China to move to GNU/Linux, I want to be hopeful I won't abandon caution...

That China it's looking into making GNU/Linux custom OS, is both something I look forward to and something that makes me worry quite a bit.

The good part of China moving to GNU/Linux, is that it has the potential to make other countries to look into GNU/Linux as well. Even if not all who do look into it fully migrate to open source software, which would be the ideal thing to happen, it could mean that at least some of their IT moves to it.

Like it or not, China has a lot of sway. Moving to GNU/Linux might start a domino effect not only with some of the other BRIC nations, but with people that do business with the second largest economy. Besides, since it has a population of over 1.35 billion people will have an enormous impact on the economy of scale to produce hardware that supports GNU/Linux and open source software in general.

The part that makes me worry, is that China isn't known to go by the spirit of open source. Hopefully, China will see the benefit of adhering to the open source spirit and share it's code with the world at large. Doing so can be hugely beneficial for open source, since having China pouring resources to make GNU/Linux better can do much to make it all that better.

China could benefit from it too, as being seeing as valued member of the larger open source community.

While there is still a lot to be seen about it, I'm hopeful that China's move to an GNU/Linux OS will be a good thing for everyone. This could be what GNU/Linux needs to break into the desktop.

Monetizing open source projects...

Reading this blog post entitled Work and open source, made me ponder about how to monetize open source projects. Though he's right that not all projects are abandoned because of financial issues; the important thing is what financial issues cause open source projects to stop being maintained.

While Gittip seem to be a good tool to monetize some open source projects, it might not be the answer for every project out there. For me, Gittip seems to be a better fit for those projects that individuals use for whatever reason. It gives people a way to personally tip the developers for their hard work, while making contributions bigger by funneling a large sum from different sources in a single place.

Another idea I like, and agree with, would be to GitHub to help the ones who use it to monetize their projects directly on the site. By adding a monetizing service to their site, GitHub stands at the chance of becoming an even more valuable tool for developers.

Neither Gittip or GitHub will be the full answer to help open source projects get much needed money to work with, but they could help developers a lot by giving people a way to contribute to their projects in ways that are secure and trusted by all involved.

The only thing I don't agree with, it's ads. True, not everyone likes the idea to have ads as a form of income. Yet, I believe that each project should be able to choose ads as a form of income. Done right, it adds a legitimate source of income while helping rise some awareness of the project. There should be a way for developers have a say on what they are willing to advertise, and for the people to advertising to be able to be able to choose on what projects their advertisement appears.

Monetizing a project doesn't go against the spirit of open source, it's a tool to get the resources to get the open source projects ahead.

Convergence migth not be what we think it is...

It seems that this article at arstechnica.com about KDE misses the point about whats going on the GNU/Linux camp, in a sense that it's not about the kernel itself. It's about the desktop environment.

What's going on, is that there seems to be a race toward convergence. Trying to have an user interface that's pretty much the same on the PCs, tablets and smart-phones. On the GNU/Linux camp, the main example that come to my mind is Canonical's Unity user interface.

The main debate it's about how best convergence can be achieved, or if something that can be done. Some argue, like KDE's Aaron Seigo at this article at themutk.com, that convergence isn't coming at all.

Even though I'd like to see full convergence across all platforms, I agree that it wont happen. In a sense, I think that we'll have some level of convergence. Yet, that convergence wont be on the user interface, but on the standards used to run software so we can actually run our files on all our devices.

The main reason that I don't thing that the user interface will be the major point for convergence, is because the way people interact with each type of device and the use we give to each of them. No matter how much people argue that smart-phones, or tablets, will replace PCs or laptops they wont. We use all our devices in a different way, though there are some aspects like listening music or watching videos where we use them both. But even then, we don't use them the same way.

PCs, tablets and smart-phones are great tools, but each has its place. Most importantly they aren't really competing with each other, but they complement each other to help us do what we do better. We don't have to choose one of them, but we can use the ones that better combine to help us do our best.

In some ways, convergence is already here and we just need to make it work for us.

Sound management,the Achilles heel of FOSS...

As with many things in life, the hardest thing to do with any FOSS(free and open-source software) project is manage it so that it doesn't get sidetracked from it's goal and to get things done. In many cases, FOSS projects that have sound technical foundations fail because their resources where mismanaged or they lost focus because of it.

Sometimes it's because of both, which is a shame.

The reason why Red Hat, LibreOffice, Firefox, and even Canonical, have had the success is due they have been well managed. These companies have brought together the technical expertise and the vision, and their management have made the right choices to keep true to them. So, they have arrived to the success they enjoy now.

Yet, as Mozilla has shown, finding the right people to lead the project forward can be somewhat tricky to say the least. Specially since many FOSS project depend on their communities to take it forward.

In a way, the management of some FOSS projects is not like managing a business, while other require that kind of managerial style. All depends on the the community behind the project, and what are the goals that it has set itself to reach.

FOSS works, and what comes out of it can have top notch quality. What it need is to be better managed from the onset.

Open source victories that can make it mainstream...

With examples of the UK government choosing the ODF standard, or Geneva bringing open source software to their schools, are victories that help open source advocates to make the case for wider adoption of open source software and open standards.

In both cases, shows how the benefits are to many to ignore and are quite enough incentive to make the move. The savings on the money that has to be paid in royalties, and for the right to upgrade are considerable. Not only that, at UK case it means that people can access government information without any cost imposed to them just to look said information because they can access it from any suite they choose.

As this article at cnet.com about LibreOffice points out, now people don't have to pay Microsoft for their office suite to be able to access public documents. Whats best, there are several other office suites that can be used to access public documents saved on the ODF format, while being able to handle old Microsoft's formats with ease.

What important about the UK government's decision, is that it frees their documents from a possible lock in to a single vendor office suite. This allows information to flow, independently of what office suite each user uses to access the documents.

For the Geneva school system, it means having software that is easier to maintain and far more stable. What's most important, Ubuntu is proving easier to use for everyone involved.

For me, the best part is that the children using the computers are going to be exposed to using free software from an early age. This means that they are going to grow up without the false ideas that free software is hard to use, or at least as capable as any proprietary software. Which means, that they wont learn skills that lock them to a certain software from a single company.

There are several other examples, like Munich ditching Windows and Office for good, give the open source community at large the legitimacy it deserves. Not only that, it makes it easier to advocate to more cities and companies to make the move and follow suit.

In more than ways, open source can use them as examples that it works and it's can be the tool that people need to move forward.

When the strategy fails, don't blame open source...

This article at infoworld.com got me thinking, Tizen failed because it's open source model or because it was badly managed?

It seems to me that the failure of Tizen has to do more with how the project has been managed so far, rather than with it being open source software. With Samsung betting heavily on Android, and Intel getting its hands on whatever OS can make its chips relevant, Tizen really had much chance to succeed.

As with proprietary software projects, open source projects success depend heavily on how the leader of the projects manage them. On both sides, there are far more projects that fail than those who become success stories. Neither development process comes with a warranty of success attached with it, since there are many factors that can determine if a project will be a success or a failure.

Trying to pin the blame on the open source development of Tizen, is quite shortsighted. As it states, the failure of Tizen is more a matter of strategy than of the open source model itself. Blaming open source instead of the poor strategy misses the point, since what failed was the strategy itself,

In a way, Microsoft has a big failure on its hands with its Windows Phone OS, since it barely stands on the smartphone market. The success story for proprietary software on mobile operating systems goes to Apple with their iOS, and the iPhone.

At the end, Tizen is a model on how not to manage an open source project. The failure can be blamed on the strategy used to mange the project, not on the open source model used to develop the OS.

Modify your software, or business processes, only if it brings added value...

This arstechnica.com article highlights a point that I think is something of a shortsighted view of the integration of software and business processes. It's the choice between choosing to modify the software or the business processes, so that they integrate in a way so that they add value.

There is no single answer, the reality is that each project is different from each other. As such, when the upgrade is being done one should map out when is modifying the software or the business process will bring the most value. In short, choose to modify the one that has to adapt to the other in order to make things work to the best of their capabilities.

It's also important to have in mind that, sometimes you're going to have to modify both in order to achieve the results you're looking for at the end.

That's why having a clear idea of how you're doing things, and the results you want to achieve. Only with this in mind, and fully mapped out, you can make the choice of what software you need to get and if you need to modify it in order to make it work for you. The same goes for your business processes, since the new software can be the key factor in making any changes in your processes be made smoothly.

Trying to force business processes to work with a certain software, or vice versa, is the recipe for waste of money and time. When making any kind of change in order to improve your business, make sure that what's change actually adds value.

Change only those things things that will bring the results you want, or add the value you need to bring in.