Wednesday February 28, 2007 links for 2007-02-28
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Ed dabbles in Free licensing politics. Dangerous waters.
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Nice tidy round-up of the weekend, including a link to the recording of my talk.
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This is excellent an thought provoking, stay to the end.
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A bill in California to make use of open file formats mandatory for state agencies starting 2008.
Posted by webmink
( Feb 28 2007, 07:21:12 AM PST )
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Tuesday February 27, 2007 LiveMink: Freedom Task Force
At FOSDEM last weekend, I met up with Shane Coughlan, a long-time Free software advocate and now full-time staff for the Free Software Foundation Europe. Shane told me all about the new initiative FSFE is starting, the Freedom Task Force, which aims to provide a legal focus for Free software in Europe. Listen on!
Posted by webmink
( Feb 27 2007, 04:00:00 AM PST )
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Monday February 26, 2007 Wiped Out
I have to admit, FOSDEM was all-consuming and I am totally wiped out by it. I did manage to get two interviews though - one with Shane Coughlan of FSF Europe and one with Miguel d'Icaza - so there's good stuff to look forward to on LiveMink. Hopefully I can attempt to resume normal blogging service tomorrow!
Posted by webmink
( Feb 26 2007, 06:18:33 PM PST )
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Saturday February 24, 2007 Sun and FSF
I'm at FOSDEM in Brussels this weekend, Europe's largest and most important gathering of Free software developers. I can't think of a better venue at which to announce that Sun has become a Patron of the Free Software Foundation.
Both organisations have been promoting software freedom in different ways for more than two decades, albeit in different ways and with different objectives. With the announcement that the Java platform will be licensed under the GPL, it seemed obvious that the connection should become stronger. This news is the start of a new phase of our collaboration and I'm delighted to have been involved in making this happen with my colleagues and our friends at the FSF. What a great way to celebrate Sun's 25th birthday.
Posted by webmink
( Feb 24 2007, 04:15:00 AM PST )
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links for 2007-02-24
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Matt escapes the bannerware controversy at OSI. I can sympathise.
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Insightful perspective on Microsoft's strategy of undermining standards that don't lead to lock-in by their products (CSS with XSL, SVG with VML, ODF with OOXML just for starters).
Posted by webmink
( Feb 24 2007, 01:21:44 AM PST )
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Friday February 23, 2007 Brussels Bound
I'm at the airport in Southampton about to make the hop to Brussels ready for a working weekend at FOSDEM, Europe's mega-Free-geek-fest. I'll be delivering a keynote on Saturday, mixing it with the Java Libre folks, and trying to record some podcasts with interesting people. If I can find a printer I'll be at the key signing, and I have no doubt beer and mouiles frites will be involved somewhere. And hopefully I'll have an announcement to make. See you there!
Posted by webmink
( Feb 23 2007, 05:58:14 AM PST )
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links for 2007-02-23
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This false argument worked for the music industry to explain away their own failure of vision, so why not for Windows too?
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Someone has started a petition for ODF in UK government - I'm happy to sign it, how about you?
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Nice poster by Mark Wielaard with the schedule for this weekend's Free software fest in Brussels.
Posted by webmink
( Feb 23 2007, 01:21:59 AM PST )
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Thursday February 22, 2007 links for 2007-02-22
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"A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night." Even if the change involved was OK, establishing it dishonestly like this is an issue.
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HUGE congratulations to James on this honour.
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Tom can finally do this as his day-job! Congratulations, Tom.
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... and Ubuntu gets a new user. Just in case you're not following along, package management is the differentiating feature of an operating system now we have pervasive internet.
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Stephe nails it. Those arguments are bogus and an attempt to frame Microsoft's failure to find a business model that synergises with FOSS as badness by others. As he says, "Enough, Mr Ballmer."
Posted by webmink
( Feb 22 2007, 01:20:53 AM PST )
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Wednesday February 21, 2007 Almost-Sir James Gosling
Scanning my news feeds just now I spotted the fact that James Gosling has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada. Tim Bray's view as a fellow Canadian is that this is the first appointment of a programmer to the Order, and a welcome change from honouring people famous just for being famous. James is one of the nicest geeks I know on the planet and I am delighted that he's been honoured with Canada's equivalent of a knighthood. Congratulations, James!
Posted by webmink
( Feb 21 2007, 05:27:40 PM PST )
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links for 2007-02-21
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Seems Dell users want OpenOffice.org pre-installed.
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Great time of year to visit Barcelona.
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The FOSDEM team wanted an interview with me ahead of my keynote in Brussels next weekend. It's a bit patchy and several things beg explanation. So come to FOSDEM and ask!
Posted by webmink
( Feb 21 2007, 01:23:20 AM PST )
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Tuesday February 20, 2007 ODF Plug-In Preview Available
I'm pleased to say that the OpenDocument plugin for MS Word 2003 is now available for preview.
This initial plug-in application will support the conversion of text documents (.doc/.odt) only and full support of spreadsheet and presentation documents will be available in the final version, expected in April. The converter is easy to setup and use, the conversion happens transparently and the additional memory footprint is minimal. Microsoft Word users now can have seamless two-way conversion of Microsoft Word's documents to and from ODF.
The download is being managed by SDLC and the experience is pretty ugly (lots of clicks, sorry), but persevere. Try clicking on the file name rather than using the Download Manager when you finally get there, you may well find as I did that it's easier. There are feedback instructions in the Readme file that comes with the plug-in.
Posted by webmink
( Feb 20 2007, 04:30:06 AM PST )
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LiveMink: Michael Goulde, Forrester Research
At the Sun Analyst Conference recently I sat next to veteran computer industry analyst Michael Goulde of Forrester Research on the coach home from dinner. While his beat now covers open source, Michael speaks candidly about his time working at Microsoft before joining Forrester, explains how the experience turned him on to the power of FOSS and holds out some hope for Microsoft to finally get it right with the departure of Jim Allchin. Again, the audio quality is not what I would want but the content is fascinating.
Posted by webmink
( Feb 20 2007, 04:00:00 AM PST )
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links for 2007-02-20
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I need some of this.
Posted by webmink
( Feb 20 2007, 01:21:52 AM PST )
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Sunday February 18, 2007 At SkyCon
Yesterday was spent travelling by car to Limerick in Ireland. You know, it's a very long way. What with two hours on the ferry, it took 14 hours door-to-door. The reason for the trip was to give a keynote at SkyCon, the birthday conference for the University of Limerick Computer Society. I'll be speaking after Val Henson to an audience (including Alan Cox) who have no idea why I am there - I didn't show up in the advance publicity, quite unusual for a keynote! Hope it works out...
Posted by webmink
( Feb 18 2007, 06:38:19 AM PST )
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