Looking for a Linux-friendly groupware suite that can take the place of Microsoft Exchange in your organization? You’ll find a wide range of alternatives for Linux that offer most (if not all) of Exchange’s functionality.
If your organization has standardized on Microsoft Exchange, switching may be a bit tricky (but can be done). But if your organization hasn’t started down that path, it’s a good habit to avoid. The good news is you’ll find several robust Exchange alternatives for Linux.
Take Thunderbird, mix liberally with calendaring, instant messaging, and release it on Linux and Windows. What do you get? Spicebird, a collaboration client that remixes Thunderbird to bring the creaking mail client up to date for today’s users.
Spicebird has been in the works for some time, but the 0.8 release is finally ready for a wider audience. To see if it’s ready for everyday use, I downloaded Spicebird 0.8 a week ago and started testing.
During GUADEC 2010, the GNOME Release Team met and decided to hold the GNOME 3.0 release for the March 2011 release instead of September 2010. Even though it means an additional six months to GNOME 3.0 is officially released, it could be a good thing.
So, why is GNOME 3.0 slipping? That was the first question I had for GNOME’s Executive Director and GNOME developer Vincent Untz when they contacted me earlier this week. The simple answer is that the GNOME Release Team evaluated the components that make up GNOME 3.0 and decided that they’re not ready to go gold. GNOME 3.0 is more ambitious than the average GNOME release.
Just got back from OSCON and was fortunate enough to get an Android phone (Nexus One) at the “hands on” event Wednesday night. Even better, it’s actually meant to work on AT&T, so I was able to pluck the SIM out of my iPhone and pop it in the Android as soon as I got back to my hotel that night.
Have been using the Android since, and really like it. It has a few flaws, but overall I’m enjoying it and probably won’t go back to the iPhone (though it’s nice having a spare phone just in case…).
Some of the things that have struck me so far about the Android/Nexus One vs. the iPhone or just in general:
Where the Android doesn’t quite live up to the iPhone, it’s usually a matter of missing by a few inches, not falling yards short. Where Android is better than the iPhone, it’s a night and day comparison. Is Apple likely to open the App store so competing apps will be available? Hell no. Is Apple likely to open up iOS? Of course not. Will Apple license iOS to other manufacturers? Doesn’t seem very likely — especially after buying their own chip design company.
Is iOS a better user experience? Yes, but by a slim margin. It’s not like the difference between the iPhone and the Blackberry, where being poked in the eye with a sharp stick seems preferable to using a Blackberry all day…
That’s all for now. It’s only been a few days, so we’ll see what the next few uncover. More than likely, though, I’m going to be sticking to Android. Despite its shortcomings, I like the fact that it’s based on Linux, more open than the iPhone OS, and I can get Android devices in several shapes and sizes from different vendors/carriers.
Mandriva 2010.1 “Spring” edition has arrived just in time for the summer months. It’s a bit tardy, but worth the wait. Despite the company’s well-publicized financial woes, Mandriva has delivered a solid and user-friendly desktop release.
Mandriva is a bit of a standout among Linux distributions. It doesn’t quite fit with the community distributions, and it doesn’t quite fit with the corporate distros either. Mandriva provides a free distribution on DVD that’s all open source software, and a PowerPack edition that contains some proprietary software like support for non-free multimedia codecs. The business model that Mandriva has pursued over the past 10 years hasn’t been particularly successful — the company has been through bankruptcy once and has been having financial problems again recently.
But the company does provide a solid and user-friendly Linux distro. To test out Mandriva 2010.1, I grabbed the DVD for x86 and gave it a spin. Mandriva also provides a live CD version, but I wanted to try out GNOME, KDE, and LXDE.
July has been inhumanly busy with work, getting settled in, and travel — not necessarily in that order. More regular updates will resume shortly. In the meantime, how you doin’?
As with any emotional issue, a few folks have not only conflated stealing with copyright infringement… they also jump on anyone who argues against calling it “stealing,” assuming that if you don’t think it’s stealing, you must also be a thieving bastard who just wants to “steal” their precious content.
That may be so in some cases, but I don’t fall into that category. Otherwise, I’d keep my mouth shut and just keep infringing.
I believe in paying for content, whether it’s music, books, movies, or whatever. But there’s some legitimate questions around what’s actually ethical when it comes to copying media. In my mind, none of these questions exist with actual theft/stealing. There’s no grey area for theft: If I take something from you, it’s clearly stolen and I had no legal or ethical right to take it.
However, there are many instances of copyright infringement that constitute a grey area for many people and bear discussion:
And on and on. There is no lack of clarity with real theft. There’s virtually no grey area. Even if a person steals nothing more than a loaf of bread to survive, it’s clear that it’s theft even if we believe it’s justified.
At any rate, the real issue here in my mind is that of freeloading: You are not stealing from an artist, you’re freeloading when you enjoy the benefit of their work at no expense to yourself.
I would argue freeloading is a much, much better term: It’s as negatively charged as theft or stealing, and is more descriptive. Most of us have had experience with freeloaders that enjoy a public or private resource without contribution. The freeloaders should be chided, educated, and encouraged to pay their way.
