OStatic

It's so obvious, and it's still so easy to forget. Open source software is, well... open. People can modify it, give it back, pitch in, and use it as they wish. They can poke at and observe how scripts work and interact in one application, and apply those principles -- if not the code itself -- in their own projects. Still, it's so easy to forget it isn't simply about the code. Code is a major component, of course, and it's a driving force, but when it all boils down, it's still a means to an end, a tool, a way to get a job done.

It doesn't mean that code just has to work and have a function. There are oodles of other factors playing in -- usability, accessibility, and outright aesthetics. There's extensibility, compatibility, interoperability. There's spreading the word, demonstrating, advocating, and educating. And it sounds, sometimes, really endlessly time consuming. It can be -- but so can a few minutes of playing Fallout 3 before writing that email for work. Just ask my husband.

It doesn't have to be. Crazy as it is, contributing can be light work, and still effective. Sometimes, especially when it comes to advocacy, there are better results when alternative applications are mentioned and outlined in a general sense. Talk about the software further when asked, tell the person asking what the penguin (or the neat red swirly design) on your shirt represents.

In my travels, I discovered David Zeuthen's informative peek at DeviceKit (and its use with and in lieu of HAL) in the upcoming release of Fedora 11.

Zeuthen says that while the new storage device handling stack is implemented in Fedora's GNOME 2.26 desktop configuration, it should be appearing in its entirety in the upstream GNOME 2.28 release. The DeviceKit daemon modernizes and adds to many of the features and functions of the tried and true HAL daemon.

I've noticed, as I get older, time seems to go exponentially faster. Unfortunately, this meant high school lasted an eternity, and I'm burning through my thirties at warp speed. Some events make me more aware of this than others -- it seems like it was only last week that Fedora 10 made its first mark upon the world.

But no, another release cycle has nearly come full circle, and today the Fedora Project announced the Preview Release of Fedora 11 (codenamed Leonidas). This preview will be followed by a release candidate (scheduled for a May 12 appearance), with the final version hitting the streets on May 26.

So what new features can we expect to see in Fedora 11?

Churning out an x.0 software release must be akin to becoming a new parent -- the event exudes promise, joy, and hope, yet is simultaneously humbling, exhausting, and terror-inducing. While it isn't realistically possible to plan out detailed roadmaps for your children's long-term future, it's crucial to do so for a software project. While whether the presence of a carefully planned roadmap makes progress more or less stressful depends largely on who you ask and at what point you're asking, a project with clearly outlined goals and direction has a much better shot at sustained developer interest and solid releases.

Many projects grapple with this, and as GNOME pushes towards its 3.0 milestone, the GNOME Release Team talks about the voyage to this point -- and how best to travel forward from where it currently stands.

April is fast approaching, and that can mean only one thing -- the jackalopes have returned from wherever it is that jackalopes overwinter, and they're making their way to mirrors and torrents near you. The alpha stage of the Jaunty Jackalope (Ubuntu 9.04) release is now behind us, and the first beta version was sighted on mirrors worldwide just moments ago.

While the world won't see the official Jackalope release until April 23rd, the Ubuntu team invites any interested in Jackalope (bug) hunting to download the beta version and join the party.

Many people are surprised to find that with all the writing I do, hardly any is done with a traditional word processing application. Between smart quotes, file extension quirks, and publications and websites having slightly different formatting requirements, I find it's quicker and easier to use a text editor.

The two computers I use most run Linux -- the laptop runs Ubuntu, while the desktop is a distribution nomad that changes frequently. One great thing about Linux is that the platform has no shortage of capable text editors. Some lend themselves more to writing code and heavy-duty programming than others (such as Vim and Emacs) while others straddle the plain text document/programming editor line.

Lately, primarily because I've been slow to install my usual cross-over text editor of choice, Geany, I took a closer look at the plugins available for GNOME's came with the desktop editor, Gedit. The default plugins (and those found in the extra packages) make the plain vanilla editor far more appealing and useful for hardcore writers and casual programmers alike.

Yesterday, the GNOME Project released the latest version of its desktop, GNOME 2.26. The new release incorporates the usual bug fixes and numerous accessibility and application improvements -- including updates to the GNOME Developer Platform and support for 48 languages.

Some of the notable new desktop features include updates to Evolution. The mail and groupware suite is better able to communicate with Exchange servers, as it adds support for both MAPI and SOAP protocols. The Brasero media burner, the Epiphany browser, the Orca screenreader, Empathy, and the GNOME Media Player have all seen signficant feature enhancements. The utilities for managing multiple desktops, pulse-audio, and fingerprint readers have also been updated.

This week, the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit began accepting proposals for its upcoming event. The event, aimed at encouraging interaction between KDE's Akademy and GNOME's GUADEC developer conference attendees, gives prospective speakers the opportunity to bring their passion to a more diverse audience.

Last month, I covered some of the reasons why companies contribute less often to open source projects, and some possible reasons why. It's an intriguing topic not only because it highlights how groups approach projects differently than individuals, but because it is so pertinent to the growth of open source software. As more household name companies begin using and developing products that utilize open source software, a new demographic will get the opportunity to experience (and hopefully, embrace) the new products and their different, open, approach.

The GNOME Foundation's Executive Director, Stormy Peters, offers advice to companies interested in actively collaborating in the open source world. Her post outlines the basics of her talk at OSiM USA.

One of the goals put forth for Ubuntu's Jaunty Jackalope at the last Developer Summit, the development of a unified, hands-off notification display, has finally made an appearance in the testing release, according to Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth.

The new notification display is designed to behave similarly regardless of desktop environment, and deliver notifications in an non-intrusive manner. An overview of what Shuttleworth calls attention-management guidelines is outlined on the Ubuntu wiki, describing how to design notifications that get the user's attention, inform, and then effortlessly get out of the way.

The development team working in this area is aware of at least 35 applications that need extra attention to work well with the new system, and its current focus is to address these issues and identify other applications with similar quirks.