I want to talk in response to things that have been discussed about our non profit, Reglue. Many have asked about how the organization will…
FOSS Force
If all goes according to plan, in June of 2015 HP plans to release a new operating system they’re calling Linux++. Before we start jumping up and down and putting on our party hats, we should know that this is not a new Linux distro being designed by HP to be featured on a new line of laptops. Although based on Linux and Android, this won’t even be an operating system at all in the sense that mortals such as I generally use the term. Most of us won’t be downloading and installing it. If we do, we won’t be using it as a drop-in replacement for Mint, Fedora or any of our other favorite desktop distros.
So what is The Machine? Julie Bort with Business Insider on Thursday called it “a computer so radical and so powerful that it will reduce today’s data center down to the size of a refrigerator.” If it lives up to its hype, it promises to turn today’s computers into horse and buggies by comparison.
Iowa has come up with a plan which I’m adding to my “bad idea” list — driver’s license by phone app.
It seems that beginning next year, which is now less than three weeks away, the good and cold state will be experimenting with issuing driver’s licenses as mobile apps rather than the old fashioned plastic kind that are best kept in a wallet. According to CNN, the app will be legal identification and will be secured by use of a PIN number. The app can also be secured using fingerprint or facial recognition technology said Andrea Henry with the Iowa Department of Transportation.
iowa Dept of Transportation
“Really, it’s about giving customers a choice,” says Henry. “We’re in an increasingly mobile world, and there are so many things that are connected to your mobile phone.”
WHO TV in Des Moines reported that one security feature of the app license is that the driver’s face will be constantly in motion, rotating from side to side.
“It shows you it is real,” explained Iowa Department of Transportation’s Director, Paul Trombino. “It gives you a real perspective. There’s a lot of ways for us to offer security features which I’m not going to prescribe today so that, we know it’s the person.”
Although this may sound way cool to the folks who see being tethered to expensive data plans as a privilege to be savored, to me it smacks of Big Brother and 1984.
FOSS Week in Review
It’s raining, finally, in California. After a couple of years of painfully dry weather, we’re getting the kind of rain that causes animals to march two-by-two into a large wooden boat. One might think this would be cause for a damp and sullen report to end the week, but actually that’s not the case, because…
The reviews are in: The tech media has given multiple thumbs-up to the new release of Fedora 21, released earlier this week to a server-jammed public (if you tried and couldn’t get it earlier, I think the rush is over now). For example, a couple of Stevens — Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of ZDNet and Steven Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Daily News’ Click blog — put in their proverbial two cents each in generally positive articles.
There’s more bad news for Uber. The company was sued yesterday in a joint action by San Francisco and Los Angeles. San Francisco is the online ride sharing company’s headquarters.
The lawsuit lists several areas in which the DAs for both cities claim the company acts illegally. For starters, it misleads its customers about the extent of background checks its drivers undergo, while charging UberX passengers a “Safe Rides Fee” of one dollar related to those checks. In addition, the suit claims the company’s rates are set without the required approval of state agencies and that it operates illegally at state airports while charging special airport fees that are not turned over to the airports.
At a press conference yesterday, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said that Uber claims to have an “industry-leading background check process,” which he said is far from the truth.
Yesterday, the Fedora Project released Fedora 21, and with it the tech media got on its proverbial horse and started reports and reviews of the latest release. While it’s a good release and we won’t be reviewing it here — I already gave it a shakedown during the alpha and found it to be fantastic and completely worth the wait — there’s one thing that’s missing from Fedora 21 that I find rather disheartening.
Namely, Fedora 21 is missing a release name.
It’s quirky, perhaps, but release names are a favorite item of mine in the FOSS realm. While completely useless in the scope of the software itself, it does actually reflect a degree of creativity within the respective communities. Depending on the how it’s done, the decision process ranges from a spirited event to a tried-and-true yawner.
Until Fedora 21, the Fedora Project used to have a process for release names in which knock-down drag-out brawls would break out, rhetorically speaking, in the debate and community-wide voting for the name. Arguably, Fedora 17 “Beefy Miracle” wobbled the process from the rails, and while the rest of the names were noble — my favorite was Fedora 19 “Schrodinger’s Cat” — the formula was fairly simple: Names had to meet a “is-a” test. For example, “Schnozz is a ____, and so is Keister.” Taking the example of naming Fedora 14 “Laughlin,” the Fedora Project took the name of Fedora 13 “Goddard” and, though the miracle of the “is-a” test, had a list of candidates, of which Laughlin won. So the formula is as follows: “Robert H. Goddard was a professor of physics, and so was Robert Laughlin.” To see this in action, you can look at the Fedora Release Name History.
Not-for-profit organizations with ties to tech, especially FOSS, are invited to take advantage of a new program at FOSS Force. This new program offers free…
Editor’s note: This article first appeared in a slightly different form on The Blog of Helios on Monday, October 25, 2010.
We’re all aware of the Distro Wars. Some of us are bloodied warriors…Others sit on the sidelines experiencing mixed degrees of amusement. I’ve been both, but more the latter these days.
Arguments over who’s distro is best have subsided over the past few years. Many of us realize that arguing over which distro is best is an exercise in futility. It’s akin to arguing over religion or politics. Nothing I say will change your mind and the same can be said for any arguments you may present Still, there are those who want to carry the war forward.
Reglue and our project before it,The HeliOS Project; has been a long-time user of Mint…and not for any other reason than it fits our needs. As my friend Eric Johnson says:
“Operating Systems are tools, not religions.”
It wouldn’t take me long to drill down into any given Microsoft eula and find points to disagree with Eric, but the truth is, most “average” computer users don’t care about their “freedom”…and when we preach to them, many of us come off as fanatics. The concept of “free software” is foreign to them. To them, “freedom” means they don’t have to pay for it. So yeah, we can come off as fanatics.
Trust me, I know. I was a long time card-carrying member of Fanatics-R-Us.
Uber’s been shut down again.
It seems as if city officials in Portland, Oregon take exception with the online car-for-hire service’s plans to take to their city’s streets without bothering with little things like acquiring taxi permits for their cars and drivers, proper liability insurance and vehicle inspections.
FOSS Week in Review
With colleagues like mine, you can rest assured everything is covered. From FOSS Force columnist Ken Starks’ friendship column this week to Christine Hall’s commentary on the contiuous battles free and open source software developers and advocates face, the week has been a very thoughtful and reflective one in the FOSS Force neighborhood.
Nevertheless, here are a couple of more FOSS morsels to wrap up the week:
There is no Dana… Over at OpenStack, a discussion initiated by Elizabeth Krumbach Joseph goes into the possibility of a logo for Zuul, OpenStack’s pipeline-oriented project gating and automation system. Because she gets asked during presentations, “What is the logo for Zuul?” Elizabeth has picked up the baton and gone to bat, to woefully mix sports metaphors, on behalf of the issue.
“[A]n open source contributor (and) artist friend” of Joseph’s has already put their artistic talent to work and come up with a logo, which was outlined in Joseph’s missive, and this likeable dragon would make an excellent choice.