Free Software News Roundup: Careers, Liberations, and Lots More
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-02-20 16:32:26 UTC
- Modified: 2014-02-20 16:32:26 UTC
Summary: Recent news stories about Free/Open Source software (FOSS)
-
For most students, an internship presents a major opportunity to learn and grow in a real-world environment. Interns who join an open source company or project also seem to learn a lot about themselves along the way. Recently, I asked some former Red Hat interns—both newly hired and long-time Red Hat associates—what lessons they learned by working in an open source culture and what advice they have for our next group of interns.
-
Wikipedia defines “open-source” software as computer software with its source code made available and licensed with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. Translated into English this just means it’s free to anyone who wants to download it. Linux, Mozilla Firefox, and Google’s Android are open source operating systems and are available and easy to download even for computer illiterates like myself.
-
The University of California, Berkeley, has been authorised by Alcatel-Lucent to open sauce all Plan 9 software under the GNU General Public License, Version 2.
-
The takeaway from this presentation should be that , not necessarily because of the usual claims of superior quality (Many eyes make fewer bugs etc.) but because FLOSS emphasizes Freedom and flexibility. I agree with FLOSS being the right way to do IT but I still believe the FLOSS that users will use from solid distros like Debian will be featureful and of high quality as well as being Free. The Debian developers filter out most of the crud included in the depressing statistics of median number of developers and such. It’s a part of their social contract: “We will give back to the free software community
-
For the last decade we’ve watched an epic contest unfold between open source and proprietary technology, and 2014 is the year that this dynamic will radically transform. The lines between open source and proprietary are becoming irrevocably blurred as proprietary firms pour resources into open source development and open source companies dial in their revenue models. Above all else, the open source community is producing the technologies businesses need to be competitive in the data-rich 21st century.
-
VCs are realizing the next billion-dollar software company won't make money from software, but from what open source enables it to deliver
-
These were some of the questions asked by Amandeep, a New Delhi based owner of a small scale clothing company, when I pitched to him a few open source solutions that could make his day-to-day operations more efficient. For someone without any IT background (but a sharp business sense), these were brilliant and relevant questions. The answers to these questions won't just help Amandeep, but if shared broadly may help reduce the apprehension of a significant number of small scale business owners, especially in India. My interactions have shown that a lot of these businesses are looking to grow, enhance their productivity, and most importantly, save costs.
-
Marcus Hanwell is a physicist by training, but his background in science led him down a different path than most reseachers. Today he is a contributer to a number of open source projects aimed at helping the scientific community better analyze and visualize their data. If you've got a question about finding the right open source tool for a scientific application, Marcus can point you in the right direction.
-
Red Hat is perhaps the most recognized player in the entire open source field. As addition to promoting its operating systems, the company has been involved in storage for quite some time. Red Hat Storage is an open platform that is available for on-premise, public clouds such as Amazon, and hybrid cloud deployment. Pricing is by annual subscription based on the number of storage nodes.
-
He went on to tell me how he had looked up “Linux” on the Internet and became interested in the “free” part of software. It took him a bit to get his head around the fact that people from around the globe are contributing to FOSS for not much more than the spirit of kinship and giving. From that moment, in Eddie Baker’s eyes software became more than things you click on to make other things happen.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Inviting the Founder of GNU/Linux to Events (It Only Costs His Travel Expenses) and Recalling the True Origins
- It's reassuring to see belated recognition
- The Microsofters Have Just Shared Privileged Trial Data With Microsoft
- There are serious ramifications for liability accountability as Microsoft salaries sponsor these SLAPPs
- Trolls With LLM Slop Are Disrupting Communications About Mass Layoffs at IBM
- LLM slop to drown out the signal
-
- Links 17/05/2025: Microsoft Kills "Surface Laptop Studio" (More Canceled Products/Units), Groups Caution About Harms of Social Control Media
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 17/05/2025: Sympathy Algorithm and SSH on Alternative Ports
- Links for the day
- Slopwatch: Microsoft's Anti-Linux Propaganda and Cover-up, Slopfarms Clogging Up Google News
- slop-tracking activities that observe googlebombing of "Linux"
- AstroTurfing by IBM in thelayoff.com is Highly Risky (and Likely Outsourced)
- Microsoft did this in Reddit (and got caught), so why won't IBM too?
- Links 17/05/2025: Stabber of Salman Rushdie Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 17/05/2025: Happier on Gemini and Manipulating Reddit
- Links for the day
- ComEd and Microsoft: A Mess of Spaghetti Held Together By Circus Clowns
- Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 16, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, May 16, 2025
- Links 16/05/2025: Microsoft Sacks Pregnant Women, People Fired on Their Birthday; Adobe Censorship Failing
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 16/05/2025: "Repairing Our Way out of Commodity Fetishism" and Pre-librebooted Computers
- Links for the day
- [Video] IBM Shakes Hands of Prince Mohammed bin Salman
- handshake of loyalty
- The SLAPPs From Microsofters Distract From Serious Copyright Infringement by Microsoft and Apparent Business Crimes
- Aside from other issues, such as strangling women
- Enshittification is Everywhere: You Pay More, the Services Get Worse
- "Enshittification" is a term coined by an online friend; I increasingly use this term to describe what's happening even outside the realm of technology (which it was adopted to describe)
- Microsoft Reduces Office Space Ahead of More Waves of Mass Layoffs
- "The Gerstnerisation of Microsoft"
- Anti-Linux FUD Produced by Microsoft LLMs to Blame "Linux" for Microsoft's Own Failures
- We call out some of the worst culprits
- Gemini Links 16/05/2025: Hoking GPS, Grabovac, and Tanana
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 15, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, May 15, 2025
- Microsoft WARN Notices Proliferate in the United States
- From what we've seen, this wave was more than 3% (a lot more) and the next wave/s will be even bigger (possible as imminent as weeks from now), based on insider leaks
- Links 15/05/2025: Google Betrays Publishers Again, Openwashing by Sysdig
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman Still Respected by Many in the Libre Graphics Community
- Richard Stallman and Professor Moglen never harmed anyone
- If You Read Techrights, Then You Probably Want to Read Tux Machines as Well
- That site is more active than this one
- Gemini Links 15/05/2025: Forced Music in Publicly Accessible Space and ~silv is Online
- Links for the day
- Links 15/05/2025: KOSA Censorship (USA Becomes More Like KSA) and More National Cuts
- Links for the day
- Bing Might Shut Down - Just Like Skype Did - Some Time in the Coming Months/Years (Parts of It Already Shut Down)
- they try to bring the losses under control
- Your Real Ally Would Not Defend the Company of SLAPP and Strangling of Women
- who's left to tell us what's true?
- Breakdown of Microsoft Layoffs Shows It's About Cost, Not Performance or Hype (Like "AI")
- MSN (Microsoft) reposted this with some unnecessary spin
- The Lawyers Working for the Serial Strangler From Microsoft on SLAPPing Techrights Have Apparently Lost Their Voice
- the moment we mentioned that their media lawyer is leaving they went all quiet in social control media
- At IBM, Relocation Can be a Trick or a Trap (IBM Gets Rid of Staff Under the Guise of "Relo")
- IBM is not being honest with employees
- Microsoft Rumours: This Week's Scale of Layoffs "Higher Than Reported" and More Coming Soon ("A Lot More Severe" Than May's)
- The "3%" figure is false
- Slopwatch: Sloppy Brian, Brittany Slop, and General Observations
- Creative people don't need slop; there's just nothing good about it, slop appeals to lazy people careless about quality
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- Beyond Mass Layoffs at Microsoft: Entire Units Shut Down for Good
- And it's far from over
- Links 15/05/2025: Crikvenica, Analog Computer, and Slop 'Hallucinations'
- Links for the day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 14, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, May 14, 2025