James Turner: 5 problems with the Open Source community
There’s no question that the Open Source community has a lot going for it.
Besides a staggering amount of developer power that can be turned against
important problems, the Open Source movement also has a passion and
commitment to its work that the commercial software world often envies. But
sometimes, the Open Source community can be its own worst enemy. Here are a
few reasons why.
1. Too many developers “scratch the same itch.”
We hear that Open Source developers come up with new ideas because they
“had an itch to scratch.” In other words, there was some need they had
for a new application, and they “scratched” it by coming up with a tool.
The problem is, it’s not uncommon to end up with two or three (or more!)
different packages doing the same thing. For a specific example, look at
what’s happened with the L... (more)
In keeping with our "Best of..." theme for this month, I'd like to provide
some of the essential titles for learning Linux and open source.
These titles were gathered with feedback from our readers as well as other
professionals in the field. We've divided the books into subject areas and
gathered as much of a consensus as possible. The list of subject areas does
not encompass all areas that an individual might need. For that reason I've
included a new category, Best Linux and Open Source Publisher.
Best Linux and Open Source Publisher
Tie: O'Reilly & Associates and Addison-Wesley/... (more)
The Debian Project was set for a new release of the Debian GNU/Linux
operating system at the end of May likely by the time you're reading this.
Though there have been intermediate updates to the current release, this one
is the first major new release in a few years. For many, Debian is the Linux
that you've heard of and may have used without knowing since it's the base
for other operating systems such as Ubuntu and Xandros as well as embedded
systems. Debian doesn't get the same mindshare among CxOs as Linux flavors
such as Red Hat and SuSE. But Debian certainly deserves that min... (more)
U R G E N T A P P E A L
Distributed Denial of Service Attacks against SCO, or anyone for that matter,
are a clearly unacceptable activity. While many in the Open Source community
are not pleased with SCO's lawsuit against IBM, or their proposed legal
challenges aimed at Linux users, these DDoS attacks do not promote the Open
Source cause, and are not consistent with Open Source values. The Open Source
community is based on the notion that principals of free speech should be
applied to software development. DDoS attacks clearly deny the victim the
ability to communicate freely ... (more)
Companies today are looking for potential cost savings, and outsourcing
appears to be the advantage needed to get ahead. The short-term gains are
apparent: a direct cost savings as more expensive employees are laid off.
Commonly overlooked are the underlying long-term economic effects of moving
these high-paying, skilled jobs overseas.
While the short-term gains of cheaper development and support are tempting,
these gains are also fleeting. Job losses in one sector are felt in others
through a cascade effect. The results are less demand for goods and much less
discretionary spen... (more)
Steve Suehring is a technology architect and engineer with a solid background in many areas of computing encompassing both open and closed source systems, he has worked with a variety of companies from small to large, including new and old economy, to help them integrate systems and provide the best use of available technologies. He has also taken a hands-on approach with many projects and frequently leads teams of engineers and developers, and has written magazine articles as well as a book on the MySQL database server. He has also performed technical editing on a number of other titles.
David Lucas
Cathy Lopez
Shaul Efraim
Terence Martin Breslin
Cory Marchand
David Hughes
James Carlini
John Iffert
Dan Stolts
Joe Zeto
