Category Archives: Free Software

Dell Joins Microsoft and Novell Deal

Posted on 5/7/2007 by Ben

Wow. Dell has managed to go from earning my undying loyalty one week, to making me question whether I should ever do business with them again the next. I made a Dell IdeaStorm idea for this, so go vote it … Continue reading →

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Dell Pre-installs Ubuntu

Posted on 5/1/2007 by Ben

Dell is set to start selling consumer-targeted desktop and laptops pre-installed with Ubuntu Linux at the end of the month. This is really fantastic news and I’ll probably order on day one, I just hope they offer some Latitudes.

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Java Is Free

Posted on 11/13/2006 by Ben

Tim Bray has the scoop on open source Java. It’s GPL! The official announcement goes out at 9:30 PST.

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GPLed Java

Posted on 11/8/2006 by Ben

CRN says Sun will license Java under the GPL. All of the noises Sun has been making about wanting to prevent Java forks made me think they would use another not-really-free license so, if true, this is very good news.

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IceWeasel

Posted on 10/10/2006 by Ben

Mozilla is forcing Debian to stop using the Firefox name with the version of Firefox that they ship. Debian doesn’t use the official Firefox logo because it is distributed under a non-Free copyright license, which violates Debian’s Free Software Guidelines. … Continue reading →

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TechCrunch for Free Software

Posted on 9/11/2006 by Ben

It looks like pinguino.tv is a shot at creating a Techcrunch for Free Software projects.

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Trolltech To Ship Open Cell Phone

Posted on 8/15/2006 by Ben

Trolltech will ship a Linux-based GSM/GPRS/WiFi phone in September. I want one!

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Linux Kernel Myths

Posted on 7/24/2006 by Ben

Greg Kroah-Hartman’s OLS keynote on Linux Kernel Myths is very interesting. And by secure, I really mean it. A lot of times a security problem will be found in one driver, or in one core part of the kernel, and … Continue reading →

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OpenOffice.org Newspaper Ad

Posted on 7/18/2006 by Ben

I noticed this effort to run an ad for OpenOffice.org in the New York Metro last month but at that point they had a terrible site and a terrible ad mock-up. Now they’ve come up with a classy design that’s … Continue reading →

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ODF support for Office

Posted on 7/6/2006 by Ben

Microsoft have announced an ODF plug-in for Office and already released a prototype version under a BSD license. Kudos to Microsoft for finally doing the right thing. I think they realized that if they didn’t do this, they couldn’t say … Continue reading →

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Gruber On Pilgrim

Posted on 6/18/2006 by Ben

John Gruber sort-of defends Mark Pilgrim’s reasons for his switch to Ubuntu and Pilgrim responds with some more lucid arguments for choosing open formats and Free Software if you want to retain your data for a long period of time.

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Krugle

Posted on 6/15/2006 by Ben

Krugle, the new open source code search engine is live today. It feels like it will be very useful.

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Apple Store Anti-DRM Action

Posted on 6/11/2006 by Ben

Yesterday I went to the anti-Digital Rights Management (DRM) action organized by Defective by Design. The action was at the Apple store in the Cambridgeside Galleria mall in Cambridge, Mass. We met up at 10:00 AM in a park across … Continue reading →

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Vim 7 released

Posted on 5/8/2006 by Ben

The big new feature is intellisense-like auto-completion.

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Free Culture Definition

Posted on 5/2/2006 by Ben

Benjamin Mako Hill and Erik Möller have launched the Free Content and Expression Definition, a definition of free culture along the lines of the Free Software Definition. It’s an effort to create a social movement around free culture and Creative … Continue reading →

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