free software

  • The long tail of LibreOffice

    In recent years, the term ‘long tail‘, which was originally coined in 2004 by Chris Anderson, has certainly caught on. Anderson’s coining of the phrase drew on a February 2003 essay by Clay Shirky entitled “Power Laws, Weblogs and Inequality”, which noted that a relatively few blogs have many links to them, but there’s a “the long tail” of millions of blogs with only a handful of links each. Anderson described the effects of the long tail on current and future business models and later developed it into a book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, published in 2006.

    You may be asking what has all this to do with LibreOffice, the popular open source office suite? Well, the Document Foundation, the organisation behind LibreOffice, has recently published a blog post showing a long tail graph in relation to the developers working on LibreOffice.

    image of the long tail in action on LibreOffice. Click on the image for a full size version. Image courtesy of The Document Foundation
    The long tail in action on LibreOffice. Click on the image for a full size version. Image courtesy of The Document Foundation

    The image depicts developers who worked on LibreOffice’s code base in 2012. Last year a total some 320 developers worked on improving LibreOffice’s code. Of these, a majority were volunteers and a minority were people paid by major open source companies such as SuSE, RedHat and Canonical, as well as many smaller organisations such as Lanedo, which provides customisation services for open source products such as LibreOffice.

    The graph of the individual contributions has the shape of a “long tail”, whilst the pie chart illustrates the work done by the top 33 developers with 100+ commits, consisting of 16 volunteers and 17 paid developers (11 from SUSE, 5 from RedHat and 1 from Canonical).

  • Microsoft deal protested by Egyptian openistas

    A group of technology activists gathered in front of the Cabinet office in Cairo on Sunday 30th December to protest an Egyptian governmental deal with software giant Microsoft to buy software for the public sector, the English language Egypt Independent news site reports.

    On 26 December, the official Facebook page of Hesham Qandil, the Egyptian Prime Minister, announced that the Cabinet had concluded a deal with Microsoft for the next 4 tax years to buy and maintain licensed software worth nearly $44 mn. for the government.

    “What the government is buying is the licence to use software and not new [software],” says Ali Shaath, co-founder of the Egyptian Association for Free and Open Software and the Arab Digital Expression Foundation.

    The activists’ main contention with the deal is that Microsoft products bought by the government are imported, expensive and their code source is usually closed and protected by rigid copyright rules which do not allow for knowledge sharing and generation. Meanwhile, an alternative lies with locally conceived, less expensive software, whose open code source enables copying, sharing and building more software.

    “We’re talking about the same computers, the same software, no extra development and no extra training,” Shaath said, explaining that the free and open software alternative will cost zero in comparison since its licences are free of charge and its only cost is derived from customisation and training.

    The activists believe that free and open software developers is could readily provide the software the government needs. A case in point was the portal developed with free and open software to provide voters with information ahead of the March 2011 referendum.

    NB: this post was originally published on Bristol Wireless.

  • Seasonal good GNUs

    Once again, there’s been a bit of seasonal silliness going on courtesy of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), but in a good cause, as the FSF’s news pages report that, in the run-up to Christmas, FSF activists visited a local Microsoft store in Boston, Massachusetts during its “Tech for Tots” session to wish shoppers a Merry Christmas with copies of the Trisquel GNU/Linux operating system, a free software replacement for Windows 8. The activists were accompanied by a gnu (free software’s buffalo-like mascot) and sported Santa hats in the spirit of the season. Their action drew smiles from shoppers who had expected to see costumed people giving gifts, but not quite like this.

    image of FSF's pre-Christmas action in Boston, MA
    Spreading the good GNUs about free software

    On its Windows 8 campaign site, the FSF criticises Windows 8 for restricting computer users’ freedom to modify and share the software on their computers. This action follows a similar one at a Windows 8 launch event in October, when the FSF made international news announcing its campaign to ask computer users to skip Windows 8 in favour of free software (posts passim).

    FSF executive director John Sullivan said, “Tablets and laptops are popular gifts for the holidays, but people often overlook the restrictions that manufacturers slip under the wrapping paper. These restrictions end up locking people into one company’s products, and complicating things that should be simple like moving programs from an old laptop to a new one. We invite people to join us by going to http://fsf.org/windows8 and signing the pledge to switch to a free operating system. If you already use one, help a friend or family member switch.”

    Hat tip: Roy Schestowitz

  • TDF @ end of 2012

    the LibreOffice logoAs the year draws to a close, Italo Vignoli of The Document Foundation, the organisation behind LibreOffice, the free and open source office suite (and a great replacement for the overpriced, bloated MS Office. Ed., has posted the message below to the TDF discussion mailing list under the subject line ‘TDF @ End of 2012’.

    Perhaps the best news is towards the end: the appointment of the TDF’s first paid employee, Florian Effenberger.

    This is a very long message, although I have tried to summarize in a single text what we – members, developers, volunteers, native language communities, advocates and supporters – have achieved during 2012. I am sure I forgot some achievements, because they have been too many.

    TDF has started 2012 with a hackers community of 379 individuals, mostly volunteers, which has continued to grow steadily – month after month – and has now reached the amazing figure of 567 developers (320 active during the last 12 months, which means that LibreOffice is the third largest open source desktop software project after Chrome and Firefox).

    In early 2012, The Document Foundation – an truly community based independent organization – has been registered in Berlin, under the form of a German Stiftung (supervised by the German authorities). The oldest German Stiftung dates back to 1509, and over 250 of them have existed for over 500 years (so, stability is not an issue).

    Once established, The Document Foundation has immediately attracted additional sponsors and supporters. Intel and Lanedo have joined the Advisory Board, while Project LiMux (City of Munich) and MIMO (the French Government organization responsible for the migration to FOSS) are actively supporting the project.

    The Document Foundation and LibreOffice role inside the free software ecosystem have been recognized by the French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault in a formal letter to the members of the French government.

    In 2012, The Document Foundation has announced LibreOffice 3.4.5, LibreOffice 3.5, LibreOffice 3.5.1, LibreOffice 3.4.6, LibreOffice 3.5.2, LibreOffice 3.5.3, LibreOffice 3.5.4, LibreOffice 3.5.5, LibreOffice 3.6, LibreOffice 3.5.6, LibreOffice 3.6.1, LibreOffice 3.6.2, LibreOffice 3.5.7 and LibreOffice 3.6.3.

    In addition, the hackers community has started working on LibreOffice 4.0, which is already at Beta 2 and will be announced in February 2013. LibreOffice 4.0 will be a milestone release, and the first of a new generation of free office suites.

    In order to further improve the quality of LibreOffice 3.5, 3.6 and 4, the QA community has organized several bug hunting sessions during 2012 and a full bug hunting marathon in December 2012 (with over 500 bugs chased during a full week of tests).

    LibreOffice community has met at FOSDEM in Brussels, at LinuxTag in Berlin, at LibreOffice Conference in Berlin, and in Hamburg and Munich for TDF Hackfests. In addition, local hackfests have been organized in the Netherlands and Brazil, and LibreOffice volunteers have attended several local events around the world.

    In February 2012, TDF has launched LibreOffice Ask page, and the Windows version of LibreOffice has been made available for downloads from the Intel AppUp Center targeted to mobile PC and UltraBook owners.

    In September 2012, TDF has joined the OASIS Consortium (Organisation for the Advancement of Standards in Information Society (OASIS). At the end of the same month, the new Membership Committee has been elected by TDF members: five members – Sophie Gautier, Fridrich Štrba (Chairman), Eike Rathke, Cor Nouws and Jean Weber – and two deputies – Simon Phipps and Leif Lodahl.

    LibreOffice has been awarded the title of Free Office Suite of the Year 2011 by LinuxQuestions, and Best Office Suite 2012 by Linux Journal (in both cases, getting over 70% of the votes). In Brazil, LibreOffice has received the “Technology For Citizens Award” from Guarulhos City.

    During 2012, many private and public organization have announced the migration of their desktop office suite to LibreOffice: several French ministries (500,000 desktops), city of Munich in Germany (15,000 desktops), the Capital Region of Denmark, Vieira do Minho in Portugal, Limerick in Ireland, Grygov in the Czech Republic, Las Palmas in Spain, the City of Largo in Florida, the municipality of Pilea-Hortiatis in Greece, Regione Umbria, Provincia di Milano and Provincia di Bolzano in Italy, and the Public Library System of Chicago

    The Document Foundation has also announced the Certification Program for LibreOffice, and the first group of certified developers. In 2013, the program will be extended to professionals active in migrations and trainings, and later to L1 and L2 support.

    The last, and in my opinion the best news of 2012, waits TDF under the Xmas tree: in fact, just a few days before Xmas TDF has hired the first employee, to manage the infrastructure and take care of administrative tasks (which, thanks to the extremely fast growth of the project, are now a full time task): Florian Effenberger, who is already popular inside the project for his volunteer work.

    The Board of Directors – with the obvious exception of Florian – has unanimously chosen him for infrastructure and administrative tasks, as he is already familiar with both, being the architect behind the entire infrastructure and the person who has been talking with the authorities during the process of putting in place The Document Foundation.

    Florian Effenberger has been active inside the OOo project from 2004 to 2010, as infrastructure and then marketing lead, and has been a founder of TDF. During all these years he has put an incredible amount of hours – of his personal time – behind free software, OOo and LibreOffice.

    From now on, Florian will devote his working hours to TDF, and will add the usual amount of volunteer hours for his BoD duties (which must be volunteer based, according to our statutes).

    Florian Effenberger is going to be a tremendous asset for TDF, because he knows perfectly our ecosystem, he is a true free software advocate, and he is knowledgeable not only on administration and infrastructure but also on marketing.

    Looking at 2013 and beyond, The Document Foundation is ready to face every challenge, and win over the competition not only by providing a better product but also by creating a different and better ecosystem for free office suites.

    So far, TDF has been an exciting journey, and I am sure that what has happened is just the first chapter of a long and successful history.

    Best wishes to all of you. Ciao, Italo

    That’s a very impressive year’s work, TDF. What will you do in 2013?

  • E17 – there’s no rushing a good thing

    Slashdot reports that E17 – the latest version of the Enlightenment desktop environment – has just been released. The previous release of Enlightenment took place in 2000 – 12 years ago!

    The release announcement is very sparse (apart from a list of the E17 developers):

    E17 has been in development for a long time, and there have been a lot of people involved over the years. At this time, the first and final official release of E17, I think it’s important to name names and thank everyone who has been involved over the years.

    (The names follow here)

    That’s it! Here endeth the release announcement.

    Screenshot of the new e17 release
    Screenshot of the new E17 release

    I’ve occasionally used Enlightenment and found it to be a very lightweight, nifty desktop environment/window manager. It comes as the default desktop environment in Bodhi Linux, a distribution especially made for running on older hardware.

    E17 is also known as Enlightenment 0.17 and the new release has also been codenamed the “Lucky Rubber Ducky” by its developers.

  • GNOME starts privacy fundraising campaign

    Gnome logoGNOME provides one of the major desktop environments for Linux and has just announced a new Friends of GNOME campaign aimed at making GNOME one of the most secure computing environments available.

    To quote the GNOME Foundation:

    GNOME was founded with the goal of promoting software freedom. We remain committed to the empowerment of our users and are always looking for ways to improve our software. We want people to be safe, in control, and enriched by the software they use. The GNOME community was inspired by the keynote delivered by Jacob Appelbaum on the topic of privacy at this years’ GUADEC* and was reminded of our mission. To this end, GNOME is working on a new campaign focused on privacy. Through this campaign, we aim to enhance GNOME 3 so that it offers one of the most secure computing environments available.

    Proceeds from the privacy fundraising campaign will be used to fund development efforts such as:

    • application containment
    • enhanced disk encryption support
    • Tor integration
    • user control over diagnostic reporting features
    • robust VPN routing
    • application integration with system-wide privacy settings
    • controls for how GNOME devices are identified on local networks
    • anti-phishing features for Web, GNOME’s web browser
    • Donate today to help make GNOME safer than ever!

    This campaign hopes to raise some $20,000.

    * = GNOME Users And Developers European Conference

  • Recommended browser plug-in: TinEye

    Have you ever come across an image online and wonder if you’ve ever seen it before?

    TinEye reverse image search engine logoIf so, the browser plug-in I’m recommending today is for you: the TinEye reverse image search plug-in, which is available for the Firefox, Chrome/Chromium, Safari, Opera & Internet Explorer web browsers. The links in the previous sentence will take you through to the relevant download page for your browser(s) of choice.

    TinEye is a reverse image search engine. It finds out where an image came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist or if there is a higher resolution version.

    If you’re a photographer or a photo blogger, this plug-in can be invaluable for finding out if your work is being used without your permission, particularly as some media organisations seem to regard any image posted online as fair game and thus free of both copyright and royalties.

  • Linux drops support for i386 chips

    image of Tux, the Linux kernel mascot
    Tux, the Linux kernel mascot
    One of the great things about Linux is that it will run on really old hardware.

    However, there are some limits to this and The H Online reports that Linus Torvalds, the keeper of the Linux kernel, has integrated various changes developed by Intel employee H. Peter Anvin into the main development branch of Linux to remove support for the 386 series of processors from the Linux kernel. As a consequence, the Nx586 from Nexgen, a company that was later taken over by AMD, will also no longer be supported; design ideas for this processor were later incorporated into AMD’s K6, which continues to be supported.

    These changes will stop Linux from running on the system for which Torvalds first began to develop Linux. Linus’ response to this was: “I’m not sentimental. Good riddance.”

    Intel i836 processors, otherwise known as 80386 processors, were first introduced back in 1985 and worked at a then dazzling top speed of 33 mHZ.

  • LibreOffice 4.0.0 Beta1 released

    the LibreOffice logoIT news website The H Online reports that The Document Foundation has announced the release of the first beta of version 4.0 of LibreOffice, the free and open source office suite for Linux, Windows and MacOS.

    The stable version of LibreOffice 4.0 is scheduled for release in February 2013.

    The Document Foundation advises that this version should not be used for “mission-critical” jobs and the main purpose of the beta release is to find and report bugs, notify developers of regressions, confirm bugs already reported in 4.0 and verify existing bug fixes.

    The main changes from previous releases are set out in the release notes.

    For those interested in even more bleeding-edge binaries of our current development, The Document Foundation recommends checking out its nightly builds. However, these are are potentially even less suitable for productive work and come with the warning caveat emptor.

  • First alpha of Ubuntu 13.04 released

    Ubuntu logoI’ve been running Ubuntu Linux on one of my machines for almost 3 years now and have found it to be very stable and reliable. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution with a very regular release cycle, with a new version coming out roughly every six months and every other release being offered with long term support (LTS), which has now been increased to 5 years.

    Yesterday an announcement was made on the Ubuntu mailing list that the first alpha release of what is to become Ubuntu 13.04, codenamed Raring Ringtail, has been made available.

    Making the announcement, Stéphane Graber wrote:

    The first Alpha of the Raring Ringtail (to become 13.04) has now been released!

    This alpha features images for Edubuntu and Kubuntu.

    At the end of the 12.10 development cycle, the Ubuntu flavour decided that it would reduce the number of milestone images going forward and the focus would concentrate on daily quality and fortnightly testing rounds known as cadence testing. Based on that change, the Ubuntu product itself will not have an Alpha-1 release. Its first milestone release will be the Final Beta Release on the 28th of March 2013. Other Ubuntu flavours have the option to release using the usual milestone schedule.

    Pre-releases of Raring Ringtail are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this release ready.

    Alpha 1 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs.

    While these Alpha 1 images have been tested and work, except as noted in the release notes, Ubuntu developers are continuing to improve Raring Ringtail. In particular, once newer daily images are available, system installation bugs identified in the Alpha 1 installer should be verified against the current daily image before being reported in Launchpad. Using an obsolete image to re-report bugs that have already been fixed wastes your time and the time of developers who are busy trying to make 13.04 the best Ubuntu release yet. Always ensure your system is up to date before reporting bugs.

    Edubuntu:
    Edubuntu is the educational flavour of Ubuntu. Based on the standard Ubuntu desktop, it features educational tools and content for schools and at home.

    The Alpha-1 images can be downloaded at:
    http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/raring/alpha-1/

    More information on Edubuntu Alpha-1 can be found here:
    http://www.edubuntu.org/news/13.04-alpha1

    Kubuntu:
    Kubuntu is the KDE based flavour of Ubuntu. It uses the Plasma desktop and includes a wide selection of tools from the KDE project.

    The Alpha-1 images can be downloaded at:
    http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/raring/alpha-1/

    More information on Kubuntu Alpha-1 can be found here:
    https://wiki.kubuntu.org/RaringRingtail/Alpha1/Kubuntu

    Regular daily images for Ubuntu can be found at: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com

    If you’re interested in following the changes as we further develop Raring, we suggest that you subscribe to the ubuntu-devel-announce list. This is a low-traffic list (a few posts a week) carrying announcements of approved specifications, policy changes, alpha releases and other interesting events.

    http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce

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