Gimp (2.7) Single Window Mode – Love at first Sight

It’s no news that Gimp 2.8 is going to have a single-window optional mode – it has been confirmed, but Gimp 2.8 will have other goodies like ‘Multiple column inspectors’, ‘Polaroid overlays’ and ‘Switch between open images using an easy history thumbnail bar’ – this last option is already present in Gimp 2.7, you can see it in the screenshot above. More»

Posted in Open Source Advocacy, Open-Source, Ubuntu, Windows | 4 Comments »

Free Software Foundation: Trash Windows 7

“The new version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, Windows 7, has the same problem that Vista, XP, and all previous versions have had -- it’s proprietary software. Users are not permitted to share or modify the Windows software, or examine how it works inside.” says Windows 7 Sins, the web site set-up by the Free Software Foundation – FSF to wage a fight against Microsoft’s predominant role in the OS world.

Well, this blog: Kabatology ~ Open Source, Linux wholeheartedly supports the campaign. Certainly many readers will be asking what makes Free software so different from Proprietary software. Well, I have for you the Digsby example. In the post Digsby Joins the Dark Side, Uses Your PC to Make Money, Lifehacker explains how the instant messenger client Digsby “not only bundles half a dozen optional crapware applications” into your system but how it’s also “using your computer to crawl the web, do stock market research”.

That Lifehacker post ends with “Stick with Open Source: The only way you are definitely going to avoid greedy software developers exploiting you is to stick with open source, make sure to donate to your favourite open source projects, and stop installing software with bundled crapware.”

Well the Digsby case is quite unique, it’s not the case with Windows, but they are quite close.

Posted in freeware, Open Source Advocacy, Open-Source, Windows | Comments Off

Firefox: We are the world We are the billions

Celebrations for the one billion Firefox downloads kick-off at the 1,000,000,000 + You website. Many powerful slogans like “One billion stacked coins would reach nearly 1,000 miles high” or “A bowl big enough to fit one billion goldfish would be as big as a stadium” count on you for a “tweet”.
More»

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Linux.com Becomes The Linux Foundation

Changes were expected at Linux.com and those changes have come. The Linux Foundation takes over the Linux.com domain and SourForge will give the same support it gave to Linux.com to The Linux Foundation.

Effective today, the Linux.com domain, which saw 21% growth in traffic in 2008, will be transferred to the Linux Foundation. SourceForge will support the Linux Foundation by continuing to sell the advertising for Linux.com.
Press Release

- This means all accounts on Linux.com have been moved over The Linux Foundation, including mine. I Hope to continue collaborating [Design better Web pages with Firefox extensions] with Linux.com now The Linux Foundation.

Posted in Open Source Advocacy, Open-Source | Comments Off

Find Linux Alternatives to Windows Software

Switching to Linux might also mean saying goodbye to some of your favorite software, if that software is not available for the Linux OS, but it is good to know that in such cases there is often an equivalent application, with the same functionality with the one you left behind, so you just have to learn and adapt to this new product(easier said than done). More»

Posted in Linux Packages, Linux Tips and Tricks, Open Source Advocacy | Comments Off

Sun Microsystems acquires MySQL for one billion dollars

Sun Microsystems confirms that it would be buying MySQL AB the firm that sells the worlds fastest growing open source database for about $ 1 billion. I’ve been using Mysql for about six years now and the idea that it is moving over sounds strange. I can hide my mix-fillings on this; anxiety and disbelief. Anyway in the real world never say never. I hope Sun Microsystems would follow the tradition and keep this icon Open Source and free.
More on [MySQL blog]

Posted in Open Source Advocacy, Open-Source | 2 Comments »

Archives/Directories for Open Source Applications

The GnomeFiles is a open source directory for Gnome/GTK+ applications. You can read a brief review of the software you’re interested in and also rate it – according to how useful you found it. There is no direct download, but a link that targets the download page of the application; many of these links point naturally to SourceForge.net. To submit an application you must be the proprietor or developer -so if you want an application to be listed but you are not the owner then find out who compiled it and email-ask them to submit the application.

Open Source Living is a collection of the so called best open source applications on the web – where best should mean most used or popular applications. Software is divided into various categories such as Web++, Graphics & Photo, Video and more for a better research. If you have any interesting open source application to propose then you can do so on the site’s submit page.

Qt-Apps.org is another worth mentioning open source/freeware archive. If you love to try new applications like myself – maybe because you’ll like to blog about it, then this repository is for you. All the applications I’ve downloaded from this site are freeware with the GPL license and are made by “young” developers. Rate these applications if you have time so that others can benefit from it. I personally find it a more interesting project than the other two directories mentioned above.

Posted in Linux Packages, Open Source Advocacy, Open-Source | 3 Comments »

Sergey talks about the Android Platform on this Video

After much talk about the Gphone, Google’s Engineering Director, Steve Horowitz says “there is actually no Gphone” instead there is the so-called Android platform that would permit thousands of people to create Gphones. On this video Steve together with Sergey Brin talk about the availability of the SDK(now available for download), Open Source and the demo applications on the Android platform. More»

Posted in Open Source Advocacy, Video | 1 Comment »

Get used to the GNU Affero General Public License Version 3

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today published the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 (GNU AGPLv3). The license based on version 3 of the GNU General Public License (GNU GPLv3) has an additional term to allow users who interact with the licensed software over a network to receive the source for that program. By publishing this license, the FSF aims to foster user and development communities around network-oriented free software.
Taken via [ Linux Magazine ] and [ Free Software Foundation ]

Posted in Linuxfaq, Open Source Advocacy | 1 Comment »