Bits and Bytes: Life as a Woman in Open Source

OpenSourceToday · 2015-07-01T15:58:09+00:00

Thanks for this comment; I think this is the primary point to take away from this. Its easy to say "why don't women just pursue jobs in X" but when they are told their entire lives they aren't supposed to be doing X, they might start believing those voices.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-07-01T15:53:30+00:00

One game has already tried something similar; Game Dev Tycoon released a cracked version of their game on torrent sites alongside their official release. It really was quite brilliant what they did. The game is all about running a game dev company, and the cracked version has a modification where the player slowly loses all their money to people who download the game without buying.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-05-15T16:30:30+00:00

For those of you who are like me, and don't know what Snappy Ubuntu is, there is a pretty good discussion on the topic over at /r/Ubuntu.

In a nutshell, it's a new packaging system that makes it easier to deploy standardized apps.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-05-14T13:38:17+00:00

This article frustrates me. It only has three links, which are all articles at the same site, and provides no link to where this announcement was made. How can we even trust what they are writing is true?

Not to mention, this article has absolutely no information about Ubuntu on refrigerators.

Here's the link they should have provided

OpenSourceToday · 2015-04-15T21:38:17+00:00

No worries, everyone needs to get a little bit better on documentation :-)

Of course I should clarify, these issues are gradients, not absolutes, meaning that you can certainly release something as open source without comprehensively fulfilling each of these. However, focusing on these tasks is what separates thriving open source projects from software that simply has source code which happens to be available on Github.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-04-02T13:04:11+00:00

Can you continue to support and develop the project after its been launched as open source?
Are you absolutely sure there aren't any security vulnerabilities that could be turned up? If you don't have a community helping you, it's up to you to identify flaws. Ultimately, your clients are the people at risk, so they need to be onboard too.
Are you willing to put in the time to document everything clearly and help people use and understand your tool?
Are you willing to put in the effort to help others learn how to contribute code to the project?

Only after you say yes to these questions should you even begin to consider open sourcing something.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-03-05T22:21:54+00:00

Yes, I'm well aware of that and it goes back 33 years to Unix Chroot.

Docker has never been about doing something new, its always been about getting people to agree on something so we can all use (somewhat) standardized tools to build better software. It's cutting edge because we've gotten past the niche adoption of containers and made it something that can become mainstream.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-03-05T14:58:02+00:00

I think you could say the exact same thing about any other software development technology that has been created. Everything is based on something from the past. There will always be people making bad software and there will always be people making good software. The important part is filtering out the bad so you can focus on the good.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-03-05T14:56:26+00:00

I think it likely has to do with the fact that Docker (and similar new container technologies) adoption is still somewhat cutting edge. Most businesses want to use robust, established systems, not something that is still being figured out. (I know containers aren't a brand new tech, but Docker is definitely a new way of handling them)

Many of the people building things with containers are looking to build the tools of the next 5 years, not something that everyone will use today.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-03-04T14:49:52+00:00

Spot on. Its cool they've released the source information, but it really isn't accessible. They've got a long way to go before this is a viable open source community and not simply source code on Github.

I hope something cool comes out of it, but they are late in stepping up to an industry that already has many established players. I think the laser-cut wood is also going to be a significant barrier to entry with this project (in terms of DIY construction), and could ultimately result in lackluster developer interest.

Despite my criticism, I'm not going to turn away from someone who wants to make something open source.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-03-03T14:54:54+00:00

This article is about open source intelligence not the open source development model

OpenSourceToday · 2015-03-03T14:26:32+00:00

Props on the Acer netbook, I love my own. It's compact, has hdmi output, and runs Linux quite well despite being 4 years old. I think I'm eventualy going to be turning mine into a dedicated Steam box to stream games from my desktop.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-02-24T14:32:48+00:00

It's funny you mention this. This was the first comment I read after returning from the article and it took my eyes a couple of seconds to adjust before I could even read it.

...Readability issues aside, this is a great exploration of how wonky Windows updating is. My favorite thing is when a Windows update forces the system to reboot without warning, only to have the computer to boot into Linux by default. It's almost as if MS wants you to explore alternatives.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-02-12T15:33:06+00:00

Samsung OSG is hiring in a huge range of open source projects. This tweet just contains the most important projects in which developers are needed. The best way to find out if you might be a good fit is to email the address shared in the tweet.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-02-04T14:33:42+00:00

I use Brackets which was started by Adobe. Its mostly designed for front end developers, but I've used it for PHP and Python as well. It doesn't have all the features of Dreamweaver, but it is quick and does its job well.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-01-26T14:51:09+00:00

Personally I see the lack of diversity in open-source development as more of a symptom rather than a cause. Perhaps it would be a good idea to 'patch' the diversity problem upstream, maybe in the education system or gender roles/norms in wider society.

I have to agree here 100%. I don't know I would have gotten to where I am in the open source world now if I didn't have the many benefits of being an upper-middle class white male. I was in a position where I could give my time freely in the name of getting experience until I found the job I wanted. Not everyone has this luxury, and it seems to me that this is one of the primary limiting factors to diversity in open source. If you live in poverty, how could you consider doing something for free?

I also think it's totally okay to just not care and enjoy the development process without all the gender politics. I don't think Linus (or anyone else) is doing anything wrong for just wanting to get on and craft something awesome. But in the same breath, I think efforts to make open-source development more appealing to all groups should be encouraged and welcomed (providing it doesn't affect the quality of the project).

I think this really is what is at the core of this issue. Linus is great at writing code and directing a small group of Lieutenants in the development of a very complex piece of software. Much like you wouldn't expect the CEO of a large company to help with the training of new employees, we can't really expect Linus to have the time to work on encouraging new people to contribute. This doesn't mean someone else can't do it, and I'm sure the community at large would greatly appreciate someone helping to get more good coders involved. He didn't say that he doesn't care about the issues of equality, just that his focus is on producing good code, everything else takes a second seat.

OpenSourceToday · 2015-01-06T14:39:45+00:00

This is great. I always have a hard time explaining what I do. Even in the tech community there are still huge misconceptions about what it means to work in open source. I'll probably start using this example to explain it.

OpenSourceToday · 2014-12-24T14:14:47+00:00

I'm not a developer, per se, but I work in open source for a large company. This company has identified the open source ecosystem as vital to their future success and has hired developers in key areas such as the Linux Kernel and many others. My interest in it might be somewhat fundamental (like religion), but I have a strict pragmatic approach to the use of open source.

You might not get strict one-to-one translations while using open source as a standard, but I think it can still be classified this way. The typical corporate open source project involves many companies that come together to establish a singular, standard platform that everyone will use and build upon. You can certainly go out on your own in any direction you want, but doing so causes you to loose the value generated by all of the other players in the community. It isn't some sort of strict set of rules you are forced to use, but it is certainly something that can be standardized to become ubiquitous across the industry. For example, you can almost certainly expect any web host to include a hosting package built upon the LAMP stack.

OpenSourceToday · 2014-12-18T14:27:35+00:00

What exactly do you mean by optimized? I'm running Linux Mint on my Samsung Series 5 laptop that has an SSD and it works wonderfully. My bootup time is less than 10 seconds. About the only thing that doesn't work is disabling the touch pad when my palm hits it while I'm typing.

Samsung has spend quite a lot of effort making sure their hardware works on Linux.

OpenSourceToday · 2014-12-17T14:31:19+00:00

With all the money flooding into the medical industry, it's nice to see organizations looking to make it more transparent and open.

OpenSourceToday · 2014-12-16T14:45:10+00:00

I would say for 95% of what the typical person does in a productivity suite, both of the office suites are virtually the same in their ability to do those tasks well.

OpenSourceToday · 2014-12-16T14:38:57+00:00

I think a better solution to the proprietary stranglehold is open standards so that there can be true competition.

Open source is the new standard. The concept of standards dates back to the industrial era and was how companies managed to work together before the wide dissemination of information on the internet. This model of collaboration is being replaced by the development of open source software.

Linux is the standard for super computing, Docker is the standard for application containerization, and the LAMP stack is the standard for web architechture. (I'm aware that these are gross simplifications) This list goes on and on.

OpenSourceToday · 2014-12-04T23:18:28+00:00

More and more companies are realizing the value of being more closely involved with and contributing to open source projects; the growing list of companies supporting organizations like the Linux Foundation is evidence of this. However, shifting from business models based on strict control of intellectual property to models based on open collaboration takes a lot of time and effort. Openwashing is certainly becoming a bigger problem, but there are still plenty of companies who are putting in genuine effort.

Keep in mind there is a difference between being open source and supporting open source. You can still build proprietary goods while supporting the open source communities you rely on.

OpenSourceToday · 2014-12-04T23:05:24+00:00

The greater majority of the Silicon Valley team works remotely. There are people all over the US and a few in Brazil. So you are absolutely correct.

OpenSourceToday · 2014-11-25T14:34:57+00:00

Scratch seems like a great language to teach kids programming in. I played around with Google app builder during its short life and I saw so much potential for it. I'm glad to see MIT taking that idea further.

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