Tsikbal: from my perspective

Another of the things I like about FLOSS, is that projects that are made this way become the propriety of those who form the community behind it. It stops being just the propriety of those who kick started the project, or those who manage it. The efforts to maintain and improve the project, are a lot more democratic. Everyone that has something to say, can make it known to the community at large. If there is an interest to contribute in any way possible, there is a way to do so. Each project truly becomes a part of those who work on it, and those who work on it become of something bigger. Both the project and the community at large benefit from each other, and everyone gets something in return from working on the project. Most important, FLOSS gives all the people who interact with any project much more that they put into the project. We get the freedom to choose the way we interact or collaborate with people on the project, and the project. One can commit to any project t...

It's sad to see that for many people are more willing to accept increasing military budgets or aggressive moves, than to increase the budgets for education, libraries, or places for the integration of the communities we live in. There should be more emphasis on things that bring people together to share what they want to, or to learn, exchange ideas, and work together on whatever they want to. By enabling people to come together to work together, or to get to know each other, we create the kind of environment that fosters unity and peace. We start to see others as persons, with all that comes along with that viewpoint. FLOSS can give us a platform to help the communities to get there, since it gives everyone an equal opportunity to reach out and discover what's out there for them. In a way, it can be the gateway not only to know others on the same community and what's going on within. It also enables the individual to reach out further away, enabling the creati...

One of the things I like the most about Linux, and FLOSS in general, is that it brings people together to work on things that they enjoy and like to do. By doing so, they can share their with others while getting feedback from people who share their passion and enthusiasm for what they are doing. It tends to bring the best from everyone, and letting people to freely share their work and ideas with each other. The most valuable thing exchange between the people working within these communities is not money, is the knowledge and experience they have earn after hours of working and contributing to the project, or projects, they are working on. By sharing what they know, and working on common goals, people come together and the feeling of belonging makes these communities to become close and want to help others to make things better. I'd love nothing more than to see this kind of community at work in more areas of life. The places where we live and work would greatly benef...

It's interesting to see how FLOSS projects seem to take a life of their own when they are managed correctly, and seem to actually surpass expectations of what can be done with them. When there is the right people managing any given project, it can not only reach the goals it sets itself. It can actually surpass them quite easily, since people can join in and give to the project any fixes or improvements that are needed with ease. And since the community around the project can actually have some amount of say about where the project should go, it's everyone feels more valued and more willing to keep working to make the project move forward. If the management of a project decides it doesn't want to keep working on it, it's easy for another set of people to come in, and either take the project or fork it. Or if a subset of developers feels that the managers aren't taking the project in the right direction, they can fork it and take it where they believe it...

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 h...

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 the...

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 insi...