Often I get questions regarding the software that I use on a daily basis. While I use Firefox, the GIMP, Amarok and VLC daily, I also use a fantastic FTP client, FileZilla, many times a day. In the past I have used clients such as CuteFTP and WS_FTP, but these require payment of $30+, so my trials would always expire forcing me to change. Then, a couple of years ago, I came across FileZilla, one of the most highly downloaded applications from SourceForge.net. Not only is FileZilla open-source (under the GPL), but it is also available on all major systems - Linux, Mac, and Windows.

The current stable release, 2.2.32, was released in April of this year, while the current unstable, 3 Beta 11, was just released a few days ago. Currently, I am running a previous beta release and have noticed no issues - so if interested, I recommend downloading the most recent beta rather than the stable. As far as installation is concerned, most Linux distributions will have FileZilla in their repositories, making it a simple apt-get install filezilla away on many Debian-based distros and available in the package managers for others. Those using Macs, the .tar files are available on the FileZilla page at SourceForge.net and for Windows users, the .exe installer is also available on the FileZilla page.

Follow the link for the rest of the article. (Read more…)

Yesterday I was over at the XKCD website (no, it’s not a radio station), created by the one and only Randall Munroe, and came across a few comics about open-source. I figured these would be fitting for this website so here they are!

For those non-geeks, Richard Stallman is the founder of the GNU project and possibly the biggest hippie when it comes to software activism. Basically, he is a really cool guy that I wish I could meet. Interested in more? Go read about him!

Just a few minutes ago I was looking through statsistics as to where my site traffic comes from and noticed a new website, FSDaily.com, on the list. I had never heard of this site, even with all of my research into free and open-source software. The name stands for Free Software Daily and the site is essentially a user-contributed community like that found on on Digg, but with a focus on free software. My Amarok review was posted on the site and I was very impressed with how popular it appeared to be with the FSDaily community. FSDaily also uses the Pligg Content Management System, which I have been considering for the upcoming redesign of Shift+Backspace.

I was so impressed, not just with the content, but also the overall design of the site so I decided to email the creators in praise of their work and what they appear to be contributing to the free and open-source community. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any contact information, although I do believe I added one of the creators as a friend. Hopefully one of the creators will find this article and send me an email as I would love to learn more about FSDaily, its purpose and perhaps grab an interview.

I encourage anyone interested in free and open-source software to bookmark FSDaily.com, visit often and add me as a friend (username: antiprophet).

Keep up the great work FSDaily,

Cole

Yay! Over a month ago I placed an order with Amazon.ca for three books. I knew they would not be shipping until early June as none of them were currently in stock. Anyways, I received them today and am so excited to begin reading and posting reviews on each book. Unfortunately, I am currently swamped with schoolwork and Shift+Backspace, so it may take quite a while to get some reviews out.

Here are the three books I received, 2 of which will fit in very well with topics on Shift+Backspace:

The Success of Open Source, by Steven Weber

Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software, a collection of works from many authors

The Ecology of Commerce, by Paul Hawken

Currently, I am working my way through No Logo, by Naomi Klein, but may have to set it aside to begin my new books!

If anyone has any comments on these or any other books you would like to suggest please post a comment or email me.

Cole

Everyone has software that they always install whenever they format their computer. There are dozens of such applications for me. One of which is the Avant Window Navigator. Apple has had tremendous praise for their OS X operating system and one feature simply known as “the Dock“. This is exactly what Avant attempts to replicate and I must say the creator, Neil Patel (see his blog here), has made a great piece of software.

As with nearly any software designed for Linux there are tons of customization options for the Avant Window Navigator. Colours by the bushel, fonts, behaviours, layout, and more can all be changed through the “Avant Preferences” menu. Applications can be added to the navigator by simply dragging the icon from the applications menu to Avant. When these applications are opened (by a single-click), the triangle below is removed notifying the user that the software is open; even applications that have not been added to the bar (for shortcut purposes) appear as Avant is designed to replace the taskbar and therefore shows icons for all running applications.

Above is a screenshot of my Avant Window Navigator with my various programs appearing (as you can see I am rocking a sweet icon set based on OS X) including Firefox, Amarok, The GIMP and Audacity. One thing that I am particularly fond of when it comes to Avant is that when an action occurs in a program that is not currently active (ie. get and instant message), that icon begins to bounce and therefore directing attention towards that application.

If you are looking to acquire Avant Window Navigator you can get the source as well as some .rpm’s at the Google Code site here; or, if you are an Ubuntu user, you can find instructions on how to use the repositories here. I am looking forward to seeing future programs designed by the author of the Avant Window Navigator. Once again, be sure to check out his blog, here.

I would also like to note that there are many other “dock-like” applications for Linux such as KoolDock, KXDocker and KSmoothDock. I would love to hear what other software people use to customize their Linux (or Windows) desktops. Feel free to leave comments or email me!

Cole

Before my full-time migration to Linux, I always used iTunes for playing my music and managing my iPod. I had always thought iTunes was as good as it could get as far as playing and managing MP3 files, especially when I after testing Linux software such as Banshee and Rythmbox. I have nothing bad to say about these 2 pieces of software, but they just did not seem to have the overall polish iTunes presented. All of this led me to trying the feature of this article, Amarok.

When I began to use Amarok (1.4.5) I immediately noticed a sense of polish and completion. Lets face it, when it comes to media players the interface is what can make or break a program as any player can playback a file by using the necessary codecs.

Personally, I find the interface extremely informative and easy to use. As you can see with the screenshot below there is a general menu at the top, another menu along the left-hand side, a control menu with visualizations at the bottom, and a list of the songs that makes up the bulk of the interface. You may have also noticed the list of artists that makes up about the left 1/4 of the screen. Depending on what left-sided menu item is chosen this area changes and is the focus of some great features that Amarok offers.

Follow this link for details on some of the features! (Read more…)

There are many computer users throughout the world that either do not have access to the internet or do not own a CD/DVD burner. In the past, this has made acquiring Linux, or more specifically, Ubuntu, very difficult. Of course, you could always ask your friend for a copy of Ubuntu or use a neighbours computer to burn the image, but lets assume you have no friends and no neighbours. Basically, if you live in an area where there is postal service you can ask Ubuntu to send some discs to you!

I decided to take advantage of this opportunity. While Ubuntu states that it normally takes 4-6 weeks for delivery, I sent away for the discs on May 9th and received them today, May 28th. Why would I want Ubuntu discs when I already have the burned myself? Well, I am hoping to convince friends to convert from Windows and I feel that giving them an official CD shows that Ubuntu (and all Linux distributions) are serious contenders in the operating system arena. The discs, and their packaging, also have notes all over them asking users to “Pass it on!” to others as each copy can be installed on an unlimited number of computers, encouraging sharing. Selfishly, I also wanted the 4 free Ubuntu stickers that come with the discs.

I was very impressed with both the CDs and the stickers. Curious about the packaging and what the stickers look like? Check out these images I took earlier today:

The whole package

Disc art

Interested in requesting some discs? Order them here.

Time for some food,

Cole

Every so often I come across pages on the web that sparks an interest and further research. After a couple of months of running Shift+Backspace, a website with a focus on free and open-source software (commonly referred as FOSS), I figured it was time to share the definition of open-source for the general reader. Now, I do realize that there are many different licenses such as Creative Commons Attribution, GNU GPL, GPL 2, the forthcoming GPL 3 and many other(see most licenses here), but this article is simply a generalization from the simple definition on The Open Source Initiative (OSI) website.

What exactly does the OSI do for open-source? Here is a short blurb from their website about who they are and what OSI sets out to do:

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open-source community.

One of our most important activities is as a standards body, maintaining the Open Source Definition for the good of the community. The OSI Certified Open Source Software certification mark and program creates a nexus of trust around which developers, users, corporations and governments can organize open-source cooperation.

Recently I ordered a few books about open-source software in hopes of furthering my education of the open-source community. It is my hopes that sometime in the near future I can become a part of the OSI and help spread the word of open-source and the good it provides not only to users but to the sharing of knowledge around the globe.

But what classifies a project as open-source? For this we must read the Open Source Definition (OSD). Below are the 10 official OSD criteria (from the OSI website here) projects must satisfy in order to be classified as officially open-source (yes, it’s more than just releasing the source code):

1. Free Redistribution

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

2. Source Code

The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

3. Derived Works

The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

4. Integrity of The Author’s Source Code

The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of “patch files” with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

7. Distribution of License

The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program’s being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program’s license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software

The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.

If you want clarification on any of these 10 criteria the OSI has provided an annoted version of the OSD here. Stating the obvious, open-source is something I am very passionate about. I am still in the early stages of my research and understanding of everything open-source but hope that with time I will become both an expert and advocate on the subject.

Time for some R&R,

Cole

If you follow the Linux community there is no doubt you frequent the DistroWatch website. For those of you who have never heard of DistroWatch, Wikipedia defines it well by saying:

DistroWatch is a popular website which provides news, popularity rankings, and other general information about various Linux distributions as well as other free software/open-source operating systems such as OpenSolaris and BSD. It now contains information on several hundreds of distributions.

It is by far the best resource for comparing different Linux distributions and being the first to provide release information for hundreds of Linux and other OS flavours.

One of the greatest features of DistroWatch is how they rank all of the distributions in their database based on the number of hits each gets per day. You can see the rankings on the right side of the landing page or (for more details) check out the popularity page here. When I looked at the rankings over the different time periods I noticed some pretty cool stuff. There is definitely a relationship between ranking and major releases, most notably on the shorter time periods.

Here are some other semi-interesting observations:

• the same 4 distributions (Ubuntu, openSUSE, PCLinuxOS, and Fedora) make up the top 4 in each of the last 4 time periods
• Ubuntu is the overwhelming most popular distribution; however, with the release of PCLinuxOS 2007, Ubuntu has been pushed to a distant 2nd over the last month
• Ubuntu Studio has started off strong since its release and is current #10
• prior to 2005, Red Hat and Mandrake (now known as Fedora and Mandriva) dominated the top 2 positions

If you’re interested in Linux but are not quite sure what distribution to try, search around on DistroWatch, you will definitely find something that appeals to you. As always, if you have any questions about choosing a distro please feel free to email me, I always love talking Linux!

Cole