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free software: Firefox is open source and free to download. Here's more informatio about free software.

March 09, 2008

Legal Primer For Open Source And Free Software

Important to understand legal issues revolving around open source and free software.

A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects: All software is subject to copyright law. The moment you save code to a file, copyright law gives you certain rights to control what other people can do with your work. Because almost everybody who contributes code to a software project has rights with respect to their code, understanding the basics of copyright is essential to running a FOSS project.

 

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A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects

Posted on March 9, 2008 04:38 AM by Free S87.
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September 23, 2007

Yochai Benkler At Gartner Web Open Source Summit

Notes on a talk by Yochai Benkler on changes in economics related to free software and creative commons licensing.

This is really a new kind of production in that it is not market driven and it is not centralized. We’ve had market-driven, decentralized production (standard firms in the US), we’ve had market-driven, centralized production (large corporations), we’ve had non-market, centralized production (governments and NGOs, non-profits). What we have not had is non-market, decentralized production. (This echoes Clary Shirky’s assertions about Perl being an act of love).

 

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Yochai Benkler at the Gartner Web Innovation / Open Source Summit

Posted on September 23, 2007 04:38 AM by Free S87.
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September 10, 2007

Free Pocket PC Software

In case you have an old Windows Smartphone, here's some free software.

From the creators of PocketPCFreeware.mobi, this new site specializes in free software for the non-touch screen "Standard" version of Windows Mobile formerly called Windows Smartphone. Currently SmartphoneFreeware only has about 500 files for download compared with 6000 for on the Pocket PC site and 9000 on Palm freeware site.

 

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Found on the Mobile Web 23

Posted on September 10, 2007 04:38 AM by Free S87.
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August 13, 2007

Quitting OSI

Leaving OSI over a free software dispute.

Although I had thought myself an active member and fervent evangelist of this community I obviously was not. This became clear when the OSI board clearly coached Ross Mayfield, CEO of Socialtext, on what and how to submit when he resubmitted his badgeware license, renamed CPAL. The board then approved, in a private session at OSCON this license against the wishes of the community at large. A license that is not even compatible with the most widely used free software licenses: GPL and LGPL. Also disturbing to me is the fact that Socialtext had, for as much as, four years claimed to be an open source company, but never released a single line of source code for the software they were distributing for a fee.

 

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Posted on August 13, 2007 12:39 AM by Free S87.
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May 15, 2007

Microsoft Takes On Free World

Microsoft is threatening free software with patents infringement.

. . . there's a shadow hanging over Linux and other free software, and it's being cast by Microsoft. The Redmond behemoth asserts that one reason free software is of such high quality is that it violates more than 200 of Microsoft's patents. And as a mature company facing unfavorable market trends and fearsome competitors like Google, Microsoft is pulling no punches: It wants royalties. If the company gets its way, free software won't be free anymore.

 

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Microsoft wants to destroy free software.

Posted on May 15, 2007 04:44 AM by Free S87.
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May 11, 2007

Backup Outlook Express Email

Isn't free software to make a Microsoft product work an oxymoron?

I’m using Outlook Express to send and receive my email during office hours and it is necessary for me to backup the important emails periodically. I have spent a lot of time to search the free software to backup the email from Outlook Express, at last I found this software is only allowed 30 days trials, it is not very useful because I can’t backup my email after one month because this software will be expired and even you reinstall also cannot use at all.

 

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Posted on May 11, 2007 04:43 AM by Free S87.
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April 19, 2007

IPRED Vote

Intellectual property and software patents at the top of the agenda for the EU.

Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Software Foundation Europe and Open Rights Group launched a call for action because next week the European Parliament will vote IPRED2, the EU’s second intellectual property enforcement directive.

 

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FSF Europe call for action: next week IPRED will be voted

Posted on April 19, 2007 04:43 AM by Free S87.
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GetJar.com Review

Free software for your mobile phone here.

Check out getjar.com. You’ll find a list of free software arranged by title, device and platform. There’s e-crypt, pocket wallet, pocket oxford english dictionary and the oh so popular PalmaSutra.

 

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GetJar.com Review

Posted on April 19, 2007 04:43 AM by Free S87.
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April 13, 2007

Write Software For NASA

NASA tries the free software approach to software development.

NASA is looking for volunteers to write code. In an attempt to start an open source collaboration with software developers, NASA has started CosmosCode:

 

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CosmosCode: Now We Can Write Software for NASA

Posted on April 13, 2007 04:43 AM by Free S87.
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April 03, 2007

Sahana Wins Free Software Award

If you have a disaster, you may want some free software.

Sahana , an Open Source Disaster Management system that addresses the common coordination problems during a disaster from finding missing people, has won the 2006 Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit awarded by the Free Software Foundation.

 

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Free Software Award: Sahana won the annual award for Projects of Social Benefit

Posted on April 3, 2007 04:42 AM by Free S87.
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March 21, 2007

Cheap Way To Go VPS

Xen is free software that enables virtualization.

This blogger details out a simple way to use Xen for webmaster's using VPS. You can start up your own ISP that way!

 

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Cheaper way to go VPS: Use Xen and webmin

Posted on March 21, 2007 04:43 AM by Free S87.
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February 16, 2007

Free As In Culture

A look at the new Definition of Free Cultural Works vis a vis Free Software.

Benjamin, started thinking about the issue almost two years ago, explaining that unlike Free Software, Creative Commons in his opinion failed to set any standard of freedom. Then he argued that:

 

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Free as in Culture: a possible definition of Free Cultural Works

Posted on February 16, 2007 03:49 AM by Free S87.
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February 08, 2007

Ruport News

From the latest Ruport news, info on free software.

As if that wasn’t enough new developments, there are more. Gregory Brown will give a presentation at the Boston Ruby Group on February 13. The presentation will consist of a short introduction to Ruport and a demonstration of a camping application running on top of Ruport. On the heels of that talk, Gregory will be attending the Mountain West Ruby Conference on March 16-17. While there, he will give a talk about the “tools, techniques, and practices necessary to build a successful free software project.” Gregory will refer to his experiences with Ruport and will therefore be able to give pragmatic advice on getting through choke points during a project’s growth.

 

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Ruport News, Issue 11

Posted on February 8, 2007 03:43 AM by Free S87.
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January 18, 2007

BadVista

Click through for more on the Free Software Foundation and Microsoft Vista.

The always remarkable Free Software Foundation have released a new campaign/site: http://badvista.fsf.org/

 

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BadVista

Posted on January 18, 2007 11:49 PM by Free S87.
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January 03, 2007

Free TACACS+ Server Software

Cisco offers TACACS+ as free software, but it's not supported.

Cisco offers a free version of TACACS+ that you can download. However, please note that it is not a fully supported version. In fact, Cisco seldom updates the free TACACS+ daemon and it lacks several of the advanced features of commercially available TACACS+ software. Furthermore, Cisco warns that this free software comes with no warranty or support.

 

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Downloading Free TACACS+ Server Software

Posted on January 3, 2007 03:45 AM by Free S87.
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December 29, 2006

ISO Image File

Infra Recorder is free software to help you work with ISO image files.

If you are using windows operating system, Infra Recorder is a good free software to burn the ISO into a CD. Just insert a bland CD and select actions>Burn Image from the menu.

 

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ISO image file - what is it?

Posted on December 29, 2006 03:39 AM by Free S87.
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December 20, 2006

OpenPBX.org Releases OpenPBX RC2

OpenPBX free software is a fork from the Asterisk PBX software project.

OpenPBX is a free software PBX now running on several platforms.

 

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OpenPBX.org releases OpenPBX RC2

Posted on December 20, 2006 03:41 AM by Free S87.
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December 09, 2006

"Freetown" And Freetown

The developer of Freetown has some words about free software and open source.

She’s right. My only quibble is that what we’re doing isn’t just making any old basic software. We’re unique in that we create tools, and those tools are by and for the sector we work in. When a tool doesn’t exist, and we see a need - an itch that can be scratched, to use the old Free Software term - we create the tool to address the need.

 

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“Freetown” and Freetown

Posted on December 9, 2006 03:40 AM by Free S87.
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November 04, 2006

Blackboard's New Patent

A dicussion of Blackboard, free software, and patents.

I think that given what the free open source community has achieved especially in the short term, project wise, it is plain to see one does not need to invest $100 million dollars to develop a course management system. For Blackboard to break even on their costs and make a profit, I would suspect that Blackboard’s CMS features a rather large price tag (note you don’t actually own what you paid for, you get a license to use it under their terms and restrictions). I personally thus do not support Blackboard on this matter because it’s interest in developing a patent portfolio (funny name; seem to be the next new thing…?) conflicts especially with free software projects that aim to make the world a better place by providing quality education tools and not make supernormal profits.

 

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Update on Blackboard’s new patent

Posted on November 4, 2006 01:40 AM by Free S87.
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October 24, 2006

Hackers Zero In On Online Stock Accounts

If you're day trading, make sure it's not for someone else's benefit.

Ameritrade’s Becker said the company advises clients to make sure they have good spyware detection software on their computers. Ameritrade’s Web site also offers clients free software that helps detect or eliminate snooping programs.

 

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Hackers Zero In on Online Stock Accounts

Posted on October 24, 2006 03:39 AM by Free S87.
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CCleaner

Data-be-gone, for free!

This free software isn’t just an uninstaller utility but also a clicktrail and Registry cleaner, secure file file eraser and basic system privacy tool.

 

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Freebies of The Week : CCleaner

Posted on October 24, 2006 02:39 AM by Free S87.
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August 31, 2006

Taking The Ubuntu Plunge

We love Ubuntu, and not just because it's free software.

Ubuntu is open source and free. It comes with loads of free software, including OpenOffice which users have told me will do most anything Microsoft Office can do. It too is free.

 

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Posted on August 31, 2006 03:41 AM by Free S87.
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July 20, 2006

Protecting Your Online Privacy

From a good post on protecting online privacy, some free software that will help.

Using a proxy software in our computer. There are almost 100 Free software proxies in http://www.download.com. Among them ‘Proxy+ 3.0′ is most popular among the users. There are two types of Proxies HTTP proxy and the CGI proxy. I think the HTTP proxies are faster than the CGI ones.

 

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Some solutions for protecting your online privacy ($urpa$$ing the Blogging B@n)

Posted on July 20, 2006 03:41 AM by Free S87.
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July 04, 2006

GPL License Issues

A look at the impact of the GPL on free software development.

If that's the case, perhaps Richard Stallman should rewrite the GPL so that it doesn't (rather effectively) hinder small, grass-roots, free software development and distribution projects. Perhaps he ought to use his influence to stop the Free Software Foundation from using the clauses already in the GPL as an excuse to bully small free software development and distribution projects with its legal heft. MEPIS wasn't the only distribution targeted: also take note of the threat of legal action looming over other projects such as Kororaa Xgl LiveCD. John Andrews of Damn Small Linux reportedly agrees with the estimation of MEPIS' founder Warren Woodford that a great many small Linux distribution projects are at significant risk, and new projects are considerably less likely to spring up in the evolving legal climate of the "free" software community.

 

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RMS and the FSF: one map, one flashlight, no ass in sight

Posted on July 4, 2006 03:45 AM by Free S87.
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Automattic: Enterprise Blogging Support

A look at how WordPress has transformed its free software package into a not-for-free enterprise version.

Seems like the developers of WordPresss made such a solid product that they are finally getting paid for it, good for them. The price seems relatively reasonable for an enterprise level blogging solution, to boot. I am wondering how they understand the term “customizable”? I will assume that virtually all of the corporations interested in the Automattic support service will want a Multi-User platform. Yet, WPMU for the open source community is still in the nightly stages, and from my last go-round with it two months ago it was no fun to play with at all - is the Automattic support service rolling out a packaged version of this? -as well as top notch support?

 

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Automattic: Enterprise Blogging Support from the Folks that Brought you WordPress

Posted on July 4, 2006 02:41 AM by Free S87.
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Free Software Versus Apple

Links about switching from Apple to free software.

I’ve been following with interest the Mark Pilgrim Apple->Free Software Switch. Time for more bullet points!

 

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Notes On A Clean Ubuntu (Dapper Drake) Install on a Gateway Laptop

Posted on July 4, 2006 02:41 AM by Free S87.
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May 08, 2006

Ubuntu Podcast

You'll have to listen to find out why Gnome versus KDE is so funny.

Here (.mp3 25Mb, .ogg 21Mb) is an interesting talk with Mark Shuttleworth, the founder and funder of the Ubuntu project. It provides some interesting insights into the direction of the project and Shuttleworth’s vision for free software in general. He make it quite clear the Ubuntu with Gnome, and Kubuntu (Ubuntu + KDE) are equal citizens and will be promoted, developed and funded as a such. My person favorite moment is when the German interviewer almost spits on the ground while asking why Gnome is the default desktop instead of KDE.

 

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More Ubuntu fun. Podcast from Mark Shuttleworth

Posted on May 8, 2006 03:43 AM by Free S87.
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May 01, 2006

Full Conversion Or Dual Boot

Linux or dual boot? Only his hairdresser knows for sure.

Summer’s almost over, and this summer I’m going to build a computer, so I’m not restricted to my shared computer. I’m thinking of converting to Linux 100%, but I don’t know if I can or if I’ll just install it Dual-Boot. I can navigate linux pretty good (without GUI :P) since I’ve been messing with shell accounts and things. Not to mention my favor of irssi. My bud claims he can play Counter-Strike: Source using WINE. So I wouldn’t have to worry about leaving that behind, I’m not sure if I can WINE XFire, Trillian, etc… but then again there is gAIM (Not that I favor gAIM) but yeah. I’m not sure if I’ll go all the way, I’ve already converted from mIRC -> irssi (Yep, except DCC cause I don’t exactly have unlimited bandwitdth on the shell im irssing off.) So I’m not sure what to do. I’d like to take the plunge and become a full linux user. Anywhos. Everything’s going well on this end. Talk to you all later, maybe I’ll post about Perl, or Bittorrent or something technical.

 

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Full Conversion, or can I only handle dual-boot?

Posted on May 1, 2006 09:41 PM by Free S87.
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April 25, 2006

Website Photo Album Generating Software

Check out JAlbum for your photo albums.

With a bit of Internet Searching, I stumbled across one of the best bits of free software I think I have ever found, JAlbum (currently version 6.4). There's loads of skins available, simple to use and customise (assuming you understand the basics of editing HTT's) and does everything on my list apart from the last one.

 

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Website Photo Album Generating Software

Posted on April 25, 2006 03:40 AM by Free S87.
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Google Summer Of Code 2006

Great way to encourage more free software development.

Google’s Summer of Code 2006 is program that gives “student developers stipends to create new open source programs or to help currently established projects. Google will be working with a variety of open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several hundred projects over a three-month period.” It’s the 2nd year for the program, which last year had 400 students and 40 mentoring organizations in 49 countries.

 

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Google Summer of Code 2006

Posted on April 25, 2006 03:40 AM by Free S87.
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March 27, 2006

Paul Flaherty Dies

One of the early search engine designers, Paul Flaherty died recently.
It is sad to hear that one of the pioneers in search-engine technology passed away young at the age of only 42. Paul Flaherty was one of the driving forces and masterbrains behind (originally) Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s AltaVista, which was one of the first real search engines. I personally liked and used it alot back then and because AV helped me numerous times and saved me countless hours, I really do want to express my compassion and condolences for his friends and family.
 

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AltaVista-Founder Paul Flaherty passed away

Posted on March 27, 2006 09:19 PM by Free S87.
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March 03, 2006

SSCLI Source Code Browser Online

Click through for the whole SSCLI story.

Shared Source, is an umbrella term used by Microsoft for its dabbling in the open-source wave. It encompasses multiple programs that grant licensees to access the source codes from ASP.NET sample kit all the way up to the Windows itself. The license under which SSCLI is distributed does not exactly make it free software as the license fails to satisfy the four freedoms of an free software license. However, there is enough discussion on this topic and certainly nobody can argue that having access to the source code of the CLI is worse than not.

 

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Searchable SSCLI Source Code Browser is Now Online

Posted on March 3, 2006 02:41 AM by Free S87.
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February 14, 2006

Splitting The Delphi Heritage

Borland users might want to click through for more on this open source idea for Delphi.

This was found in a comment on Eric's post on open source and IDE's which refelected on Delphi for sale. There is an online petition asking Mark ShuttleWorth to buy Delphi and release it as free software. Nice. But.......

 

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Posted on February 14, 2006 02:47 AM by Free S87.
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February 07, 2006

Open Source Week

BusinessWeek has some four articles on open source.

Oops, make that 4, I forgot this one: Fixing Patents, Open-Source Style - Free Software devotees decry any and all software patents and the proprietary world can’t get enough of them. This editorial by an ex-VP of Red Hat seems to be a call for compromise. Yes, another ugly word.

Click through for the other three.
 

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Open Source Week

Posted on February 7, 2006 02:42 AM by Free S87.
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January 31, 2006

Recent Google Registrations.

"Google" is showing up in lots of domain names.

Packgoogle.com probably refers to their regrettable free software pack that’s already been released.

 

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Recent Google Registrations.

Posted on January 31, 2006 02:41 AM by Free S87.
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January 27, 2006

Universal Binaries

Univeral binaries are a great idea, though.

Basically, there’s no ‘easy’, trivial, or even takes-a-couple-of-hours way to make most GNU configure built software create a universal binary under a PPC host at the moment; however, this universal build structure is entirely native on the x86 development systems, and the new x86 variants. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a couple grand to throw at free software that costs me money to offer every month.

 

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It’s going to be awhile before you see any Universal Binaries.

Posted on January 27, 2006 02:45 AM by Free S87.
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January 26, 2006

GPLv3: Libertad O Muerte!

GPL version 3 is a sort of "live free or die" manifesto.

Pero ya hay una primera minuta de la *GPLv3 (con exposición de motivos) que ataca asuntos *techie *atualíssimos y, en el mejor estilo de la tradición del *free software, está de ojo en el *establishment , especialmente el americano. Busca revertir la tendencia de *cercear los derechos de los usuarios de software de todas las maneras en nombre de la seguridad y de los logro$.

 

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GPLv3: El manifiesto *geek *brada, libertad o muerte!

Posted on January 26, 2006 02:40 AM by Free S87.
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January 21, 2006

IISPassword Protects Web Site Content

Here's the whole story:

One of my Office mates send me this link. This is a Free Software (IISPassword) which could be used to password protect your web site content, without the hassle of system user Accounts. It is Integrated with IIS and is Compatible with Apache.

 

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Password Protect Your IIS Free…………

Posted on January 21, 2006 02:40 AM by Free S87.
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Open Source Advertising

Open source and advertising aren't mutually exclusive.

While looking up links for another post, I came across this site about Linux Software RAID. The guy has a banner ad at the top of his page for GnuCash and as much as I dislike advertising, maybe it’s a really good idea for breaking into the brand-aware consciousness of non-Open Source and Free Software people. I think if people saw what they were missing, they might do something about getting it.

 

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Open Source Advertising

Posted on January 21, 2006 02:40 AM by Free S87.
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January 18, 2006

Free Software For Intel-based Macs

Might want to wait a while to buy an Intel-based Mac.

So, Java embedding sounds sort of obscure doesn’t it? But what it means is that lots of free software I depend on for my workflow won’t work. Firefox won’t work unless you can give up Java and Flash. 3 months ETA on that. NeoOffice/J, the OpenOffice platform for Mac won’t work either, and there’s no ETA on that.

Read the entire article.
 

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Free Software for Intel-based Macs

Posted on January 18, 2006 02:43 AM by Free S87.
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January 17, 2006

Linux A Go-go!

I'm about to try booting Linux on my laptop.

Ok so I did it! I am now running Linux on my laptop and everything seems to be going well. I even got it to play nice with my Microsoft wireless adapter which was the big hang up for me in the past. If you are curious I am currnetly running Ubuntu Linux (Based on Debian). I will provide updates from time to time to let you know how things are going with it. I am writting this on my linux laptop at the moment in fact. Go free software!

 

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Linux a go-go!

Posted on January 17, 2006 02:42 AM by Free S87.
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January 16, 2006

FrOSCon 2006 - Call For Papers

If you're in Germany and interested in free software, here's your event.

Organized by a commited team, it aims to become a significant event for free software in the Rhineland. The conference is hosted by the faculty of Computer Science of the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg in collaboration with the student body and the Linux/Unix User Group Sankt Augustin.

 

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FrOSCon 2006 - Call for Papers

Posted on January 16, 2006 02:42 AM by Free S87.
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January 02, 2006

Free Versus Freedom

Lots more about open source and free software at this blog.

In the "Open Source for Newbies" department we have yet another author taking a run at explaining the difference between "free" and "freedom." This author (David Chisnall at informit.com) does a pretty good job, as he goes to some effort to explain the 4 freedoms outlined by the Free Software Movement and how the concept of free -- as in "no cost" -- got grafted on to Open Source. Good reading if this is still a topic that causes you some consternation.

 

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Free vs. Freedom

Posted on January 2, 2006 02:40 AM by Free S87.
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December 11, 2005

Gaim 2.0 Close To Beta

If you're looking for Gaim 2.0, here you go!

Gaim 2.0 should be out next Friday, which is very good news for us alternative os folk and free software windows people. There are a lot of new features planned, and personally I prefer gaim over aol’s client, and to other clients such as trillian. It is open source, so the potential for evil is greatly diminished.

 

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Gaim 2.0 Close To Beta

Posted on December 11, 2005 02:38 AM by Free S87.
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December 04, 2005

France to Ban Open Source Software?

Complications as only the French can imagine.

The Free Software Foundation in France argues that the French government considers a ban on free software. Taking into account the possible implications (namely controversy), I initially believed this to be an overstatement or a case of quote-mining.

 

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Posted on December 4, 2005 02:38 AM by Free S87.
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December 01, 2005

ImaNote: Image And Map Annotation Tool

I like this software.

You can use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to keep track of the annotations added to the image or make links on your own blog/web site/email that are pointing to the annotations on the image. The links leads right to the points in the image. ImaNote is Open Source and Free Software released under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL).

 

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Posted on December 1, 2005 01:39 AM by Free S87.
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FreeDOS

Some background on freedos, a free DOS operating system.

Then, I saw a discussion thread on the DOS groups asking “hey, why doesn’t someone write their own free version of DOS?” Remember, this was about three years after Linus Torvalds announced his work on the Linux kernel, and by 1993 Linux had shown that free software can achieve incredible results. So in 1994, the suggestion that we could write our own free version of DOS, and give it away with the source code so others could work with it and improve it, really didn’t sound all that far-fetched.

 

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Posted on December 1, 2005 01:39 AM by Free S87.
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November 30, 2005

Open Source And Post-Capitalistic Society

I think open source software is the least of Microsoft's worries right now.

Look at the capitalistic giant, Microsoft! Imagine that there were no free software movement and open source. Microsoft would be the ultimate monopolist, the whole world would be their empire. In such case, there would be no real progress and innovation because there is no force to drive it.

 

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Posted on November 30, 2005 01:42 AM by Free S87.
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Complete Concise History Of Linux

Those who fail to learn from history are bound to relive it.

This history can be very educational to the new Linux user. It gives a definite flare and flavor as to how the open source and free software movement got started. I knew of bits and pieces of the history but All About Linux has put it in a nice concise form I have never seen before.

 

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Posted on November 30, 2005 01:42 AM by Free S87.
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November 28, 2005

Musings

Free software leads to addiction:

That post put me to thinking. I like reading blogs about things that happen to people - snapshots of their day and so on. Now I feel that it is time for me to reveal a dark secret. When I created this blog, it was more in the nature of an experiment than anything serious; I was wondering how the free software installed by my ISP (Free.fr) actually worked. Then the idea of writing posts fascinated me, so I continued, and now, a hundred or so posts and four months on, I feel quite guilty if I don’t update regularily (not guilty enough to actually update, it seems…).

 

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Posted on November 28, 2005 01:39 AM by Free S87.
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November 15, 2005

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Free

When was the last time your saw something like this free from Microsoft.

Microsoft is offering free software development tools for *free* at its website. Yup! The so-called “evil empire” is offering an “Express” version of Visual Studio and MS SQL Server 2005 for free and it can be downloaded here.

 

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Posted on November 15, 2005 01:43 AM by Free S87.
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November 05, 2005

Formula For Milking The Digital Divide

More possibilities with free software.

A blackboard and chalk is not as sexy as a laptop. In fact, a TV and a media player is pretty much all the hardware that you need to provide basic education to a village full of children. That hardware (and some free software) would cost all of $200 a year, and if you pay about $2000 a year as salaries to a couple of village school teachers, you can educate a 100 kids for about $20 per child per year. Compare that to just buying $100 laptops for each kid.

 

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Posted on November 5, 2005 02:40 AM by Free S87.
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October 16, 2005

Wanted: Decent Windows Editor

vi?

Today, I tried to edit the new GSR-website with an editor under Windows. No, I'm not crazy. This is all because we now have an employee at the GSR who'll update our website with new contact-info, meeting reports, news,... He's a windows user at home, so I needed to find a sufficient editor for that platform. Requirements: free software (as in free beer) and keep my original files in utf-8 character encoding!

If you post an answer to this, please submit your post to Blog Carnival with the button in the upper left.
 

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Posted on October 16, 2005 03:45 AM by Free S87.
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October 12, 2005

Gilberto Gil and the Digital Commons

Actually, with the exception of Movable Type, nearly everything here at Blog Carnival is built on top of free software, too.

Oh, and speaking of hackers, have I mentioned this is all built exclusively on top of free software?

 

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Posted on October 12, 2005 03:40 AM by Free S87.
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September 20, 2005

Mambo or Joomla?

It's all kind of mumbo jumbo to me.

The recent case of the Mambo Content Management System for websites shows that these issues aren’t a problem in the free software world. Following a split from the company that held the copyright in Mambo over the direction of the project, the entire development team took the existing code with them to continue working on it as "Joomla", something made possible by the free software licensing of Mambo.

 

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Posted on September 20, 2005 03:38 AM by Free S87.
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September 16, 2005

IP Propaganda

I'd never heard of these IP lessons.

In 2003-4 the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) spent more than $200,000 on an ‘educational’ course for schoolchildren, bizarrely entitled ‘What’s the Diff? A Guide to Digital Citizenship’. This was nothing more than a lesson in IP dogma. ‘If you haven’t paid for it, you’ve stolen it,’ students were told – eliding fair use, public domain works, Free Software, and alternative licensing in one sweep of the revisionist hand. Teachers worked from a -page classroom guide, explaining that the use of a computer to download files was ‘morally and ethically wrong.’ Students played roles such as ‘The Film Producer’ and ‘The Starving Artist’; at the end of one session, according to an article in the Boston Globe, a teacher asked a boy: ‘’Will you stop copying music online and download the right way?’ ‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘I’ll go to the music store and buy more CDs.’1 Alongside the propaganda comes bribery: for writing essays about why file sharing is bad, students are offered incentives such as free DVD players and DVDs (first one’s free, but they’re hooked forever), movie tickets and trips to Hollywood.

 

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Posted on September 16, 2005 02:39 AM by Free S87.
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September 06, 2005

Massachusetts Ponders Going Open Source

The only software I have to buy these days is Office and only to stay in sync with new versions of Office.

The state of Massachusetts is considering a proposal that would require all state documents to be compliant with the Open Document format rather than requiring proprietary software. The Open Document format is part of Open Office 2.0, a free software suite that is currently under development. Saying that the proposal is not “an anti-Microsoft initiative,” Peter Quinn, chief information officer of the Commonwealth, pointed out that 200-year-old papers remain readable in their original format. He said he hopes that today’s records will remain accessible far into the future, regardless of the comings and goings of various vendors and their products. Quinn said he hopes Microsoft will decide to support the format, which allows documents to be readable by any computer, similar to Adobe PDF. Microsoft’s Alan Yates said the company would not agree to the Open Document format. He noted that Microsoft provides a free XML schema that allows users without Microsoft Office to read documents created by that suite of applications.

 

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Posted on September 6, 2005 03:39 AM by Free S87.
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September 03, 2005

Free Software RSS Writer

If you need RSS software:

Phelios announced the release of an offline internet software tool for webmasters called, "RSS Writer." The free software application is being offered to website owners who would like to offer an RSS feed of their own sites.

 

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Posted on September 3, 2005 03:38 AM by Free S87.
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September 01, 2005

Using Free Software Alternatives

Click through for free software used in software development.

Next, I'm moving on to cover free development softwares - softwares used by software developer. How entrepreneurs in software related business can leverage on free softwares written by their counterparts.

 

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Posted on September 1, 2005 03:38 AM by Free S87.
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August 14, 2005

My Favorite Open Source Software

The search for free FTP software.

I was having trouble finding a good free FTP client. SmartFTP advertises itself as free, but you get a nag screen after 30 days of use. I tire of having to track down/apply cracks for software all the time, and I try to find truly free software whenever I can. Due to its misleading name, I originally thought Filezilla was the Mozilla foundation’s attempt at an FTP client. Believing in Mozilla software so much, I didn’t even test the software first, I just deleted SmartFTP and started Filezilla. Filezilla is in fact NOT a member of the Mozilla family, but I haven’t been disappointed anyway. Though I’m using FireFTP more and more for smaller FTP transactions, major uploads (lots of files that may need to be uploaded in several sessions for example) are still done through Filezilla. Great FTP client, especially for the price.

 

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Posted on August 14, 2005 03:39 AM by Free S87.
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August 13, 2005

Jonathan Schwartz On Free Software

More info is a click away:

Jonathan Schwartz, one of the highest on the food chain at Sun Microsystems, has a great post entitled Free Software Has No Pirates. Perhaps the most interesting line from the whole essay is:

 

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Posted on August 13, 2005 03:40 AM by Free S87.
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August 01, 2005

Mozilla Financing

Interesting questions about Mozilla financing.

There is nothing wrong or immoral about making money. The economic development of the planet including the poorest members of society depends on everyone being able to generate an income. This is nicely articulated by Jeffrey Sachs in his book “The End of Poverty”. If there’s nothing inherently wrong with making money and we all, even the staff of the Mozilla Foundation, need to do it in order to put food on the table then why is Mitchell so coy about where the money comes from? Maybe the problem is that once you start digging beneath the surface a little bit it turns out that the free software movement is just as dependant on “filthy lucre” as the rest of us. It may in fact be more dependant than commercial software companies because it has no other independant source of income. The reality is that the Mozilla Foundation is nicely capitalized and funded in various ways by some very large, very profitable commercial companies and a few rich donors. I could not seem to find a list of these benefactors on the Mozilla Foundation site; again I'm puzzled by the apprent lack of transparency. Why does the core principle of openness appear not to extend to how the Foundation is financed?

 

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A little light opera...

Posted on August 1, 2005 03:41 AM by Free S87.
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July 31, 2005

Lawrence Lessig

Good discussion of "free" here.

A free culture has been our past, but it will only be our future if we change the path we are on right now. Like Stallman's arguments for free software, an argument for free culture stumbles on a confusion that is hard to avoid, and even harder to understand. A free culture is not a culture without property; it is not a culture in which artists don't get paid. A culture without property, or in which creators can't get paid, is anarchy, not freedom. Anarchy is not what I advance here. Instead, the free culture that I defend in this book is a balance between anarchy and control.

 

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Posted on July 31, 2005 03:40 AM by Free S87.
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July 10, 2005

Skyping Siblings

The free software market is heating up in the VoIP space. Gizmo and Jajah are two new entrants.

The main system for talking over the Internet is something called SIP (Session Initiated Protocol), which like many modern standards seems to be designed by hardware makers to get people to buy expensive stuff. However, the open source/free software people are moving in and have made some good progress lately. See Gizmo, for example. There's also a Skype competitor called Jajah that allows you to talk with Skype users. There will be more options in the future, but at the moment Skype is king if you want it to just work, and work very simply.

 

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Posted on July 10, 2005 03:45 AM by Free S87.
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July 07, 2005

Make A Georeferenced Street Map

Good how-to on mapping.

There are plenty of sources of free topographic maps that someone with a GPS and some good GPS mapping software can use. (Yes, I paid for MacGPS Pro. It works, and the free software I’d played with was pretty unreliable.) Most of the topographic map files out there are in GeoTIFF format, or something similar, which means that they have pixel to lat/lon data built-in. But I’m more likely to need street maps than topographic maps. I could buy something like Microsoft Streets and Trips, but I’m using Mac. Route USA 2004 is the only street map software I can find that runs on OS X, and it doesn’t appear to be very good. I couldn’t find a source of free high quality street maps online, so I rolled my own. Here’s how:

 

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Posted on July 7, 2005 03:49 AM by Free S87.
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July 03, 2005

Google Earth

Firefox is pretty cool, too, but google earth is amazing.

In my opinion there is absolutely no free software available today that is cooler than this. Google Earth, a 3D interface to the planet. Here’s some screen shots for ya:

 

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Posted on July 3, 2005 03:44 AM by Free S87.
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July 02, 2005

The Revolution Will Be GPL'd

Latin America has taken a very different approach to software than the U.S.

'Viva Software Libre!' talks about 'Latin America's free software revolution challenges U.S. corporate domination', which is very much true in description of what is happening throughout Latin America through Free Software and Open Source. And he mixes it in with the Banana Wars. Of course, not many people know about where the phrase Banana republic came from. And it's sort of disturbing that a clothing chain gets a capital 'r' for Republic in the Wikipedia.

 

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Posted on July 2, 2005 03:42 AM by Free S87.
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We Need The GPL

Important distinctions between "free" and "open".

The purpose of ther GPL is not to make people accept open source software - the GPL is about Free Software. Open Source software is in a legally and morally weaker position than Free Software. In addition to this the GPL contains within it a fundamental social goal which Open Source does not.

 

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Posted on July 2, 2005 03:42 AM by Free S87.
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