Linux Cool Applications

Thunderbird is an open source very cool email created by the Mozilla Foundation, it is supported in different operating systems like Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, eComStation and OpenSolaris. I like it because is simple and I can manage different group emails at the same time. I love the fact that has different folders where I can organize all my email and when I want to look for one specific one it will be easy to find. For a free download please visit the website:
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

The Gimp software is a free image editors. We have learned about it this week and with it we can edit, retouch and draw images. It is supported also and different operating systems like Linux, Mac OS X, Windows Solaris and others. We have learned that with this editor is really easy to scale, crop, cut, flip, rotate, reduce size, and save an image. It features different tool also, it has a varieties of colors, it has the ability of selecting paths and layers, and of course the already mentioned image editing. The free download is at:
http://www.gimp.org/

The Banshee media player, since I love to listen to music I discover this fantastic open source media player supported by the operating systems like Linux and Mac OS X including the Apple's iPod. With the Banshhe I can play any music and import Cd's to my library, I can also created idfferent playlist and share them with my iPod. You can get it at:
http://banshee.fm/

Open Source Kinect

The Kinect is an accessory from Microsoft X box that allows the player to play the video games without the use of controllers. The Kinect has a camera that can interact with the user without any other device because the camera can sense gestures, movements and voice commands. After the launch of the Kinect a company call adafruit industries started a bounty prize for the person that can get to unlock the code and make it open source, so Kinect can be use in the future for other projects.
On November 10, the company had a $3000 winner his name is Hector Martin and he created an open source driver for the Kinect. I consider this great for all the projects that can be done with the camera and now with the open source code a lot of new things can be created.
Microsoft is the one not happy about it because they want to keep everything as a secret and not share the technology with anyone, and again because of the money the can get later. They do not wan their products to be modifies and altered because again is their product and they want all the applause and the money to go to them. Totally unfair for the technology and new projects that could people create in the future.

Network Neutrality

The Net Neutrality is a principle that indicates that the Internet should be open for all users paying for the same service, It says that it should not be restricted sites, hardware, platforms on the network for people paying for Internet service.
Since I am living in a free country I want to keep the same freedom with the network, I agree that we should have the same freedom to do what ever we like on the network as we have in our country. I want to be able to download and visits sites that I like whenever I like. I am oppose to telecommunication companies like charter or Comcast that make with cable TV whatever they like and they charge us also whatever they want for channels that should be available to people who wants to pay a "standard" rate and not to pay for different packages separately.
I do not want the Internet to become the same as the cable TV, we should be able to see and play with anything we want on the network without paying different fees.
The Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) is in favor of the net neutrality, and it should still be fighting for their four principles which are: be able to access any sites, download and run any applications, install any hardware and fair competition along all Internet providers. They fight to keep the network open, on the other hand we have Comcast who wants to make more profit out of this, they want to prohibit people to do anything they want on the network by using packets to disturb sharing things on the network. They want to charge their fees for different levels of access just like they do it with the cable TV.
Lets support the FCC to keep the network open to anyone like us.

Linux Jobs

When researching this topic I couldn't believe how many Linux related jobs are out there, I was a little surprise to see hundreds and hundreds of companies needing somebody in the Linux Administrator/Security field in the United States. I noticed that a lot of those positions are held in the bay area, in companies that offer security systems to banks and government agencies. The most wanted position was the Linux/Unix Administrator or Senior Administrator and the pay scale for this position is from $63,000 to $94,000 per year. That puts to think about the future to any student pursuing the computer science major to focus more into the Linux/UNIX field since there is a big need for people who knows well the open source world and since is so important because of the security it make sense that the Linux/UNIX administrators jobs are picking up so well in these years.

SCO vs. Novell

SCO vs Novell was a Federal lawsuit, it started in 2004 at a Utah Court and ended up at a Federal District court. SCO group filed a lawsuit stating they were the owners of the operating system Unix, they said the owned the rights of author for Unix. On the other hand Novell have bought the operating system long time ago in 1995 from the original author AT&T and during an agreement they said that they did not transfer the whole property rights, they transferred some responsibilities to the Santa Cruz Group, but those responsibilities were only to improve and license some rights of the Unixware. So, SCO though that with those transfers they already owned the whole thing, but they only had certain rights. Then after years of counter-claims, allegations and appeals the court ruled at Novell's favor and because obviously they were the owners in the first place and they will never transfer something that will give them a big profit, SCO ended up owing Novell millions of dollars and filing for bankruptcy.

Team FredNet and the Geogle Lunar XPrice

The team Frednet one of the groups competing to win the Google Lunar X Price, the team is known to the only team open source development team because anybody can contribute to their work that they are doing. What I like about this team is that any user can access their project, study it, change it and improve it. In my opinion this will help schools, and universities to educate people that interested in space research because most of the students do not have the possibilities to have their hands on a real space research project like this one. So I think the universities and colleges should collaborate with this only open source team to win the grand price! There are schools that have the monetary possibility to collaborate with projects like this one that would help the students with their space research and space travel exploration. The Frednet team is planning to start a Open Source Foundation to help individuals that want to do their own space projects or just to contribute with the education of those that need their help. So let's help Grand Open Source Project!!

Linux Kernel Numbering

The Linux kernel numbering system has changed since the first release. Not a big change since they only added one or two more number to the numbers it already had from the previous version. To my point of view they just did that to make it more confusing. I do not see any advantages to the change. The numbers are the same as versions, but only with different revisions and releases. The first numbering scheme was at least for me a little bit easier to understand. The first scheme was composed of three numbers, the first one was the version number, the second number was the major revision and this number was either odd or even depending if the version was developing or if it was already a stable version. And finally the third number was the minor revision which it changed when a new bug fix or new features were discovered.
After 2004 they have added one more number to the numbering version; now the first two numbers do not mean anything, the third is the actual version number of the kernel and the fourth are the fixes for new bugs or security problems.