scribbles of the perennial debugger…
Posts tagged Open Source
The magic’s gone
May 12th
I have received my Ubuntu 9.04 today. However, unlike my enthusiasm before, I am in no hurry to install. In no way that I’ll be screwing the pristine state of my ThinkPad X200, loaded, unfortunately with Windows Vista. To be honest, Vista is not that bad. Just like beauty, stability and performance is in the hands of the beholder. I might install Ubuntu in a VM, or I might give it away. Or I might just make it a cute addition to my CD Software Library.
I used to be rabid Open Source advocate. I am still… However, I am resigned to the fact Linux might have missed the boat. OSX, Windows are the kings of the bi-polar desktop roost. My Open Source eyes just focuses where free and open source software counts, to the applications. We’ve got OpenOffice, we have MySQL, GIMP, Firefox, we have the Apache apps. Now, these are definitely making a serious dent on their closed-sourced counterparts.
Open Source or not, my interest is for better software, holistically speaking.
RMS on Java
Apr 5th
From linuxhelp.blogspot.com — The unabridged selective transcript of Richard M Stallman’s talk at the ANU
You see, we have free java platforms. But they don’t implement all features yet. Sun keeps on adding features and our efforts are speeding up but they are still behind. So many of the java libraries or the newer language features, we don’t have yet. So if you use them in your free program, it would run on a free platform and you will find that your program is actually an inducement to people to install non-free software. The same thing is happening when websites use java or websites use flash.
Free and Open Source Software, is, no doubt, a good thing for the industry. But, however “evil” is the business tactics of behemoths like Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Adobe/Macromedia and Sun, they are still major contributors to the I.T. industry as well as to the general dynamics of global economy. Nobody, yet, can directly or indirectly escape from non-free technology no matter how hard one tries.
Pax Europa
Aug 31st
Repost from Randomized!
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The European parliament must be congratulated for not following the US software patent model. Just to reiterate the evils of software patents, here are some points why it is so.
- Software is already protected by copyright, patents are not needed
- Software patents cause a high burden on the economy especially to small organizations which forms the majority of the IT industry
- Software patents are anti-competitive which results in less choice and higher prices to customers
- Software patents are impediments to the natural evolution and improvement of indigeniously created software
- Software and the process of development and innovation in the software industry is very different from that of the other industries.
One small step for Europe, one giant leap for the IT industry especially for the FSF and OSI.
BSD License vs GNU GPL
Aug 31st
Repost from Randomized!
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The classic battle rages on. If you are an enterprise, you are probably better protected by the GPL. If you are an enterprising individual who loves to code just for the sake of coding, BSD is for you.
In the real commercial world, it happens differently:
In the GPL customers will not face licensing lock-in. In BSD, there is a threat of having a licensing lock-in.
If Organization X needs to share closed-source, internally developed software with a partner, Org X can choose to (1) proprietary lock-in license to partner, or (2) open source license to partner.
To distribute through option (1), BSD license can be used, but GPL inputs can never be used because of the Copyleft.
To distribute through option (2), either BSD or GPL can be used.
Both licenses enables open source development and is endorsed by the OSI. Then why use two different licenses if the ultimate goal is to distribute free and open source software? Often, the agenda for using the BSD license is to create a potential license-lock in since this license can be more readily converted to a lock-in license.
Makes sense? GPL = true FOSS. BSD = FOSS->commercial.
As for the ToyBox, I chose a BSD-variant which is the Common Public License for this particular reason, hehehe.
The GlassFish Project
Aug 31st
A repost from Randomized!.
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Java developers rejoice! Yet Another Open Source J2EE Server!
The future of J2EE’s prospects and viability lies in open source. With Sun’s latest move, J2EE’s future is getting brighter than ever. The days of the proprietary J2EE are numbered! WebLogic and WebSphere will be dead! Long live Open Source!
Not so long ago that J2EE development revolved around the proprietary technologies by two J2EE giants; IBM and BEA. That was yesterday. Today, the open source community rejoices for another J2EE server joins its ranks.
Sun recently announced that it is moving its Sun Java System Application Server, a.k.a. the GlassFish project, from the Java Research License (JRL) to the more open-source friendly Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL).
No matter what Sun does to stay on the helm of Java, the company has to acknowledge that its control of J2EE in the end will be lost to a miriad of smaller players. to the open source community. Forget about CDDL vs GPL crap. What’s important is you can now play with SJAS. Java plus Free and Open Source, what else can you ask for?
So far, the major players in the open source J2EE business are: the Apache Foundation’s Geronimo, JBoss’ JBoss Application Server, and the ObjectWeb Consortium’s JOnAS. Now, include SJAS.
Stay tuned to the latest developments…