OStatic

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.

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.

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.

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.?

Seth Godin has some advice to marketeers and businesses that open source proejcts should take to heart as well. Godin writes today about embracing the lifetime value of a customer. Open source projects may not have customers, but it pays to think about the lifetime value of users as well.

Godin writes Instead of comparing what you invest to the benefit you receive from the first bill, the first visit, the first transaction, it's important to not only recognize but embrace the true lifetime value of one more customer.

Open source collaboration software vendor MindTouch announced today that its widely-used enterprise collaboration platform is now available in the cloud. This is great news for businesses who want a service comparable to Microsoft SharePoint, but don't want the headaches of proprietary software or the hassles of a lengthy installation process.

If you're a regular reader of OStatic, then you know this move is one of series of releases MindTouch has launched to drive the future of collaborative networks. Following the creation of the MindTouch Creative Knowledge Base and the MindTouch Collaborative Intranet, a move to the cloud was the next logical step.

It's often difficult to notice when you're in the midst of making history. In the summer and fall of 1999 I spent some time working next door to four noisy, Mountain Dew-swilling misfits working on a renegade project within VA Linux Systems. Little did I know that their efforts would eventually become the world's
largest open source development site.

I refer, of course, to SourceForge.net, which launched on November 17,
1999. The history and beginnings of SourceForge.net can teach executives and managers today the value of trying crazy things that might (and probably will) fail; of letting your young guns run wild with imagination; and not squashing innovation within your company. This post is about SourceForge.net, the site that was before its time and how it came to be.