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Posts in 2009 May
Microsoft And ODF: Bad For Everyone
In shocking news, Microsoft’s support of ODF in Microsoft Office is basically unusable in many respects, according to the OpenDocument Format Alliance. This is a real problem for ODF’s adoption, since Office users who try using it, either for opening a document or for sending a document to someone else, will likely blame their issues on ODF, and, thus, avoid it.
What Microsoft has done with ODF support seems likely to harm ODF’s acceptance, rather than help it. It’s hard to tell if this move was incompetent or malicious or something entirely different?
It’s hard to believe that with all of Microsoft’s resources they couldn’t put together decent ODF support, but, then again, they haven’t exactly been hitting home runs recently. Whatever the cause, Microsoft would be better off if they had done this correctly. A little good will from a bunch of geeks is so much more important than (probably unintentionally) giving a few users a bad experience with ODF.
Microsoft often makes little gestures as if they are beginning to accept that they can co-exist with open-source software and open standards, but every time they manager to somehow undermine their own actions with some other unfriendly move. Reputation is key right now for Microsoft’s success. Lazy ODF support isn’t winning them any friends.
The size of removable storage is shrinking extremely quickly. Not long ago, removable storage meant CDs or a big external hard drive. Now, though, you can get a memory card the size of your fingernail and thinner than a penny that stores 16GB of data.
When it comes to external storage size (not capacity) most people agree smaller is better, but up to what point? Today’s storage devices are already easily losable and even more easily snapped. In a couple of years, the devices will be even smaller. When is small just too small?
It seems that we are reaching the physical limits of how small our data storage devices can be. The next step, then, has to be to eliminate the device alltogether. That’s where we are headed with the cloud.
I’ve written before about how Dell should at a minimum standardize on one release of Ubuntu for use across all of their Ubuntu computers, preferably with the latest release of Ubuntu.
In order to clarify some confusion, Dell explained why they are choosing not to upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu. Basically, they don’t think that the average consumer cares what version of Ubuntu they get and using the LTS will keep costs down and increase stability. If a few features are needed, they can be backported.
This position makes perfect sense, except that it doesn’t seem consistent with the rest of what Dell is doing, since they are currently selling exactly one notebook with Ubuntu 9.10, which is neither the LTS or the newest release.
I agree with what Dell says most of the time, but sometimes what they do isn’t consistent.
Almost every major Linux distribution now has an official or unofficial netbook version that has been optimized for one particular netbook or for netbooks in general. This usually largely means adding bigger buttons to make them easier to press on the tiny screen.
These interfaces almost certainly help new users get started, but would are specific netbook versions really better for more experienced users or do they just get in the way? On one hand, they may make it easier to launch the first application, but many sacrifice taskbar space and don’t have seem to offer anything special after you start working.
Are netbook remixes just a gimmick or are they really necessary?
Free software, and especially desktop Linux, is a difficult place to run a successful business since your main product is, of course, free.Canonical, though, looks like it might succeed.
The main difference between all of the other Linux distributions, many of whom also have commercial sponsors, and Canonical is that Canonical recently launches new and truly valuable add-on or subscription-based services for Ubuntu. From Ubuntu One, which hopes to change the way applications and files sync, to Landscape, Canonical’s proprietary management system for dealing with tons of computers on one network.
Not each of these products will be a success, but only a couple must be invaluable befoe the business becomes sustainigle. As long as a few of these products turn out to be major successes, they will pay for the others and create a sustainiable business.
The Importance of OSS in Government
Most likely you have already seen the story about a drunk driving case where the Breathalyzer’s source code was turned over for third-party examination. Naturally, vast numbers of potential errors were found.
This finding doesn’t even necessarily mean that the Breathalyzer gave the wrong result, but it does bring up the question of trusting Government-imposed technology. If the Breathalyzer’s code was far from perfect, who says the e-voting machine isn’t even worse?
When possible, the government should begin to move to open-source sfotware, allowing everyone to see what code is being runa nd, potentially, catching the issues before they become, well, an issue.
Even when Dell just offered Ubuntu 8.04 on all of their systems, I suggested that it would make sense to update to the latest version. I checked their ever-changing selection of Ubuntu computers again, only to discover that the Ubuntu versions make even less sense.
Three out of the four computers currently available with Ubuntu have Ubuntu 8.04, just as it has been for over a year. One computer, though, now comes with Ubuntu 8.10. This change really doesn’t make any sense to me for the following reasons:
- Using different versions of Ubuntu on different computers is bound to create confusion.
- If one of your computers is going to have a more recent version, why not the most recent version, which would be 9.04?
- Releasing each computer with whatever Ubuntu release is most convenient is a horrible strategy, since it will lead to at least two or three versions around at the same time, each of which is slightly different than the others.
It would make so much more sense just to update all of the comptuers to the very latest version, rather than spreading different versions around. This move could cause a lot of confusion and is going in completely the opposite direction of Dell’s earlier announcement.
When we think of the phone OS wars, we usually think of the iPhone OS, Windows Mobile, and the BlackBerry OS.The true war, though, is between open and closed.
Currently one of the most successful phones, the iPhone, is a very closed phone. Both the OS and the applications are controlled by Apple. At the same time, though, more and more companies just keep joining the open-source phone OS game.
As far as what will determine the future, it doesn’t matter what company winds up on top, it matters if the winning OS is open or closed.
Finally the OS juggling games can stop and we can just have Ubuntu and Windows options on all of Dell’s computers from now on. Well, all of their netbooks, that is. One of the most annoying things about Dell is their seemingly random decisions about what computers are going to be offered with what OS. Apparently, though, Dell realized how annoying this was.
Dell’s new policy is, apparently, that all of their netbooks will be offered with the exact same hardware with your choice of Ubuntu or Windows. You don’t have to worry about the model you want being Windows only anymore.
This makes so much more sense than confusing customers with all sorts of games. My only question is why it took so long. And when they will apply this policy to all of their computers.
Ubuntu One Cloud Syncronization: A Viable Business Model?
Due to the nature of free software, most companies that produce free software do not make money off of the code itself but rather complementary services, such as support. Canonical has just launched one such service that, in addition to opening some interesting possibilities for the future, could provide a good revenue stream for Canonical.
The new service, called Ubuntu One, is essentially just a cloud synchronization service that is similar to Dropbox. Ubuntu One is supposed to be ready for Ubuntu 9.10 and will come free with 2GB of storage. In order to upgrade your storage capacity, you can pay an extra fee.
There are two things that make this service interesting. First, the fact that it will be so tightly integrated with Ubuntu. This means that is has the potential to create a better user experience than any other synchronization service. Second, Canonical is apparently thinking about working with application developers to let you sync your application preferences.
We don’t know much yet, but Ubuntu One certainly looks like an interesting service, and it might give Canonical some money.