Sow I was looking further at Symbian development tools, and discovered their Open C lib, which "provide a Linux-like, vendor-neutral C-programming interface to core functions on S60 devices". And I wanted to watch their screen cast, and was surprised it was proposed as a downloadable.... .exe file!
Why?!
Saturday, 11 August 2007
Firefox: the next step
Remember the time when many doubted Firefox would reach 10% market share? It's been some time now that Firefox reached and surpassed this level, and the evolution of the project makes it look to the next step: improve rentention rates (this is the percentage of people downloading Firefox actually continuing to use it). This retention rate is suprising low, at about 25%, and a new plan is in the works to improve this retention rate.
I was actually surprised at this low retention rate. I thought people downloading Firefox were already convinced that it was needed to switch, which would have given a higher retention rate than 25%(only 1 in 4!).
I haven't seen documentation about their methodology to get this 25% figure. It would be an interesting read.
I was actually surprised at this low retention rate. I thought people downloading Firefox were already convinced that it was needed to switch, which would have given a higher retention rate than 25%(only 1 in 4!).
I haven't seen documentation about their methodology to get this 25% figure. It would be an interesting read.
Thursday, 9 August 2007
[SOLVED] PDA Keyboard too small
You do have a hard time trying to hit the right key on this damn small keyboard of your PDA? Here's, the solution: get your thumbs whittled. After aesthetic surgery, is this the start of geek surgery?
Open source VoIP doubts?
Reading the article entitled "Doubts persist about open source IP telephony", I'm happy to see that the first edition of Profoss is targetting the exact questions mentioned in this article: long term costs, comparison with proprietary solutions, security, deployments in professional environments plus integration with your current system, Free or propietary.
If you're looking for objective information about professional use of Asterisk, I hope to see you on 9&10 october in Brussels! I'm sure you won't regret your participation!
If you're looking for objective information about professional use of Asterisk, I hope to see you on 9&10 october in Brussels! I'm sure you won't regret your participation!
Vim in Eclipse
If you're a vim addict, but need to use Eclipse, you can have your way thanks to the Vim Plugin for Eclipse.
It is based Vim tip #1031 to embed vim in your Java applications, thanks to the Java terminal emulation JTA.
Netbeans alsa has an external editor module, but things don't seem to be active, with no Vim 7 support.
Update: on the other hand, Netbeans has nbvi, a Netbeans module to integrate a java vi/vim clone. And this module is actively supported, with a release early july (2007).
It is based Vim tip #1031 to embed vim in your Java applications, thanks to the Java terminal emulation JTA.
Netbeans alsa has an external editor module, but things don't seem to be active, with no Vim 7 support.
Update: on the other hand, Netbeans has nbvi, a Netbeans module to integrate a java vi/vim clone. And this module is actively supported, with a release early july (2007).
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
Freespire 2.0 released with proprietary bits
So, Freespire 2.0 has been released by Linspire. It is based on Ubuntu and "Enhances the Popular Ubuntu Distribution by Adding Proprietary Software, Drivers and Codecs". This will be shocking some people, but is seen by others as very positive.
I've personally never used Linspire nor Freespire, but their focus on non geek PC users and their support of several FOSS initiatives are certainly positive. Is that erased by their inclusion of proprietary software in their distribution? Is it that negative if this inclusion of proprietary software enables its distribution to be used by non geek users, and this way introduce Free and Open Source software to new users?
There could be another way: educating people. But is it really possible to educate people so that they understand the importance of open formats and free software? To the point that they refuse to use proprietary software? I'm afraid not. A lot, and mean a lot, of people really don't care and don't understand the importance of Free Software and open formats.
These days, even some Free Software diehards are communicating with MSN for practical matters. Maybe we should accept Freespire's proprietary bits that give Linux users a legal way to watch proprietary video formats for practical matters? At least Freespire's users will be watching these videos legally, not like some Linux users using windows codec dlls with (e.g.) mplayer.
Anyway, whatever the way we get there, I hope we can get rid of those proprietary formats. When you see how things have progressed with the Open Document Format, and the existing alternatives like Ogg Vorbis and Theora, there's still hope. In the mean time, some people will compromise but hopefully they will not forget the importance of open formats and Free Software.
I've personally never used Linspire nor Freespire, but their focus on non geek PC users and their support of several FOSS initiatives are certainly positive. Is that erased by their inclusion of proprietary software in their distribution? Is it that negative if this inclusion of proprietary software enables its distribution to be used by non geek users, and this way introduce Free and Open Source software to new users?
There could be another way: educating people. But is it really possible to educate people so that they understand the importance of open formats and free software? To the point that they refuse to use proprietary software? I'm afraid not. A lot, and mean a lot, of people really don't care and don't understand the importance of Free Software and open formats.
These days, even some Free Software diehards are communicating with MSN for practical matters. Maybe we should accept Freespire's proprietary bits that give Linux users a legal way to watch proprietary video formats for practical matters? At least Freespire's users will be watching these videos legally, not like some Linux users using windows codec dlls with (e.g.) mplayer.
Anyway, whatever the way we get there, I hope we can get rid of those proprietary formats. When you see how things have progressed with the Open Document Format, and the existing alternatives like Ogg Vorbis and Theora, there's still hope. In the mean time, some people will compromise but hopefully they will not forget the importance of open formats and Free Software.
Linux mobile phone from Motorola
Motorola is shipping a linux powered phone.... in the US. The RAZR2 V8 is apparently focused on multimedia capabilities. No trace of it on the Motorola Belgium website.
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