The Open Source Advocate

I have recently read the announcement that Kubuntu 8.04 is NOT going to be an LTS release, thereby deviating from the release schedule of all the other Ubuntu variants. I believe that it would be more beneficial to synchronize the LTS releases between the official Ubuntu variants. First of all, Ubuntu needs to solidify its public image as much as possible. This is even more important while it has such a small mind-share in the overall technology market. Most computers users have no idea what an LTS release is, and they could be confused by mis-matched numbers. "Why is Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and Kubuntu 8.04 not LTS? Why is Ubuntu 8.10 not LTS and Kubuntu 8.10 is LTS?" Some IT departments might choose to only support LTS releases of Ubuntu. Now they must work with their KDE users who would need to upgrade on a different schedule than their Gnome users. I understand why Kubuntu wants to delay their LTS release. They have a shiny new version 4.0 that provides many new features...

I keep hearing people talk about the need for a legal test case against the GPL. This has not happened yet in the US, and some people think it is necessary to legally legitimize the GPL license. These GPL-supporters hoped that the recent Busybox vs Monsoon Multimedia issue would satisfy this requirement. This turned out not to be the test case because it settled outside of court. After hearing much debate and concern about how and when this all-important test case will take place, a very simple idea entered my mind. Why don't we just create this test case ourselves? Start with two pro-GPL parties, and have one party infringe against the GPL license. Then have the other party sue the first for its violation of the GPL license. Of course the specifics can be determined in advance to make the decision most favorable to defending the GPL. I expect that the legal costs for this case will be minuscule compared to the value it would bring. Once the case has been decided in favor o...

On October 20th, the Ubuntu Utah team held a " Gutsy Gibbon " release party in Salt Lake City. It was a cold and rainy day, and some people decided to stay home where it was warm and dry. Even so, we had around 20 people in attendance, including many new faces. This was a great time to meet people and ask them, " Why Ubuntu? ". Here are two Ubuntu laptops, but the guy at the end was using Windows. I tried to convince him to give Ubuntu a try, but he was too busy working on his resume. Need I point out that in this case, (Using Windows) = (Looking for a job). Nothing like anecdotal evidence, right? Please ignore the Fedora guy who came to crash the party. Just kidding Clint! I believe he was actually running Ubuntu in a virtual machine. This is my Ubuntu baby, and her name is Chloe. She hopes to become a member of the Ubuntu Women team even though she is only 6 months old. Isn't she the cutest Ubuntero you ever did see? :)

I have just upgraded my new Dell computer that came with Ubuntu 7.04 to the pre-release version of Ubuntu 7.10 (Beta). Please read my initial review of this system . After a large download and subsequent reboot, this computer came up in much better shape than it was in 7.04. Most notably, it detected the correct resolution and came up in 1680x1050. I also had many more resolutions to choose from. Instead of the three resolutions I had before, I now have six choices. Secondly, the Ubuntu Restricted Driver Manager correctly detected my NVIDIA video card and prompted me to enable the driver for it. Once I told Ubuntu to enable the NVIDA driver, it downloaded the driver and requested that I reboot my computer. After the reboot, I was saddened to see that it came up again in 1024x768. I opened the screen resolution tool and found that my optimal resolution was no longer a choice. In fact, while I still had six resolutions to choose from, 1024x768 was the highest one. Any ideas why th...

Introduction Ever since Dell announced that they would be selling computers with Ubuntu pre-installed, I have wanted to buy one. This is not because I was unable to install Ubuntu myself, but because I wanted to reward Dell for choosing Ubuntu. I also wanted to make a statement that there was consumer demand for Linux to be pre-installed on computers. Secondly, I have read Walt Mossberg's review of his Ubuntu laptop from Dell and I wanted to see how my experience compared to his. It is important to keep in mind that both Dell and Ubuntu have stated that the current versions of Ubuntu are intended for advanced users only. This is the reason why Dell does not advertise Ubuntu more on their website. Dell knows that advanced users will be able to find the place to order their Ubuntu computer, while main-stream users are simply offered Windows operating systems. I have a feeling that Dell will promote Ubuntu more once the 8.04 LTS release comes out in April of 2008. Ordering the ...

I feel that is important for me to further analyze the benefits of open source software. In a previous post , I highlighted the cost-savings of open source and did not mention any of the other advantages that it provides. This post should provide a more balanced view of open source and the intrinsic benefits that free software provides. Low Cost This is the benefit that I focused on in my previous post . Cost is the most obvious benefit when people compare it to proprietary software. How does open source achieve this low cost? I believe that the open source development model is the most efficient way to create software. With proprietary software development, each software company creates an isolated software silo. Meanwhile, their competitors are spending resources to create software that does almost the exact same function! Compare that to the open source model, where worldwide resources can be shared to develop an application. Some people claim that while open source software m...

Background Digium is the company behind Asterisk , the popular open source PBX . Digium was founded in 1999 by Mark Spencer , the creator of Asterisk. Since then, Asterisk has been deployed around the world on millions on computers. Despite that fact, Asterisk still does not have a large market share of the PBX market. Why is this? In the past, there were many reasons for this: No brand recognition of Asterisk No proven track record of successful implementations Commercial support was needed No Linux expertise on staff Afraid to use open source software These concerns were once valid, but today most of them have been addressed by Digium. They made Asterisk easy to use Digium has been working hard to overcome the historically steep learning curve associated with implementing Asterisk. They have accomplished this with two major improvements. First, Digium created an open source software appliance called AsteriskNow! that bundled Asterisk inside a pre-configured version of Linux. ...

The short answer is that open source reduces the cost of software. It is widely accepted that software is a necessary cost of doing business in today's environment. Therefore, it is beneficial for companies to find ways to acquire software that minimizes that cost. I believe that the open source development model is the most efficient way to create software. In the traditional software development model, each software company creates an isolated software silo. Meanwhile, their competitors are spending resources to create software that does almost the exact same function! Compare that to the open source model, where worldwide resources can be shared to develop an application. Similar to the "invisible hand" of capitalism , there is an "invisible hand" of open source software. The idea is that when each individual works for their own benefit (fix bugs, add new features), it will benefit the entire community. When you have thousands of people doing this it a...

Imagine that you are a software engineering student, with one more year left of school. How do you plan on being hired by a software company, despite the fact that you have no real-world experience? The traditional strategy has been to find an internship with a company. If you can get an internship, it will provide you with a part-time job. The best part of the deal is that you get your real-world experience, which will make you employable after graduation. What do you do if there are no internships available? I propose that you should get involved in developing an open source project. Look for a project that interests you, and perhaps one that uses the programming languages that you would like to work with. For example, if you want to be a game programmer, look for an open source gaming project . There is no interview or job application, you simply start looking at the code and seeing where you can help. The development team will provide direction and encouragement of your eff...

I was on the Novell campus a few weeks ago attending the Utah Open Source Conference. One of the days I went to the Novell cafeteria for lunch. While I was filling my plate with food, a young man next to me asked, "So do you work here?". I replied with "No, I'm here attending the open source conference." A few seconds later I was hit with a question that I was not prepared to answer. "What is open source?" he asked. I was speechless. Did he just ask me what open source was? Is he joking? Nope, he looks pretty serious. Ahh, well then where to start? I only have a few seconds to explain it to him. I managed to come up with a horribly composed answer, and followed it up with "You know, like Firefox and Linux." He nodded and walked away. Now that I have had more time to think about this, I want to come up with a better explanation of what open source software is. That way I will be prepared for the next time this sort of thing happens...

You just may see this on your screen... This program was minimized on the bottom left side of the screen. Anyone other pictures of fun Windows errors in public places ?

I just received an email from a Cisco vendor who is pitching a new product that Cisco has acquired. Within this email, the vendor discredits open source in a couple different ways. Here is some of the content of that email: * Scalability – Our operating system supports up to 10k simultaneous connections per appliance regardless of hardware platform. We developed our own OS (AsyncOS) and do not rely on Linux, Sendmail etc. * Built from the ground up as a Sendmail/open source replacement * Truly fire and forget – All our spam and virus fighting technology is dynamic and updated every few minutes. We do not rely on any open source technologies, all our technology is developed by IronPort. You will not spend any time updating the appliance or trying to find ways to block new spam, that’s our job. No thank you, Cisco. I believe that open source is something to be proud of and not the liability that you claim it to be. Cisco claims to have developed their own operating system, but I doub...

Introduction I am having a great time attending the first annual Utah Open Source Conference . It is always great to meet the people you interact with in the open source community. Last night we had two keynote speakers, Matt Asay and Bruce Perens . Both presenters had great information along with some good humor. I want to discuss one of the ideas that Bruce Perens mentioned. He believes that open source vendors are not necessary, and that they do not add any value to the open source movement. I disagree with him on this point, and I will share my reasons below. Marketing Marketing is a necessary evil in a large economy. It is evil because marketing does not add anything of value to the product. It is necessary because it allows consumers to learn about the product and understand what it does. Some open source projects have been able to create a beautiful website that provides excellent information about the project, but this is not always the case . Even though the project m...

Let the conspiracy theories begin! Seriously, I want to consider how Microsoft will respond if Linux begins to heavily impact their profitability. Consider these possible actions: More anti-Linux marketing campaigns Microsoft has billions of dollars of cash that they can use to create a massive storm of advertisements, comparative "studies", and similar marketing schemes. The question is, will this work, or will it backfire? I think Microsoft is smart enough to balance this effort without causing a backlash. If a lie is repeated enough times, it will become accepted as the truth. Fortunately, open source has the benefit of word-of-mouth recommendations and truth on our side. Threatening customers with potential lawsuits Microsoft has been using this technique for a few years now. They claim that Linux infringes on their software patents, but they never specify the exact details of this infringement. If they ever did provide these details, the open source community wou...

While reading this article about a miniature Beowulf cluster built by a student and professor at Calvin College, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they were running it on Ubuntu. What was the reason they choose to use Ubuntu, even though they had more experience with Gentoo? For various reasons, we have been a Gentoo shop for a while. So it would seem fairly obvious that we would use Gentoo. But over time we had found Gentoo to be something of an administrative hassle. Since we wanted to keep Microwulf relatively simple (as simple as possible but not overly simple). and we had experience with Ubuntu , we decided to give that a try first. Sounds like a lot of people are discovering the value that Ubuntu provides!

Introduction I am confident that the future of Linux server administration will rely less on the command line, and that most server admins will use a GUI interface. To understand why this will happen, lets take a look at the success of Windows servers. Learn from history Windows servers have always included a graphical user interface, and there is no indication that this will change. In fact, the popularity of Windows servers is largely due to the fact that server admins could manage their servers with the same interface they used on their desktop. Novell's Netware started out with a huge lead in the server market, but server admins started migrating to Windows because they were more comfortable with the interface. Why should server admins need to learn two operating systems when they can just use Windows? Now that most server admins are familiar with a graphical interface (Windows desktop and server editions), they will resist changing to a command-line driven operating system....

Its true. Windows operating systems hate me. I don't understand why, since I feel I have always been fair and balanced in my discussions about Windows. Why the animosity towards me, then? Here are a few examples to help you understand how I am being discriminated against. We use some Windows 2003 servers at work (not my choice) to perform some basic functions. My problems first occurred when I wanted to browse for some files. Here is what I did: I double-clicked on "My Computer". Ok, nothing too advanced there, right? Well, a window opened up but the only thing inside is a blank grey color. Where are all the files ? Ok, no big deal. How often do I browse for files anyway? Only about once an hour, so nothing to worry about. Sheesh ! Fortunately, this started working after I rebooted the server. Apparently, I only have a few days of a working file browser before I need to reboot. Next, I created a small script (a.k.a batch file) to backup some data, and I c...

Introduction In the short amount of time that Ubuntu has been around (3 years, with 6 releases) it has attained an impressive level of popularity and growth. I believe this success is due to some critical improvements that Ubuntu has implemented when compared to other Linux distributions. These improvements were not always created by Ubuntu, but Ubuntu was the first distro to strategically implement the best features and to remove the unnecessary ones. I will discuss some of the major advantages that Ubuntu has provided from day one. UPDATE: There were some great points made in the comments to this post, so I am updating this post in the interest of accuracy. I want to emphasize what I said in the previous paragraph; Ubuntu did not create many of these improvements, and they were not always the first distro to use them. It is the unique combination of these improvements that has helped Ubuntu achieve its popularity. Secondly, I intended this post to be a historical comparison of f...

First, I want to thank everyone who gave their input regarding my last post about unifying the Ubuntu brand. You can also read more opinions on Freddy's and Og's blog. Next, I want to share some of the ideas that were expressed in the comments to my post. "Ubuntu Lightweight Desktop edition? Why didn't they make the default edition lightweight enough? How come when I install it, it uses the same amount of memory right after I boot up as the regular edition? XFCE is not lighter than Gnome in reality at all. What you end up with is that people will be forced to install some KDE/Gnome applications because XFCE doesn't provide everything required. That will pull in several environments running simultaneously, and in overall it's far heavier than pure Gnome/KDE. It will lead to some new comers to think "ooh it's LIGHT", and getting really disappointed and moving along to something else. "Light" should NOT be used as a selling point for X...

Everyone agrees that Ubuntu is making huge progress towards mainstream adoption. But what do we mean when we say " Ubuntu "? Don't we really mean *buntu, a collection of all Ubuntu versions? How do we explain this to the mainstream user? Will the names " Kubuntu ", " Edubuntu " and " Xubuntu " make sense to a newcomer? Are they self-explanatory? I think we can all agree that these names are not easily understood by people outside of the Linux arena. Even worse, they will help to dilute the impact of the Ubuntu name in the minds of potential users. Therefore, if we want to encourage mainstream adoption, we need to use a simpler naming convention. Let's take a look at some existing names that are easy to understand: " Ubuntu Desktop Edition " " Ubuntu Server Edition " " Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded Edition " Why don't we come up with some new names that are easier to understand? Something like this: ...

I have just learned about a new open source application called OpenProj. This application has similar features to Microsoft Project, and it can even import native Project files. One major advantage it has over MS Project is that it will run on Linux, Unix, Mac and Windows. Open Proj is scheduled for release on August 7th, but you can download a beta from here . The download is a JNLP file, which is handled by the Java Web Start application. Once you run that file, it will install OpenProj. It is surprisingly easy to install, considering that I had it running in less than 30 seconds on Ubuntu 7.04. It looks like the OpenProj team will be coordinating with the OpenOffice team, which I think is a great idea. They should combine marketing and distribution efforts so that these great open source applications can reach a wider audience. Mark Shuttleworth has spoken in support of OpenProj: "OpenProj is an exciting addition to the range of professional desktop applications that are...

Introduction If Ubuntu wants to be taken seriously in the workplace, it needs a secure remote desktop. Many people have a need to connect to their work computer from home using remote desktop technology. Currently, the Ubuntu Remote Desktop is a front-end for VNC, which allows you to remotely manage your desktop. It works well, and a nice feature was recently added that alerts you when someone is remotely controlling your desktop. The Problem The problem is that VNC provides very little security. It does encrypt the password that you use to connect with, but all other traffic is not encrypted. This means that if someone is intercepting your traffic, it will be possible for them to watch what you are doing (including typing passwords). Another problem is that VNC has a maximum password length of 8 characters, and it does not require a username. This means that an attacker only has to guess 1 to 8 characters correctly in order to connect to your machine. If you use the Ubuntu Re...

Introduction "Open source software on Windows... WHAT?!?!!" may be your first reaction to this post. However, there are many good reasons to promote the use of open source software on Windows. First, it is a great way to introduce people to the wonderful world of open source software. They will be amazed at the amount of great software that they get for FREE! This will be your cue to inform them that the software is not only free of cost, but free of restrictions . In fact, they can run these same applications on an operating system that is entirely based on those concepts. Next, you hand them an Ubuntu disk and help them try it out. See how that works? Now give it a try with your friends, family, and co-workers. In this post I will highlight some of the most useful open source applications for Windows (listed in alphabetical order). If I missed your favorite application, please leave a comment so that I can include it in a future post. If you want to find more open ...