Interesting Turn of Events

Today in the Linux news section we see Microsoft wanting to enter into opensource. A sure sign of weakness. Being pumelled on all fronts they are finally coming to the negotiating table. Well they will not open up windows code that is for certain but at least they are acknowledging the opensource movement. The problem is the lumbering giant has tons of cash to sit on and has completely stifled creativity. There is no where to go but down. Goliath has blurred vision now and is starting to stagger. Does this mean that Linux will take over? No. I do not think so. It will mean the market will open up some more to fresh ideas and we can finally move forward. Computing has been held hostage to the tyranny of proprietary licenses long enough. Computing is a right now rather than a privilege. Even the Miranda rights entitle people to use of telephone technology. Computing has become the newest can't live without technology. I agree with Torvald's quote from his book Just for Fun, "Software is Like Sex, it's best when it's free" Microsoft's attempts to be greedy have hindered the progression of computing by decades. I am Leary of them coming to the opensource community but we do need to welcome them to listen and see what they have to offer and even more importantly see if they are finally willing to listen as well.

Microsoft asleep at the wheel?

After reading the current issue of Fortune's article about Microsoft being displaced by search engine Google in desktop applications I see the passing of Microsoft market dominance once and for all disintergrating. Alas Microsoft has become complaisant and lazy and failed to stow away any R&D for a rainy day. Clawing up the side of the search engine mountain only for the mountain to grow taller every day and the alternative applications nipping away at their heels. I had wondered why so many had invested in what I considered way overvalued Google stock. I just could not understand why anyone would pay quadruple what other search engine stocks were listing for and once more while not having half the services the others do. Now I see the bigger picture. Google is aiming at taking down Microsoft in a different sort of way. They will develop opensource solutions for their instant messaging, calendaring, internet browser, and so forth from existing products while simultaneously pursuing lesser known applications. Makes sense. They operate more efficiently letting others do more of the coding for them to adapt to while spending their acquired capital on building new and exciting applications. I never thought Google would go this direction but they have certainly caught Microsoft off guard. I also found out that Microsoft employees are leaving in effigy. This is not a good sign for ole' Bill. When your top talent leaves the company is going to be on life support soon. This is one indication of corporate decline. Will the future have Google all over it? Too early to say. I hope not. Getting rid of one monarch just for another is not a step forward. I also have learned that Microsoft has finally decided to make Linux portable to it's server systems tools so the two can be intergrated. While I know less about servers than the desktop I still find this a Linux triumph! With such enormous sums of cash reserves you would think that Microsoft would have the brains enough to develop its own flavor of Linux considering it is half done for them already. As a friend of mine says "they're just stuck on stupid" I guess. They can't see the forest for the trees or Linux as superior.

Linspire endorsing piracy?

I could hardly believe the article myself when I read it. When I first started reading the article I thought it would have had something to do with Microsoft's battle with piracy that somehow was giving Linspire an edge. As I read on I found some meaning in what the CEO of Linspire was trying to say. Since Microsoft is so entrenched in the PC market the fastest way for Linux to spread is by going back to its roots and spreading it for free much in the way Torvalds had intended it to be. I think that it is somewhat foolhardy to advertise this when you're in the business of making money on distributing the product but getting it out there is the most important thing. AOL does it with their CD's that give you so many hours of free time. Maybe this is the route some will take to get the Linux movement going. Momentum is the key. Once the movement gains some momentum the problems will more or less begin to fix themselves. Piracy continues to be a problem world wide so it seems odd that this company would endorse not receiving any money for their hard work. Gaining that foothold in the market is not only the why but it is the how in Linux making inroads with consumers. So often I still run into people that believe that Linux is a small geeky command line driven OS. Admittedly in some cases it is, but that is only because the person that made the distribution chose to make it that way. There is enough free GUI interface for Linux available to get it to perform just like or better than the broken windows systems most people are running today that it is not valid excuse anymore. But defeating the perception that Linux is not ready is the challenge that needs to be addressed. If you're a programmer or even just a Linux dabbler, educate the masses! Go forth and not just evangelize Linux but crusade for it! Many tout that Linux can't beat windows, it doesn't have to because Microsoft is hanging itself.

Campaigning for Linux

I read an article today about a gentleman that has found that Linux is the way to go after being infected by an internet worm. Linux has been and will be the future of computing. As he said in the article Linux has progressed in a fifth the time it has taken Microsoft to. As people begin to understand that they have an alternative to the constraints of proprietary software the world will become a much more efficient place. One thing that severely limits our growth is the lack of access to high technology. A few years ago I myself had no idea what computers did, how the internet worked or what opensource software was. I knew that there was a difference between potato chips and microchips but other than that....! Working towards spreading the opensource movement is the way America can cling to its gains in the world. I think now of how inefficient my time was and how unconnected I was. I had no internet so you had to listen to outdated news on the radio or TV or read really outdated news in a newspaper. The hunt for the yellow pages anytime I wanted a phone number of a business or my paperback address book for my acquaintances. Now with Palm pilot and PC no more looking for that stuff and no more time wasted on that although I do a lot of useless surfing now. If more people had the chance to become connected they would also see the benefits of how lightning fast they can look up information. Driving directions and gas prices are my favorites nowadays. If you are a Linux enthusiast like me, or simply want to know a little more about about it, by all means explore the subject and you will find some truly great things on the web or even at the dingy, dank and often deserted almost fabled library. You know the place with the books? No, not Borders, the library!

America Doesn't Care

As noted by former President Carter, "We don't really give a damn". This statement pretty well sums up the Corporate American attitude, but I feel that it does not really reflect the attitude of the general population. Corporations of course do not care about anything that does not in some way stimulate growth and profits but the people? Who gave till it hurt after the tsunami? Who sent large amounts of aid to war torn Sudan? Americans, even those against the Iraq war, have reached out to help people in that country. He is right in his stance on the corporate take on helping stem the tide of disease by pursing profits instead. The poorest nations in the world stand no chance of getting any control over disease because they clearly can't afford it. The numbers that he indicated were atrociously in our attempts to render aid to less developed nations. Christ said if a brother asks for something to give it to him and even to give beyond what he asked for. As a nation that is run by a supposed Christian , I find myself remembering another passage more vividly about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Many things are being done in the government in HIS name but really they are nothing more than self gratifying measures that lack any real substance. Technology is one contributing factor that hinders these poorer countries from helping themselves. America was able to build its own infrastructure through hard work and dedication to development but in turn now we offer our knowledge at price that many can not pay. What I find to be even more revolting is that any attempt made by these countries to better themselves without being in the confined grip of American corporations is quickly thwarted by perfunctory donations. Handing these countries things that they can use for the short run but tying them to our pockets by offering further assistance at a price once the press has disappeared from the scene after capturing the god deed on film.

The Technical revelation

In the news today on Yahoo's technology section, there was an article about China and India's governments discussing plans to team up and dominate the world technology market. By the repeated offshoring to India for software development it has come to the point where Microsoft will finally loose it's dominance in the market as well as Intuit. As competition from abroad comes into the US the price of software will fall substantially. In its ever futile effort to sustain itself, Microsoft will most likely try and retaliate by introducing cheaper software overseas and abandon the striped down versions of its software in an attempt to squash any competition. There are already new players in the market such as Red Flag software that are making inroads in Asia quickly and may export to the rest of the world faster than anyone anticipated. If the US is to remain competitive, not just in the software arena, but as a global player in other markets as well we need to change our current education system to accelerate learning and make it available to everyone. China has already figured out that education is the key but in the US education is still rationed to the privileged few than to the masses in an attempt to preserve an outdated caste system that no longer benefits the nation or the world. We have a rich base of untapped potential in the US that could spur economic growth that would be staggering if people had the educational backgrounds and their economic restraints removed to propel us forward. Instead of focusing on preserving the status quo we should in turn be looking to future development by investing heavily in our youth and in all capable Americans. If we maintain the current position to boost short term profits for a select few then we are doomed to languish in mediocrity in the future. Do something about it now! Register to vote, vote for people that actually stand for education rather than just claim that they do, mentor others so they can draw for your experiences weather good or bad and make a commitment to your own self improvement.

Open Source Java revisited

Well once again Sun has backtracked on it's statements. Today the headlines read that Sun is still against the GPL and considers their form of opensource to be better. Basically it's you can do it your own way as long as we still profit. They have decide as I gather it to keep Java from the opensource idea now. It's essentially their only real product with any future, and that future is shakey at best. As more and more opensource applications become available, Java will lose more of its appeal. The one nice thing about Java is that the programs can be run in any OS. With all the new opensource projects coming out and being available for multiple platforms, the need for Java is dwindling. It is required to run openoffice.org releases. I see that Sun will eventaully cease to exist as a viable company because they have as Jim Collins would say, failed to develop their "hedgehog"concept. Part of that concept involves knowing what you can and can not be the best in the world at as Collins points out. Sun really needs a reality check because they're mediocre at everything it seems except not finishing products and accruing debt.

The Minuteman Project

Being in AZ this make us look like it's still the wild west. We need to stop illegal immigration because it is keeping wages suppressed and costing taxpayers their hard earned money to support people that have no legal right (note the word ILLEGAL in illegal alien) to be here. Our national guard is deployed so they are not an option in handling the situation. Sooner or later the volunteers will grow frustrated and someone will end up dying because there are simply not enough agents to respond to the number of calls that will come in. "W" is not interested in really stopping any illegals and wants to give them amnesty in the guest worker program. During the presidential run though so did Kerry so next time that will weigh more in the primary at least for me. I think that the reason the US has gone so far right is because people are not balancing who can do the best job with the emotion they take on the issues. When they campaign now they play the public emotion like a violin when they have no intent of following through on many promises. We need to look more at qualifications than just letting popularity prevail.

Firefox bounty

Now that Mozilla is no more and Firefox will be their primary focus, security has come to the forefront. Anything has to be an improvement over the Swiss cheese that is internet explorer but with Microsoft having a new browser in the works Firefox may not be able to sustain the needed momentum to expand, or even hold for that matter, their market share. I do encourage everyone to pressure their schools and employers to go opensource though. Even though it may have some security flaws it is still a much more cost effective option for many. There is an opensource project management program that can save a user roughly 700 dollars, and fully functional office suites that cost nothing to obtain and use. Opensource was originally developed for Linux users but I am seeing more and more windows based programs appearing. The Firefox bounty for fixing holes in the browser may extend into the future to other opensource project's. While opensource projects can be taken for free and used it should be remembered that to keep the development ongoing you should at least donate a little to the projects. It helps speed improvements and will ensure the survival of the very projects. Even if you only paid 5 bucks for each that's well below what proprietary software runs. Furthermore you may even be able to get paid to help fix the software if you are a programmer.