November 3rd, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Fortune Magazine’s Big Tech blog predicts the coming decline of Windows in “PC makers move closer to a post-Windows world“:
“In January, Hewlett-Packard will introduce a glossy black mini-laptop at retail for a mere $379. When it does, it will become the first major computer maker this decade (besides Apple, of course) to push a non-Windows PC in stores… This Linux-based version of the HP Mini 1000 will not slay Microsoft Windows. But it will add to a growing sense that the iconic operating system’s best days are behind it.”
Author Jon Fortt credits the “Windows Vista flop,” Apple’s enormous growth, competitors in the smartphone market and mini-laptops (“netbooks”) for breaking open major cracks in the Microsoft fortress. Specifically regarding netbooks, Fortt writes, “more than 35% of today’s mini-laptops run a non-Windows operating system,” which means this new fast-growing market segment will probably never come under the thumb of Microsoft. HP sees it as an opportunity to develop its own brand, instead of just the brands of others that make processors and operating systems, putting them in a better longterm position in the market.
“This is the part of the Windows Vista backlash that really matters,” said IDC analyst Richard Shim, who had recently seen HP’s Linux mini-laptop.”
A newly competitive marketplace for operating systems will bring out much more rapid innovation (look to the smartphone industry for a precedent), lower prices and more opportunity for new startups and existing companies to grow. I expect it also to boost open source, as a great way to quickly implement new products and services.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Mac, Open Source | 1 Comment »
October 29th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
For ComputerWorld UK, Glyn Moody writes, “All Russian Schools to Use Free Software.”
“It began with a few pilot projects, and apparently these have been so successful that the Russian government has now decided to make it the standard for *all* schools.”
Most of Moody’s links lead to articles in Russian, so I cannot glean anything from them. However, when he runs them through software translation, Moody discovers that Russia plans to have one million computers in schools by 2010, and their default software platform will be locally-customized open source applications (presumably including Linux, OpenOffice, etc). After a three-year period, schools will be permitted to switch back to proprietary programs, but they’ll have to pay the licensing fees on their own. I do not expect many will be interested by that option.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on All Russian Schools to Use Free Software
October 27th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
An email from Jean of the OOoAuthors project announces, “Friends of OpenDocument Inc has just published the printed edition of Getting Started with OOo3, here: http://www.lulu.com/content/4633456
“In addition to the paperback book (US$17.95), a free download of the PDF of the book is also available from that link. The interior pages are in black & white. It is formatted for approx. 6×9-inch pages (the size of the printed book), which should print fine on A4 or US-letter paper if someone wants to print it. If you are paying for your own ink/toner and paper, buying a printed copy is probably cheaper than printing it yourself.”
For a color PDF of the same document, designed for on-screen viewing, download from OOoAuthors.org.
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Getting Started with OOo 3.0 Guide Arrives
October 23rd, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Google has released the source code of its Android platform, and coincidentally, I saw my first G1 in the wild yesterday.
“Android is not a single piece of hardware; it’s a complete, end-to-end software platform that can be adapted to work on any number of hardware configurations. Everything is there, from the bootloader all the way up to the applications. And with an Android device already on the market, it has proven that it has what it takes to truly compete in the mobile arena…
“Have a great idea for a new feature? Add it! As an open source project, the best part is that anyone can contribute to Android and influence its direction. And if the platform becomes as ubiquitous as I hope it will, you may end up influencing the future of mobile devices as a whole.”
With the release of Android, the open sourcing of Symbian and the gradual failure of Windows Mobile, it’s clear the mobile market will take a very different direction than the PC market two decades ago. (I expect Apple’s iPhone will flourish alongside the open source platforms as well.)
Without the negative influence of a Microsoft monopoly, mobile devices are going to be much more dynamic and innovative than the PC software industry has been for many years. (Although open source is forcing major changes there now, as well.) This should be interesting!
Posted in Free Culture, Open Source | Comments Off on Android Source Code Available
October 22nd, 2008 Benjamin Horst
The VAR Guy points out that in Dell’s netbook line, they now advertise that some models run Ubuntu:
“It’s one small step for Dell and consumer Linux — and one giant leap for Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux efforts. Specifically, Dell is spending advertising dollars to promote PCs with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled. The move has significant implications for the business world as well.”
Potential customers can see the same machine (with almost identical hardware) for sale in two versions: Ubuntu and Windows. And the clear and obvious price difference favors Ubuntu.
In the flyer the author found in his newspaper, in fact, only the Ubuntu version was shown!
As netbooks grow and Linux maintains a strong foothold in the segment, more people will become familiar and comfortable with it. This will lead to its growth in other business markets too, as users will want Linux’s power and usability on their primary work machines as well:
“If Ubuntu can impress consumer Netbook users, that positive first impression could help Canonical’s operating system push deeper into the corporate market.”
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on Ubuntu Netbooks from Dell
October 21st, 2008 Benjamin Horst
North-by-South points out another country adopting ODF in its article, Venezuela Adopts ODF as National Standard:
“Speaking at the Second ODF Workshop in Pretoria, South Africa, yesterday, Carlos Gonzalez of the National Center of Information Technologies, announced that the Venezuelan government had formally adopted ODF as a standard for the ‘processing, exchange and storage of documents’.” Venezuela joins a number of other countries who have adopted this open standard, along with Brazil, Uruguay, South Africa, Belgium — overall, fourteen national and eight provincial governments.”
Many countries, provinces and cities have adopted ODF, because it is about competition on a fair playing field, and just like HTML, it will bring lots of new competitors, ideas, processes and products into a market that has long been stymied by the decadence of a monopoly. Already, ODF is supported by many companies and many products:
“It is currently implemented by office solutions such as OpenOffice, KOffice, Google Docs, Zoho, IBM Lotus Symphony and Corel Wordperfect. In May 2008, Microsoft announced that Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2007 would add native support for the Open Document Format.”
With momentum like this, we can expect great things for ODF and its users in the future.
Posted in Free Culture, ODF | 1 Comment »
October 20th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
OpenOffice.org 3.0 was released one week ago today. John McCreesh writes:
“From the official announcement on Monday 13th October at 09:00 UTC, to midnight on Sunday 20th October, OpenOffice.org 3.0 recorded an astonishing three million downloads via the Bouncer. That’s:
- 221,230 GNU/Linux users (who might be considered obvious users of the world’s leading open-source office suite)
- an impressive 320,622 Mac OS X users (enjoying OpenOffice.org with a Mac “look and feel” for the first time), and
- a staggering 2,449,863 Microsoft Windows users.”
Another of John’s posts provides additional information and analysis.
“If you download OpenOffice.org from the download page, you will go via the Bouncer, and your download will be logged. These logs are the only figures we are able to quantify accurately, but they are a considerable underestimate of the actual number of downloads…”
So how many people are already using OpenOffice.org 3.0? No-one knows. We know that the Bouncer figures underestimate the number of downloads. We know the number of downloads is considerably less than the number of installed copies. So five million users already?”
The release of OOo 3.0 is definitely its biggest to date. The userbase is clearly expanding, and now Mac OS X can be a part of that, as in this first week its downloads represent a healthy piece of the total, at almost 11%.
Posted in Free Culture, Mac, OpenOffice.org, Uncategorized | 10 Comments »
October 15th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
OpenOffice.org 3.0 was released on Monday, October 13, and download demand has been enormous since then. In fact, it’s been so strong the website is down and a temporary download-only site has been put in its place until the spike recedes.
Frank Mau announces over 350,000 downloads were initiated in the first 24 hours since OOo 3.0’s release:
“It could be more but the huge traffic on www.openoffice.org bear down the web-infrastructure on the site host. Hope the next days will bring up the service back on a stable base.”
Eike Rathke points out the release of OpenOffice 3.0 is also the project’s 8th birthday. He also provides a list of known mirrors to download 3.0 from if you cannot reach the main site.
Kazunaro Hirano writes: 3.0.0 Released! Website down but Mirrors are OK! He too provides links to mirror sites for alternate download access.
There are lots of reasons for this huge interest in OpenOffice.org 3.0, and I like to think pent-up demand from Mac users is one of them.
Posted in Free Culture, Mac, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Huge Demand for OpenOffice.org 3.0
October 9th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
Ian Lynch pointed out a new UK-based resource site for schools using open source software, called Open Source Schools.
“The Schools Open Source Project is an initiative to help schools with awareness, adoption, deployment, use and ongoing development of Open Source Software (OSS)…
“The project will provide an authoritative, informative and impartial website that will raise awareness of how OSS can be used to enhance teaching and school infrastructures. The project will then develop and support a community of practice that engages those who are currently using OSS and welcomes and supports new members.”
The site is very attractive, built in Drupal, and provides many community features, so I expect it to become a very useful resource as it continues to grow.
Posted in Drupal, Free Culture, Open Source | 1 Comment »
October 7th, 2008 Benjamin Horst
One of the joys of open source is its mutability. If someone has a great idea and the right experience, they can make fundamental changes for the better. With this mindset, two Linux developers from Intel modified Fedora and Moblin to boot from a solid state drive (on the Eee PC) in only five seconds.
LWN.net announces: “At the Linux Plumbers Conference Thursday, Arjan van de Ven, Linux developer at Intel and author of PowerTOP, and Auke Kok, another Linux developer at Intel’s Open Source Technology Center, demonstrated a Linux system booting in five seconds.”
Lots of further tech details in the article, but in short, it’s great to see how fast Linux can boot when developers take it upon themselves to make it happen.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on Boot Linux in 5 Seconds