Tech News – Canonical Bringing Music to Ubuntu, LH Strikes Again & Affero GPL Can’t Fix the Cloud
Canonical Launching a Music Store?
Rumours on the world wild web point to the possibility of Canonical building an iTunes-like music store. Works for U thinks such a move would add another viable revenue stream for Canonical, even if it seems to stretch the resources of the firm. If this music store comes to Ubuntu, I’m sure many users will enjoy using it. And it will help Canonical start a community of artists, musicians and software firms to using Canonical and Ubuntu as a platform for selling content and applications.
The Linux Hater Tries Karmic Koala
No one knows who hides behind the LH mask. Is he an enlightened but disgruntle Linux programmer? Or is the king of all trolls? Who cares! Read up his (or her) review of the “fail” that is Ubuntu’s Karmic Koala. You’ll get a kick out of it.
Kubuntu Needs Documentation Help
nixternal (Richard Johnson) calls for help to improve the sad state of the Kubuntu documentation. If you are a tech writer and enjoy using Kubuntu, please help out. UPDATE: You should know how to use DocBook to help.
Affero GPL Can’t Fix the Cloud
One of the great opportunities and threats for commercial open source is the emerging cloud computing landscape. However Matthew Asslett (451 Group) points out the Affero GPL doesn’t negate the threat of no monetary contributions from cloud providers to commercial open source vendors. Yes it doesn’t. But the licenses were designed to get source code contributions from developers. Business models need to focus on selling value (some scarce resource based on real scarcity not an artificial one) to clients, and some clients will not see the value. There will always be those that get away. The Affero GPL does help “guide” most cloud providers contribute back. If anything the GPL will give more freedom and opportunities for many more smaller players than a few large ones. And that solves many more economic and social problems than anything else.
The Madness Subsides
I apologize for the silence of in the last few days. Things really picked up at work, to the point of insanity. Fortunately yesterday I managed to get the component I was working on out the door. Still a good amount of overtime was required by the entire team to get our part done. Hopefully the client will be pleased with my initial contribution. I’m sure they’ll be satisfied with my latest work as I’m adding the final touches to that component. Another reason for my silence, is that I’m transitioning to using my cellphone as my main computing platform. It can feel cramped at times, but the portability is amazing. I’m sure it will be even better if I get a nicer device like the N900.
Ok, well all I have time for today is a quick update. I still have a good amount of work ahead of me, and very little time to do it in.
By the way, the new beta release of Kubuntu is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Definitely worth the upgrade.
Looking Forward: Ubuntu’s App Store
Ubuntu developers will be releasing the beta of the next major version of Ubuntu Linux: 9.10 sometime in the next two weeks. Yours truly, plans on upgrading my main home system to help with the beta test. With every release I’m expecting a rather incremental improvement. However the real interest feature (which I doubt will show up in the Kubuntu side of things just yet), is the new Ubuntu App Centre. On the face of things, it will be an improvement over the “over-techy” Synaptic and friends, that most Ubuntu users are used to. Also it will look and feel more polished, so that will be a very welcome change.
The potential game changer comes into play with the possibility of buying software, for Ubuntu. This buying does not imply that a deluge of proprietary software will sweep into Ubuntu. But rather buying can also mean donating money to upstream projects, and that will help resolve the long standing issue of how to fund open source/libre software projects. An option to buy software, would also create incentives for the software industry to create professional software for Linux. What really excites me is this: I envision that the Ubuntu App Centre, doing for Linux gaming what Valve’s Steam has done for Windows gaming; providing a convenient platform for digital distribution and marketing which will be HUGE for independent gaming studios and small software houses.
Additional Sources: FLOSS Weekly episode on Ardour and the issues of funding FLOSS development
Ubuntu 9.04 Released!
A piece of awesomeness just hit the world of computing today: Canonical and friends released Ubuntu 9.04 today! Sweet!
Ladies and gentlemen time to rev’ up those installations!
Grey Clouds, Sunny Outlook
I get into the office really early in the morning. These past fews I normally got greeted with a dark sky and street lights. Each day the sunrise earlier. But each day the sun would rise, brilliant lines of yellow, orange, red and pink would form across the skyline. In the distance the CN tower, banking towers and skyscraper condominiums would cut dark silhouettes into the brilliant sunrise.
Today I see the dark grey dramatic underbelly of clouds stretching across the sky. The morning greyness feels even greyier under this ceiling of cloud.
Today I am in a cheerful mood. Two more days until my work project changes. A few more tasks and I’ll be able to write my novel without interruption. I also finished reading the book I wanted to finish before the end of Lent. Kubuntu Linux has infested my work laptop. The new upcoming release of Jaunty (9.04) feels and looks amazing. Everything works out of the box, even the webcam and the Bluetooth mouse. Finally I’ll be able to catch up on correspondences. And start working on learning Qt and maybe a natural language (French or Italian?).
New Obsession: Adept 3.0
Adept Manager version 3.xThe newer version looks much cleaner and feels like a true KDE4 app. Very, very nice. Now while my C++ skills are not fantastic and my QT4 knowledge is non-existent, I would very much want to contribute to this app. I guess I will start off with filling bug reports, and slowly make my way into spelunking around the source code.
P.S. This post was written using KDE 3 & KDE 4 and Firefox 2.x & 3.0!
Kubuntu Dev Tips?
I am a firm believer that developers should eat their own dog food. So for starters, I am making room to install the new KDE 4 version on Hardy Heron. After that I guess I will try to become a Kubuntu developer. Any tips on how I should get started?
Calendars and TODOs Are Only Useful If You Use Them
You know those commercials for productivity suites/PDAs/etc. where the protagonist wants to go to an event… and then finds out it happened last week. Well that happened to me today. Just going through my “TODO” list, and wanting to check out when that expected event was gonna happen. And it already did.
The moral of the story, if you don’t want to look silly, check your todo list on a regular basis. And use a calendar. Sigh.
On a better note, KDE 4.0.1 came out yesterday. Upgraded today, works like a charm. Applications don’t crash and burn so far. But HAL is still kinda wierd. And not everything integrates as smoothly as one would expect of a Kubuntu release. I guess I will just have to wait until the Kubuntu 8.04 release. Just a few more days.
Review of 2007, the Promise(s) of 2008
The year 2007 has been quite a dynamic year for me. Instead of writing a long article about each thing… cause that might take me an year to write and edit, I will just present a list of lists of things that happened.
Academics
- Completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto at Mississauga.
- Picked my diploma for Bachelor of Science.
Travel
- Traveled to Italy and Poland.
- Walked down Unter der Linden in Berlin, Germany.
- Checked out the Tower of London, National Gallery and Museum of Natural History in London, England.
- Saw the sights of Florence, Rome, Assisi, and bunch of the Umbria region of Italy.
- Walked around Gdańsk, Szczecin, Poznan, Gdynia and Malbork in Poland.
Software Development
- Increased my knowledge of information security.
- Restarted my involvement with the justCheckers project.
- Deepened my understanding on software libre and open source.
- Learned Javascript, CGI-Perl and JSP.
- Joined the Ubuntu Toronto Users group.
Business
- Led a mock-up startup for a course.
- Learned how to read and understand businesses.
- Discovered the many aspects of open source businesses.
- Read My Job Went to India, or how to stay in IT.
Art
- Wrote six articles on quantum computing.
- Wrote seven personal essays that form my Hacker, Gamer, Lover book.
- Wrote and voiced in an audio documentary, Casanova.
- Started writing a science fiction novel.
Social Activity
- Learned of the open access movement.
- Learned the basic ethical theories: utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, and Rousseau’s social contract.
- Debated for network neutrality.
- Read Stallman’s Free Software, Free Society.
- Read about the anti-software patent efforts in the EU.
Personal
- Went to Taize in Montreal.
- Made a lot more friends.
- Learned the subtle art of dating.
- Survived the downs of 2007.
- Got my G1 driver’s license. Again.
- Invented task logs, an organizational tool.
Things to Do for 2008
- Finish justCheckers.
- Write and publish two books.
- Get a software development related job.
- Start a company.
- Find a real girlfriend.
- Learn to drive and get my full G license.
- Learn C and C++.
- Get involved in a major FOSS project.
Ubuntu Toronto Meeting @ the Linuxcaffe
Today I went down to a small, cosy cafe called the Linuxcaffe on the corner of Harbord St. & Grace St. in downtown Toronto. Other than the fact, that the Linuxcaffe is way cool with organic coffee and free wireless; its also cool that the owner advocates Linux and free software. But what got me to go, was a seasonal meeting of Ubuntu Toronto.
I got to meet a number of enthusiastic Ubuntu users, and I may have helped create a new one by installing and configuring Ubuntu “Gutsy” 7.10 on a laptop. Thanks guys for the great afternoon. And even the weather cooperated by not dumping snow until much later.
