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Retrospectiva Keeps Software Development Teams on the Same Page

by Lisa Hoover on Nov 20, 2009

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If you're looking for an easy to use open source project management tool to manage the workflow of your software development team, then take a look at Retrospectiva. It's powerful software on its own that becomes better when you add on modules to make it even more functional and flexible.

Retrospectiva is designed with an eye toward engineering teams that need a tool to carry them through the entire development life cycle. It tracks issues and tickets, manages goals and milestones, and offers code review and revision management features as well. Retrospectiva also includes support for Subversion and Git.

Over 50 Free, Must-Have Open Source Resources

by Sam Dean on Nov 20, 2009

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On a regular basis, we at OStatic round up our collections of open source resources, tutorials, reviews and project tours. These educational toolkits are a big part of the learning mission we try to preserve at the site. We regularly collect the best Firefox extensions, free online books on open source topics, free tools for developers, resources for working with and enjoying online video and audio, Linux tutorials, and much more. In this post, you'll find an updated set of more than 50 useful open source resources. Hopefully, you'll find something to learn from here, and the good news is that everything found in this post is free.

Four Open Source File Shredders That Delete Data Forever

by Lisa Hoover on Nov 20, 2009

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If you're deleting miscellaneous unimportant files on your computer, simply dropping them in the trash or deleting them ought to be sufficient. If you need to permanently and irrevocably erase files to keep them from ever being resurrected, however, then you need a reliable file shredder. Here are four of the best open source applications to try.

Eraser - This tool for Windows removes data from your hard drive by overwriting it with patterns that make files unreadable. It works with any hard drive that work with Windows and even erases files and folders that were previously deleted. Eraser also has a scheduler so you can automatically erase files on a regular basis.

OStatic Buffer Overflow...

by Sam Dean on Nov 20, 2009

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Theory of competition fails in open source, elshewhere. Markets tend to crystallize around a few dominant players.

Oracle opponent cheers delay in mySQL decision. Florian Mueller, a former mySQL shareholder and strategic advisor, says the delay is good.

Droid could bring Motorola back from dead. The Android-based smartphone could revive the company.

Nokia N900: First look. What the Maemo-based phone/tablet is like from the perspective of a Linux geek.

Crazy Google Kids at it Again with Chrome OS

by John Mark Walker on Nov 19, 2009

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Google kicked off the launch of its Chromium OS project today with a presentation on Chrome OS. The first thing you'll notice is that the name of Google's consumer product will be Chrome OS, while the open source project is named Chromium OS. My guess: Google will bless the usage of the Chrome OS name by granting trademark rights to those who comply with Google's standards. Google didn't say that, but that's what I would do. Word is that the video of today's announcement will be available on YouTube in a day or so.

The next thing I noticed is that Chrome OS will be completely "cloud-based". As in, no local data. As in, all web apps all the time. As in, it's only useful to the extent that there's an internet connection. This will likely prove to be a Google Rohrschach test. Those already predisposed to disliking anything Google does will find this horrifying. Those who think Google is the bee's knees will conclude that it's not completely evil and, indeed, is the next logical evolution of desktops-in-the-cloud technology.