Paw Prints: Writings of the maddog

FreedomBox: A personal server for Privacy and Security

Oct 11, 2021 GMT

[Editor's Note: For those of you attending Campus Party Montreal (November 5-7) we (Kenneth Armstrong and myself) are giving a four hour workshop on FreedomBox functionality.  Originally we were going to advocate people bringing along their physical FreedomBoxes to actually install the software, but due to a late minute revelation about the networking at the event, we have decided to instead demonstrate the functionality through cloud-based systems provided by the FreedomBox project. This is obviously (well, obvious to me anyway) not how you would like to run FreedomBox in your environment, but it does give you a painless way to see many of the futures and get used to the...

The virus rears its ugly head…

Jul 20, 2021 GMT

There is a virus going around. We thought we were winning the battle against it, but powerful forces and events have allowed it to raise its ugly head and cause unforeseen additional hardship.People thought that it was not so bad, they did not listen to reason and take the precautionary measures necessary to protect themselves. In letting down their guard they were unprepared and unprotected.After months of machines being turned off, software licenses (with their expiration dates never “dormant”) are up for renewal.Many companies, educational institutions and public buildings (like libraries) are turning on their Wintel PCs for the first time in over a year and finding that they need...

TCO of FOSS vs Closed Source: Mr. Bacil, you are wrong

Dec 19, 2019 GMT

Today I received a link to a news article from Brazili where first-term Parana state deputy Emerson Bacil of Jair Bolsonaro's PSL party is proposing to change a law that prefers Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) used by government over closed source, proprietary software. Mr. Bacil claims that this is necessary because the software is not “free”...it has maintenance and updating costs that have to be considered, and that free software vendors would not provide assistance at the level the government required. Mr. Bacil thinks that the software should be chosen on a case-by-case basis depending on what is needed, including security and confidentiality.The law, written in 2003,...

IBM Purchase of Red Hat Software: There is No Fear Except Fear Itself – with Thanks to FDR

Oct 29, 2018 GMT

IBM bought Red Hat Software.The world wide web is alive with the news, and many of the people who have worked and used Red Hat in the last 25 years are lamenting the “fall” of their beloved company and software.I understand how they feel. The first company I worked for, Aetna Life and Casualty is much smaller than it used to be through various economic reasons. The college I taught at, Hartford State Technical College, was merged with the state community colleges and is not even mentioned today. Bell Laboratories, renamed Lucent and broken off from the world's largest telephone company, purchased by Alcatel, then by Nokia. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), once the second...

Subutai: Peer-to-peer, private, secure, stable cloud software that gives you control

Sep 19, 2017 GMT

I have been using the equivalent of “Open Source” since 1969.   My entire time in the computer industry has been spent: writing software using software written by the companies that employed me (so I had access to the sources) using code freely written by others for their own use, then contributed to software repositories for others to use I have used software from the GNU project since the mid-1980s and since 1994, of course I used GNU/Linux.I have never personally used software from Apple or Microsoft either at home or (unless circumstances forced me) at work.  I resisted using closed-source software of every type.During the last twenty-three (almost the magic...

LPIC OT DevOPs Engineer - Request for help in the Job Task Analysis (JTA)

Dec 26, 2016 GMT

Some of my readers may know that I am the Chair for the Board of Directors of the Linux Professional Institute (LPI).  Like many things I do, this is a volunteer job, and I could not do it without help from many other volunteers.Founded in 1999, LPI was created as a Canadian based non-profit to “certify users of computer software programs” and “facilitate the exchange of information between computer users”. Since that time LPI has delivered over 500,000 tests, and currently has over 200,000 certificate holders in over 180 countries.The certifications so far are on four major levels, known as “LPI Linux Essentials (LE)”, “Linux Administrator (LPIC-1)”, “Linux Systems...

Free and Open Source: Economics, not Politics

Nov 02, 2016 GMT

“Open Source” has been prominent in Brazil for over ten years. During that time Free and Open Source Software and Hardware (FOSSH) has become associated with the PT political party. However, the use of Open Source Software, Hardware and Culture is not a political issue, but an economic issue that benefits every Brazilian citizen, and therefore should be embraced by every Brazilian political party. This paper will outline why FOSSH should be a major policy of every Brazilian political party.  While it is answering a particular current problem in Brazil, it can be used in almost any country.In the paper below, the term “end user customer” is the actual user of the solution,...