Posted on August 11, 2012 by Simon Phipps
Sometimes we think software freedom just applies to programmers, but its creative impact can be much broader. This animated video is pretty clever:
[youtube http://youtu.be/Fq9EV2fYF2E]
While it’s called “Stop-Motion Excel”, if you look closely at the screen you’ll see it’s actually made with open source software:
Yes, the spreadsheet they used isn’t Excel at all – it’s OpenOffice.org, the predecessor to LibreOffice (and of course Apache OpenOffice and other branches of the OOo tree), running on a Mac. They actually namecheck the software they used in the making-of video.
Why would they want to avoid Microsoft Excel? One possible reason is because using anything proprietary in a video production requires clearance and approval from the owner of the proprietary product. On the other hand, open source projects come complete with an OSI-approved license that gives everyone the right to use the software for any purpose. Open source unlocks creativity and innovation everywhere.
Filed under: Open Source | Tagged: LibreOffice | 2 Comments »
Posted on August 10, 2012 by Simon Phipps
My article for InfoWorld this week considers three different projects – OmniOS (derived from Illumos, the new name given to OpenSolaris), GitHub and OpenStack – and finds different attitudes towards corporate control giving different results.
Filed under: Governance, InfoWorld, OpenSolaris | Tagged: GitHub, OmniOS, OpenStack | Comments Off on Influence vs Control
Posted on August 7, 2012 by Simon Phipps
Don’t Get Locked In
In InfoWorld today, I explain why I gave my wife my iPad. She loves it, and I am very happy too as I now use a Google Nexus 7 tablet for everything the iPad used to do – and a load more.
The most important part is in the last slide, which I reproduce here for your enjoyment. There’s an essay about that.
Filed under: InfoWorld | Comments Off on On Marital Harmony
Posted on August 6, 2012 by Simon Phipps
Despite Oracle pulling out, OpenSolaris lives on as Illumos, which is a loose-knit open source community with multiple downstream projects. One of those is the new OmniOS operating system built by consulting company OmniTI.
OmniOS is described as a “JEOS” (Just Enough Operating System), the smallest possible subset of Illumos that’s able to self-host (that is, act as a build platform for itself with no external dependencies). As such it’s the perfect starting point for the sort of devops programmers building a high-integrity platform who would in the past have started from Solaris and removed code until they had their perfect platform.
OmniTI CEO Theo Schlossnagle joined me for a discussion about OmniOS, its uses and its relationship to IllumOS.
[youtube http://youtu.be/9h817UTOxmk]
Filed under: MinkCast, OpenSolaris | Tagged: DevOps, Illumos, OpenSolaris | Comments Off on MinkCast: Explaining OmniOS
Posted on August 6, 2012 by Simon Phipps
How do you do open procurement for ICT solutions? The answer, according to the European Commission, is to ensure that all procurement that requires tendering (and not all does) is specified in terms of the functions required rather than expressing a preference for the brands involved in the solution. But despite the clear regulations there seem to be plenty of public authorities across Europe which ignore them. This is bad news for European businesses and very bad news for open source, as I explain in ComputerWorldUK today.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK, Procurement | Tagged: European Union, Procurement | Comments Off on EU Procurement Failures
Posted on August 4, 2012 by Simon Phipps
Back at Sun, I believe much of the blame for the company’s failure between 2001 and 2004 – from which the later, otherwise successful open source and hardware appliance initiatives under Jonathan Schwartz were unable to rescue it – came from allowing rapid, indiscriminate hiring of new sales and marketing staff in the 1999-2001 window as a result of the wave of success Java mindshare generated for Sun in the Web bubble.
That led to a huge growth in new, largely non-technical hires who didn’t necessarily share Sun’s traditional, open values and who didn’t rely on technology leadership as their prime guide. These new hires came to dominate the company’s software business, allowing marketing-led thinking to take precedence over pragmatic engineering. They went on to create strategies that just couldn’t deliver, including the disastrous “Sun One” middleware strategy. It matters who you hire.
My column for ComputerWorld this week asks if Twitter is falling into the same trap.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK | Tagged: Sun | 2 Comments »
Posted on August 3, 2012 by Simon Phipps
My column for InfoWorld this week considers the unseen value open source brings into the economy, and references this keynote from OSCON by Tim O’Reilly.
[youtube http://youtu.be/Kbcgmf6eDKU]
Filed under: InfoWorld | Tagged: OSCON | Comments Off on The Open Source Stimulus Plan
Posted on July 28, 2012 by Simon Phipps
I was approached in the OSI booth at OSCON to explain OSI’s membership categories.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DB5SxVjqBg]
That URL again: opensource.org/join
Filed under: OSI | Comments Off on OSI Membership In Two Minutes
Posted on July 27, 2012 by Simon Phipps
While HP was making plenty of noise at OSCON about its deployment of OpenStack as HP Cloud, it was the discovery that they have moved their open source program office to the heart of the company that convinced me they’re serious about open source in their products. Read more in InfoWorld.
Filed under: InfoWorld | Tagged: OSCON | Comments Off on HP, Open Source and OpenStack
Posted on July 26, 2012 by Simon Phipps
Have you ever attended an open source conference? In my article for ComputerWorldUK today, I briefly review four good choices that you can attend over the next few months.
Filed under: ComputerWorldUK, Events, Travel | Comments Off on Call For Participation
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