Thursday, November 30, 2006
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) welcomed the public commitment from Sun Microsystems to distribute its proprietary Java platform under the GNU General Public License (GPL) [1] — the world's most widely used free software license.
[2] "Sun Opens Java", http://www.sun.com/2006-1113/feature/story.jsp
[3] "Free But Shackled — The Java Trap", http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/java-trap.html
[4] "GNU Classpath", http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/
FSF president and founder Richard Stallman said, “I think Sun has contributed more than any other company to the free software community in the form of software. It shows leadership. It's an example I hope others will follow.”
Sun accompanied its announcement with the immediate release of code under terms of the GPL for several Java components, and has committed to releasing the remainder in the near future. [2]
With this move, Sun has made a valuable contribution to the free software community. In 2004, Stallman warned, “Your program, though in itself free, may be restricted by non-free software that it depends on. Since the problem is most prominent today for Java programs, we call it the Java Trap.” [3] To escape the trap, the FSF made the GNU Classpath team's development of a free Java implementation a priority project. [4]
Now, Sun has begun disarming the “Java Trap”, turning it from a pitfall into a valuable foundation for future free software development.
[1] "GNU General Public License", http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html[2] "Sun Opens Java", http://www.sun.com/2006-1113/feature/story.jsp
[3] "Free But Shackled — The Java Trap", http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/java-trap.html
[4] "GNU Classpath", http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Free and Open Source Software gets new 'poster girl'
Free and Open Source Software - movement just has got a new 'poster girl' --Suparna Bhattacharya, the star of the just-concluded FOSS.in event and presenter of the inaugural keynote, is seen as one of India's most respected Linux kernel developers.
For a growing network of techies taking to Free and Open Source Software in India, the find of a woman who has achieved so much so quietly came as a big surprise. And long-felt gender issues become a little less painful, thanks to 35-year-old Bhattacharya's 'we can do it' proof.
Amidst intense applause, the soft-spoken and lightly built Bhattacharya took the stage. One of her first slides read: 'In case you are wondering why I am the keynote speaker, you are not alone.'
She declined interviews with 'I'm more comfortable discussing technical issues', and only relented after awhile.
Once on stage, obviously overawed by the adulation, in a full Indian Institute of Sciences hall, she explained -- sometimes speaking too fast for foreigners in the audience to keep track -- concepts like 'beauty' and elegance in coding, 'minimalism' - in software, and ephemerialisation -.
Bhattacharya herself plays down her own achievements. She has been to global hacker conferences -- usually held in Ottawa, Canada -- for five years.
'I never felt the difference -. People tell me I've been very lucky,' she said in a hall so dominated by young male geeks that you'd be lucky to see 20 women in 750 seats. She said the corporation she works with, IBM, has a couple of more women working on the kernel.
'Probably people didn't know my gender from my - name. In any case, the Linux world is very diverse. The colour of your hair doesn't matter. It's just the quality of your code,' .
Bhattacharya, who grew up 'mostly in Delhi' and then went to Indian Institute of Technology --Kharagpur, feels Indian contributions to the world of alternate computing -- Free and Open Source Software -- might be under-recognised because coders from this part of the globe tend to be not 'very vocal or shy'.
'It's easier for me to talk technical stuff...Some amount of humility is a good thing, I sometimes feel.'
But others see it differently, and take pride in her achievement.
- RxPG News
For a growing network of techies taking to Free and Open Source Software in India, the find of a woman who has achieved so much so quietly came as a big surprise. And long-felt gender issues become a little less painful, thanks to 35-year-old Bhattacharya's 'we can do it' proof.
Amidst intense applause, the soft-spoken and lightly built Bhattacharya took the stage. One of her first slides read: 'In case you are wondering why I am the keynote speaker, you are not alone.'
She declined interviews with 'I'm more comfortable discussing technical issues', and only relented after awhile.
Once on stage, obviously overawed by the adulation, in a full Indian Institute of Sciences hall, she explained -- sometimes speaking too fast for foreigners in the audience to keep track -- concepts like 'beauty' and elegance in coding, 'minimalism' - in software, and ephemerialisation -.
Bhattacharya herself plays down her own achievements. She has been to global hacker conferences -- usually held in Ottawa, Canada -- for five years.
'I never felt the difference -. People tell me I've been very lucky,' she said in a hall so dominated by young male geeks that you'd be lucky to see 20 women in 750 seats. She said the corporation she works with, IBM, has a couple of more women working on the kernel.
'Probably people didn't know my gender from my - name. In any case, the Linux world is very diverse. The colour of your hair doesn't matter. It's just the quality of your code,' .
Bhattacharya, who grew up 'mostly in Delhi' and then went to Indian Institute of Technology --Kharagpur, feels Indian contributions to the world of alternate computing -- Free and Open Source Software -- might be under-recognised because coders from this part of the globe tend to be not 'very vocal or shy'.
'It's easier for me to talk technical stuff...Some amount of humility is a good thing, I sometimes feel.'
But others see it differently, and take pride in her achievement.
- RxPG News
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
The Transformation of Open Source Software
Brian Fitzgerald, a research fellow from University of Limerick, Ireland, wrote his analysis on MIS Quarterly Volume 30 entitled The Transformation of Open Source Software. He contend that the open source software phenomenon has metamorphosed into a more mainstream and commercially viable form, which he label as OSS 2.0. Using a framework of process and product factors, the author illustrated the open source development process has actually shifted to a more mainstream, commercially viable form - OSS 2.0. The accommodation of the mainstream ensures that the emergent OSS 2.0 will continue to thrive as a significant force in the future software landscape. Indeed it is a harbinger of an end to the current dominance of a proprietary, closed source software model.
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