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A new design for Linux Loop is nearing completion. The site will be 100% WordPress-based (with a few custom PHP scripts) and features a completley new theme that I have spent the last few weeks coding literally from scratch.
The new design includes threaded comments, a white background over the content for easy readability, cool sticky posts, and so on. The question is, what do you want to see in the new Linux Loop?
(If this were the new Linux Loop this image would have a fancy caption.)
Please throw out any ideas or suggestions in the comments. Everything (well, almost everything) is fair game – content, design, features, etc.
One of the most problematic new user challenges in Linux is the problem of codecs and DVD playback. These are major challenges, since they cannot be legally included with existing Linux distributinos without paying a per-user license fee.
That sort of thing is, obviously, not very fisable, but it is important to make it as easy as possible to have DVD playback and codecs for other media installed. Perhpas a separate commercial version that inludes these codecs would make sense, or perhaps the OS should just make it easy to purchase these codecs whenever you want.
The point is that being able to play media and DVDs is very important. One way or antoher, everything has to be lumped together, so that users can grap everything they need in 5 minutes with a relatively small amount of money.
Many many major organizations have open-source or open-content projects. These projects produce vast quantities of freely available code or content that can be freely modified and redistributed, yet these same projects protect their trademarks like vultures.
I recognize the importance of trademarks, even in open-source projects. Especially for larger organizations like Canonical, protecting the Ubuntu brand is essential, but it doesn’t have to be protected from everything. Unfortunately, our legal system here in the US encourages bulk trademark infringement notices by requiring trademark holders to “protect: their trademarks by enforcing them.
I actually think Canonical handles this issue fairly well, but I would certainly be in favor of a more relaxed view of trademark infringement in our legal system. Just because something is using a word I have a trademark on doesn’t mean it is confusing anyone, whihch is the real purpose of the trademark system, at least in theory.
A recent post on WorksWithU warns the new branding-ubuntu package team that, while making minor tweaks to the back of solitare cards is a fnie idea, excessive branding of everything could be a problem.
Without any question, taking credit fo the work of OpenOffice or the GIMP is a bad idea, but using this new ability to integrate other applications more effectively with Ubuntu is a great idea.
Through this new feaure, I hope that, in a few years, Ubuntu can be perfectly integrated between applications, without climing them, of course.
Clutter, a library that is designed to make it easier for applicatio developers to integrate OpenGL into thier applications, is approaching their 1.0 release.
It’s important that a library like this hit a stable release, since most developers will not want to write code that depends of rapidly-changing software, so I am glad to see 1.0 coming up soon. Clutter is also a particularly important library, since it makes it much easier to create amazing visual effects within applications, potentially imporving the quality of applications significantly.
I hope that Clutter’s development continues rapidly, since a library like this might be just what is needed to create awesome applications for the Linux desktop.
It may not be Linux-related, but this is just not right. You may have heard of Jamie Thomas’s trial a while ago. She is being accused of infringing on the copyrights of 24 songs, by sharing them with a P2P service. I have no idea if this is guilty or not, but the fine is simply too much : $80,000 for every song.
Most songs are legally avaliable for $0.99, making the fine (obviously) more than 80,000 times the cost of the song. While I understand the logic of making fines slightly higher the real damage to the copyright-holder, 80,000+ times higher is a little extreme. And $80,000 isn’t the total fine, it’s the fine for each song. $80,000 times 24 songs is about $1.92 million.
I don’t care how good (or bad) the songs she downloaded were, they were not worth $1.92 million. Luckily, it seems doubtful that the RIAA would really collect, since it would be such bad press for them, but this ruling is worrying.
As demonstracted by this LinuxToday Blog post and my own experience, if you spend time reading Linux news, you are bound to discover a world of people who will do anything possible to say “Linux sucks.”
You have to keep this in perspective, though. There are also those who will say anything to defend Linux or Mac OS X. In fact, everyone is, at least partially, a fanboy of some operating system. Someone who say “Linux sucks” is correct, but if he/she doesn’t also say “Windows sucks” and “OS X sucks,” they are a fanboy. Likewise, someone who says that Linux is an excellent operating system is correct, but if he/she doesn’t also say the same of Windows and OS X, they are a fanboy. Fundementally, operating systems as complex as the ones we use today cannot be compared in a general sense and anyone who tries to is bound to get it wrong.
When it comes to generally comparing two operating systems and ignoring the specifics, there are no right answers, but there are infinite wrong answers
For some time now we have been seeing scattered transitions towards Linux in governments, due to it’s openness and inexpensive price. Though the road will be bumpy, this seems like a trend that is almost guaranteed to continue.
There are many reasons why open-source software fits in governmental organizations. First, when everyone is trying to cut costs, Linux is cheap or free, especially compared to Microsoft’s prices. Second, being open is very important, so that the government can verify the code themselves and, if necessary, modify it. Finally, Linux could potentially save even more money by restoring older hardware.
Microsoft will certainly do their best to keep Linux out of goverments, but there are so many reasons that open-source makes sense in government that the transition to free software seems bound to happen.
Every operating system is fighting to gain users and marketshare, but is becoming “mainstream” a good goal?
While “mainsream” obviously means more users and, thus, usually more revenue for the maker of the OS, it also has some disadvantages. For example, it becomes much harder to break compatibility with older applications in order to move forwards or to change the interface too much. In addition, the OS becomes a much more significant target of viruses.
On the other hand, though, with a lot of users comes a lot of developers writing applications for the OS, and good applications are often some of the most important “features” of an OS.
Ultimately, the answer is “it depends,” since there are both advantages and disadvantages, but marketshare is clearly not always the goal.
In The Future, Will Our Computers Interact With Our Stuff?
RFID technology is nothing new, so a product that senses when a special tag is put on it and launches an application is not a particularly impressive technological accomplishment. It might, however, be an early peek at the future.
Imagine if your computer knew where you put your stuff. In addition to helping those of us who are less organized, it could predict our actions and respond accordingly. For example, if you left with your keys, it could recognize that you were leaving and send a shopping list to your phone or lock the door after you leave (or before you leave if your computer turns evil). Or, as you walk through the room carrying anything that was tagged, it could turn the lights on when you entered and off when you left.
A lot of the technology for this is already here, so how long will it be before our computers keep better track of where our stuff and ourselves are?