TooMuchGreen

Open Document Format – it’s the way forward, I have no doubts, and neither it seems do the United States..

They have a great website too – http://opensourceforamerica.org/ (I do think they missed a trick though, I’d have gone for “opensourceforus”, much more fun)

Obviously the UK are correspondingly on the ball (!). For information regarding open source in relation to the “Digital Britain” report you’ll need to download the PDF, you’ll find open source mentioned under chapter 8, section 19. However if you can’t be bothered (which of course you can’t, who would) here’s the extensive and inspiring text (yawn) >  Read more... (estimated reading time 1:09 mins)

The major mental hurdle for any business assessing open source options is invariably that of support -  migration support (impact on existing business), user support (familiarity training) and on going support (upgrades/roadmap etc). Such concerns can and do offset the most substantial of cost savings, but what’s the actual situation?

Microsoft obviously factors into the mindset, with a 90%+ market share support is obviously more than available with tried and tested products offering guaranteed cross platform interoperability and familiarity, so much is true however it all comes at a price. I’m not here to knock Microsoft solutions, there are a multitude of reasons they presently run the business enterprise however it would be incredibly short sighted given the present global economic climate for any savvy I.T manager to not at least cast an inquiring eye over cost effective alternatives from the perceived “other side”.  Read more... (estimated reading time 3:20 mins)

The first ever Linux Con was held this week in Oregon, USA. I would have loved to attend however due to financial constraints and logistics (I’m presently in Berlin) it wasn’t going to happen, so, I bit the bullet and subscribed to the $99 three day streaming & archive package from Linux Pro magazine.

Admittedly I did have doubts, $99 for a few streaming conference videos? And look, half of them are free anyway? However, after the opening speech by Bob Sutor from IBM I felt I’d already got my money’s worth, straight up.  Read more... (estimated reading time 1:28 mins)

Email is officially yesterdays technology. Previously groundbreaking as the quickest form of communication it now lags on the periphery of snail mail terminology due to the instant zip of new alternatives such as Twitter.

Of course collaboratively it’s still the de facto standard for business interaction, but that’s only because Google Wave hasn’t been released and adopted yet. Google Wave? Indeed. After being shipped off to Google’s Sydney office to develop the product in secret the Wave team presented their two year project at the recent Google IO developers conference, I went through the presentation and really didn’t expect to be so impressed. So, what IS the Wave?  Read more... (estimated reading time 2:31 mins)

Open Source? Many people may have no idea what it means, to some it’s a descriptive tag for certain platforms of community developed free software, to others it’s “lab” computing for geeks, at the far end it’s a comprehensive lifestyle ethos and to a select Facebook few on the flip side of phonetics it’s a bottle of HP with the lid off waiting to be plopped onto their soggy fish & chips. What’s obvious is that the term “Open Source” applies to more than a single area or product, however there is a constant and if we dig down we’re going to end up somewhere around root “collaboration”.  Read more... (estimated reading time 2:06 mins)

This was going to be a single topic post to discuss the imminent release of Googles very own desktop (sorry – Netbook) operating system, the enhanced browser based  quick hit to be known as Google Chrome (OS). I was going to highlight the fact it’s built around a Linux kernel and how pleasing a plug for the open source community this will be to raise mass awareness for the mighty Penguin, after all, the weekend home user wandering round PC World may not have heard of Open Source, he may not have heard of Linux but I’ll bet my tattoos he’ll have heard of Google and if he knows nothing else about I.T other than what the big G feeds him then that’s more than enough, what’s good enough for Google is most certainly good enough for him, Google knows best, Google IS the internet, it’s given him free eMail and a calendar and is going to take over the world, it’s already photographed and mapped it for his convenience.  Read more... (estimated reading time 2:03 mins)

It’s incredibly reassuring and inspiring to come across like minds, especially when they’re based in ones home country (& county) and especially when they’re on such a professional level. I’ve recently linked up with Open Source For Business (OS4B) based in Leeds (West Yorkshire, UK) who are just this, and more, to quote…

“Open Source for Business (OS4B) is the exciting joint venture from Yorkshire Forward and nti Leeds, designed to help regional businesses make the most of open source technology to benefit from cost effective and flexible open source IT solutions”

So, you’ve registered your domain and have your Linux VS ready to roll, what’s next? Well, rather than wrestle with the bottomless world of hardcore geekdom at the convoluted CLI you could do a lot worse than install the ECHP domain management tool.

EHCP is open source and thus free to download and use, it comes very well supported and the website supplies what could be THE all time best procedural “How To” for installation I have ever come across (if you excuse the ‘interesting’ english) with clickable “Yes/No” confirmation checks and resulting problem resolves after each stage (admittedly the ‘concept’ sections aren’t as yet fully complete). Install is as follows..  Read more... (estimated reading time 1:26 mins)

Due to an increase in project work lately I’ve had to review and produce various bits of documentation sent to me in MS Word format, and nice as iWork 09 is (and it IS nice) you have to face it that the two still aren’t 100% compatible regarding the finer points of formatting (very close, but just not 100%), so, last week I gave the groovy little MacBook Air the shock of it’s iLife by by installing MS Word on it just to see how it compared to the open source offerings, I should have known better, from the *word* go it just didn’t feel right.  Read more... (estimated reading time 2:38 mins)

This was mentioned briefly in the Linux section however it’s such an incredibly cool and inspiring story I felt it most definitely warranted further expansion with a dedicated post.

I was highlighting cost savings in relation to software licensing against an open standards platform as adopted by the French ‘Gendarmarie Nationale‘ (National Police Force) over the past few years, the results are literally amazing.  Read more... (estimated reading time 2:06 mins)