Open Source Musings

Putting Open Source to the Mom Test

I stumbled across Amber's blog by accident today - she's writing a series of posts that document her experience installing and using Linux distros and a variety of open source applications.

I hope open source developers are following along as stay-at-home-mom Amber shares her adventures in Linux and open source. She eloquently points out usability issues that make it hard for your average mom to race out and embrace open source. Developers: Take note. For that matter, publishers should take note - I hope Amber gets a book deal out of her blog series.

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Open Source, it is not just for Linux anymore

I was involved in an email discussion the other day with a fellow Amateur Radio operator about a program called UI-View, a Windows-based application for the Automatic Position Reporting System. In the course of our discussion I inquired into the state of the source code, having pointed out that some of the interfaces should be reviewed to take advantage of some of the newer mapping tools. I was informed that the source code had been destroyed on the author's death, at his request. This made me pause.

Wow. More here.