Open source is everywhere today and there is growing awareness that companies have to meet certain obligations when distributing open source software. Here are some useful resources to learn more about open source compliance.

read more

I'm running a BOF at OSCON on Wednesday night July 21st at 7PM, with the declared purpose of adopting an Open Source Definition for Open Data. Safe enough to say that the OSD has been quite successful in laying out a set of criteria for what is, and what is not, Open Source. We should adopt a definition Open Data, even if it means merely endorsing an existing one.

Will you join me there?

And by my earlier criticism of the IIPA position that open source == piracy...there might be something to that. Feel free to copy and distribute any of the open source software I've ever written. Give it to a friend, a neighbor, copy it to whatever devices, run it, use it, rip it and enhance it. I promise...I won't call the cops on you. If that makes you a pirate....ahoy matey...

As a new member of the Board (as of 1 April), I thought that it would be useful to explain why I wanted to join the OSI Board and what I hope to achieve during my term. As you can see from my bio (on the Board member page), I've been involved with software, both proprietary and open source, for my entire career, both in industry and in the research community.

read more

centos 3.9 is the currently released version of centos 3. It includes the following features the Native Posix Thread Library, Gnome 2.2.2, KDE 3.1.3, mysql 3.23.58, postgresql 7.3.10, Apache 2.0.46, openoffice.org 1.1.2, Samba 3, IMPI, seamonkey-1.0.x and many others. centos 3 currently supports these architectures: i386 x86_64 ia64 s390 s390x Aqui estou mostrando os comandos do Terminal! depois d…

Recommended Product:

OpenOffice 2.0 Computer Based Training (CBT) Bundle- 3 CBT CD-Rom for: Open Office 2.0 Writer, Calc & Impress. Learn Shortcuts, Cheats, Tips & Tricks Guides. OpenOffice.org 2.0 - Open Source Word Processor, Spreadsheet & Slide Show Software - Perfect Solution for Corporate / Enterprise End User TrainingWith more than 24 hours of instruction, this comprehensive OpenOffice.org 2.0 Suite End-User Computer-Based Training Bundle features: Step-by-step v... Read More >

Marv Langston served as Department of Defense Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO), where he helped initiate the Global Information Grid, Public Key Infrastructure - Common Access Cards, and led the Defense Department Year 2000 transformation. Prior to that he held positions as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Navy for C4I, Navy's first CIO, and Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Systems Office. In 1999, Government Computer Week magazine honored him with an Executive of the Year award. More recently he wrote an Open Letter to the US Navy leadership that I believe applies to all who are thinking about the right go-forward IT strategy for the new year and the new decade.

read more

Greg Stein (Apache developer and all-around nice guy) made an off-hand comment about open source trademarks in an article(How to Screw Your (Open Source Software) Customers). He was talking about how many users of MySQL have actually using a purchased proprietary licensed copy of the software, and not the open source licensed copy. MySQL's business model uses dual licensing: the GPL, and for the folks whom its strictures are unacceptable, a standard proprietary license.

read more

The following is a comment I left on a blog posting by John Mark Walker at OStatic.

I would be delighted to see Larry Augustin acting as the CEO of an Open Source company, but my knowledge of his past actions makes me dubious. Will SugarCRM remain faithful to the open source model? Or will it be carved up into a mixed-up model of giving away freely that which the company deems to be "low value" and keeping proprietary what the company deems to be "high value"?

read more

As families go, the Linux operating system family has become the family among the Top500 supercomputers, running on 89.20% of all systems. Proprietary Unix, which used to the the preferred OS for these supercomputers in the 1990s is down to 5% share, and Windows is reported to be running on exactly 5 systems, for a 1% share.

read more

A lot of people seem to think that open source is a magic solution to project management and that open source projects will automatically attract a large and healthy community of contributors and users who will improve the software. This, of course, is not the case. In fact, creating a successful open source project is a really major and difficult effort. You have to deliver an initial promise that people find interesting, attract other people, then facilitate and lead the community, etc.

read more