE & More…scale logo

Weighing in on SCALE & More…

By Larry Cafiero on November 21, 2014 |

Community, News and Operating Systems

FOSS Week in Review

My highly esteemed colleagues seem to have covered all the big stories this week on these digital pages, which leaves me to wrap it up on a Friday morning with the following:

Get those proposals in: The Call for Papers for the 13th annual Southern California Linux Expo — SCALE 13x, for those of you keeping score at home — ends in less than three weeks from today. Specifically, the CFP ends at midnight Pacific Standard Time on Dec. 10, but it doesn’t mean you have to wait until Dec. 9 to submit (even though many of you will…).

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Firefox to Default to Yahoo’s Microsoft SearchFirefox logo

Firefox to Default to Yahoo’s Microsoft Search

By Christine Hall on November 20, 2014 |

Browsers, Business and Internet

There have been rumblings for some time now about Google’s search contract with Mozilla coming to an end this year. For ten years, the search giant has been the default go-to when it comes to search on Firefox, a deal which has supplied more than 80 percent of the browser’s funding. There’s been talk that Google or Mozilla wasn’t interested in renewing the deal, either because Firefox competes directly with Google’s Chrome browser or because the folks at Mozilla are unhappy with Google’s open web policies, depending on who’s doing the talking.

Firefox brings "click to play" to browser plugins.A week ago, in an attempt to make up for this projected loss of revenue, Mozilla began displaying advertising tiles in new tab pages on Firefox in newer versions of the browser. The first two sponsors, according to a Mozilla blog post, are CVS Health and Booking.com. Then yesterday, in another blog post, the organization announced that it’s signed a five year deal with Yahoo to make the once uber popular, still somewhat popular web portal the default for searches in Firefox.

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Linux Outlaws Ride Into the SunsetLinux Outlaws logo

Linux Outlaws Ride Into the Sunset

By Larry Cafiero on November 19, 2014 |

Community, Internet and Media

The introduction was inconspicuous enough. Philip Newborough, the lead developer for CrunchBang, tweeted to me: “They’re talking about you on LO.”

“LO?”

“Linux Outlaws.”

A few questions and a search or two later, I was at a Google Hangout where Dan Lynch, an English musician in the band 20lb Sounds from Liverpool, and Fabian Scherschel, a German tech journalist and rabid Pittsburgh Penguins fan, were discussing the FOSS issues of the day; Lynch with his subtle and deadpan delivery serving as an anchor and foil for Scherschel’s occasional — and hilarious — flights-of-ranting-fancy.

Fabian Scherschel and Dan Lynch of Linux Outlaws
Fabian Scherschel, left, and Dan Lynch make up a modern-day Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on Linux Outlaws
Photo by Fabian Scherchel – http://sixgun.org/
That was episode 303 of their podcast, and I was hooked on the Monday night taping of Linux Outlaws (usually on Monday nights, GMT, and fortunately for me, on the U.S. West Coast, Monday night GMT usually meant sitting in on the broadcast at around two in the afternoon).

Linux Outlaws is not for shrinking violets — it is portrayed on its site as “very much like listening to two friends sitting in a pub, having fun and talking about things they find interesting.” However, I think that sells the show short — it is far more entertaining than that (and when they say, “Not recommended for the faint of heart or the ignorant,” they mean it). Always straightforward and honest, always informative and humorous, Linux Outlaws never met an issue they couldn’t tackle with their unique brand of wisdom, insight and jocularity.

Now, Lynch and Scherschel — Dan and Fab to their relatives, friends, and a wide listener base — are at the crossroads. Recently, with the episodes well into the 360s in number, they decided to finish out the year with Linux Outlaws and ride off into the sunset.

I was able to catch up with them and ask where they’ve been, where they’re going, and other items of interest.

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On Reglue & Ken’s Kids…

By Christine Hall on November 18, 2014 |

Community

I knew about Ken Starks long before he began writing for us about a year ago. In fact, I knew about him long before FOSS Force even existed. I knew about him from reading his Blog of Helios. I also knew about the important work he does, through his nonprofit Reglue project, getting Linux computers into the hands of school aged children in the Austin area, children who’s parents can’t afford computers because they’re having enough trouble keeping beans on the table and warm coats on their kid’s backs.

During the last year, since Ken’s been part of our team here, I’ve come to know Ken personally, and he’s everything he seems to be. He’s gruff, a little rough around the edges (with plenty of edges) and has a gigantic heart. I wouldn’t change a thing about him. Those edges and his big heart define who he is and without them Ken wouldn’t be Ken — and the world would be poorer for it.

Continue readingOn Reglue & Ken’s Kids…
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