//beconfused

Wow, Wordpress.com increases everyone’s free upload to 3GB. Matt Mullenweg makes the following announcement.

Free Space to Three Gigabytes

Today, one of those developments comes to fruition — everyone’s free upload space has been increased 60x from 50mb to 3,000mb. To get half that much space (1GB) at our nearest competitor, Typepad, you’d pay at least $300 a year. We’re doing the same thing for free.

How are we able to do this? Over the past year we’ve developed our file infrastructure, replication, backup, caching, and S3-backed storage to the point where we don’t feel like we need to artificially limit what you folks are able to upload just to keep up with growth. We’re ready for you.

What about the space upgrades? They’re still important. You still need a space upgrade to upload certain file types, like movies, and we’re also increasing the limits of the paid upgrades, so if you bought a 1GB upgrade before it now adds 5GB for no additional charge.

Source: WordPress.com

It’s amazing how much WordPress grew. Started an open-source project back then, WordPress grew into a commercial business while still keeping WordPress software open-source. This is what open-source should be about. Today, they offer 3GB of free space. It just shows how open-source projects can be successful.

What? Sun is to buy MySQL?

Sun Microsystems will plunk down $1 billion to buy MySQL, the maker of a popular open-source database.

Sun said Wednesday that it will pay about $800 million in cash for MySQL’s privately held stock and will assume about $200 million worth of options. MySQL CEO Marten Mickos will join Sun’s senior executive team after the transaction closes.

The acquisition is a bold move for Sun, which has embraced open-source software and development practices in an effort to garner more revenue from its software business. Until now, it has sold support services for a competing open-source database, PostgreSQL.

Company executives said they will continue to support PostgreSQL and continue to partner with database giant Oracle.

MySQL, founded in 1995, is one of the most successful open-source companies. It’s part of the popular combination of open-source development products referred to as LAMP, for Linux, Apache Web server, MySQL and the PHP development language, which is broadly used on the Internet and within companies.

However, the acquisition also comes with some potential difficulties. “This raises a whole bunch of issues concerning Sun’s close ties to Oracle, as well as their investment in PostgreSQL,” Zachary said.

Source: CNet

Paying a billion for an open-source firm? Even though MySQL do have some commercial packages, it still doesn’t seem to be a good buy. Sun seems like an old and tired company these days.

I always thought MySQL and Java had some similarities – both their websites are confusing. Go to Sun Java website and if you’re not an existing Java developer, you won’t know how to start programming Java. Likewise, if you go to MySQL, you’ll take 5 minutes to hunt down the free MySQL. They already have things in common before they even start. A good omen?

Not A Blind Date did a feature on 94 of the Best Free Software Applications that are Better than Purchased Software which is cool by the way but I can’t help to wonder what comparison are they making with.

They went on to place AVG in their list as the best anti-virus software. It’s probably the best free anti-virus software but it’s just not the best in the field. Best Image Editor is given to GIMP too when Photoshop is clearly superior.

And there is the Best Md5 Checksum Creator/Checker, since when someone is trying to sell a MD5 checker? Best Office Suite goes to OpenOffice, I don’t think the author check out Office 2007.

The list has nothing to do with recommending a free software that’s better than the paid counterpart. But some free software is actually worth noting.

I would recommend some of the free software:

• 7-zip if you want to open RAR and ZIP file. You can’t create RAR files with it though.
• Google’s Picasa excels in photo organizing. I think it’s better than the Windows Vista one.
• NotePad++ for HTML editor. It’s quick and easy to use.
• µTorrent is quick, simple and not at all resource hogging!
• YamiPod is great when you want to add songs into your iPod without iTunes installed.
• Audacity does its job well in editing audio files.
• Scribus is a free layout and publishing software. Think of it as a free and open source Adobe InDesign, however you can’t get too serious with this tool.
• Filezilla does its FTP job well. It doesn’t have the prettiest interface but it just works!
• Free Download Manager is my favorite free download manager.
• I personally prefer Opera to Firefox or Internet Explorer. All 3 browsers are good though, use what you’re familiar with and don’t bother switching but keep your software to the latest version!
• Blender is does an acceptable job in 3D modelling. Of course it can’t compete with the bigger boys but it’s free.
• Combined Community Codec Pack is a great codec pack.
• Windows Live Messenger is good for keeping up with your pals.
• Eraser cleans your files completely. It’ll overwrite the sectors till its unretrievable.
• If you want to die early but need a free Office program, check out OpenOffice. It’s the best free software.
• AVG antivirus software protects your computer. It has a free one and one that you have to pay for.
• Inkscape is a vector editing program. Not as powerful as Illustrator but it remains my favorite tool to use for vector edits. It’s quick and easy.
• Try Paint.NET if you hate GIMP.
• I prefer Foxit Reader for reading PDF over Adobe Reader. I love the quicker loading in my slow computer.

The software list above is what I have used before, perhaps you can take a look and you may just find the right tool for you too. Some are open source, some aren’t but they’re all free.

I was just thinking the other day that if one day everything becomes open-source and free, what would become of programmers? Are they going to earn a living or what? If one day everything becomes open source, there is a good chance that you have to pay for your opensource software.

Open source does not mean it is free and freeware doesn’t mean it’s open source. Perhaps one day we may just have to pay for all the open source products which isn’t what most people wish for. Most people just want free software anyway, they don’t care if it’s open source, it’s just that open source sounded like it’s free.

The current situation of commercial close source products and the free open source seem to be in quite a balance. Free alternatives remain while the commercial sectors are still charging and all.

And I’m tired of all the ‘Lite’, ‘Express’ or non-Pro versions that remained free. If only every big software company can make one of their non-flagship products free, kinda like giving back to the society and at the same time create more competition and drive advancements in software.

On a side note – this looks a little strange to me.

Microsoft and opensource? Hmmmp…

If you’re a friend of open source and 3D films, perhaps you can give Elephants Dream a try.

(The beautifully rendered Elephants Dream.)

Elephants Dream is the world’s first open movie, made entirely with open source graphics software such as Blender, and with all production files freely available to use however you please, under a Creative Commons license.

The short film was created by the Orange Open Movie Project studio in Amsterdam during 2005/2006, bringing together a diverse team of artists and developers from all over the world.

Source: Elephants Dream official site

The rendering is really pretty. Unfortunately, it falls short on content. The short film is too short! Okay… It’s a short film. I don’t quite get the film. The item that the whole film is done using open source tools is really amazing. I didn’t know open source can actually do that. Now they just need to get better writers to script the films. Perhaps they need more creative people for that.

I have to admit – I don’t quite get Elephants Dream. I give Elephants Dream 2 stars out of 5 for its pretty renders and boring plot. Nevertheless, if you’re interested, take a look.

Sun’s Java is going open source. Sun has been a supporter of open source but we never did see Java become open source itself.

(Sun Java logo.)

Following through on a promise it made earlier this month, Sun confirmed at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco Tuesday that it would open the source code to Java, but said it needs the community’s help in getting it done to prevent fragmentation of the technology.

“The question is not whether we will open-source Java, the question is how,” Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz said during his opening keynote. His statement followed a similar one by Rich Green, Sun’s executive vice president of software, but neither provided any specific timeline for the move.

Source: BetaNews

Finally, Java becomes open source. Frankly speaking, I don’t think this would cause much of an impact. Java is already popular and making it open source is perhaps just a movement to shut the critics up. Plus, some people actually thought Java is open source already.

On Monday, I actually went for a Linux talk. I do not use Linux. I don’t really know what that is for. I don’t think it’s for the desktop. I know it’s more for the servers.

But anyway, I went to check out the seminar. Just for fun. [And for the Apple iPod Suffle that I could stand a chance of winning - I didn't win.]

It is my first Linux seminar. I just went there so that I can understand more about Linux. I have been hearing a lot about Linux, I got to know what the whole thing is about.

It says the topics include:

* Linux is Better For Business!
* Tools to Develop New Applications on Linux
* Tools to Support Linux Based Team Development

Great. I am interested in the application development part of Linux. That would be interesting for me. So I went there. It’s quite packed. Jakob Carstensen and Siva Anne speaks in the seminar, I don’t know who they are but they’re people from IBM.

Yup – IBM. The whole Linux seminar is essentially a _IBM-has-Linux-solutions-so-please-buy-our-development-tools_ talk.

Well, it’s part of some IBM Technology Submit. The seminar is okay. Not fantastic, just okay. I find biotechnology talks more exciting at times. Perhaps it’s because I don’t know what Siva Anne is refering to sometimes. At the end of the submit, I stil have no idea what Eclipse is. To me, it seemed like a class library like Java. It gives a common interface much like windows forms. And at the same time it seemed to be an integrated development environment or an extension of some sort. I am totally confused.

The seminar consists of:

* 15% for pro-Linux education
* 25% of the time talking about IBM commitment and involvement in Linux and the open-source community
* 40% of the time goes to introducing the products that IBM offers for Linux
* 10% for giving away free gifts that I didn’t get
* the rest are strictly for Microsoft jokes – I mean – what is a Linux seminar without Microsoft jokes!

At the end of the seminar, I understand IBM offers products for Linux which is great – Rational, Tivoli, WebSphere, Lotus etc.. I don’t understand Rational at all. They went through the entire presentation (in a Windows machine) about this Rational application development tool without seeing a damn screenshot. What the fuck is IBM thinking!

They introduce Linux, that’s great. And so I wonder – how does Linux look like. And both fellows are using a Windows machine. I don’t get to see Linux. I don’t get to see Rational. Not even a single screenshot available – just a bunch of penguin pictures.