Open Source Delivers

Yes, today is the Facebook IPO debut, but it’s not the only thing that happened in the technology world this week. Red Hat’s signature open source platform turned ten, the Apache Foundation reported unprecedented growth, new mobile project data was released and Tizen is running Android apps!? Warning: no Facebook IPO stories below! May 15th [...]

On the mobile o/s battlefield there are three Linux-based operating systems fighting to establish themselves along with the big boys of Android and iOS. Two of these are relatively new – Tizen and Bada – and the third, Palm/Web OS, is making a play to regain its previous stardom. With Android and iOS holding shares [...]

Two top universities are collaborating on free online courseware, the European Union is developing an open source toolkit, Facebook’s Open Compute Project is gaining new members and you may be able to carry your desktop in your pocket sooner than you think. Here’s what happened in open source this week: Barb Darrow reported on the [...]

The big stories this week were the reunion of Android with Linux in the new kernel 3.3 release and the news of the Icelandic public sector’s year long program to move all its software from proprietary to open source. Read about these stories and more: Stephen Shankland reported on the inclusion of Android code in [...]

A revolution is underway in the automotive industry, and no, it’s not only about hybrids, electric vehicles, or improving the efficiency of the internal combustion engine. Open source software (OSS) is now driving changes in the automotive “human-to-machine” interfaces. If you take a step back, you can see two recent waves of change in the [...]

We got another reminder of how disruptive open source software is to mobile computing this week, when Linux and Android merged back together. This appears to be good news for a number of parties, but Android and Linux developers and users seem particularly likely to benefit. The inclusion of Android code in the Linux kernel [...]

Open source software has become an integral part of all aspects of software development.  Take the meteoric rise of Git for example.   The open source version control system has rapidly become one of the most popular version control systems used by software developers today. Git is fast, flexible, and full of developer-friendly features, which explains [...]

The Linux desktop was always thought to be a requirement for the full success of Linux. For, if the desktop interface wasn’t easy to use, cool even, then hundreds of millions of users out there would stick with alternatives.  But as Linux has grown in popularity and market share, the desktop has not lived up [...]

This past weekend, GTUGs around the world met for a two-day hack-a-thon event to introduce Android application development to thousands of new people. The challenge was set to build an Android app, competing with other Google community groups around the world for global prizes. Local Android experts were available on site. I attended the local [...]

I just got back from the Linux Foundation’s second Android Builders Summit (ABS) in Redwood City, California, where most of the approximately 250 attendees were hard-core, experienced embedded Linux developers. This was only the second year for ABS, but this two-day conference was packed with great technical sessions that explored the gamut of possibilities for [...]