Appearances can be deceiving, and in this particular case, they can make a very poignant statement. To illustrate the point of the “fast lane/slow lane”…
FOSS Force
A recent brouhaha concerning Google comes from an item that made the rounds in the last week or so regarding older browsers and Google search. It seems that some users of older browsers have been receiving an outdated version of Google’s homepage when attempting to make a search. Evidently, Google searches made using these browsers returned results just fine, using Google’s current results page, but users needed to return to the search engine’s homepage to conduct another search. The browsers affected are primarily older versions of Opera and Safari.
This led to a discussion on the Google Product Forums, which prompted a reply from a Google employee using the name nealem:
“I want to assure you this isn’t a bug, it’s working as intended.
“We’re continually making improvements to Search, so we can only provide limited support for some outdated browsers. We encourage everyone to make the free upgrade to modern browsers — they’re more secure and provide a better web experience overall.”
According to the Mozilla Developer Network, Firefox OS is an open source mobile operating system based on Linux, open web standards and Mozilla’s Gecko technology.
But there’s more to it that that: Firefox OS is about reinventing what mobile platforms can be, about pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the Web on mobile and about enabling entirely new segments of users to come online with their smartphone at various levels of participation, from users to developers.
On a Monday last October, Tennessee based publisher and writer Susan Linton decided her plate was too full and put the website Tux Machines up for sale. That Friday, October 28, she announced that she’d found a buyer in Roy Schestowitz, known in FOSS circles as the publisher of TechRights, a site which focuses on the political side of free tech.
For nine years, Tux Machines had been a place to read about Linux and FOSS, mainly from links to what others were writing on other sites. But it was also just a cool place to hang out and meet up with other Linux users. Certainly there were and are other sites doing almost the same thing — but Linton’s Tux Machines was different. It was kick-your-shoes-off-and-visit-a-spell homey. It was comfortable.
“I’m just getting too old and tired to keep the site up the way it and its loyal visitors deserve,” she wrote. “It may get better next spring, but this fall I’ll end up losing all my visitors I’m afraid.”
To say that things are going at breakneck speed in the FOSS world –- so much so that it’s hard to keep track of –- well, that would be a lie. However, there are a few things that popped up on the proverbial radar over the past week…
Ruth Suehle added to Ohio LinuxFest keynoter lineup: Yep, the Raspberry Pi queen and ruler of all she surveys in the realm of Red Hat’s Open Source and Standards group, Ruth has joined the list of keynoters for the October event in Columbus. Ruth participates in the Fedora Project and is co-author of “Raspberry Pi Hacks” (written with fellow Red Hatter Tom Callaway). She also leads discussions about open source principles at opensource.com, and serves as a senior editor at GeekMom.com.
Linus being Linus: No shrinking violet by anyone’s standards, Linus Torvalds addressed the wider Debian community on Sunday at Debconf in Portland, and his talk had people agreeing and disagreeing, sometimes simultaneously.
I have not paid attention to my birthday for over 30 years.
Personally, I think it’s a bit arrogant of me to put any significance on this random day or to even acknowledge it as anything other than just another day. I don’t think this way about other people’s birthdays. I celebrate with them on their special days. It’s just that on my birthday I would just as soon go about my bid’ness like I did yesterday or the day before.
Something has changed about the way I look at birthdays now. I’ve often said that the only reason humans “invented” time was to mark the progress of our inevitable demise or, in my case, proximity to almost passing.
I hope there are no marketers in heaven, who create demand for profit while claiming they’re only “giving the public what they want.”
What would you do if you were offered a choice between a carrot or a bar of candy? I don’t know about you, but I’m taking the candy, even though I definitely really, really need the carrot’s vitamins, roughage and other goodness and don’t need the candy at all. But if you were to sit a carrot next to me, it probably wouldn’t get eaten — ever. Set a candy bar down next to me, however, and I’ll resist it for all of five minutes.
So why wouldn’t I eat the carrot? Because candy bars are too easy to come by. So are burgers, fries and shakes. They all feed unhealthy addictions and creating addictions, then feeding them, is central to our economy and is what keeps the fat cats fat. Even though I know this, I’ll grab the candy bar, the Little Debbie’s Zebra Cake or the “all the way” cheeseburger when what I really need is a pear or an apple.
Again, given the choice between a carrot or candy, a nice gooey chocolate bar perhaps, which would you choose? I’m betting that most of you are like me.
These are the ten most read articles on FOSS Force for the month of August, 2014. 1. When Linux Was Perfect Enough by Christine Hall.…
It’s hard to believe the official story coming out of Raleigh, that CTO Brian Stevens abruptly resigned his position at Red Hat on Wednesday “to pursue another opportunity.” The company is being mainly mum on the subject, only offering a terse three sentence announcement on their website.
Red Hat seems to want us to believe Stevens left on his own in pursuit of the American dream. Maybe, maybe not. From the way the story has unfolded, it seems highly unlikely that Stevens’ decision to leave was entirely his.
ZDNet’s Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is a North Carolina resident who usually has a pretty good idea of the happenings within Red Hat’s Raleigh headquarters. In his initial report on this story, he seems to have been as surprised by this move as anyone else.