Feb
8
When Promoting Freedom Restricts Your Freedom
Filed Under FOSS | 20 Comments
We were having a discussion in IRC this morning about how promoting free software and open standards can sometimes end up restricting your freedom. Now tell me if I’m wrong here, but as I understand the idea behind OpenOffice is:
To allow you to use any document format, and in the end any application that works best for you. Preferably you use the open .odt format, but when its all said and done compatibility is the key here.
In other words, Open Office reads and writes to a large number of document formats. This allows Open Office users to read from many applications and write to many application. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what application someone uses, its the underlying format or compatibility of that format that is important.
Now fast forward to this years BrainShare, put on by Novell. A local contributor is going to present but they *require* slides be submitted in Open Office Impress format. His slides aren’t in Open Office Impress format. Now we’ve come to the point where promoting free standards and applications has actually ended up in a lock-in, removing the freedom from the end user.
His slides are in a standards compliant s5 format which, in my opinion, completely solves the issue (need?) of Impress or Powerpoint. s5 is a standards compliant web-based presentation format. You can recreate most of the features of Impress or Powerpoint through the use of standard css and javascript.
Everyone has a browser. Everyone can view s5 presentations. Not everyone has Word or Impress or Powerpoint and not everyone can view or submit presentations in Impress format.
To be honest with you I don’t even have Open Office installed. I *never* use it. What is the point of a word processor other than to communicate ideas via text? What are you doing with your word processor that you can’t do with vi or emacs? If you’re doing fancy formatting why not use the web? Use html or, hell, even use Google Docs.
Google Docs is genious because it solves the whole issue. It doesn’t matter what word processor you have (or don’t have), it simply requires you have a modern browser. Done. End of story. (The fact that Google pwns your content is another issue for another time however.)
If someone out there can tell me why I should use a fancy (read:bloated) Word processor instead of vim, or can tell me why I should use Impress instead of the web I’m open to suggestions.
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Aug
30
As I mentioned nearly a month ago I have decided to donate a portion of the earnings from this site to a Free Software or related project each month. The first month I pledged to donate 25% of the monies earned, and that I have done. The first donation has gone to help the EFF help protect our digital rights, and I actually did just a bit over 25%… just to make it a nice round number.
While this was a difficult decision–there are so many projects to donate to–I felt it was a good choice. I will continue to donate into the future so if you have a project that you feel would benefit please leave a comment.
Also, in an effort to be transparent, and also considering this money was generated by many of you by visiting the site, here are the details:
$100 went to the EFF as a one-time donation.
I will receive the awesome EFF "swat" hat as a gift. (I'll see about posting a picture when it arrives).
I want to thank everyone for continuing to support this site. I hope you’ll continue to do so and I hope you agree with the donation decisions. I know the money comes from many of you taking time to visit the site and I appreciate it.
May
19
Open Discussion Day : May 19th
Filed Under FOSS | 3 Comments
I want to remind everyone that today is the second annual Open Discussion Day. The day where we celebrate and advocate open protocols and computing standards. One year ago today I set the goal to stop using proprietary “closed” IM protocols. Today I only use Jabber and I don’t miss the others. My friends and family can still contact me. They can still email me and the world has continued its orbital motion.
I invite everyone to participate in one of the following today (and hopefully into the future!):
- If you’ve partially moved yourself to the open chat protocol Jabber make the switch complete.
- If you don’t have a Jabber account go ahead and make one. Check out Jabber or even use your gmail account over Jabber. (see instructions here)
- Invite a friend to use Jabber whether it be via a new Jabber account or a gmail account. Spread the word and celebrate!
This year I plan on extending my goal to other open protocols and continue to set a personal standard and example to those around me.
- I will continue to advocate the use of Jabber.
- I will dedicate bandwidth and torrent seeds to the OpenOffice project download.
- I will support the Ogg Vorbis format and hardware that supports it.
I know it is a late reminder for those of you in Europe but for you in the US there is still time in the day to start a change. I invite you to pick something from the list–something you feel you can accomplish–and set it in motion. Protocols, standards and free software can’t continue to grow without each of us. Please try to do your part and celebrate Open Discussion Day!
Dec
30
I’ve been reflecting this past week on what we have (and haven’t) yet accomplished this year with open source and free software. I think we have made some great strides but we also have a long road ahead of us and it will continue to take hard work from all of us. In reflecting on some of our future goals I also began to consider some of our potential shortcomings. What is it about this community that people don’t understand? Before we can answer that I suppose we would need to define what we are so that we can communicate that idea to the public. Being able to communicate better with the people we’re trying to reach will be a big step in helping them understand who we are and what we do. I think the current terminology that we use causes the issue that we face here.
I would first define what we are with the term Freedom. Freedom of speech. Freedom of communication. Freedom of creativity. Freedom of creation. Freedom from restriction. Have I missed anything?
As I mentioend I think our current terms fall short of communicating this. For one we use the terms “open source” or “free software”. What do these really mean to an outsider? What does “open source” mean to your parents or neighbor? What does it mean to someone who does or does not understand computers or operating systems? I think it tries to clearly define what we as a community stand for but , as much as I use it, I think it falls short. Simple for the fact that it doesn’t clearly communicate our ideals to the general PC using public.
The other term that many of us stand on is that of “free software”, but I think this falls shorter than the “open source” term. For one how do you define “free software”? (yes, this is mainly revealing a weakness in the English language) Is it simply “software that is free”? I think that is the first thing that would come to mind for most people. Would you believe that I have spoken with people that honestly believed Windows XP was free of charge? “It comes on the computer when you buy it. I didn’t pay for it.” ..as if Bill Gates became the richest man in the world by giving a product away.
Also, on this definition anything that wasn’t for-pay could be considered “free software”. This would include shareware, freeware, freely downloaded components of any OS. While this again tries to communicate the idea of “freedom” I think the weakness in the English language is the shortcoming here. (yes we could use the term “software libre” but I don’t know how well that would be adopted.)
Now what other suggestions do you as the “open source / free software” public suggest? Do you use alternate terms to describe what we are about? Do you communicate the idea behind the revolution in a different way? What are your thoughts on adopting something more along the lines of “Freedom Software”? That is what we are about isn’t it? Software for freedom. It began as a movement to gain freedom and now we are in a fight to retain our freedom (DRM, etc).
I’d like to get some of your thoughts on this. How can we better communicate the importance of what we all fight so hard for to the public? Can we use different terms to better communicate the critical need that we so desperately try to fill? The floor is yours.
Technorati Tags: software, linux, oss, foss, freedom, open source, software libre
powered by performancing firefox
Dec
26
I have been using Skype for the past few months to take advantage of the promotion they had of “free calls to the US & Canada until 2007″. It has been nice to use a free phone service while my cell-phone battery has been dead. Starting Jan 1, 2007 however Skype will begin charging $14.95 / year for unlimited calls. While it is very convenient and a very competitive price I will no longer use Skype at the end of the year.
My reasons are not the price. Yes, free is appealing and $14.95 / year is by no means a large expense to anyone. My main reason is that Skype does not use a standard protocol for its communication. There are many other SIP options available, most of which use an open communication protocol.
What does that mean? This means that whether you use Gizmo, Ekiga or Wengo, Linphone, Kphone or gphone you are using a “free” open protocol. This does not apply to Skype.
I’ll admit that Skype is a very nice option with a clean interface. It has worked very well for me in the past, but it is the open protocol that is more important to me. It comes back down to freedom. Freedom to choose your own program. Freedom to communicate with whomever you please. Freedom to, if you so pleased, create your own VOIP program and interface using the open protocol. Skype uses a proprietary protocol. My Skype days are done.
I should mention that I have only recently started investigating alternate options to Skype recently. I wasn’t using Skype merely for the free calls. It was the only option I knew was available. Now we know better.
Dec
22
I know this post is a little off-topic as it isn’t a tutorial (but hey, you’ve already got one today!). This is a project that some great local guys have been working on that I wanted to share with everyone reading the blog. Free software alternative so XP & OSX all compiled into a single CD. You should definitely check this out and share it with friends / family that are still using “the other OS”.
The 2007.01 release of Software for Starving Students is now available for download. http://softwarefor.org/downloads.html
“Software for Starving Students is a free collection of programs organized for students (but available to anyone). We’ve gathered a list of best-in-class programs onto one CD (one disc for OS X, one for Windows), including a fully-featured office suite, a cutting-edge web browser, multi-media packages, academic tools, utilities and more.”
More info:
* Project homepage: http://softwarefor.org/
* A complete list of included titles: http://softwarefor.org/faq.html#q5
* Screenshots: http://softwarefor.org/screenshots.html
Please help us out by seeding the torrent, spreading the word, and burning copies for your friends and family. (Nothing spreads holiday cheer like good, free software.)
Happy Downloading!
Nov
25
How to install Iceweasel : Ubuntu (6.06.1 / 6.10)
Filed Under FOSS | 4 Comments
Many of you probably remember the recent debate concerning Debian vs Firefox and the trademark issues. The last that I’ve heard it sounds like Ubuntu is going to honor the Firefox trademark and continue to include Firefox, but I’m unsure the status on Debian.
In any event I have put together a few quick steps to installing Iceweasel for anyone that would like to try the new browser, or would prefer it over the trademarked Firefox. (Note: This comes from a pre-release and non-supported repository. Use at your own risk!)
Install Iceweasel on Ubuntu
http://safeweb.sitesled.com/iceweasel/builds/iceweasel_1.5.0.8pre-2.deb
This will take you directly to the .deb file. Your browser should ask you if you’d like to open this with the GDebi Package Installer. Select “Open with…” and the Package Installer will take you through the installation.
You can also “Save As..” and save the file to your local machine. After the download has finished you can install it two ways:
- Double-click the file which should open it with GDebi Package Installer (or “open with…” and open with the GDebi Package Installer) OR
- Launch a terminal and use the command:
sudo dpkg -i iceweasel_1.5.0.8pre-2.deb
At this point you should have Iceweasel available within “Applications > Internet > Iceweasel”. Enjoy! (note: from what I can tell this version is still based on the pre-Firefox 2 engine.)
Remove Iceweasel on Ubuntu
To remove Iceweasel simply run:
sudo aptitude remove iceweasel
technorati tags:firefox, debian, iceweasel, ubuntu, trademark
Oct
21
Update : Improved (current) tutorial available here.
I’ve been looking for a decent Calendar application lately so I thought I would try Mozilla’s new Sunbird release (v0.3, released October 11, 2006). Perhaps due to its very early release, or perhaps related to the Mozilla vs Debian fiasco it is not yet included in Ubuntu repositories. For those interested in trying it out here are a few quick steps to installing it manually on your Ubuntu machine.
- Download Sunbird (Save As…)
- Unpack the archive (should be on Desktop):
sudo tar -C /opt -xjvf sunbird-0.3.en-US.linux-i686.tar.bz2 - Create a link:
sudo ln -s /opt/sunbird/sunbird /usr/bin/sunbird - Create meu item:
sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/sunbird.desktop - Refresh the menu:
killall gnome-panel
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Sunbird
Comment=Sunbird Calendar
Exec=sunbird
Icon=/opt/sunbird/icons/mozicon128.png
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Applications;Network
If anyone else has used Sunbird and has suggestions on its use or on another application that might offer more please let me know. I hope these instructions work for everyone.
Technorati Tags: ubuntu, linux, sunbird, mozilla, calendar
Aug
20
Gaim 2.0 beta3.1 & Off-The-Record 3.0.0 : Ubuntu 6.06.1 (Dapper Drake)
Filed Under FOSS | 3 Comments
This tutorial will outline how to install Gaim 2.0beta3.1 plus Off-The-Record 3.0.0 on Ubuntu Dapper v6.06.
I had been one of the early adopters of Gaim 2.0beta3 but had trouble finding support for the encryption plugins that I was used to. I initially reverted to Gaim 1.5.x and used the gaim-encryption plugin (which was yet unsupported in 2.0beta3).
After additional research I have found that the OTR (Off-The-Record) plugin is superior. If you currently don’t use any type of encryption I would suggest looking into it. The below steps will allow you to use the latest version of Gaim plus Off-The-Record messaging on Ubuntu Dapper Drake v6.06.1
Step 1:
sudo aptitude install libavahi-compat-howl0 libgnutls11 libmeanwhile1 libotr2
Step 2:
Download my gaim2.0 beta3.1 package which includes the latest gaim, gaim-data, libgadu and OTR builds in .deb format. Also includes optional ‘guification’, ‘gaim-dev’ & ‘gaim-dbg’ packages.
Step 3:
sudo dpkg -i gaim_2.0.0+beta3.1-0ubuntu1_i386.deb gaim-data_2.0.0+beta3.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb libgadu3_1.6+20060616-1_i386.deb gaim-otr_3.0.0+cvs20060530-1_i386.deb
Step 4:
Activate the Off-The-Record plugin in Tools > Plugins > Off-The-Record Messaging
Step 5:
When initiating a conversation with a contact using OTR right-click on the OTR button and 'Start Private Conversation'. Follow the prompts & then 'Verify Fingerprint' in the same menu.
EDIT: Updated the included package with the gaim 2.0beta3.1 package released Aug 20, 2006.
Aug
13
I’ve decided it was time to update my site. My old theme was too vertically thin considering the content that I had so I updated it this morning to a wider auto-sizable theme.
I thought I’d share a great place to get some wordpress themes. There is a huge list of themes available, searchable by columns, colors, ratings, etc. For anyone else needing a wordpress blog facelift, check it out.
I also wanted to thank Aaron for sharing the new theme with me. I’m still working on customization.
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