Pinguy OS on the Ropes, What Linux Is
The top Linux story today was the blog post by Pinguy OS founder saying he was thinking of "killing off Pinguy OS" due to financial difficulties. Elsewhere, TeckRadar posted an article from Linux Format answering, "What is Linux?" Another review of the Aquaris M10 Ubuntu tablet found Canonical "still has a lot work to do" and The Register reported on an analysis of women in Open Source Software.
Antoni Roman, the founder and main developer of Pinguy OS, today blogged that he was considering calling it all quits. He said he's having to fund the development and hosting of Pinguy all on his own and that's not feasible any longer. Although he's tried different things to raise funds, it hasn't worked out so well. By the last paragraph he sounded more like he's decided instead of pondering saying, "I loved making Pinguy OS and interacting with the open source projects and helping them, but at some point you have to call it a day. At least I have made a difference. Bodhi, Linux Lite, elementary OS and Budgie Remix I had a hand in helping getting them started."
Two reviews of the Ubuntu tablet crossed the newsfeeds today. First up, Derek Forrest at Tomshardware.com put the BQ Aquaris M10 through thorough testing. One of the first notes was the lack of applications available at the online store. Then he had trouble with the camera which could never get oriented and the tablet performed sluggishly when in desktop/convergence mode. With an external monitor attached, the performance really took a nose dive. After using the tablet as a desktop with external inputs, it wouldn't function properly when going back to tablet mode without a reboot. Words like "frustrating, crashes, dismal, flawed, unintuitive, and kinks" pretty much sum up his experience.
Dedoimedo is back with a Part Two of his review of the BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu. The first part basically concluded as Forrest found, it needs more work. So, today he wanted to test the "convergence." He first issue was the desktop orientation being "portrait rather than landscape" and it always "looked misaligned." Despite those and other issues, Dedoimedo concluded, "Not bad. Not bad at all."
The Register today reported on "Women in Free/Libre/Open Source Software: The situation in the 2010s." It said that women only make up 2 to 5% of the landscape of FLOSS development and IT, they do tend to work harder and longer than their male counterparts. The report also found that most women come to Open Source later in life when compared to males and usually come by way of general IT involvement. Most guys get exposed in college the report states. Oddly, the report also said that 65% of males and 80% of females in FLOSS are childless. More here.
In other news:
* Founder of the Apache Software Foundation Joins Linux Foundation to Lead Hyperledger Project
* I want the courts to be involved before the police can hijack a news site DNS domain
* Cory Doctorow on the real-world dangers of DRM
* Your project's RCS history affects ease of contribution (or: don't squash PRs)