OpenSource
Category archives for OpenSource
Major Computing Entities as Public Goods
Posted by Greg Laden on September 10, 2013 What if you went to drive to work one day and the highway on ramp was closed, and a big sign across it said “Highway is closed. Sorry for the inconvenience.” Well, you would find your way to a different highway entrance. But say that one was closed as well.Then, you check around and find…
I would extend this ban to all Microsoft products just on the grounds of being annoying, but this is a start:
Posted by Greg Laden on August 6, 2013 Every year the federal government wastes tens of millions of dollars a year, possibly hundreds, supporting old versions of the Internet Explorer browser (below version 9). Web development teams typically use 30%-40% of their time (or more) adapting sites to display properly in these browsers. There is no good reason for the US to waste…
What is the Software Freedom Law Center?
Posted by Greg Laden on November 2, 2012 This:
What Open Source Software has Good Usability?
Posted by Greg Laden on October 23, 2012 Are you interested in software usability and open source? If so, my friend Jim would like your help. He is doing a study of usability in Open Source software. I’ll post his entire request below along with a link to his blog. Also, he’ll probably be doing some other interent based interolocution about this; I’ll…
Technology good news and bad news. Mostly bad news.
Posted by Greg Laden on April 17, 2011 Good news: The next version of Internet Explorer will only run on Windows 7. That should be the end of Internet Explorer. Bad News: Google Video is done with. It will stop existing on April 29th. Well, I never used it so I don’t really care personally, but this is why I once said that…
Linux Ease of Use: Designing The Ultimate Grandmother-Ready Computer
Posted by Greg Laden on December 31, 2010 When it comes to ease of use, there is no difference between a computer with Windows and a computer with Linux, assuming both systems are installed properly. That there is a meaningful difference is a myth perpetuated by Windows fanboys or individuals who have outdated experience with Linux. Also, the comparison that is often being…
Why the Linux Market Share is Flat, and other things you will want to see.
Posted by Greg Laden on August 30, 2010 he Linux market share continues to flatline. Here’s a piece on why. My explanation? Same as for a lot of things: People are morons, by and large. The article linked to mentions very good reasons that Linux should indeed not be adopted by others. But most of those reasons actually apply to other OS’s as…
Coming Soon to an OpenSource Platform Near You
Posted by Greg Laden on July 31, 2010 Item 1: Linux has perfectly good fonts these days, and they are getting better. Patents held by Apple Corporation did not allow basic technology (the Bytecode Interpreter)to be implemented in Linux fonts (without paying). FreeType (the Linux font system) worked around this and things were workable, but still, having the Apple technology would have been…
Ubuntusci: Nice idea but you may be doing it rong
Posted by Greg Laden on June 15, 2010 I like the idea of an edition of Ubuntu for scientists. I like the idea so much that I wrote a blog post about it a while back. So I was very pleased to see that there is a project called Ubuntusci that is moving along nicely and that may fill in this niche. But,…
Can four geeks working out of their garage replace Facebook with an OpenSource project?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 2, 2010 Possibly. Quite possibly: Diaspora: Personally Controlled, Do-It-All, Distributed Open-Source Social Network from daniel grippi on Vimeo. Hat tip: Ronja Addams-Moring