Crystal Clear

I’ve had the opportunity lately to try to find online computer help for some software issues on computers that I use. I noticed a striking difference depending on the operating system for which I needed help.

Just about every forums for help on a Microsoft Windows platform had the same answer for just about every problem: Is your anti-virus up to date? Have you checked for spyware? Did you try rebooting? Did you reinstall the program? If you still have a problem, reinstall operating system. At some point, you may fix the problem you are having, but unless it is a virus or spyware issue, the actual cause of your problem usually remains a mystery.

However, on forums for help with Linux operating systems, you may actually find someone else who had the same problem you had and the steps to fix it. If not, you may be asked to post debugging info, which means you’ll usually receive a response from a developer. You might end up at a bug report which means you’ll have to wait for the fix. You might have to reinstall the program (or install the latest version where the problem is fixed), but you’ll never have to re-install the OS for a program problem.

I know that I like to know why things stopped working even if I can get it to work again. A black box solution, where I have no idea, always leaves me wondering if it will happen again, without warning.

Comments(1)

I was glad to read recently that Greenpeace, an environmental organization that has done a lot of good advocacy (and some not so good), has also released an open source tool.

They hope the tools will encourage developers to create tools to assist in global warming campaigns. More about Project Melt

Comments(0)

This writer says it better than I can, so I’m simply copying his text verbatim. For more, read the full article.

…Desktop Linux has matured so well that you could deploy it in a greenfields scenario, i.e, one where there were no computers used previously, and the users would take to it as quickly as they would acclimatise to Windows.

That doesn’t mean that migrating to Linux is a quick or painless process, however. Unfortunately, Windows is an extremely difficult platform to move away from. This has nothing to do with the qualities or inherent capabilities of Linux mind you. Migrating from Windows to the Mac would be about as painful. And the Mac is considered to be the most polished and easiest to use of desktops.

…Due to the reality that Windows ships with so little functional software, you need to acquire an awful lot of software – office suites, graphics suites, calendaring, educational, development, technical, specialist business software and more. With few exceptions, most of that software you buy for your Windows PC is in reality only available on Windows. Certainly, almost all of the Microsoft-published software is only available for Windows. This is an example of Application Programming Interface (API) lock-in. That is, lock-in which occurs when software vendors don’t write portable code, but lock their application development to a single (or small cadre) of operating system platforms and programming libraries.

However, there is software available that is cross platform, most of it from the Open Source community.

OpenOffice.org was designed to be a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office… Firefox is available on Windows, while Internet Explorer isn’t available on Linux. The Gimp is available on Windows, while none of Microsoft’s graphics apps are offered for Linux. Scribus, an excellent entry-level desktop publishing suite runs on Windows. MS Publisher doesn’t return the compliment for Linux. Apache? MySQL? PostreSQL? Sendmail? All run on Windows as well as on Linux. Microsoft’s IIS, MS SQL Server and Exchange, refuse to consider Linux. Programming languages? There are perhaps 50 open source interpreters and compilers which support Windows – not one of Microsoft’s supports Linux.

While Microsoft goes out of its way to curb your every opportunity to migrate away from Windows, the open source community makes every effort to be platform agnostic and ecumenical, once again, giving you as a user, control.

So now what? Try out some of the excellent open source cross platform programs. Once you are familiar with them, if you want to switch to Linux, you would have no problem using it, plus gaining advantages of security and stability!

Comments(0)

Dr. Derek Schuurman, professor of computer science at Redeemer University College, spoke to fellow faculty on February 15, 2006 about free software and the free university (as in the Free University in Amsterdam and Kuyper’s intentions for it). Universities were started to share and exchange ideas among peers and the logical outcome of that would be to do the same with computer software both used and developed at a university.

Mostly professors from other disciplines at this liberal arts university in Hamilton, Ontario, attended the gathering, but some students and alumni also were present. Schuurman began by giving an overview of free software, what is open source, and contrasted this to proprietary software. Many of the professors are mainly computer users and are unfamiliar with the underlying technologies.

Redeemer University College is a Christian college and Schuurman then turned to reflecting on how Christianity interacts, if at all, with software development, and especially with open source software. He stated that the language of open source and the development paradigm have many aspects with which Christians can agree. This includes sharing and helping others and freedom.

Schuurman next talked about Abraham Kuyper and put forth ideas about Neo-Kuyperianism with regards to Open Source Software. Kuyper is a recent, influential thinker in Reformed theology, and Redeemer has Reformed roots. Kuyper talked about two kinds of scientific development, Christian and non, and would have extended that to computer science, but Schuurman would rather speak of Christian software development as being distinctive, but having difference as a consequence, not an aim. In order then to have faithful Christian software and technology, the only way to affect change is if it is open and able to be changed. Therefore, open source provides an excellent avenue for faithful Christian scholarship.

He quoted Neil Postman, who in Technopoly, states that technology is not neutral, but rather is value laden. All technology makers embed their values in their products, which are then biased toward certain users. Schuurman mentioned two values easily seen in current technology: consumerism and greed, both of which would be non-Christian values.

Christian approaches to technology, as mentioned by Schuurman from Quentin Schultz’s book, High Tech Worship, are either (1) rejection of all technology, (2) adoption of technology exactly how others use it, (3) adaptation by asking how, where, when and why to use technology, and (4) creation by changing and shaping technology. With open source, one has an opportunity to participate in creating new technology and software, and this is why Schuurman wants Christians to be aware of the open
source movement and to play an active role.

Schuurman identified four aspects Open Source software allows which are of particular value to Christians. First, better stewardship of money and resources is possible. Many programs are free, and much of the software can be run on older hardware, extending its usefulness. Second, by sharing information and software, people can follow the command to “Love your neighbour” and can also help out the under privileged. Third, collaboration and peer review can flourish and encourage further insights and developments. Fourth, open source software allows Christians to participate in the shaping of technology.

During the question period, many professors expressed their appreciation at learning about something completely new and somewhat foreign. A few expressed concern for developers who seem to just give away their time and get no reward for their work. Schuurman and members of the audience spoke of how many of the main developers are employed by various organizations, and that those organizations are willing to pay them and have the final product be open source. One professor then asked how he could try out these ideas since he runs Windows and knows very little about Open Source software. Many examples of Open Source software for Windows were mentioned (Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org), and Schuurman said there usually are Linux users willing to help others install Linux for those interested. Schuurman also mentioned that many of the professors at Redeemer are already using open source, since they had recently began using Moodle, a course management system.

Comments(0)

I wrote a brief article for News Forge on a meeting in Hamilton last week. They took out some of the colour: I listed a bunch of jokes that were told, but the main message is there: “Votes trump money.”

Comments(0)

When I talk to people about Linux or OpenOffice.org, invariably their first question is: “Will it be compatible?” They most often mean compatible with the Microsoft Word or Excel documents. Since Microsoft does not make MS Office for Linux, a separate office suite must then need to be able to open and save MS Office documents.

In my experience, the conversion mostly goes without a hitch. In 10 years I have rarely had a document completely unreadable. But, since the MS Office file formats are not public, I could never say that compatibility is 100%.

All the talk with Massachusetts moving to Open Document Format has started to change this. Microsoft has been unwilling to move their format to the Sun and IBM backed ODF, but has recently stated that they will ensure their new XML format for the next version of MS Office will meet the open standards required by Masschusetts.

This is great news because now people can decide on what Operating System and which Office Suite to use based on features or price or ease of use, rather than having the compatibility trump card limit those choices. This is very good news for everyone!

Comments(0)