Why I use Open Source

I’m often asked why I use Linux and other Open Source software. There are a number of reasons, and some reasons that people assume, but are simply not true.

1. Because I hate Microsoft and/or Bill Gates — Simply untrue. I have no problem with Microsoft (or Apple for that matter) in particular. I do think the software is overpriced ($500 for an office package, no wonder most home users steal it).
   I also think the monopoly is hurting the industry. If 90% of people use Internet Explorer, web developers are forced to work around it’s poor implementation of web standards. And when the developers are working around the problems, there’s no pressure for Microsoft to fix the problems. More competition should lead to better products, both from the proprietary software companies and from the Open Source projects.
2. Because I enjoy tinkering — This one is true. When something don’t work and I can’t find a quick answer online, I like being able to find out what the problem is, and making an attempt at fixing it. (Most of the time it’s a library or something that I’ve messed up, or some problem config file, but occasionally I end up poking around in the source code.) Now, in defense of the Open Source projects on this one, I’m using a relatively new architecture (64bit Linux on an Athlon64) and use things before they’ve been totally tested and approved for the masses.
3. Because it does exactly what I need it to, without costing a small fortune. I have four computers running Linux at home all the time. One acts as a router & firewall, it does it’s job and lets me do things one of those internet router boxes won’t (i.e. it was a VPN to link a few friends’ networks for ages), and it was put together before those little boxes were as affordable and mainstream as they are now. Another is the MythTV box, once again just works–and cost a lot less than Windows XP Media Center Ed. There’s also my server, not a powerful machine by any stretch of the imagination (Celeron 366) but it serves files, web pages, a CVS repository, does domain logons, is an LDAP server, a MySQL database server and more.
4. I like the interface(s) — When I have to operate on a Windows platform, I end up installing things like Cygwin, GVim, etc. If I’m going to make Windows act like something it’s not, why not use the free software that I’m trying to make it emulate?

Now, I don’t want to be the person who says all software should be free and nobody should be paying for software, I currently work for a software company. I just like to suggest that people give it a shot. Try using Firefox, Thunderbird, Gimp, or OpenOffice.org and see if it works better for you, if it’s about the same, or don’t do what you need it to. If it does meet your needs, why are you paying for the others? Or why are you using the others illegitimately?

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SLUG Site Redesign

This weekend, I finished my redesign of the SLUG site. It now has (what I think to be) a cleaner design, and no longer uses tables for layout (with the possible exception of the NewsPortal pages).
I’ve also added a iCalendar version of our announcements that can be used with Mozilla Sunbird (or any other calendaring program that supports the protocol… KOrganizer can read the file, but I’m not sure if it’ll auto-update from the online one).
Anyways, give the page a look, and let me know what you think.

EDIT: I have confirmed that KOrganizer will auto-update a calendar from an online source, you just have to add it as ‘Calendar in Remote File’.

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15 Minutes of Internet Fame

This little site has gotten a lot more traffic than usual this week. My XFN Graph project got linked from Matthew Mullenweg’s site and has spread about the community a bit.
Luckily for me, this is my second 15 minutes of fame online. (The first being when I released png2html out into the wild)

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Sarah Slean Concert

Last night I went to a Sarah Slean concert at the Delta Hotel ballroom. It was a pretty good show. Justin Rutledge opened for her with some Christian-Folk-Country music. He was pretty good, although not really my style. Sarah Slean’s set was pretty good, lasting around an hour and a half or so. I hadn’t listened to a lot of her music before the concert; I only knew a couple of songs, which turned out to be the first few of her set. I’ll have to put some of her tracks into my regular playlist.

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Sin City

I just got back from watching Sin City. I thought it was good. Once again I had heard mixed reviews, but I think it’s the kind of movie that you’ll either really like, or really dislike, with not many in-betweens. It comes right from Frank Miller’s graphic novel of the same name, and it’s not like any other movie you’ve ever seen. It oozes style, done almost entirely in black & white, with the occasional splash of colour for effect. It’s also extremely violent, far surpassing Kill Bill (Vol 1… Vol 2 was more disturbing than violent). All of this, plus a dynomite cast make it a must see (provided you can handle the violence and comic book dialogue).

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On Intelligence

I just (last night) finished reading On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins with Sandra Blakeslee. It’s a great read, highly recommended to anybody with even the smallest spark of interest in artificial intelligence or intelligent systems. I found the book through an article in IEEE Computer.
The book starts out with the nickel tour of ‘classic AI’, which has led to some good technologies, but nothing that we’d really classify as ‘intelligent’. This leads into the discussion on the real definition of intelligence, which is not just intelligent behaviour. Hawkins puts forth a new framework for intelligence called the memory prediction framework, which describes how the neocortex acts as an auto-associative, hierarchical bank of memories. It boils down to the stipulation that what we know as intelligence is essentially the ability to predict the future based on past events.

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