Slashdot | Mandrakesoft Changes Name to Mandriva
I guess with the merger between Mandrake and Conectiva this was inevitable, but why did they have to pick such a dumb name? Anyway, for more info and comments check out the Slashdot article.
Archive for April, 2005
Frameworks, frameworks, everywhere a framework
This is insane! I saw this list of all the different Java web frameworks on the Wicket site (another java web framework).
- Action Framework
- Baritus
- Barracuda
- Bento
- Bishop
- Cameleon
- Canyamo
- Cassandra
- Chiba
- Cocoon
- Dinamica
- Dovetail
- Echo
- Expresso
- Folium
- Genie
- Helma
- JATO
- JBanana
- JFormular
- JPublish
- JWAA
- JWarp
- Jacquard
- Jaffa
- Japple
- Jeenius
- Jucas
- Macaw
- Maverick
- Melati
- Millstone
- MyFaces
- Nacho
- Niggle
- OXF
- OpenEmcee
- RIFE
- SOFIA
- Scope
- Shocks
- Smile
- Spring MVC
- Struts
- Tapestry
- TeaServlet
- Turbine
- Verge
- Warfare
- WebOnSwing
- WebWork
- Wicket
- Xoplon
- jStatemachine
- jZonic
- wingS
And somehow with all these Java frameworks, the Java community still has the time to complain about Rails. Somewhere along the lines this stopped making sense.
Open Standards, not Open Software
Over and over again I hear the call for all software to be open source instead of proprietory. Personally, I disagree with this statement. I think there is a place for closed source software and a place for open source software. However, what I do disagree with is creating closed standards.
My usual argument for creating closed source software comes from the world of animation and special affects. Programs like Maya and Softimage XSI are amongst the most powerful and well created programs on the planet. Not only can they do character animation, 3d animation, and special affects, but Maya is used by the FBI for forensics research because its dynamics and physics engine is so realistic. Using Maya, they are able to simulate someone being pushed off a building and accurately determine where the body will fall depending on the initial force used. This is some very cool software. However, I don’t think any of it would have been invented if not for closed source software. Alias and Softimage need to know that they will get a return on their investment in order to create software this amazing.
The key to this argument is that there is nowhere in the open source universe software that can compete with the current software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, Softimage XSI, Maya, Houdini, Combustion, Flame, Inferno, and so on. Other proprietory software programs have trouble competing with these titles let alone open source options.
However, with all that said, I think what is really needed is a call for open standards, specifically when it comes to file formats. We need to get rid of this idea of each program having its own file format. Open standards do exist to some degree: EPS for graphics, RTF for text, XMI for UML programs, and others. However, with each of these formats you loose either compatibility or features.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could use one file format between every office product? No longer would you be tied to a single vendor or a single app. You could move your files from OS to OS and from program to program. You could create a document in OpenOffice.org, edit it later in Office and finally print it from home using WordPerfect and never loose any formatting or functionality.
Open source advocates state that OSS is all about choice, but I say choice will never be a true option until we have open standards and open file formats.
Don’t believe a thing
April Fool’s day has got to be the worse day for news on the net. Not a single story appearing on Slashdot can be believed today. And the worse part is that the stories slowly get worse as the day goes on. My favorite of the day though is Paris Hilton Recruited to Publicize Linux
