A few months ago I updated my profile on LinkedIN, and adjusted my position as CTO and
founder of Athoa Ltd, a British company currently active for
translation services and events that in the past hosted a couple
of interesting open source projects. I simply forgot to disable
the email notification to my connections, set by default, and in
2-3 hours I received tens of messages from friends and
ex-colleagues who were curious to hear about my new
adventure.
Today, I changed my profile on LinkedIN again and have left the
email notification set on purpose.
As of today, I join the team at ScaleDB. My role is to define the product and
the strategy for the company, working closely with CEO Tom Arthur, CTO …
Jun
01
2015
Feb
26
2013
Canonical has just announced that the Ubuntu Developer Summit will no longer be face to face and every six months. Instead it will be entirely online and virtual, using Google Hangouts. (Here is the announcement.)
On the surface, this seems like a good idea: It's cheaper
monetarily, it appears to open things up to people who are unable
to travel, and it makes it easier to make complete records.
However, I think it's a bad idea, for several interrelated
reasons.
Some decision making needs face-time to happen. For whatever reasons, internet-only communication is not enough for a good enough "meeting of the minds" for sticky or subtle engineering and design decisionmaking.
The IETF, who probably have the longest history of any organization ever of online internet-enabled …
[Read more]
Jun
14
2011
Apache OpenOffice.org proposal approved. SkySQL Tekes new funding. And more.
# The proposal for OpenOffice.org to become an Apache incubator project was unanimously approved.
# Rob Weir discussed how the relationship between OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice need not be a zero-sum game.
# Simon Phipps offered his thoughts on the potential positive and negative outcomes.
# Tekes, the main public funding agency for research, development, and innovation in Finland, …
[Read more]
May
03
2011
Novell sold to Attachmate. Barnes & Noble throws the book at Microsoft. And more.
Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and
Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have
to.”
# Novell closed its acquisition by Attachmate and its patent sale to CPTN.
# Attachmate’s CEO discussed the company’s plans for SUSE Linux.
# Barnes & Noble …
[Read more]
Apr
21
2011
DoJ/FCO says aye CPTN. Canonical readies Ubuntu 11.04. And more.
Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and
Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have
to.”
# Novell-CPTN patent sale agreed by DoJ/FCO, subject to the patents being licensed to OIN.
# VMware reported net income of $126m in Q1 on revenue up 33% to $844m.
# Canonical previewed Ubuntu 11.04, featuring Unity and also Ubuntu Server 11.04.
# The Open Invention Network …
[Read more]
Mar
22
2011
Paranoid Android. Canonical and Gnome. A new OSI. And more.
Paranoid Android
If you are interested in the potential violation of the GPL by
the Android kernel you have probably already immersed yourself in
the numerous blog posts published on the topic. If not, start
with Sean Hogle’s analysis or Bradley M Kuhn’s overview of the original allegations and work
backwards from there, not forgetting a detour for the obligatory Microsoft connection. Linus
Torvalds said
claim “seems totally bogus”. In the meantime, Microsoft …
Nov
02
2010
JCP election results. Funding for Acquia and Continuent. Fedora 14. And more.
Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and
Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have
to.”
# The Java Community Process election results are in.
# Acquia closed an $8.5m series C funding round and announced that it has tripled its customer base in 2010.
# Continuent appointed Robert Hodges CEO and confirmed details of $5m funding from Aura Capital.
# Red Hat …
[Read more]
Oct
18
2010
Bradley M Kuhn published an interest blog post at the weekend explaining why he believes Canonical is about to go down the open core licensing route and heavily criticising the company for doing so.
My take on the post is that it is the worst kind of Daily Mail-esque fear mongering and innuendo. Not only does Bradley lack any evidence for his claim, the evidence he presents completely undermines his argument and distracts attention from what could be a very important point about copyright assignment.
The premise? Mark Shuttleworth has admitted that he plans to follow the open core licensing strategy with Canonical.
The evidence? Mark praises the strategy Trolltech took of selling proprietary licenses.
The problem? Trolltech did not follow the open core licensing strategy. Neither did MySQL, which Bradley suggests …
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Oct
08
2010
Patents! Patents! Patents! Canonical’s perfect 10. And more.
Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and
Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have
to.”
# Google responded to Oracle’s claims that its Android OS infringes copyrights and patents related to Java.
# Matt Asay evaluated the various patent claims against Android and its related devices.
# Microsoft licensed smartphone patents from ACCESS Co and a subsidiary of Acacia Research.
# Glyn Moody …
[Read more]
Oct
05
2010
Microsoft sues Motorola. Oracle says no to LibreOffice. Time to fork Java? And more.
Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and
Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have
to.”
# Microsoft is suing Motorola over alleged Android patent infringements.
# Oracle confirmed to SJVN that it will not be working with the Document Foundation on LibreOffice.
# Sean Michael Kerner reported that Red Hat has settled an alleged patent infringement case with IP firm Acacia Research.
# Greg Luck …
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