Posts Tagged ‘Open Source’

Have I mentioned that I lurve Lifehacker. Even now, working for the man as I do most of the time, they still have great tips I can put to use in my own life. A nifty example is Friday’s post about Soocial.

I’ve had my smartphone for 6 months now, and I still barely use a fraction of its capabilities and one of the reasons is because the syncing process drives me nuts. Soocial could help. At the very least, now that I’ve added a gmail account to my already lengthy list, it would keep me from having to recreate my existing contact list.

Oh, yea, and my favorite part, Soocial is free.

My second most favoritest bit? The visuals they use to convey that it is “Hassle-Free” (think Hassel(hoff)-Free)

Tech Republic blogger Jack Wallen is in favor of migrating to Linux, but urges caution. Yesterday he gave a 10-point list of things to think about before making the move.

I confess, he gave me a few things to think about, but, as someone who is considering making the switch personally, it doesn’t come close to answering all my questions.

• I use Open Office, and it’s okay, but it is U-G-L-Y and, frankly, as a longtime MS user, kind of a PITA to navigate. If they would just put a little more effort into making super common functions easier to locate, that would rock. Plus, I just spent a ton of cash upgrading to Office 2007 5 months ago–is there a way to make the kids play nice so I can still use it?
• I am an iTunes junkie. How does this work with something like Ubuntu? Does it?
• Still haven’t found an open source equivalent to MS Publisher. I know, I know, it’s desktop publishing for dummies, but it’s what I know how to use and I can make it sing when I’m in the groove.

I’m sure there’s more, but those are just what kind to mind immediately. Think you (or your business) are ready to go The Way of the Penguin? Check out the article above and let us know what you think.

Eh? What do I mean?

I’m talking about clickjacking, a nasty little browser expolit that, according to Jeremiah Grossman, of WhiteHat Security, “…gives an attacker the ability to trick a user into clicking on something only barely or momentarily noticeable. Therefore, if a user clicks on a Web page, they may actually be clicking on content from another page.”

And, no, Firefox and Mac users are NOT safe from this one, it apparently affects ALL browsers. Read more at the Linux Journal blog.

Yep. An organization that promotes adoption by the public sector and government in Canada is suing the government of Quebec for buying expensive proprietary software from mega corporations like Microsoft and Oracle.

Linux Journal sums it up here.

The full article can be found on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation site, here.

The press release from FACIL, the organization in question, about the suit is here.

On the one hand I agree with LJ writer Marcel Gagne that it seems fiscally irresponsible for governments to claim poverty while spending a lot of money on software. On the other hand, I have to wonder what type of reliable, constant support is out there for free software. I know everything I have ever downloaded that was open source or free explicitly states that there is no organized support, just forums and listservs–which may have the solution a user is looking for, but it is not always easy to find.

I can see both sides on this one, so it will be interesting in the coming months (years? this is the goverment we’re talking about here…) to see how this develops…

What do you think?

That’s what columnist Matt Asay at cnet.com thinks.

For more on why the open source community is rumbling that Sun needs to let OpenOffice.org move fully into the public sector, check out the original derStandard.at interview with Novell developer Michael Meeks here.

Candy sent me this nifty link to a bunch of Firefox 3 tweaks a couple of days ago to blog. I finally got a chance to look at it today, and well…

Well, I started this blog post an hour ago, but got distracted tweaking my new Firefox…

These are hacks, not extensions, for the most part, so make sure you either have your stuff backed up or an open source junkie on speed dial. You know, just in case you misplace a comma or something.

Tweaks can be found here: The Ultimate Tweaker’s Guide to Firefox3

Tweaking is cool, but since I am NOT an open source guru, I tend to prefer extensions for most things (though that tutorial was wonderfully idiot-proof by my standards). Lots of favorite extensions don’t play nice with FF3 yet. For running updates of those that do and don’t, go here.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, well, you either don’t hang out with any open source fans, or have been stuck in an elevator for a while now.

What I’m talking about is Firefox 3! Yes, the best got better and the new version was available for download last week. In fact, Mozilla was encouraging people to download the new version in an effort to make the Guinness Book of World Records. People listened, and crashed Mozilla’s servers for a while as a result! For current status on the world record chase, check out Mozilla’s blog.

If you want to know a little more about the new version before making the switch, check out this First Look video from c|net TV.

Has anyone else noticed that when you try to abbreviate Open Office, especially when speaking, you end up saying, “Oooh?” Do you think they planned it that way, or was it just a happy accident?

Either way, no one here is disputing the fact that Open Office is cool and getting cooler. OO 3.0 will be available the day after Labor Day, or at least that’s the plan as I last heard it.

In the meantime, for a sneak peek, check out this nifty entry over at Open Office Ninja’s blog.

Yea, it’s a couple months old, but that just means the release date is that much closer! And let’s face it, it’s easier to get excited about something coming at the end of the summer in May than it would have been in March.

If you are, like many of us, not a fan of MacroSoft (you know who I mean!), then this recent Linux Journal blog post may intrigue you as much as it did me.

There’s no denying the Big Company is having a bad year. The Europeans picked on them and fined them a bunch and Vista is, frankly, a disaster.

I remember the fuss over 95, because it was such a change from 3.11 (gee, my geek is showing!), and again from 95 to 2000 (uhnother mistake!), but it was nothing like the antipathy generated by Vista. I wonder if we’re just all a little braver now that open-source has become so much more user-friendly for those of us who are not programmers and need easy-to-use GUI. Heh… GUI. I just like to say it, typing it isn’t as much fun.

At long last…

There has been beta buzz and nifty new features touted, but soon, in 2-3 months, we’ll be able to see the new Firefox 3 for ourselves. A spokesperson for Mozilla told Reuters last week that they hope to roll it out to the public in June of this year.

Check out the full article for more info!