Brian's blog feed

More on the “I’m Linux” Video Contest

Amanda McPherson — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:17:54 -0800

Last week, we launched the Linux Foundation video site. The site will of course house the growing collection of Linux Foundation original video from our events, but I hope it will also become a place for the Linux community to share their Linux video content. The intention is for it to become the central location for Linux videos, so Linux users and developers can easily find pertinent and educational Linux video information. If you have Linux video, we would appreciate your uploading it to this site.

The Week of the Linux Desktop Debate

Amanda McPherson — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:40:52 -0800

It never seems to fail: this time of year brings out predictions, and with them debate about the future of Linux, especially on the desktop. It’s a good sign that we go through this back and forth: it shows the wide and diverse community of users, developers and pundits who feel they have a stake in Linux. (Either that or they just need something to write about this time of year.)

So this week, a dozen articles and posts appeared either stating or refuting that this year really will be the year of the Linux desktop.

Linux Foundation December Newsletter

Amanda McPherson — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:49:02 -0800

In this month's Linux Foundation newsletter:

Vista Orphans and IBM’s Open Collaboration Client

Amanda McPherson — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:05:05 -0800

I may work at the Linux Foundation, but I have never publicly been caught saying 2009 (or 2008, or 2007 etc) would be the year of the Linux desktop. (I’ve never even said it privately even though I use a Linux desktop everyday.) While Linux is an important desktop option and companies such as Novell have made significant corporate wins, it has failed to garner enough users on the desktop to put a significant dent in Microsoft’s marketshare. One of the key reasons for that has been most corporations standardizing on Windows.

Shouldn’t Obama use Linux, and not a Mac?

Amanda McPherson — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:35:35 -0800

For those of you who haven’t heard, Barack Obama will be the first president to have a laptop on his desk at the oval office. (He does however have to give up his trusted Blackberry.)

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in a conversation with Arianna Huffington on MSNBC, today said that he hopes Obama uses a Mac and not a PC. Excuse me Eric (and Arianna) isn’t there another option you may be missing?

Jon Corbet, Shadow Warrior?

Amanda McPherson — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:53:32 -0800

Next week, our Linux Foundation Japan office hosts the Linux Foundation Japan Symposium, an event that was started to bring leading Linux luminaries to present and interact with local senior software developers, with the goal of increasing open source participation by talented Japanese developers. The result of these events is the widening of a global Linux community, which benefits everyone.

Will We See Another Operating System?

Amanda McPherson — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:46:17 -0800

Two weeks ago we published a research paper estimating the development cost of a community Linux distribution. It was a fantastic project for the three of us who worked on it. The findings were surprising, even to me. It would take over $10 billion for a company to develop the software represented in Fedora 9.

Linux Foundation End User Summit Wrap-Up

Amanda McPherson — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:14:50 -0700

We have a great sense of timing at the Linux Foundation. Who else would schedule a summit for large Linux users on Wall Street the day after “black Friday”? Actually we were worried that the news of the financial markets would distract our end users from attending the event. Luckily for us, this didn’t seem to be the case. (Jim Zemlin lightened the mood with a clever presentation you should check out here.)

Free Riders, Canonical and Greg KH

Amanda McPherson — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:15:41 -0700

On Wednesday kernel developer and Novell fellow Greg KH opened the first annual Linux Plumbers Conference with a keynote aimed squarely at the team behind Ubuntu, Canonical. I think Greg could have used the opportunity to inspire more than attack, but Greg obviously feels strongly about the necessity for upstream development. It’s also Greg being Greg: I believe he carries around a spoon just in case he encounters a hornets’ nest.

Does he have a point?

From Ghana to Wall Street: The Linux End User Summit

Amanda McPherson — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:06:01 -0700

Earlier this year, at the urging of the Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board, I decided to create a new event: the Linux Foundation End User Summit. The intent is to combine a small group of large Linux users (generally on the server side) with core community Linux developers. The result will hopefully be technical innovation and knowledge sharing between those who use the software and those who develop it.

Shuttleworth’s Apollo Challenge to the Linux Community

Amanda McPherson — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:55:23 -0700

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu, recently wrote a post detailing Ubuntu and Canonical’s contributions to the upstream projects that make up their distributions. There he mentioned a challenge he recently issued to the Linux and free software community: build a Linux-based UI and computing experience on par with Apple’s within two years.

What’s Your Open Source Dunbar Number?

Amanda McPherson — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:48:55 -0700

This morning my “ambient awareness” (meaning the passive awareness I have from my news feeds and contacts on Twitter and Facebook) is buzzing with Clive Thompson’s excellent article in yesterday’s New York Times.

The End Of the OS As We Know It

Amanda McPherson — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:45:22 -0700

So the bloggers over at ZDNet have once again proclaimed the end of the operating system. Larry Dignan says:

The operating system may be losing its luster. In fact, you could argue that the operating system–Linux, OS X and Windows–will become an application that just happens to boot first. And hardware vendors are on to the OS’s diminishing importance.

He goes on to say:

Kernel Etiquette: A Guide on How to Participate

Amanda McPherson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:04:59 -0700

At the last Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, the late Joe Barr wrote up this exchange on day one of the conference:

Could Linux Change Democracy?

Amanda McPherson — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:22:44 -0700

Deb Gage at the San Francisco Chronicle recently profiled a voting machine that will be given a tryout at a mock election at Linux World, opening today. Attendees of the conference will have the ability to cast their vote for one of the two candidates on the US presidential ticket. Besides obvious political fervor of many open source devotees, what’s the connection between this machine and Linux?

Welcome Brian Proffitt to the Linux Foundation

Amanda McPherson — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:54:46 -0700

I’m very pleased to welcome Brian Proffitt to the Linux Foundation. Brian will be serving as the community manager and editor for the Linux Developer Network. We’re extremely lucky to lure Brian away from Jupiter Media, where he built a thriving community and reported on Linux for such publications as Linux Today and Linux Planet.

Linux is Big in Japan — Our Symposium

Amanda McPherson — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:17:57 -0700

The 8th Linux Foundation Japan Symposium took place last week in Tokyo. The goal of these symposiums is to bring leading Linux luminaries to present and interact with local senior software developers, with the goal of increasing open source participation by talented Japanese developers and also fostering Linux usage in the Japanese IT industry.

Andrew Morton was on hand to speak about the status and direction of kernel development, covering kernel process material and specifically highlighting areas that need to be worked on including solid state disks and the linux-next tree.