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Posts in 2008 May
Brilliant Brainstorms (#12) – Installstorm
Brilliant Brainstorms is a weekly-ish summary of some of the best brainstorms from the Ubuntu Brainstorm site. In the beginning it may not always come exactly once a week or on the same day, but, if it becomes popular, it should become more regular.
happy, different colors of the human theme could be offered as options for a quick color change.
You may have noticed that this week’s Brilliant Brainstorms is shorter than previous weeks. Just FYI, I don’t try to reach any particular length, I just gather up all the brainstorms that I think are good and if I have way too many I remove a few.
Is Microsoft Worried About the OOXML Appeal?
When I saw the headline “Brazil Appeals OOXML Too! Asks Approval Be Reconsidered” on LXer today (the full article is on Groklaw) and then saw that India had joined the appeal, too, the question in my mind (other than the “I guess when you bypass the process and essentially cheat you don’t win, Microsoft” one) was what is Microsoft thinking right now? Unfortunately, I don’t know and the few who do know what Microsoft is thinking will probably never tell anymore than the PR lines, but, luckily, there may be some clues.
Going back to before even South Africa appealed OOXML’s ISO approval, Microsoft announced that they would be supporting ODF natively in Office. Most of the speculation I saw suggested that the move was made due to pressures from the EU and from governments wanting ODF support for their own reasons. However, with the recent appeals from three countries, I suspect there may be a different reason.
Microsoft must have known from the second reports of foul play around OOXML approval appeared that there would be many who would fight against OOXML approval. Again, I come back to the question “what is Microsoft thinking right now?”
Suppose the people inside Microsoft decided that Microsoft had to seriously worry about OOXML losing ISO approval. What would Microsoft do? First, downplay ISO approval in the press and, second, prepare for a graceful transition if OOXML fails. What does the second part mean, well, since creating a new standard is out of the question short-term, they would have to adopt another ISO approved standard, for example ODF. See where I am going?
Perhaps Microsoft’s adoption of ODF did not, at least completely, come from outside pressure. Perhaps it came from people inside Microsoft worried about a graceful transition to another format if OOXML did not get ISO approval and was unable to catch on without it. And if Microsoft was worried even before any countries actually appealed the approval, they must be worried now. If they are, that might be the best indication of OOXML’s future, which is not looking good.
Of course, this is all speculation and there are many assumptions here, but it is worth keeping in mind that Microsoft may know more about the appeals that are coming in than we do, so it is worth watching their moves to try and predict the future of OOXML. In my opinion, it would be just fine if OOXML died as a standard and Microsoft adopted ODF. Then we get one universal, truly open format that everyone can use. This would help to break up the Microsoft monopoly without destroying the company and it would spark more competition.
If OOXML looses ISO approval, it looks like Microsoft may adopt ODF, and if Microsoft adopts ODF, everyone wins.
(Click to enlarge.)
Let me know what you think!
Most of you have probably heard of the OpenMoko, a phone that is completely “open” from the software being open-source to the hardware being easily hackable, but many of you may not have heard of two similar recent announcements. First, the Open Graphics Project recently announced that their ODG1 open-source graphics card is now available for developers. The idea behind this card is similar to the idea behind OpenMoko – design a piece of equipment that has fully-documented hardware and runs on completely open-source software. Similarly, VIA has just announced their OpenBook laptop/UMPC. Here VIA has released CAD files of the case-design and, naturally, the laptop is Linux-compatible.
So what does this new “open hardware” mean for the future? I think open hardware has the potential to set a gold standard for Linux-compatible hardware. If you think about it, proprietary drivers seem to cause problems. They cannot, generally, be distributed with the distribution, making out-of-the-box support limited, and when there is a bug we just have to hope the manufacturer fixes it eventually. On the other hand, the Linux community does a great job of making sure that hardware with open-source drivers works really well out of the box or with just a few clicks. So, logically, when a device, be it a laptop or a graphics card or a phone or anything, is completely open, it should work incredibly well with Linux. My hope is that, eventually, it will be possible to use only “open” hardware and avoid any company that does not fully support Linux and open-source. Then other hardware manufacturers will be forced to either create their own open hardware or ignore Linux users, something that is getting harder and harder to do.
If this open hardware trend continues, it will set a gold standard for Linux support that other hardware makers will have to meet.
Quite a while ago, Asus announced that they would be introducing a desktop version of the Eee PC, the E-DT. Now more details appear to have been leaked about the device, now called the EBOX, according to Electronista. Almost all of the details from before appear to still be true. The device is supposed to cost between $200-$300 and the previously-leaked design, which looks GREAT, also appears to be real. Perhaps the most interesting detail, though, is that there is no word of a Windows version.
Personally, I think that, in the case of a desktop, leaving Windows out is a good choice, and not just because I like Linux more. If you think about it, there are so many Windows desktops that as a Windows machine, the EBOX would have too much competition to succeed. As a Linux box, though, there is significantly less competition. Because of this, I think the apparent choice to ignore Windows for the EBOX is the right move.
This argument does bring up one question, though. There may be a lot less Linux desktop competition than Windows desktop competition, but there are still a surprising number of inexpensive Linux desktops, such as the gPC. Unfortunately, none of those cheap Linux desktops have done particularly well, so how is the EBOX going to be different? Frankly, I am not sure if I have a good answer to that question, so we will have to see what Asus does. The EBOX does have a few things going for it, though:
- The Eee PC has done very well, so its momentum may push the EBOX forward
- The EBOX looks very nice
- Asus may be able to do the software better than other companies have done it. For example, many people complained about bugs in the gOS that shipped with the gPC.
Although none of those are particularly compelling arguements, they do give the EBOX a chance. Hopefully Asus will take this chance and make the EBOX as good as the Eee PC and bring Linux to even more new users.
Sugar Labs Spin-Off The One To Watch
With the announcement of Windows on the XO Laptop and general bad times at the OLPC project, a sort of spin-off company has been formed called Sugar Labs, according to Ars Technica. With some of the OLPC project’s recent decisions and advances in technology, Sugar Labs, not the OLPC project, may soon be the group to watch.
The Sugar Labs spin-off is, as you may have guessed from the name, continuing the development of the Sugar interface, the rather unusual, but supposedly more intuitive to those who have never used a PC before, interface that the Linux XO used in the past. The difference between Sugar Labs and the OLPC project in the past, though, is that they do not intend to create their own hardware. I believe this is a very smart plan, since there are now commercially available laptops at almost the same price point as the XO. Since there is little that is unique about the XO hardware anymore, or at least soon there will not be much unique about it, I think that Sugar Labs made the right decision to drop it. They are, instead, in talks with several hardware makers. (As for the XO2 bringing new innovation to the XO hardware, I am skeptical that the changes are the right changes to make.)
Of course there is still the argument that Windows is really the better platform for these devices. Without even getting in to the arguments about why OSS is better for this sort of stuff (cheaper, source code is available, governmental adoption, school adoption, and so on,) think about it this way: the OLPC project initially had two advantages, hardware and software. The hardware advantage is now basically gone due to technological advances in the area of cheap, small laptops, and they have just thrown out their software advantage in favor of Windows. Now it is easy for other groups and companies to duplicate what the OLPC project is doing. Sugar Labs, however, has kept the software advantage and is, therefor, more likely to succeed.
Although the OLPC project will be almost certainly the more watched of the two projects for some time, it has lost all of its competitive advantages and, unless some major changes happen, the OLPC project’s influence and importance will disappear and Sugar Labs will be the group to watch.
Brilliant Brainstorms (#11) – Restoring Dead Installs
Brilliant Brainstorms is a weekly-ish summary of some of the best brainstorms from the Ubuntu Brainstorm site. In the beginning it may not always come exactly once a week or on the same day, but, if it becomes popular, it should become more regular.
(Click to enlarge.)
See if you can spot all the little side jokes. (It’s not really that hard.)
Let me know if you think it’s funny!
And South Africans Are Going to Contribute To Windows?
Recently, Jason Matusow, a Microsoft employee, made the comment that “Deep dev of the core OS is not likely to happen in South Africa today on any large scale. Students at the university still grappling with coding skills are not going to dive into the inner-working of Linux.” Of course, as has already been pointed out, the statement holds no credibility due to South Africa being the birth place of someone named Mark Shuttleworth who happens to be the founder of Ubuntu.
If that is not, however, reason enough for you to discount Jason’s statements, consider this: a person from a company who is located primarily in the US and has basically all of their top management in the US is saying that South Africans will never be able to get involved with Linux, an open-source effort which has developers, leaders, art people, marketers, etc, etc everywhere in the world.
Microsoft, making fun of you is getting too easy.
XO2: Interesting, But I Am Skeptical
With the OLPC project in troubled times, Negroponte recently announced a new version of the XO laptop, the XO2, which will be shipped in 2010. The concept is cool: two touch-screens put together like the pages of a book, but is the new design feasible or helpful to the children? I am not so sure.
The first reason for my skepticism about the new XO2 is the planned price point, $75. The original XO was supposed to come in at $100. Instead, it ended up costing nearly twice that price and the price has not since been dropped down to my knowledge. Now, Negroponte is proposing to add two touch-screens and Windows, all while dropping the price below the original target, which has not yet been reached even without the touch-screens, in just two years. If you ask me, especially considering the current state of the project and the history of the project, the new price is a goal that will not be met.
The second reason for my skepticism, and perhaps the more important one, is the idea to include two touch-screens. Why? It is being touted for its abilities as an e-book reader. Really? You need two screens to make an e-book reader? The Kindle and Sony Reader each have just one screen.
Plus the touch-screen plan has some significant drawbacks. The students will now have to learn to type on a touch-screen, which cannot make the already difficult process of learning to type any easier. Then if the students get a job involving computers, which is almost every job now, they are going to have to get used to typing on a different type of keyboard. And don’t tell me that in 15 years everyone will use touch-screen keyboards, because no one can predict the future of technology 15 years out.
So is this new version of the XO going to be a failiure? Not nessesarily. There is still a fair amount of time for things to change. Also, just because the price point may not be reached and the design may not be ideal does not mean no one will buy it. Then again, I would not bet on this new design succeeding. If someone can explain why I am wrong, go ahead. I hope someone can.