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Just stop and think for a minute...think about how outsiders perceive the Linux infrastructure. It is foreign enough with the file system, not to mention the application names....to associate any application or data in Linux as "Restricted" isn't helping our cause. Of course, some of you could not care less.

As of 5/11/10, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD, and Penumbra Overture pledge to go open source. We are preparing the sources right now and will be releasing them ASAP. We spent last night preparing Lugaru and it is available now. The code is still a little rough (no Visual Studio project yet, for instance) but hopefully with the help of the community we can rapidly make it more accessible to everyone.

We've spent some time talking with Dave Burke. Dave is the originating author of Osmos. As we announced albeit a bit late Osmos is now ported to Linux and it's quite an entertaining game. Dave speaks with us about some of his history in gaming and why he ported it to Linux. And possibly why others do or will not.

So..... you have games for the A-type personalities then you have games for those who might...ahem... Prefer herbal sedation... A game to be played in a nice hazy, mellow frame of mind Yeah, that's how I would have described it... Had I not played it I would still think of it that way.

For those that do not know, Linux Against Poverty is an annual event organized by Lynn Bender that gathers some of the top tech people in the area and assembles them to evaluate, triage, repair and then install the Linux Operating System on those computers. The computers are donated by local businesses and individuals. The repaired and refurbished computers are then given to disadvantaged kids in the Central Texas area via The HeliOS Project.

I queried 109 people. People who either owned, managed or worked as Executive Assistants to those in small to medium-sized businesses. And for full disclosure, there were 144 businesses or people I approached that would not take part in this survey. Of that 109 that did, I asked each of them a few simple questions: The first one being..."What is Linux?"

Austin is beautiful in the spring...enjoy it while you can because spring heralds summer. And in Austin Texas, summer can be a handful. That's why the people organizing the Texas LinuxFest chose April to hold their event.

...things have been pretty quiet on the Linux Game Front...at least to my ear, but then again, I'm not much of a gamer. Sure, I've played all the repository shooters...bloody chunks flying and monsters galore. I have a short attention span...mostly because I suck at shooter games. I just don't play them often. But every now and then, one game catches my eye.

I wouldn't put Microsoft software on any of our computers now, even with a gun to my head...but that's not the point. Are we, as charitable and community service-driven organizations, subject to their whim and multi-month grant requests for their software? It would appear so. If Free Software were to be "discouraged" by the US Government (not likely but possible) then we would either have to come to these companies with out hands out, pirate the software or purchase it.

There was no reason to think that trouble loomed...it was just one computer install in a long line of computer installs. A single mom working two jobs...kids ages are 10 and 12...one of them bordering on prodigy... It's the kind of situation we look for. Almost.

Bruno Knaapen is gone. He died yesterday. By choice, and with dignity, Bruno bid his earthly family farewell and slipped beyond The Veil. Bruno Knaapen was ravaged by brain cancer. That cancer had spread throughout his body.

On the 20th of February which is a Saturday, The HeliOS Project will be hosting their first official Organization Day. We will be gathering volunteers to meet at our facility in Lakeway and try to bring some order to the chaos I have created. You've been warned. Oh...there will be free food as an incentive. We will also be filming parts of the event so wear something you'd want to be seen in. I've sent personal invitations to Angelina Jolie and Moon Bloodgood and I have every confidence that they will show up. I mean, they'll show up somewhere...just probably not in Lakeway.

Monday, February 08, 2010 When Linux Nerds Choose Mates from the Windows Herd. Look...let's face this together. Dating can suck. Now when you are young, it's an adventure. One has relatively little "baggage", the emotional scars are few and the dating world is your oyster...so to speak. And you haven't even begun to think about their therapeutic value yet. Ah, youth... But then you find yourself at midlife, choosing from a large pool of potential crisis'. So many to choose from. Maybe there is a divorce or two under your belt, some strong political or religious beliefs that are deeply ingrained, and oh yeah, there's that messy incident with the hacking conviction... Those tend to narrow down the potential list of candidates for life-long bliss. Throw your use/obsession of Linux into the mix and what do you get? More than likely a room at your mom's house and a NASA-level computer bank in her basement.

As we've written about this week, The Christo Rey Catholic Church houses a 25 computer learning center for the residents of East Austin. The HeliOS Project provided the computers and manpower to make this place a reality. This center serves the disadvantaged people in the area and we are proud to provide instructors and volunteers to teach computer classes there and maintain the equipment. I had a meeting with Christina Collazo, the Director of a non-profit, Centro de Aprendizaje ¡Sí Se Puede! that serves this church and the surrounding community. She agreed that the answer was simple. We will dedicate this learning center to Bruno Knaapen.

I don't know if you realize it or not, but you are doing some pretty good things. It took me a while to grasp it...this "global community" thing. It took longer than it should have. But about 3 years ago, I got it. We're all tied together, separated by land and sea; surely, but tied together none the less. I used to see us as individual pockets of people doing stuff, some great stuff...still I didn't see the connection. Silly me.

I opened the desktop configuration gui and expanded the number of desktops to 8 and then started flipping between them as I opened different applications on each environment. By then, everyone at the table was trying to get into position to see the Acer. They were talking about how nice it would be to encapsulate a number of tasks and leave them in various states of completion without worrying about losing their work when they switched between them. Then I hit the shortcut for the water drop effect. Simple things capture simple minds...or so it would seem.

We're losing a friend. Last week, I was notified that a long-time Linux Advocate is dying. His name is Bruno Knaapen and he has brain cancer.

I choose to acknowledge the new year by reflecting, by outlining new goals...replacing weaknesses with strengths. What I did on New Year's Eve is spend time with a few close friends gathered around a roaring fire out in the middle of their back yard. We roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, and talked. We talked about you for a good part of that evening.

Thunderbolts and Revelations. Metaphorically, they can be perceived as the same thing. Of course, "Thunderbolt" carries a bit more drama and impact...an idea or fact that comes upon you so swiftly and powerfully, it is perceived as profound or moving.

The call came in about 7 PM last Monday. It was from Skip Guenter. "You on a secure line?" "Yeah", I said..."I guess so". "Well, I can't take the chance it's not secure. Stay there, don't leave and don't tell anyone I'm coming by." With that he hung up.