Glyn Moody's blog

Openness is the Solution to the (Double) Subprime Crisis

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:17:05 -0700

As I listen to all this talk of lack of trust in the banking system, of inflated values ungrounded in any reality, of “opacity”, and of “contaminated” financial instruments, I realise I have heard all this before. In the world of software, as in the world of finance, there is contamination by overvalued, ungrounded offerings that have led to systemic mistrust, sapped the ability of the computer industry to create real value, and led it to squander vast amounts of time and money on the pursuit of the illusory, insubstantial wealth that is known as “intellectual property”.

The Other Vista: Successful and Open Source

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:06:15 -0700

There is a clear pattern to open source's continuing rise. The first free software that was deployed was at the bottom of the enterprise software stack: GNU/Linux, Apache, Sendmail, BIND. Later, databases and middleware layers were added in the form of popular programs like MySQL and Jboss. More recently, there have been an increasing number of applications serving the top of the software stack, addressing sectors like enterprise content management, customer relationship management, business intelligence and, most recently, data warehousing.

But all of these are generic programs, applicable to any industry: the next frontier for free software will be vertical applications serving particular sectors. In fact, we already have one success in this area, but few people know about it outside the industry it serves. Recent events mean that may be about to change.

Could Microsoft's Photosynth Have Been Free Software?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:09:40 -0700

Photosynth is one of the most exciting programs I've seen in a long time. It takes a group of photos, typically of a single geographical location, but possibly taken at different times by different people, analyses them for similarities, and then stitches then together into a smooth-flowing, pseudo-3D panorama. It's really great. Just two problems. One: it won't run on GNU/Linux; and two: it's from Microsoft, and so is unlikely ever to do so.

My question is this: Why didn't the free software community come up with Photosynth first?

What Comes After the Windows Era?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:12:24 -0700

As a computer journalist for the last 25 years, I've received a lot of review copies of software. As something of an obsessive magpie, I've tended to keep most of it, “for reference”. Until yesterday, that is, when I finally threw out all those copies of OS/2, Lotus SmartSuite, and my entire collection of Microsoft software. This included Windows NT 3.5, Windows 2000, Microsoft Office and many, many more. What's makes this little spring-cleaning exercise particularly apt as well as cathartic is that all of us - and not just me - may finally be witnessing the end of the Windows era.

Why We Must React to ACTA

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:53:40 -0700

A new global standard for the enforcement of intellectual monopolies is currently being discussed by representatives of the United States, the European Commission, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand. This new agreement is so important that it must be drawn up in secret, safe from the prying eyes of little people like you and me. Thanks, however, to the indispensable Wikileaks, a discussion paper outlining some of its possible proposals has surfaced, and from this it is clear that it represents a serious threat to online liberty in general, and to the practice of free software in particular.

How Should Mozilla Execute Its Vision?

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:52:47 -0700

The announcement by the GNOME Foundation that it is appointing Stormy Peters as its Executive Director confirms a suspicion that I've harboured for a while: that we are witnessing the evolution of major open source projects into new kinds of players in the computing world, ones that require full-time staff not just to run them, but also to articulate what exactly they are trying to do *beyond* the code.

How Can We Harness the Firefox Effect?

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:08:01 -0700

Three things are striking about the recent launch of Firefox 3. First, the unanimity about the quality of the code: practically everyone thinks it's better in practically every respect. Secondly, the way in which the mainstream media covered its launch: it was treated as a normal, important tech story – gone are the days of supercilious anecdotes about those wacky, sandal-wearing free software anoraks. And finally – and perhaps most importantly - the scale and intensity of participation by the millions of people who have downloaded the software in the last week.

But the question has to be: what now? How can we harness that amazing spirit, to make the Firefox Effect permanent, not just a media event that comes around once every few years?

Firefox 3 Is Given to the World – Or Maybe Not

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:19:29 -0700

As you may have noticed, Firefox 3 is released today. Excited by this prospect, the first thing I did when I got up was to rush to my computer to download it (yes, pathetic, I know). And what do I find?

The Meaning of Open Source

Fri, 30 May 2008 02:45:16 -0700

Like many Linux Journal readers, I have been upgrading my Gibbons to Herons recently. And like many readers, I imagine, I have been finding a few little challenges along the way. That was no surprise, since it's pretty much par for the course when carrying out a major upgrade. But something else did surprise me, although in retrospect I see that it shouldn't have.

Microsoft and ODF: Has Hades Gone Sub-Zero?

Thu, 22 May 2008 03:18:42 -0700

Most of the time, Microsoft's public declarations are pretty easy to parse. A bit of pre-announcement here, a touch of FUD there, with the odd dollop of feel-good waffle thrown in for good measure. Occasionally, though, it produces what can only be called a googly – not to be confused with a Google – with announcements like this one about adding support for ODF in Microsoft Office:

Should We Boycott Microsoft? Can We?

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:21:25 -0700

Captain Charles Boycott was an unfortunate chap. Not only was he the object of prolonged social ostracism, but his name has passed into history as both a noun and a verb describing that action. At the moment, the idea is much on people's minds because of suggestions that the Beijing Olympic games should be boycotted, but here I want to discuss something quite different: whether the open source community should be boycotting Microsoft, and if that is even possible.

Of Microsoft, GNU/Linux and Boiled Asses' Heads

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:58:03 -0700

There are many ways of peering into the future. This page lists 163 of them, including cephalonomancy (divination by boiling an ass head), coscinomancy, (divination using a sieve and a pair of shears), ololygmancy (fortune-telling by the howling of dogs) and tiromancy (divination using cheese). Me, I prefer to stick with the tried-and-trusted method of reading between the lines of Microsoft press releases.

Microsoft's Great Besmirching

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:52:57 -0700

I have been covering Microsoft for over 25 years - I've even written a few books about Windows. During that time, I've developed a certain respect for a company that just doesn't give up, and whose ability to spin surpasses even that of politicians. To be sure, Microsoft has crossed the line several times, but it has always worked within the system, however much it has attempted to use it for its own ends. No more: in the course of trying to force OOXML through the ISO fast-track process, it has finally gone further and attacked the system itself; in the process it has destroyed the credibility of the ISO, with serious knock-on consequences for the whole concept of open standards.

Has Dell Delivered on GNU/Linux?

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 04:49:51 -0700

Almost exactly one year ago, I made the following suggestion in the wake of Dell's long-awaited decision to offer ready-configured GNU/Linux systems alongside the usual panoply of Windows systems:

we must vote with our wallets. Assuming the Dell GNU/Linux systems are not hopelessly flawed in some way, we must all try to buy as many of them as we can (within reason, of course).

What follows is a short report on my own experiences of putting my money where my mouth is.

Why Microsoft's New EU Fine is Just Fine

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:46:54 -0800

News that Microsoft is to be hit with yet another fine from the European Union has naturally attracted plenty of attention, but it has also raised the old questions of whether such interventions by governments are justified or even do any good.

Microsoft's DreamSpark – What a Giveaway

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:46:44 -0800

Yesterday, Microsoft announced DreamSpark – an ironic name, since it actually lays bare Microsoft's worst nightmare: that more and more of tomorrow's programmers are growing up using free software for their studies, which means that as they move out into the world, there will be less and less demand for Microsoft's tools, and even fewer programs written for its platforms.

Is MySQL's Fate the Future of Open Source?

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:28:15 -0800

It's not every day that the entire technical press goes bonkers over news in the open source world, but that's what happened last week, when Sun announced that it was buying MySQL. Doubtless, the pleasant roundness of the sum involved - $1 billion – helped, as did the fact that most of that was cash. But leaving aside the sense of satisfaction that events in the free software world should be suddenly thrust centre-stage, Sun's move does raise a larger question about the fate of all open source start-ups.

Good Bill, Bad Bill, and The Art of Philanthropy

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:28:15 -0800

There's no doubt that 2008 will go down in history as the end of the first Microsoft era. This year, Bill Gates will finally hang up his Microsoft mouse and leave the company he cofounded over 30 years ago. Most people know that he's going off to spend the very large sums of money he has acquired from those Microsoft years, most of which has been used to set up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with $37.6 billion in assets. But what will that really mean for free software?

Show Us the Code

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:50:34 -0700

As I've noted before, I am something of a connoisseur of Microsoft's FUD against open source, in part because I believe each successive FUD-flavour of the month gives important hints about the evolution of the thinking and strategy within the company. The latest development in this area, which revolves around patents, is no exception – not least because I think people are drawing the wrong conclusions from it.

Meeting Microsoft's Patent Threat

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:50:34 -0700

So, the shape of the Great Battle begins to emerge. As reported by Fortune magazine, Microsoft's general counsel, Brad Smith, reckons free software infringes on no less than 235 of the company's patents:

Why Novell Must Not Crash and Burn

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:50:33 -0700

Not since SCO has there been a company so reviled by the open source community as Novell following its deal with Microsoft. Already there are some clear signs of the negative effects of that anger: senior coders have left the company; Novell has posted a loss for the most recent quarter; and there are calls for a boycott of Novell products – to say nothing of imminent changes to the GNU GPL that might well nullify the entire Novell-Microsoft deal. Some people are rubbing their hands in glee at the thought of Novell crashing and burning completely, but such a development could actually turn out to be one of the worst things to happen to free software.

Glyn Moody's blog

Openness is the Solution to the (Double) Subprime Crisis

The *Other* Vista: Successful and Open Source

Could Microsoft's Photosynth Have Been Free Software?

What Comes After the Windows Era?

Why We Must React to ACTA

How Should Mozilla Execute Its Vision?

How Can We Harness the Firefox Effect?

Firefox 3 Is Given to the World – Or Maybe Not

The Meaning of Open Source

Microsoft and ODF: Has Hades Gone Sub-Zero?

Should We Boycott Microsoft? Can We?

Of Microsoft, GNU/Linux and Boiled Asses' Heads

Microsoft's Great Besmirching

Has Dell Delivered on GNU/Linux?

Why Microsoft's New EU Fine is Just Fine

Microsoft's DreamSpark – What a Giveaway

Is MySQL's Fate the Future of Open Source?

Good Bill, Bad Bill, and The Art of Philanthropy

Show Us the Code

Meeting Microsoft's Patent Threat

Why Novell Must Not Crash and Burn

The Other Vista: Successful and Open Source