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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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VCs are realizing the next billion-dollar software company won't make money from software, but from what open source enables it to deliver
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
- Silent Layoffs, Cool-down, and Cool-off: How GAFAM and IBM Operate (the Law Doesn't Apply to Them)
- Laws? What laws?
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- People Who Enforce the GPL Banned From Linux Foundation Board (After Bribes From Prolific GPL Violators), Now They're Banned From Giving Talks at Events
- about the "LF" ('Linux' Foundation)
- Gemini Links 06/09/2026: The Slop Plagiarism 'Holy War' (Hype, Scam, Scheme), Burning CD-Rs, and Hardcopy Mono
- Links for the day
- Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence - Part IV - Insufficient Resources in the Face of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) by Lawyers
- it's about 120KG
- OpenStreetMap is the Future, Dictatorship is the Past
- OpenStreetMap helped us check maps for transport, various overlays with addresses, and there was 0% reliance on GAFAM or "Google" anything
- How Strikes at the European Patent Office Are Seen by Striking Staff in Berlin, Germany
- We have some more EPO scandals to cover later this year and next year
- Association for Computing Machinery Cites Techrights in Relation to GemText and Gemini Protocol
- published yesterday, Open Access
- Links 06/09/2026: More XBox Trouble (Microsoft Unrest, Many Silent Layoffs This Month), John Duffy as Next USPTO General Counsel
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 06/09/2026: Avoiding 'Smart' 'Phones' and Setting up Gemini for the First Time
- Links for the day
- Links 06/09/2026: Sabotage by Slop and "What Happens If 'Open' 'AI' Dies?"
- Links for the day
- How Back Doors Became the 'Normal' or 'Norm'
- "We also allowed a lethal monoculture to fester"
- Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence - Part III - The SRA is Vastly Worse Than Brits Realise, We Have a "Wild West" in London
- In the next part we'll begin looking at correspondence with the SRA
- SRA and Manslaughter: How the SRA Contributed to Agony in Proprietary Software Scandals With Clear Misuse of "Without Prejudice"
- Trying to prevent the public from finding out the criminal stuff that went on, resulting in many deaths
- Canonical (or Ubuntu) Rejecting IRC Isn't the Widespread Trend
- Internet Relay Chat (IRC) adoption still growing by some yardsticks
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 173 Out of 200: Two Years
- It was exactly 2 years ago that we filed lawsuits against Garrett
- Linux of America
- We could not help but notice GNU/Linux in North America yesterday
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 05, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, September 05, 2026
- Gemini Links 06/09/2026: Internet Limiting (Limited Time Allotted) and Solar MiniServer
- Links for the day
- Eight Months of Strikes in EPO, Organised by the Staff Union (SUEPO) Also in Berlin
- In Berlin, only one member of staff voted against the action plan
- Links 05/09/2026: "Let’s Stop Buying New Phone" and 'Open' 'AI' (Proprietary Slop) Drowning in Lawsuits
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 05/09/2026: Polarization, Warped Maps, and Emacs rectangle-number-lines
- Links for the day
- Software Freedom, Even If Difficult to Attain Due to Outside Pressure, Does Make You Happier
- Peer pressure and opinionated employers can make friends and staff more miserable if they dictate bad software
- You Can Run GNU/Linux on a Desktop/Laptop for 1,000+ Days Nonstop
- To me, the long uptime is a way of "marketing" GNU/Linux as robust and stable
- Profiting From Global Warming (and Making More Money the More You Cause Warming)
- Unregulated bank and pyramid scheme
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 172 Out of 200: The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Complicit in the SLAPPs by Inaction (Didn't Even Study Any Evidence, Only Wasted Time and Budget)
- "SRA placed into special measures due to 'disappointing standard of leadership'"
- China Does Not Need American (US) Products Like GAFAM's
- China has abundance of technical things it can leverage to preserve its autonomy
- RMS Didn't Make Enough Backups
- Making backups is important
- Refresher: Why EPO Staff is on Strike This Year (Aside From the EPO Acting Like a Corrupt, Above-the-Law, For-Profit Corporation That Violates Its Own Charter)
- One core issue at the EPO is erosion of purchasing power
- Gemini Links 05/09/2026: Fireflies, Shore Pine, and ASCII Art
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 04, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, September 04, 2026
- The Legal Services Board (LSB) Takes on Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for Utter Failures, We'll Resume Our SRA Series to Illuminate How Bad the SRA Really Is
- a quick overview of the latest news
- Links 04/09/2026: Notorious Patent Trolls' Judge Enters the Private Sector (Corruption, Revolving Doors), Gloria Steinem's Life in Pictures
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 04/09/2026: Worries, Upgrades, and CS Students
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman's Web Site Back Online, But It Seems Like a 2-Months-Old Snapshot
- Latest political notes are dated July 2 (2026)
- SPAM Disguised as Benchmark or Comparison: The Register MS "PARTNER CONTENT" is Getting Weirder by the Month
- Sites that promote fake 'coins' or pyramid schemes to their audience(s) aren't worth tolerating
- PIPs at IBMs are Layoffs Because They're Impossible to Satisfy (or They Terminate Workers Despite Satisfying Them)
- What insiders say
- In the United Kingdom You Can No Longer Make the Assumption People Use Windows (or 'Smart' 'Phone')
- As autumn arrives Microsoft faces a crisis
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 171 Out of 200: Talking About Corruption and Violence Against Women
- Today the Labour Party (UK) speaks about corruption
- Warming Up for Investigative Journalism About the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest and Probably Most Corrupt Institution in Europe
- It continues to exploit diplomatic immunity for impunity
- Microsoft Handing Out PIPs by the Thousands, Anxiety in GAFAM Building Up
- Years ago I heard from people who pretended to be ill to avoid getting fired
- BRICS in the Windows: Brazil's GNU/Linux Share (as Measured by CDN) Has Hit Highest Point in a Month
- The largest Web CDN, Clownflare, sees GNU/Linux at 8.1% right now in Brazil
- Corporate Media Will Always Glorify Its Owners (Corporations That Value Nothing But Capital)
- Collecting "money" like it's a form of competition where they track "score"
- We'll Never Do Slop!
- Being against slop is not being "left behind"
- Thieves Complain About the People They Steal From
- "When you point the finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing back to you"
- Links 04/09/2026: "The Rise of the Billionaire Lobby", the "Imperialist Delusions", and Digital Restrictions (DRM) From Nvidia
- Links for the day
- Buying From China
- Nations must begin to speak about their digital sovereignty, which Free software is best equipped to grant and best positioned to assure in the face of outside resistance
- GNU/Linux Continues to Grow in China
- GNU/Linux reached its highest point in a month
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 03, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, September 03, 2026
- Gemini Links 04/09/2026: Forgotten Realms Avatar Series and Slop Plagiarism's Footprint in Gopher/Geminispace
- Links for the day