Posts for February, 2008

Feb 29, 2008

Brainstorm With Ubuntu

Ubuntu does a Dell, and wants you to brainstorm (via Slashdot)with it on what features you want in it. It is a good idea, but to be really effective it has to attract people who are not being heard, or who are not on Linux, or who feel that Ubuntu is too geeky to be used. Otherwise it will have votes from the same old already-vocal slashdotters, diggers and the existing geeks. [Continue]

Feb 28, 2008

Judging You By Your Tools

Sometimes a lot of us, even the heavy weight ones, want to write like fanatics. David Heinemeier Hansson wonders if he would Windows is the most unsuitable platform for web and open source development. I am an open-source-fanboy Linux user, but I am aware of a lot of good open source tools on Windows. [Continue]

Feb 28, 2008

Be Skeptical About Software

This is what I tell my non-technical friends who end up being associated with either buying or using a new piece of software. What usually happens is that most of them get over-zealous, either because of the sophistication of the software systems or because of the enthusiasm about the trend and they completely miss the fact that the software is for a purpose. Rather, the software is supposed to solve a problem for them. [Continue]

Feb 26, 2008

Yahoo! Opens Search

Yahoo! needs something strong and innovative to come out of the shadow of Google, and recently Microsoft. It has taken the route of letting others build on its search results, and I think this is a good approach. [Continue]

Feb 25, 2008

Adobe AIR Goes To 1.0, But Still Without Linux

Adobe is about to release AIR 1.0, which means that AIR will cross a huge milestone. AIR is a cross platform merge the desktop and the Web, and develop rich applications. I think this is a milestone not only for Adobe, but for the technologies which can offer webified applications. [Continue]

Feb 23, 2008

Work Once And Earn Forever

A friend asked me if software was a good profession to work once and earn forever. He said people like Bill Gates inspired him to build such a model. I thought it was an unique aspect to consider to decide whether he wanted to get into the software domain or not. [Continue]

Feb 22, 2008

Commitment To Interoperability Requires Commitment To Standards

Microsoft announced that it is ready to change to make its tools more interoperable, or as it says expand the interoperability. Is Microsoft serious about open source interoperability? I think it is yet another announcement to keep the buzz alive, and it is not only me who thinks so. [Continue]

Feb 21, 2008

Microsoft Trying To Get Popular By Wooing Students

Microsoft is trying to woo the students by offering its development tools for free (via Slashdot). Called DreamSpark, the offering is open to too all students across the globe. Microsoft hopes that this will create users for Microsoft’s tools, and possibly eat into the open source user base. [Continue]

Feb 20, 2008

Mozilla Messaging And It Is Thunderbird 3

Mozilla Messaging is a new subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, and as the name says, focusing on messaging (via Ars Technica). The plans, as David Ascher explains, are to build a great product on the existing Thunderbird 2 base. We’ve started defining what Thunderbird 3 will be, because we think that there is enough consensus to make some of the first decisions on the most important changes to tackle first. [Continue]

Feb 19, 2008

Running Linux On Windows

Solutions for people wanting to use Unix-like environments under Windows have evolved. Started with Cygwin, it has now progressed to using a port of the Linux kernel to Windows, called coLinux. But now we also have andLinux, which makes it a lot easier to use Linux applications in Windows. [Continue]