Tsikbal: from my perspective

Robert Lindh's blog post over at opensource.com , make a good point arguing that open source software might need a re branding. There is no need to change the core principals of the movement, but how they are conveyed to people who are not familiar with them. One of the biggest obstacles that keep people from embracing free software is their perception, and it only gets worse when it comes to free and open-source software . At the core of free and open source software are the user rights, so that they truly own their both their computer and software. They can do with them as they please, but that doesn't mean that others can do it as well. It's also about people coming together to build communities around the software they use to make it better, by sharing the changes they made to it among themselves. Also, making it safer by looking for bugs and vulnerabilities in order to take them out. Free and open source is not about people working for free, or stealing ...

I upgraded to the Ubuntu 14.10 Utupic Unicorn last Friday, and even though there aren't that many changes on the user side, I've felt an improvement from the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr release. One of the main things that people points out about Utupic Unicorn, is the fact that it doesn't bring that many changes along with it. I don't really see it as an issue, since with all the work being done on Mir display server, Unity 8 and Ubuntu Touch it's just a matter of time before we are just getting some breathing room before the bulk of the changes to Ubuntu come our way on later releases leading to the 16.04 LTS release. As I said before, so far my experience with Utupic Unicorn has been quite good. There has been some small bumps along the way, but having passed just a few days since it was released it's expected. Getting it just the way I like it took me about 45 minutes at most, and easy as pie. So far, Canonical has been delivering an OS that...

Yesterday Ubuntu marked it's 10th birthday, quite a landmark since there many other distros that have come and gone during this time. Personally I've been using Ubuntu for the constantly since the 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx release. I've just stop using Ubuntu for a about 4 mouths, when I tried the cinnamon shell variant of Linux Mint 17 LTS Qiana. Though I liked Linux Mint, it doesn't quite feel as right as Ubuntu does for me. The Unity shell fits the bill for me on how I expect my desktop to look and work. When the move was made from GNOME to Unity on the 11.04 Natty Narwhal release, I was somewhat doubtful about it. I really liked how GNOME work, even though it didn't feel as well as Unity does now. If there was a moment where I could have jump to another distro, it was then. After more of two years of using Unity, and seeing it getting better over time, I must admit that it was become my favorite shell out there. I freely admit that Ubuntu is far from per...

The first piece of software that took me on the long way away from Windows, and all proprietary software, was NeoPlanet . I came to it looking for an option for the now ubiquitous Internet Explorer that I still dislike with a passion. From NeoPlanet, I made the jump to Firefox (which still is my favorite web browser by a long shoot). With Firefox entered my keen interest and support for free and open source software(FOSS), which has led me make the jump to Ubuntu full time with the 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx release. Even though I've given a try to Linux Mint (my second favorite distro, and the one I recommend to those who want to make the jump to GNU/Linux but want something similar to Windows.) and Fedora (my third favorite distro), Ubuntu still holds the top spot. Ubuntu is the OS that better suits me for the use I give my computer, while it doesn't get in the way of how I do things. Now even my smart phone is GNU/Linux, since it's running Android . I've been...

Reading this article at wired.com , there is a point that seems really good for me. There is a real need to change how code security audits are done, in order to catch bugs like like Shellshock a lot faster. Yet, I disagree with the tenant that the Linus's Law is a lie, since having more eye balls looking for bugs makes catching them more likely in a faster way. What happens with some project, as the article correctly points out, is that they just don't have enough people working on them to catch bugs as fast and effectively as possible. Which in core projects can be quite a big problem, since the impact of those bugs on security can be quite big and dangerous for users. This is why there is a urgent need to change how code audits are carried out, and a need to make software open so we have as many people as possible looking at the code. In a sense, what we need is to have better auditing tools being used as widely as possible to make code both better and with much le...

That you can now stream Photoshop to Chromebooks it's not just not a big win for Google, but to GNU/Linux at large. It means that now the idea that Photoshop could become available in other distros is not really all that crazy. That Adobe finally decided to bring the flagship photo editing software to GNU/Linux via Chromebooks is a big thing since it takes away another reason for not coming to GNU/Linux.  Most importantly, if it does well on Chromebooks Adobe might have an incentive to bring Photoshop some of the other major GNU/Linux distros like Ubuntu or OpenSUSE. If more people start moving to use Photoshop on GNU/Linux, it might the spark that GNU/Linux has been looking to really become a mainstream OS and not just something used a few. There will be a bigger set of people that now will be able to see, and use, a GNU/Linux distro as a viable option to use on daily basis to work with. I still temper my optimism with a grain of salt. It's a great first step, bu...

This article at fossforce.com got me wondering, do FOSSers are the only ones who "get" FOSS? While in some cases non FOSS users seem unable to get what FOSS is all about, most of the time it's more about not caring enough to even try to understand FOSS at all. Most people just want computers that work according to their expectations for whatever use they have for them. For them, that it works the way they expect it to work is all that matters and anything else is irrelevant. So far, the likes of Microsoft and Apple have done quite a good job giving people products that let people a familiar product that lets them work in a way that they feel comfortable with. Since they have this products that work as they come to expect, why care about much about what FOSS people arguments about how software must respects users freedoms? Let's face it, the whole argument for most users is not a technical one since most people don't really want to get that side of the so...