The Future is Open...

[deadsuperhero]

Hey, all. I decided this would provide an interesting discussion. I've written about Open Source, Linux, and the power of communities.
You can read it on my blog:
Read it Here
I just want to raise a little bit of awareness about Linux, Open Source, and completely new concepts. Feel free to discuss it.
Cheers,
Alliance

EDIT- For those of you who don't like blogs, I've put most of the article below.

Today I'm going to talk about Linux. I'm not going to rant about how I got my license yesterday, or how I drove my car into town today. I'm going to talk about something different.
Have you ever noticed that Windows is incredibly common? It's THE Operating System, and Mac seems to be "the only alternative" ?

Let me tell you something. There are several alternate OS systems. There's Sun Microsystem's Solaris,, there's OS2/Warp, there's Amiga, and the list goes on.
However, Linux is more than an operating system. It focuses on the ideaology of a little something called Open Source.

What is Open Source? Quite simply, it's free software. Not just free in the sense that you don't have to pay for it. I mean true freedom. Don't like how one feature is in a program? That's ok, you can open the source code, change things for yourself, and make it to suit your needs. A lot of times, you don't even have to do that. Everyone contributes in Open Source. Let's say a project is started to help making surfing the web easier. But, let's say it's a little bit slow. That's where Open Source comes in. You (or somebody else) can open it up, tweak the codes, and speed it up a bit. Then, you put it online, tell some people, and somebody else makes your code even better. Open Source is true freedom.

Linux started out in the early 1990's by a guy named Linus Torvalds. He was working with a system at school that he didn't like, and so he decided to make his own. After months of hard work, he made the first Linux operating system. Then, he did what most companies would consider insane: he released it for free.
This started a movement. People thought it was a great idea to make Open Source stuff, and Linux developed wildly. It kind of had a rocky start, but because it was Open Source, that meant that anyone could help it grow.

So, it's not just a system. It's an ideaology. A way of thinking.
   In fact the whole concept of Open Source was started by a guy named Richard Stallman, back in the 80's. He worked on developing a free, Unix-like system. He invented the concept of copyleft, which basically meant that anybody could do anything with whatever product that happened to be part of his copyleft plan. With these concepts, he came up with the GNU Public License, a license that allowed everyone to contribute to Open Source. It began as the tool of free thinkers, and has impacted the computer world in more ways than you can imagine.

  I'm not saying that 'It's better than x product.' or 'More people use it.'
I'm offering something more than that: difference.
So many people think that just because Windows is the "leading Operating System" that everyone has to upgrade to the latest version. It's a way out of the mob mentality, and a way into the Open Source ideaology.

So, what does that mean? Does that mean that a bunch of people sat in their basements programming all day. Well, there's a bit of truth to that.
However, many companies have started contributing to Linux and Open Source.


-Sony
-IBM
-Verizon
-Dell
-Ubuntu Foundation
-Novell
-Open Source Foundation
-Mozilla (creators of Firefox)
-Google (many of their computers run on Linux)
-YouTube
-Wal-Mart (Actually sells some Linux computers)
-Hewlett-Packard
-Amazon (sells them)
-EnterpriseOne
-PeopleSoft Enterprise
-Oracle
-AOL
-AT&T
-BBC
-CodeWeavers
-Corel
-GarageGames
-Id Software (The creators of the DOOM and Unreal Games)
-Linpire
-Loki (Now out of business. Used to port awesome, popular games to Linux)
-Lucas Digital
-Motorola
-Tera Soft Solutions
-VIACOM / VIVA PLUS Fernsehen
-Xerox
-And many more.

Linux used to be for geeks. However, it is constantly getting easier and easier to use. There's a lot of different distributions out there, meaning tons of different flavors of Linux.

The one I prefer, and suggest is Ubuntu. It's very customizable, and it pretty much works out of the box. You can get it at www.ubuntu.com.

However, if that doesn't fit your fancies, there's other simple distros to try.
-Linspire: An extremely easy to use distro, though you have to pay money for an offical cd. You can try if for 30 days, though.
-PcLinuxOS: Another nice alternative for the desktop: http://www.pclinuxos.com/

It's only problem is wireless. You might have to mess around with that, but to save you the trouble, you could always buy a "Buffalo Air Station Turbo G", which recieves the signals, and you just hook it up to your ethernet port with a short wire. You might have to use this, seeing as some wireless card manufacturers don't make drivers for them. If you get the drivers installed, and they don't work, try taking the card out, and putting it back in. However, this is pretty much your only really serious problem.

Your next question is "Can I run Windows games in Linux?"
The answer is yes, for the most part. Some games run better than others, and some games don't run at all. There's a few places where you can get emulators to run them.

-ScummVM: A LucasArts engine, lets you play alot of LucasArts games from the 90's. (http://www.scummvm.org/)

-FreeSCI: Like ScummVM, except it's for old Sierra games. (http://freesci.linuxgames.com/)

-WINE: The granddaddy of Linux emulation. Although it craps out sometimes, it's a very nice emulator that can run a range of apps. It's free though. (http://www.winehq.org/)

-Cedega: Built on WINE, it lets you install and play your Windows games. It costs money to buy it, but it's a damn sweet emulator. They even have a library to see which games work with it, and how well they run. (www.cedega.com)

-CrossOverOffice: Built on WINE, lets you run Photoshop, Itunes, and even World of WarCraft without problems. You can go to their site, and even get a 30 day trial. (www.codeweavers.com)

Also, it's pretty easy to install apps in distros like Ubuntu. You can also get AutoMatix to install even more great free stuff. (www.getautomatix.com)
My favorite thing about Ubuntu is the community support. If you're stuck with something, zip on over to www.ubuntuforums.org, register yourself, and post what's wrong. Within a very short period of time, you'll get excellent advice on how to get around the problem.

So, I recommend you all take a look at Open Source, and Linux. Simply put, it's kickass.
Oh, and Linux is getting increasingly more moron-proof. It gets easier to use every day.
The Future is Open...

[TerranRich]

I won't pretend that I have the patience to read all that, but I got into a small argument with my father regarding open-source. I told him that the future of software would see everything be free. He just didn't understand how anything could be free, let alone computer software, but I told him about open-source and the power of the community and the fact that not everybody is a money-hungry, greedy whore. He still didn't seem to understand.

I too see the future in open-source.

[deadsuperhero]

I won't pretend that I have the patience to read all that.

Heh, that's ok. So long as the point of Open Source being good comes across, that's fine.
One thing that's sort of pissed me off lately, though, is the advertising.
Novell pretty much tries to spoof the "Get a Mac" ads, and I find them insulting.
Why can't they be inspiring and cool, like IBM's ads, with the Open Source Boy?

[passer-by]

I don't think it will be completely free. I don't think it is really free now, either.

In my opinion some of it will be free but big projects will have strict copyright and a price. The free ones will be provided to people for quite 'selfish' reasons: improvement of bugs that might went unnoticed and, of course, advertising.

Like when you go to a restaurant every weekend for years and pay a lot and they decide to give you every time a bottle of wine for free, to keep you doing that.

[SSH]

If you're explaining open source you need to make clear the distinction between free (as in priced at $0) and free (as in freedom). AGS is the former and not the latter. Buying a supported version of Linux is the latter but not the former.

[passer-by]

If I had something big in mind and needed some practice and lots of publicity and the public's trust, I'd offer very important productions for free (both 0$ and copyright free), so important that many people might think it's crazy, but it would be of profit to me in the long term. Even if it was only for my CV or my brand's PR.

[Akatosh]

It might be just my browser, but your blog is unreadable for me