OStatic

eWeek recently took at look at the top 15 open source business influencers, which includes the usual suspects like Linus Torvalds and Linux Foundation's Jim Zemlin. It also named some people that typically get overlooked, like Bank of America's Tim Golden who worked exclusively with Linux and open-source software in several multimillion-dollar enterprise initiatives. While there's no way a list of only 15 people can be all-inclusive, a few readers were bothered that some big names were left off the list entirely, prompting Ziff Davis Enterprise's Editor at Large Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols to explain why.

When Codice recently released its parallel development tool, Plastic SCM 2.0, it promised to offer a more efficient way for engineers to create applications in a development environment where increased collaboration among geographically dispersed team members often means decreased efficiency. Although Plastic SCM is commercial software with a varied pricing structure, Codice uses some open source tools to develop its products. CEO Pablo Santos feels strongly about giving back to the community, so Codice is making its new tool available to open source project leaders at no charge. I caught up with Santos this week to ask him more about Plastic and what it takes to qualify for a free license:

If you're intrigued by what you've heard about open source applications and want to see for yourself what the fuss is about, you might be concerned about getting in over your head or doing irreparable harm to your computer. While that fear is understandable, there are some ways to safely experiment with open source apps, without putting your system in danger. Once you get your feet wet, you'll wonder what you were ever worried about.

We certainly do love our media. We upload our photos to public sharing Web sites, download videos to watch on our laptops, and stream radio stations through our browsers. That's a lot of media to manage -- and leave it to the open source community to come up with great ways to help us do just that.

We certainly do love our media. We upload our photos to public sharing Web sites, download videos to watch on our laptops, and stream radio stations through our browsers. That's a lot of media to manage -- and leave it to the open source community to come up with great ways to help us do just that.

Fellow OStatic blogger Joe Brockmeier took an insightful look yesterday at why open source is growing at an amazing pace. He posits that the open source model allows agile development by disperse groups of people that can build on the already massive foundation of open source libraries and applications. While I agree that open source projects are springing up in record numbers, I hope it also remains a community that can sustain itself and ultimately deliver what it promises.

Fellow OStatic blogger Mike Gunderloy wrote a great post at Web Worker Daily about his family's experience homeschooling and working from home. In it, he gives some terrific tips about finding a balance between having structure and staying flexible.

As a homeschooling mom who also works full-time from home, there are a number of open source tools I rely on every day to teach my kids and keep us all on task, while keeping myself productive and (relatively) stress-free.