OpenBSD 6.9 was released on May 1, 2021, marking the 50th consecutive release from this project. Using a cadence of two releases a year (recently copied by e.g., the developers of Java), they’ve made two releases every year, through the dot-com bust, Y2K, the 2008 downturn, the 2021 pandemic. …
Free Software is software that you can use without paying for it. Open Source software is software that you can get the source code for; unlike most commercial software which is closed source. Open Source software tends to be more reliable and have bugs fixed more quickly compared with …
Everybody's heard the hype about the closed-source vunderkind cell phone that is supposed to "revolutionize" the industry. And maybe it will do well in the mass "consumer" market. But there is an open-source phone that has many of the same features - including a full-sized touch …
When I mentioned on a mailing list that I don't use Skype because it's closed source both at the protocol level and at the code level, and further they don't even provide binaries for OpenBSD, a colleague on that list wrote back:
This is pretty strange... Are you on strike or something? Do you
use …
I've wrtten here before about Asterisk, the open source PBX telephone system that runs on generic PCs (among other platforms). Now there's an open source cell phone! OpenMoko is the software project (see their wiki page first; the home page is kind of restricted); the hardware is custom-made by FIC. …
In the bad old days of computing - the mainframe era - it was common for IBM to try to prevent customers from using cost-effective third-party solutions in conjunction with expensive IBM mainframes by spreading "Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt" about their smaller competitors. While it may …
At this week's JavaOne, Sun announced that they have uploaded more pieces of the JDK to the open source repository. At the same time, they announced that there are some big missing pieces that will not be available under GPL until somebody replaces them, which may take six-twelve months. There …
CBR Online quotes senior Microsofthead Steve Ballmer speaking to analysts about their deal with Novell: "I would not anticipate that we make a huge additional revenue stream from our Novell deal, but I do think it clearly establishes that open source is not free," he said, "and open …
Further to my post below about OSS Java, Sun is having an online webcast today, November 13, at 0930 PST (1230 EST); please watch it if you can and if you are interested, at https://sun.com/javanews/
As you probably know I am involved with the OpenBSD project, which also creates OpenSSH, the world-leading secure network protocol. What's interesting about OpenSSH is that most operating system vendors bundle it with their systems, including Apple, HP, Sun, IBM, Redhat - pretty well everybody …