Open Source Archive

Songbird Drops Linux Support

Kroc 2010-04-03 Open Source 66 Comments

It's a simple equation. Results = Developers x Time; and for Songbird, it's not working out. Yesterday, they announced they will drop Linux support in favour of Windows, Mac and to meet plans to include video features in the next release. The comments are intensely angry, as you can imagine. An untested Linux version will be kept around "for use by our Songbird engineers who develop on the Linux platform".

Musings on Software Freedom for Mobile Devices

Guest post by tessmonsta 2010-03-16 Open Source 29 Comments

Today's mobile space is owned by the likes of Nokia, RIM, Apple, and Google. While some of these corporations have embraced some open source components, a full FLOSS solution has yet to gain traction. Why? Blogger Bradley M. Kuhn posts thoughtful analysis of the current state of Open Source in the mobile space.

US Copyright Lobby: FOSS “Weakens Software Industry”

Thom Holwerda 2010-02-24 Open Source 129 Comments

The world is slowly and surely going crazy. I'm sure of it now. The US copyright lobby has officially gone totally and utterly nuts. Get this: they are trying to lobby the US government to equate encouraging the use of Free and open source software to undermining intellectual property rights, and to weakening the software industry. I wish I was making this stuff up.

Open Letter to Google: Free VP8, Use it on YouTube

Submitted by PLan 2010-02-23 Open Source 30 Comments

"With your purchase of On2, you now own both the world's largest video site (YouTube) and all the patents behind a new high performance video codec - VP8. Just think what you can achieve by releasing the VP8 codec under an irrevocable royalty-free license and pushing it out to users on YouTube? You can end the web's dependence on patent-encumbered video formats and proprietary software (Flash)."

What Matters to Open Source: Licensing or Community?

Thom Holwerda 2010-02-11 Open Source 6 Comments

"When it comes to defining open source, licensing is a critical topic since it's the license that helps to make an application or effort open. But for Michael Tiemann, president of the Open Source Initiative, it's not necessarily the only key success factor for open source projects."

BusyBox Author Bruce Perens on the GPL Lawsuit

Thom Holwerda 2009-12-15 Open Source 37 Comments

Yesterday, we reported that the Software Freedom Law Center had started a lawsuit against several companies who they claim violated the GPL. The subject of the violation was BusBox, and the SFLC claims it is operating on behalf of the authors of BusyBox. Original BusyBox author Bruce Perens, however, begs to differ.

SFLC Launches GPL Lawsuit Against 14 Gadget Makers

Thom Holwerda 2009-12-14 Open Source 18 Comments

"On behalf of the developers behind the open source BusyBox project, the Software Freedom Law Center has launched a major lawsuit against 14 consumer electronics companies. According to a complaint filed by the SFLC, the companies named in the suit failed to comply with the requirements of GNU's General Public License, the free software license under which the BusyBox code is distributed."

How KDE and GNOME Managed To Shoot Each Other Dead

Submitted by fsmag 2009-11-29 Open Source 106 Comments

From Free Software Magazine: "Google promises a much needed shift in the way small computers work. Problems like software updates, backups, installation, maintenance, viruses, have plagued the world for too long: a shift is way overdue. To me, however, the change about to happen shows us what many people have refused to believe for a long time: KDE and GNOME shot each other dead."

SFLC Finds One GPL Violating Company Per Day

Thom Holwerda 2009-11-10 Open Source 5 Comments

"I've been on a mission in recent months to establish just how common and mundane GPL violations are. Since 21 August 2009, I've been finding one new GPL violating company per day (on average) and I am still on target to find one per day for 365 days straight. When I tell this to people who are new to GPL enforcement, they are surprised and impressed. However, when I tell people who have done GPL enforcement themselves, they usually say some version of: Am I supposed to be impressed by that? Couldn't a monkey do that? Fact is, the latter are a little bit right: there are so many GPL violations that I might easily be able to go on finding one per day for two years straight."

FOSS License Compliance for Companies

Submitted by shanecoughlan 2009-10-29 Open Source 3 Comments

Armijn Hemel (gpl-violtions.org, Loohuis Consulting) and Shane Coughlan (Opendawn, FSFE) complete a trilogy of articles examining FOSS licensing issues and best practice on LWN.net with an outline of FOSS license compliance for companies. Readers may also be interested in part one, introducing the topic and describing what developers can do to protect their rights, and part two, examining the field of compliance engineering.

Stallman: No Evidence of Backdoor in Mac OS X

Thom Holwerda 2009-09-29 Open Source 59 Comments

Well, this is refreshing. While Richard Stallman is a staunch critic of anything closed and non-Free, his ire seems mostly directed towards DRM and Microsoft. However, a lesser known fact is that he often talks about Apple's Mac OS X too in his speeches. During those speeches, he repeatedly claimed Mac OS X contained a backdoor which allowed Apple to forcibly impose software changes upon users. Stallman has now posted a retraction for those claims.

‘The Failure of the GPL’

Submitted by nitsudima 2009-09-02 Open Source 71 Comments

David Chisnall casts a critical eye over the GNU General Public License and asks whether it's done more harm than good for the Free Software movement. "Looking back, has the GPL been a help, or a hindrance? And will it continue to be a help or hindrance in the future?"

Best Open Source Software of 2009

Guest post by snydeq 2009-08-31 Open Source 3 Comments

InfoWorld has announced its 2009 Best of Open Source Software winners, spotlighting its top 40 picks among open source enterprise software, application development tools, networking and network management software, and platforms and middleware projects. The package also includes a 'Hall of Fame' for the 10 most indispensable open source projects of all time. InfoWorld's top picks among desktop productivity tools builds on its recent 'Best Free Open Source Software for Windows,' adding GIMP, Blender, and Audacity, among others.

FSF Launches ‘Windows 7 Sins’ Campaign

Thom Holwerda 2009-08-26 Open Source 144 Comments

When Windows Vista was launched, the Free Software Foundation started its BadVista campaign, which was aimed at informing users about what the FSF considered user-restrictive features in Vista. Luckily for the FSF, Vista didn't really need a bad-mouthing campaign to fail. Now that Windows 7 is receiving a lot of positive press, the FSF dusted off the BadVista drum, and gave it a fresh coat of paint.

ACP, One of the Oldest Open Source Applications

Submitted by estherschindler 2009-08-21 Open Source No Comments

The Airline Control Program, introduced by IBM around 1967, predated the term 'open source' by decades. But you may be surprised by how much of its development reflects the FOSS movement today.

The Challenges for Open Source in China

Submitted by caffeine deprived 2009-07-16 Open Source 1 Comment

The uphill battle that open-source programs face to steal ground from proprietary software comes with added pitfalls in China, where problems like software piracy take away strengths that open source has elsewhere. The Chinese government backs multiple domestic open-source projects, but their software is not widely used. Low awareness, a lack of big open-source projects and difficulty finding expertise in certain programming languages all hamper the development of open source in China.

The Fight Over Open Source ‘Leeches’

Guest post by snydeq 2009-06-01 Open Source 31 Comments

InfoWorld reports on the fight over open source 'leeches' -- companies that use open source technology but don't give back to the open source community. While some view such organizations as a tragedy of the commons, others view the notion of 'freeloaders' as a relic of open source's Wild West era, when coding was a higher calling and free software a religion.

Ex-Microsoft Employee: Free Software Will Kill Microsoft

Submitted by shaneco 2009-05-22 Open Source 147 Comments

Keith Curtis worked at Microsoft for 11 years, coding on Windows, Office, and at Microsoft's research department, before leaving the Redmond giant. Call it a revelation, call it giving in to the devil's temptations, but he's now a complete open source and Linux advocate, and in his new book, "After the Software Wars", he explains why open source will prevail against Microsoft's proprietary model.

Red Hat Maps Open Source Activity

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-21 Open Source 7 Comments

Red Hat today published a new study together with Georgia Tech mapping open source activity across 75 countries. Officially called the Open Source Index (OSI), the final score is made of a number of factors including policies, practices in the Government, Industry, and Community. Topping the list current is France with a score of 1.35. Spain is second at 1.07, Germany third at 1.05.

Stallman Discusses Free Software, GPLv3

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-14 Open Source 47 Comments

On June 29, 2007 the Free Software Foundation released the GNU General Public License, version 3. What happened since then? Federico Biancuzzi had the opportunity to discuss many subjects with the FSF's founder and president Richard Stallman.