Importance of open source and standards...

It's important to realize the importance of open source and standards have to give to both developers and users.

Being able to build on the work already there, helps to be able to the developer to focus on adding value to his work. By doing so, it gives him an important tool to differentiate his app from others out there and bring in revenue.

It seems that many developers nowadays spend their time trying to work bringing the solutions they need to common problems, because they can't use existing solutions already out there because they can afford to pay for the license or there isn't a license at all.

This can be a problem to independent developers, even small companies, since they have to put resources they could be using elsewhere to reinvent the wheel. Putting them at an disadvantage, because it becomes harder for them to give value, or can't differentiate, they product from others.

And not only they lose, the users lose too. Those developers could have ideas, or solutions, much needed by the users. Yet, they can't connect with each other because there isn't a way for them to do so.

On the user side, open standards are much more important. Mainly because open standards allows the user to find the software that better suits his needs, without having to worry if he will be able to continue to be able to access and use the data he already has.

And the developer can focus on giving his users the tools they need, without having to worry if the underpinnings will work.

This way, everybody is set to win.

Ease of repair and upgrading...

One of the things I consider when buying a new computer, is how easy it is to repair or to upgrade with relative ease.

I like to upgrade the RAM, or change the battery when it dies, by myself. While I could learn how to change the processor, change the screen, and other repairs by myself I don't mind having someone else doing them. Actually, I believe that is a good thing that computers and other electronics to be easily repaired or upgraded.

It's both economically and environmentally conscious that computers should be serviceable. After all, if computers could be easily made to be as new by skilled servicemen, those computers can have a longer life. This doesn't mean that the original owner can't buy a new computer if the need arises, but the computer can be used by other family member or friend whose needs are meet by that computer.

Not only that, since those computers are usually substantially cheaper than new ones more people can have access to have their own computers.

Let's be honest, the argument that you need the greatest and newest hardware to do the basic stuff that most people does is not true. And there is a lot of great Linux distros that run on that kind of machines, that actually are targeted to run on them. So, you can get the best software with all the modern safety futures that are needed for the basics that runs on substantially more affordable hardware.

Environmentally, the it makes sense to keep the computers or its components for as long as possible. This helps to keep them put of landfills as long possible, and to recycle all that can be recycled would be a great plus.

Servicemen can be a lot of help when come to be able to recycle components, since they can take those components and do the recycle process themselves. Either by using those components on other computers, or handing them to other people to do so.

But, it's important to be conscious of this, and buy only those models that are easily repaired. And when possible, try to give or sell your old computer to those who need them or can put your computer on good use.

For the love of learning...

As a geek, I love learning how thinks work and how systems work to make things happen. How changing any part of a system can alter its functionality, thus being able to make it work better by tweaking any of the individual parts.

This is one of the reasons why I've been using open source software for a long time. Because even though I don't have the technical skill to tweak much, I still can learn about how the software works from the inside-out. And I can do it in an environment that encourages the study of the source code, and if you can't contribute with code you can contribute by giving ideas on how to make the software better.

The first open source software I used was Firefox, and then Songbird as my media player. A couple of years ago I made the jump to Ubuntu, and I've no regrets.

I've fulfilled my thirst of knowledge, and I'm still learning much about software development and how the FLOSS community works. I've seen the complexities inside the FLOSS community, and I'm trilled to be part of it.

Using Ubuntu has been fulfilling, and even though there has been some hiccups along the road, it has been quite a satisfactory road. And I've a new level of respect for those who have build FLOSS and Ubuntu.

They have built quite the great piece of software.And they keep improving it all the time.

It'd be great to see people as engaged on science and mathematics as people are on FLOSS. We can really build a better world if all this was done on the open.

Ubuntu is the distro for me...

As an user that has been using Ubuntu on the regular basis for a couple of years now, I've to say that I simply have enjoyed the experience very much.

When Unity was made the default UI with the 11.04 release, I liked even more.  Yes, at its release Unity had many bugs and was not as customizable as other UI running on Linux. Yet, Unity worked for the and I enjoy using it.

And with at the maturity it has reached on Ubuntu 12.04, I can really can see myself using it for a long time coming. There's no other OS out there that works for me as Ubuntu does, or I enjoy as much using.

Ubuntu is the one distro that I'd share with people that want an easy to use OS, that is stable and easy to use. I like doing some technical stuff on my computer, but in general I just want a OS that works and is in line with what I believe. That's why I use FLOSS almost exclusively, I just use Skype to have video calls with family and friends.

There are some areas of improvement on Ubuntu, but I can see that Canonical and other developers are heading in the right direction to solve the issues I've. And if, for whatever reason, they don't take Ubuntu in a direction I don't feel comfortable with, I can rest assured I can jump to another Linux distro that does.

Chipset manufactures could benefit from Linux...

One would think that chipsets manufactures would benefit greatly by supporting all three major operating systems out there. Yet, you find out that Nvidia and ATI chipsets drivers are lacking on Linux.

Which is ratter baffling, since it would seem logical that supporting drivers for Linux would be beneficial to them in order to sell more chipsets. Linux might have a small share of the market, yet when you see the number of people and companies who run Linux on their systems it starts to make a lot of sense to support Linux.

And if they actually made the Linux drivers open source as the OS itself, they could rely more on the Linux developer community to maintain and develop the drivers needed for the chipsets to be run on Linux.

Not only that, some of the developments that could be ported to other OS because they give more stability or security for benefit to a wider sector of users.

If chipset manufactures really collaborated with the Linux community, and the wider FLOSS community, both sides have a lot of benefits to reap. Working together the development would be faster, and could have a bigger scope, if chipset manufactures and the FLOSS community created synergy by working hand in hand to get to the common goals.

At the end, both sides are not enemies.

FLOSS builds communities...

I like how FLOSS projects allow people to come together to build communities around projects that they want to work on because they believe in them.

This turns out far better software, because individuals are allowed to contribute as the can. They can either contribute their time and expertise to work directly work on the code or help manage the project, or contributing money is an option if the individual doesn't have the skills or time to contribute to the project.

There is also a possibility to help by reporting the bugs that you find along the way, either by filing the report manually or using an automated tool to do so.

This facility to be able to create communities to work on a certain project, or to create either a new project or a fork of an exiting one, give the FLOSS community its unique flavor and strengths. There are several projects at a time aiming to better, or solve, a particular problem or issue, making it progress faster and more since you have people working on it that do it because they want to make the project better.

But, most importantly is that work on FLOSS projects helps to build bonds among users. Mainly because people are working together on something they believe in, and thus they exchange ideas and viewpoints to make their collective goals come to fruition.

It also helps to develop critical thinking, since it's important to have it when solving problems or laying future plans. Also it helps to develop creativity, to solve problems in different ways when the standard way doesn't seem to be able to come with a way do so.

It helps to develop the ability to work with others as a group, to learn how to lead and how to talk with teammates.

At the end, even if you aren't paid to do a certain job, the abilities and skills you learn from working on any given project can prove invaluable later.

Linux and the distros are not the same thing...

It's somewhat sad to see how many tech commentators don't seem to get that Linux is the core than runs all the various distros out there. In a sense, Linux is the engine that powers all the distros, while each distro picks what parts will it use to give the usability and looks the distro's team is looking for.

That's why there are several user interfaces, like GNOME, Unity, and KDE, from which distros can pick the one they feel is right to get their flavor of Linux to work and look a certain way.

To some extend, the development of the Linux core and the different user interfaces are on separate tracks. Mainly because Linux interacts with the machine itself, and the user interface interacts with the person using the computer. So, their development has different targets to hit.

But, that's where Linux sets itself apart. Since each distro has the choice to use any of the different users interfaces out there, the user get a real choice of what suits his computing needs. Systems can be readily be built to suit the needs of a certain user with relative ease, and using components that can integrate a lot better with those needs.

If you don't like where a particular distro is going, there are others that can take you where you want to. As users, Linux and the distros using it as a core give users a level of freedom that Windows or Mac OS X will never give.

If you want to have freedom to choose how your computer works and how it looks, jump over to Linux. It's only a matter of finding the right distro for you.

Linus Torvalds and the Millennium Technology Prize...

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, was awarded today Finland's Millennium Technology Prize. This prize is awarded every second year, and it's awarded to life-enhancing technological innovations.

For me that Linus Torvalds was awarded with the Millennium Technology Prize is a well deserved recognition. After all, the operating system that he created not only powers the Internet and some of the most important stock exchanges in the world. It also powers the supercomputers on which most of modern scientific research is carried out.

This way, Linus Torvalds' OS is on the forefront of the things that contribute to the betterment of our quality of life. And not only that, it has proven that free and open source software is a legitimate development platform on which people can work together and contribute to create something larger than the sum of its parts.

Personally as a Linux users, it makes me proud that the who created the core of the OS I use and love was recognized for the work and effort he has been doing over the years.

So, cheers Mister Torvalds, and congratulations for a well deserved prize!

Walled gardens are not desirable...

I wonder why people runs to walled gardens, and convinces themselves that there is no better way to do things other than they way fed to them by the owner of the walled garden.

Even though they know at some level that they are giving up many freedoms, they gladly do it just to have the most pretty gadget on the blog. They'll anything to comply to what the owner of the walled garden wants them to comply with, even when they don't fully understand what they are giving up to be part of the walled garden.

What bothers me the most of this system is the fact that you have to give any freedom to even modify, or install, third party apps that aren't approved to begin with by the vendor by default. The choice of whether doing it or not is taken from the user without the ability to opt out without voiding the warranty, or being liable of being taken action against by the vendor.

The truth is that walled gardens are desirable on only a few cases, and for a minority of users. The interests of the majority of users are better served by having free and open gardens, where a wide selection of apps are offered by a wide selection of vendors who choose to serve any particular garden.

Let the users be the ones that select the vendors who have the best products. That's the way it should work, and the most healthy way for the ecosystems to work.

Having an open garden helps apps evolve more organically, according to the changes of user needs and wants. Vendors shouldn't be making that choice for the user in any way, shape, or form. Yes, having educated users requires some time to do, but it's something that should be done.

At the end, who knows the users needs other than the users himself?

Source code should be free to study by all...

One would think that in time, software companies keep trying to keep people from at least freely studying the source code of their products.

The benefits from this far outweigh any concern, and most of the benefits would be for the users themselves. Users would get better software with less cost and development time, than with the current model. Not only that, users would have the opportunity to implement code that better suits their needs if there is a need of doing so.

Locking the source code doesn't lock the code itself, it also locks the user options to have the best software the user could possibly have. Since there is no way to know how the source code functions, there is no way for the user to know if there is a way to make the software a better suit for what the user needs the software for.

Not only that, there is no way to check if the software does what the vendor says it does and nothing more. The user has to blindly trust that there is no malicious code, or code that bridges the privacy of the data the users feeds the software.

Software companies have the right to set limits on how third parties use their source code, but third parties have the right to at least freely study the source code.

What should be encrypted and out of reach of third parties, is the private data that any feed into any piece of software.

Yet, it has come a bad habit to close the source code of the software we use to work on. This limits greatly the way we can actually work, since it make us more and more dependent on the vendor that originally sold us the software the first time.

Open source should be the natural state of the software ecosystem, sadly we couldn't be any more distant of this goal.

Open source has more benefits for all...

One of the worst thing that comes out of not being able to see how software works from the inside, is that it becomes harder to understand how it works. Not only that, it prevents to make modifications to make it work on how the users want it or to make another program all together.

What's more, it prevents any work to make any software better. In order to understand how a certain piece of software works, one need to be able to see how it's put together and how those parts interact with each other. Without that know how it becomes impossible to study and learn how it works, therefore it's not possible to work to improve or modify it by any one that doesn't have access to the source code.

This situation puts the users on the losing side, since they completely depend on a third party to keep the software not only current and safe from attacks. They depend on that third party to keep the software available to them at any moment, and have to trust that it doesn't go under taking the access to their data with it.

At the end, closing the software to the study and modification by the user is a bad thing in general. It only benefits the company that makes the software, and just on the account of keeping the users out from seeing the source code. But, it loses from any improvement that might come from an user tinkering with the source code.

The users lose the most, since they lose all the ability to control what happens on their machine and how to manage their data. They are at the mercy of whatever decisions are made by the vendor, and have to go down any road the vendor chooses if there aren't any other options to the software they use.

Having open source software is beneficial to everyone. Users can study and modify their software according to their needs, making it work better for their individual needs. Companies benefit from having third parties checking their codes for any bug or vulnerability that they could have missed, and being able to add any improvement to their code made by third parties.

Closing the source code it's a sure road to stagnation, since it makes any innovation hard to get to. It closes all roads, making hard to make any corrections in course.

It's in everyones best interest to avoid closed source, or proprietary, software. Use and support open source software, it's for the benefit of all.