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A Seat at the Big Kids’ Table at Ohio LinuxFest

By Ken Starks on October 21, 2014 |

Community and Operating Systems

A Seat at the Big Kids’ Table at Ohio LinuxFestOhio LinuxFest

For a while now, I have been planning to attend Ohio LinuxFest in 2014. It is one of the largest and most prestigious Linux events on anyone’s calendar. Attending OLF 2014 will afford me a chance to meet some people I have yet to meet…in the flesh anyway. There are people that I have worked and collaborated with since 2008 and I’ve never met them in person. Ohio LinuxFest is to be that opportunity.

Ohio LinuxFestWhat took me by surprise was an invitation to be the closing keynote speaker. “Surprised” isn’t nearly adequate. For almost a week afterward, I checked my inbox several times a day, waiting for the apologetic message that they had sent the email to the wrong person.

Nope, they meant me. The email with travel arrangements was in my name. Columbus, here I come.

I am flattered and humbled by the invitation. I was also asked if I would attend the Keynote Dinner on the first night. The Keynote Dinner? That’s when people pay to sit with you and other speakers during dinner. Really? Someone will pay to have dinner with me? Heck, the best I hoped for was being able to stick someone else with my dinner tab.

But to me, Ohio LinuxFest isn’t about a public speaking opportunity, although I am going to have a lot of fun with it. Attending the Ohio LinuxFest is going to be a chance to talk to people, to shake hands with…to hug old friends. It will be a chance to gather with those who understand the amazing thing we do as a truly global community.

Continue readingA Seat at the Big Kids’ Table at Ohio LinuxFest
Todd Lewis & the Evolution of ATOTodd Lewis, All Things Open

Todd Lewis & the Evolution of ATO

By Christine Hall on October 20, 2014 |

Business, Community and News

I spent the summer of ’67, the Summer of Love, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Although the hippie thing hadn’t yet made it there, the city was still cool and somewhat hip, even though at first glance it appeared to be little more than just another sleepy southern capital, flush with tobacco money and not quite sure about the end of state-sanctioned segregation, which was just getting underway. Nearly fifty years later, Raleigh still has cool cred, although time has changed it greatly.

All Things Open
Having fun at last year’s All Things Open
Segregation is thankfully long gone and tobacco money has been replaced by an economy built around computer tech, medicine and education. A great amount of the tech is open source, with many small companies taking advantage of opportunities presented not only by Red Hat’s influence, but also by Research Triangle Park (RTP) and N.C. State. Thirty miles west is Durham, “the city of medicine” and home to old, rich Duke University. Just beyond that, Chapel Hill and the UNC Tarheels.

Last year I returned to Raleigh for pretty much the first time since the sixties to attend All Things Open (ATO) and saw hardly any evidence of the city I’d known nearly a half century ago. That was okay — time marches on. What I saw was vibrant and moderately hip, in a nerdy, geeky sort of way. I was conferencing, so I expected to see the city’s geek side — which I did in spades. So much so that I began to get the idea that Raleigh had morphed into something of an open source Silicon Valley.

Continue readingTodd Lewis & the Evolution of ATO
Organizer Confirms Both POSSCON and ‘Great Wide Open’ in 2015POSSCON logo

Organizer Confirms Both POSSCON and ‘Great Wide Open’ in 2015

By FOSS Force on October 18, 2014 |

Community, News and Software

This year IT-oLogy, the organization behind the annual POSSCON conference in Columbia, South Carolina, cancelled the event in order to focus on launching the Great Wide Open (GWO) conference in Atlanta. At the time, some expressed fear that this might signal the end of the Palmetto State event, that Great Wide Open actually meant a move and new name for the conference. At the same time, others were speculating that GWO would be a one-off event, essentially making it a one year move by POSSCON to Atlanta, which would then return to its native home in Columbia, which is where IT-oLogy is headquartered.

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Open Source Women, Preinstalled Linux & the SF Giantszareason

Open Source Women, Preinstalled Linux & the SF Giants

By Larry Cafiero on October 17, 2014 |

Community, Hardware and News

FOSS Week in Review

With another week coming to an end, let’s wrap it up on a somewhat balanced note.

Get out the Vote: Our friends at Red Hat are now taking votes for the Women in Open Source Awards. The first award of its kind, the prize shines a spotlight on women making important contributions to an open source project, to the open source community, or through the use of open source methodology.

Red Hat logoNominations are open through Nov. 21. Qualified judges from Red Hat will narrow down the nominees to a subset of finalists for both the Academic and Community awards. The public will vote to determine the winner from the finalists selected. Winners will be announced in June during an awards ceremony at next year’s Red Hat Summit in Boston.

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Reglue Annual Fundraiser Up & RunningReglue fundraiser

Reglue Annual Fundraiser Up & Running

By Christine Hall on October 16, 2014 |

Community and News

It should come as little surprise to most that Reglue is just about our favorite nonprofit Linux project. This would be true even if the organization’s founder and executive director wasn’t also our own fun-to-read columnist, Ken Starks. After all, what’s not to like about an organization that collects old, worn Windows boxes, fixes them up until they’re practically new again, and finds them homes with school kids who otherwise wouldn’t have a computer? Along the way, those Windows machines become Linux machines, which helps break the vendor lock-in which Redmond tries to create in the minds of American school children.

Reglue fundraiser
Bruno Knaapen Technology Learning Center
Of course, sometimes Reglue finds itself battling vendor lock-in which has infected the minds of adult educators who should know better — but that’s another story entirely.

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Netflix, Chrome, DRM & Other NastiesNetflix logo

Netflix, Chrome, DRM & Other Nasties

By Christine Hall on October 15, 2014 |

Business, Community, Operating Systems and Web Apps

Monday’s article on easy Netflix coming at last to Linux garnered a few polite responses, taking me to task for my enthusiasm for a “non-free” solution. The problems are that Netflix uses DRM and that currently its use on GNU/Linux requires the use of the proprietary Chrome browser. One commenter even questioned FOSS Force’s commitment to software freedom with the remark: “Your logo “Keeping Tech Free” I take it that means free beer and not freedom.”

Netflix logoNope. I’m an advocate of free “as in speech” software — which includes the freedom to choose. If there’s a FOSS solution for something I need or want to do, I’ll take that every time, and encourage my friends to do so as well. However, if there’s something I need or want to do with no FOSS solution available, I might use a proprietary solution, depending on the depth of my need or want and on how draconian the terms of the proprietary EULA.

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What Would You Do for a Gigabyte Internet Connection?Google Internet gigabyte fiber

What Would You Do for a Gigabyte Internet Connection?

By Ken Starks on October 14, 2014 |

Business and Internet

We knew it was coming several months ago. At first, just from flimsy rumors, but then mention of the free Time Warner speed upgrade began showing up on credible news sites. Credible enough for me to call Time Warner and find out where these upgrades would take place. When I found out that our small town of Taylor, Texas was included in the upgrade area, I became separated by only 3 degrees from Happy Dance.

Google Internet gigabyte fiberWhen my euphoria dropped to a more manageable level, I took some time to mull it over. Specifically, I was asking myself why Time Warner would include small towns almost fifty miles away from the city in this upgrade? I mean…gifts, horses, mouths and all that. I thought it was a legitimate question.

I wasn’t able to make any sense of it until someone ‘splained it to me.

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Easy Netflix on LinuxNetflix on Linux Mint XFCE

Easy Netflix on Linux

By Christine Hall on October 13, 2014 |

Browsers, Internet and Operating Systems

Linux’s got Netflix. No fuss, no muss, easy-peasy Netflix, straight out-of-the-box.

It wasn’t so long ago that common knowledge dictated that the reason GNU/Linux wasn’t getting traction was software, namely MS Office and Photoshop. Those days are long gone. Office is now pretty much irrevelant, with many if not most home users (at least the people I know) opting for Open Office or LibreOffice. Meanwhile, Photoshop’s moved to the cloud and although it still won’t work on Linux, many graphic artists are finding that GIMP is robust enough to tackle nearly everything thrown at it.

Netflix on Linux Mint XFCE

So that should be it, right? Wrong.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), a paradigm shift in home computing has occurred during the past seven years. These days, computers are as much about entertainment as they are about word processing, spreadsheets and the like. At the center of the computer-as-entertainment-device revolution is our favorite old DVD rental company Netflix, which offers more streaming moving image titles that you can shake a stick at — if shaking sticks at movie titles happens to be your thing — with unlimited streaming costing as little as eight bucks a month.

Continue readingEasy Netflix on Linux