Tag Linux

FakeStevey got it…wrong.

Check this post by Fake Steve Jobs. It's hilarious and not just because it nails what the real Steve Jobs probably thinks of Openness, but also because it highlights what was always wrong with his approach: whenever his companies were weak (NeXT in the late 80s and early 90s, Apple in the late 90s and early 2000s) he touted Openness, standards and formed alliances with other companies. Take Adobe's Display PostScript in NeXTSTEP, Darwin, Display PDF, OpenGL, OpenAL, CUPS, UNIX certification, gcc and a number of other standards, APIs, libraries and applications between 2001 and today in OS X or his 'agreement' with Microsoft in 1997. But just when things do well, he tries to usurp the dominant position, showing complete disregard to their partners, development community, users and sometimes even employees. In my discussions about Android with friends over the past day I compared Google with Microsoft in the 80s. Many have done the same. This comment by 'chickenface' in the linked article is, I believe, representative of how I see Android evolving and eventually dominating the market:
This is 1984, the iphone is the 128K Mac, and GPhone is the PC. Look, there's no actual consortium; there's Google and its customers. Kinda like Apple and AT&T, but they've got so many customers we're calling it a consortium. When're you gonna get this straight: Microsoft were like the Klingons - we made a sort of peace with them and held our nose. Google, they're way worse -- they're the Borg.

LinuxMCE and Usability

Some months ago I discovered LinuxMCE, a software suite that sits on top of Kubuntu and provides a complete media centre/smarthome/voip/home security solution with truly world class features. I got to rediscover it in mid September this year after I watched this demonstration video. The project is impressive with its rich feature list, its expandability […]

Shuttleworth's Interview at Open Season

There is a very interesting interview with Mark Shuttleworth, the guy that started and funds Ubuntu development through his company, Canonical. The interview is interesting for several reasons: First it exposes what many linux users don't get: compiz fusion and the eyecandy is nothing but the icing on the (missing) cake. There needs to be additional effort to turn all this amazing technology into coherent, useful software. Second, it demonstrates some of the issues behind Open Source development and some ways that they can be resolved. Finally, it covers the major problems facing OpenOffice.org, tries to explain why they're there and takes a look at the rest of the industry and its relations to Ubuntu and linux. Worth listening.

Hey, where's the GPS support, Google?

Google EarthIt was just brought to my attention that Google Earth Plus for Linux does not have any support for GPS devices whatsoever, despite this being one of its main selling points over the free version. Google advertises the four variants of its Google Earth product range (Free, Plus, Pro and EC) without making any differentiating remarks for the Linux, Mac OS X or Windows ports. There is no mention of this either on the GE product page or its help centre. A potential customer would almost certainly expect this feature to be present in all three versions of the software and as such misled by the product presentation by Google.

The community is vastly more innovative and powerful than a single company.

I've followed Jonathan Schwartz's blog for a while and more than often he has interesting things to write. Sun has long been one of the major forces in the computing industry and it's gradual decline in mindshare and presence after 2000 was saddening, even though it was justified. After years of confusion within the company about its strategy and the role of Open Source, it seems that it's starting to 'get it'. An interesting 'apology' by Schwartz, Sun's CEO, coupled with the usual marketing-babble. I hope he means it.

Why I don't like Silverlight.

The short answer: because it comes from Microsoft and reeks of its aspirations of total domination monopoly. Because it excludes Linux even before it’s out. Because it doesn’t conform to Open Standards. The long answer: I recall only too well the web-hell of yesteryear when sites required Internet Explorer, when proprietary, temperamental Microsoft DHTML was […]

It's out.

It’s that time of year again. The latest version of Ubuntu, the most popular linux distribution of the past few years, version 7.04 codenamed “Feisty Fawn” just came out. But what does it bring to the average user? Before I start my brief review, let me preface this by stating that Feisty is definitely an […]

Why I stopped using Skype. Kind of.

I was one of the early adopters of Skype, the, now ubiquitous voice over IP application/platform created by Niklas Zennström of Kazaa’s fame and now owned by eBay. But, truth be told I never really warmed up to it. You could say it was imposed on me when its simplicitly stood there laughing at my […]

Google SoC 2007 and the projects that I care about.

It’s the third year that Google sponsors students to work on Open Source projects during their summer vacation. The programme is called ‘Google Summer of Code‘ or GSoC and attracts the attention of many of the most prominent open source projects around; projects that are typically non-commercial and that would otherwise have little chance of […]

The 'Hackintosh' experience.

These past few years have been part of a period in which the computing industry, for the first time after many years, has been in flux. The importance of web applications is growing everyday. Alternatives to well-established platforms and application software, often powered by open source software, are challenging the status quo and there was […]