Glyn Moody - Slashdot User

Submission + - The Battle Between Purists and Pragmatists (computerworlduk.com)

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Glyn Moody

on Thursday July 23, 2009 @11:56AM

Glyn Moody writes: "While debates rage around whether Mono is good or bad for free software, and about "fauxpen source" and "Faux FLOSS Fundamentalists", people are overlooking the fact that these are just the latest in a series of such arguments about whether the end justifies the means. There was the same discussion when KDE was launched using the Qt toolkit, which was proprietary at the time, and when GNOME was set up as a completely-free alternative. But could it be that this battle between the "purists" and the "pragmatists" is actually good for free software — a sign that people care passionately about this stuff — and a major reason for its success?"

Submission + - Why the GNU GPL is Still Relevant (computerworlduk.com)

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Glyn Moody

on Thursday July 16, 2009 @10:45AM

Glyn Moody writes: "Recently, there have been several posts suggesting that the GNU GPL has outlived its usefulness, and that more "permissive" licenses like Apache are more efficient in terms of encouraging coders to participate, because they are more inclusive. But leaving aside misunderstandings about whose "freedom" is at stake, there's another important issue that hasn't been fully appreciated: the fact that the GPL prevents free-riding. Various studies show that people are happy to give their time and energy freely to collaborative projects, provided there are no free riders. Permissive licences suffer from the problem that free riders are permitted, which actually reduces the number of people who would otherwise contribute."

Submission + - Are Richard Stallman's Views Still Relevant? (computerworlduk.com) 1

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Glyn Moody

on Tuesday July 07, 2009 @07:14AM

Glyn Moody writes: "The joint KDE/GNOME Gran Canaria Desktop Summit — the first time GUADEC and Akademy have been held together — opened on Saturday with some keynote speeches. The most controversial was one from Richard Stallman, a characteristic warning about the threats to free software, in which he criticised both the KDE and GNOME communities: the former for their past reliance on Qt, originally proprietary, and the latter for the increasing use of Microsoft's C#. He also suggested that it might be better if one day the KDE and GNOME environments became simply two settings of a common desktop. There were some hostile questions from the audience afterwards, and it was clear that some people at the summit felt Richard Stallman's views were becoming increasingly irrelevant, despite his undoubted historic achievements. Is this the end of an era?"

Submission + - The Hidden Cost of Using Microsoft Software (computerworlduk.com) 1

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Glyn Moody

on Tuesday June 30, 2009 @05:36AM

Glyn Moody writes: "Detractors of free software like to point out it's not really "free", and claim that its Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is often comparable with closed-source solutions if you take everything into account. And yet, despite their enthusiasm for including all the costs, they never include a very real extra that users of Microsoft's products frequently have to pay: the cost of cleaning up malware infections. For example, the UK city of Manchester has just paid out nearly $2.5 million to clean up the Conficker worm, most of which was "a £1.2m [$2million] bill in the IT department, including £600,000 [$1 million] getting 'consultancy support' to fix the problems, which including drafting in experts from Microsoft." To make the comparisons fair, isn't it about time these often massive costs were included in those TCO calculations?"

Submission + - The Doctor Who Model of Open Source (cam.ac.uk)

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Glyn Moody

on Wednesday June 17, 2009 @10:16AM

Glyn Moody writes: "Open source projects are generally fine when there's a long-term leader like Linus; but what happens when nobody is able or willing to run things for extended periods? Peter Murray-Rust explains how the open chemistry group known as the Blue Obelisk has evolved what he calls the "Doctor Who Model of Open Source": "You'll recall that every few years something fatal happens to the Doctor and you think he is going to die and there will never be another series. Then he regenerates. The new Doctor has a different personality, a different philosophy (though always on the side of good). It is never clear how long any Doctor will remain unregenerated or who will come after him. And this is a common theme in the Blue Obelisk." Could other open source projects learn from this experience as long-term leaders start to move on?"

Submission + - Opera Unite: the First Anti-Cloud Computing App? (computerworlduk.com)

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Glyn Moody

on Tuesday June 16, 2009 @10:06AM

Glyn Moody writes: "Open source warfare teaches us that huge, centralised resources like oil pipelines and electricity grids are extremely vulnerable to repeated low-cost attacks that can cripple an economy. And yet the currently-fashionable cloud computing aims to turn processing power into a kind of electricity, available on demand, powered by huge server farms. Is this wise? Wouldn't it be better to build on the new Opera Unite, which puts the Web server into the browser, dispersing computing as widely as possible to make it more resilient?"

Submission + - Microsoft's Pyrrhic Victory in the Netbook War (computerworlduk.com)

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Glyn Moody

on Tuesday June 09, 2009 @06:27AM

Glyn Moody writes: "Some commentators are starting to write off GNU/Linux in the netbook sector, as Microsoft takes ever-higher market share. But if netbooks are such a great success for the company, why is it doing all it can to destroy that market, by trying to put unreasonable limits on what users and manufacturers can do, and even getting rid of the name? In the light of Microsoft's recent first-ever drop in revenue, could it be that the price of its "victory" over GNU/Linux was too high?"

Submission + - Intel buys Wind River: End of the Wintel Duopoly?

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Glyn Moody

on Thursday June 04, 2009 @10:06AM

Glyn Moody writes: "Intel has announced that it is to acquire Wind River Systems for around $884 Million. According to the press release: "Its main products include VxWorks, the market-leading proprietary and multicore-ready real-time operating system, and commercial-grade Linux software platforms." But as Wind River's Chief Marketing Officer said in an interview last year: "I see a day where our Linux business is every bit as big as the VxWorks business." Wind River is also very active in both of the main Linux-based mobile platforms, LiMo and Android. All in all, that means that with this acquisition, Intel will become a major supporter of Linux in both the embedded and mobile markets. So how's that going to go down with the other member of the Wintel duopoly?"

Submission + - Should OQO Have Chosen GNU/Linux? (blogspot.com)

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Glyn Moody

on Friday May 22, 2009 @11:52AM

Glyn Moody writes: "Remember the OQO, that really cool handheld system? Well, it seems to be experiencing some difficulties: "We are sad to report that due to financial constraints, OQO is not able to offer repair and service support at this time." Is it the fault of Windows XP, perhaps? After all, by opting for Microsoft's main operating system, OQO had to pay a licence and make sure that the hardware could support it, both of which forced up the cost. Imagine if OQO had instead chosen GNU/Linux — which it could run perfectly well — and launched a lower-spec machine at Asus Eee PC price levels back in 2004: Would it have pre-empted Asus's move and cornered what became today's burgeoning netbook market? Would OQO have become one of the computer giants?"

Submission + - GNU/Linux to Become Too Risky to Use in France? (blogspot.com) 2

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Glyn Moody

on Monday May 11, 2009 @11:38AM

Glyn Moody writes: "The HADOPI (three strikes) legislation currently going through the French parliament will have a little-known knock-on effect if passed. In order to prove that they are not downloading files, Internet users will need to install government-approved spyware to log their Internet connection. Aside from the privacy issues this raises, theres another problem: the spyware isn't likely to work with GNU/Linux, which means that it will be practically impossible to prove that files were not downloaded if the media industries says you did. Will free software become too dangerous to use in France?"

Submission + - Should Developers Be Liable for their Code? (linuxjournal.com)

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Glyn Moody

on Saturday May 09, 2009 @06:39AM

Glyn Moody writes: "They might be, if a new European Commission consumer protection proposal, which suggests "licensing should guarantee consumers the same basic rights as when they purchase a good: the right to get a product that works with fair commercial conditions," becomes law. The idea of making Microsoft pay for the billions of dollars of damage caused by flaws in its product is certainly attractive, but where would this idea leave free software coders?"

Submission + - UK Allows Full-Blown Software Patent (computerworlduk.com)

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Glyn Moody

on Thursday May 07, 2009 @10:00AM

Glyn Moody writes: "In Europe, software patents are not allowed "as such" (whatever that means). The UK has been one of the most rigorous in rejecting attempts to patent software — until now. A decision (PDF) handed down by the UK Intellectual Property Office has given Nokia a patent for "a software implemented method for developing networked applications for a wireless mobile device, the software enabling a developer to use a computer remote from a wireless mobile device to call, over a network connection, modular software elements resident on the wireless mobile device and to combine and execute modular software elements resident on the device by using a script composed on the computer and transferred to the wireless mobile device." The reasoning draws on an earlier judgment that held software was patentable when "there is more than just a "better program", there is a faster and more reliable computer." Is that a viable distinction, and is it likely to open the floodgates to software patents in UK and Europe?"

Submission + - Is Internet Access is a Fundamental Right? (blogspot.com) 1

Submitted by Glyn Moody on Wednesday May 06, 2009 @12:53PM

Glyn Moody writes: That's certainly what European Commissioner Viviane Reding seems to think (NB: MS Word document): "The new rules recognise explicitly that Internet access is a fundamental right such as the freedom of expression and the freedom to access information." Is she right?

Submission + - Nagios is Forked (computerworlduk.com)

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Glyn Moody

on Wednesday May 06, 2009 @06:46AM

Glyn Moody writes: "Forks are an important feature of free software: they ensure that projects stick close to their users. But they are also a danger, since they can split the developer community. That makes forks a rare event, and the following announcement rather exciting: "A group of leading Nagios protagonists including members of the Nagios Community Advisory board and creators of multiple Nagios Addons have launched ICINGA — a fork of Nagios, the prevalent open source monitoring system." So were they right to fork, and will Nagios, Icinga — or both — flourish in the long run?"

Submission + - Whatever Happened to OOXML? (computerworlduk.com) 2

Submitted by

Glyn Moody

on Thursday April 30, 2009 @06:10AM

Glyn Moody writes: "Just over a year ago, Microsoft's Office Open XML file formats (OOXML) were approved as an ISO standard, amidst huge controversy. But this hasn't turned out to be the disaster that many feared: OOXML has fallen off the radar almost completely. Instead, it's ODF that's making all the running, as the new ODF support in Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the 2007 Microsoft Office suite shows. So, is ODF winning?"

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