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Earlier today I was looking at a source file for the OpenStack Ceilometer docs and noticed that there's a copyright statement at the top. Now, in no way do I want to pick on Nicholas. There are hundreds of such copyright statements in the OpenStack docs and code, and this is just the example I happened to be looking at. (Note that my employer has its share of copyright statements in the OpenStack code. Pretty much every company participating in OpenStack does this. I think we need to stop.)

When it comes to Linux-friendly hardware vendors one of my favorite companies to deal with at Phoronix is CompuLab. The Israeli PC vendor isn't just rebadging some OEM systems and slapping on a Tux sticker nor are they assembling some x86 systems that individuals could easily build at a lower cost. We have reviewed several interesting low-power Linux PCs from them in the past and today may be one of their most interesting products yet, the Freescale i.MX6-based Utilite. In this review is a look at the Utilite Pro, which is my new favorite pre-assembled ARM Linux desktop.

In the open source world, a women-only event seems counter-intuitive. Yet I am finding reasons for such events the more I attend them. At the OpenStack Summit, a twice-a-year event where OpenStack contributors get together to plan the next release, the Women of OpenStack group has set up events where we invite the women first. Men aren't excluded, but our hope is to get more OpenStack women together. I can hardly capture the value of getting together with other women in OpenStack at the Summit, but here goes.

You know how on TV, NFL analysts will pit one football team against another and say what areas they need to execute well in order to win the game? Here is my take on the most popular desktop Linux distros: Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Chrome OS. Let's not mince words here: Windows is still the undisputed king of the desktop with OS X a distant second. In the meantime, Linux does not even show up on the radar, especially where it counts: in retail outlets and the average consumer's mind.

Until I started graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I had never heard of open source. However, every computer science department of any age and stature uses open source software to support their infrastructure. One or another variant of Linux was always being installed on our desktops by the departmental systems administrators, and many academic programs are open source. I accepted the whole situation more or less as I found it.

Auris launched a Kickstarter campaign for a portable, Android-based “Wily” streaming media player with a 7-inch touchscreen, 90dB speakers, WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI, and a webcam. Auris, which already sells an $80 “Skye” WiFi music receiver and a $50 “FreeDa” Bluetooth receiver, is now prepping an Android 4.2.2-based portable combination speaker and media-streamer called Wily. The […]

Not to be confused with Mono's former Moonlight open-source project re-implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight, the Moonlight Desktop Environment is trying to be the desktop environment for low-end devices like the Raspberry Pi...

There's a major new release out today of OpenSSH...

For most students, an internship presents a major opportunity to learn and grow in a real-world environment. Interns who join an open source company or project also seem to learn a lot about themselves along the way. Recently, I asked some former Red Hat interns—both newly hired and long-time Red Hat associates—what lessons they learned by working in an open source culture and what advice they have for our next group of interns.

Which project would you recommend to a newbie who wants to get started with open source? Drupal Fedora LibreOffice PostgreSQL Python Ubuntu Other (tell us in the comments) While Opensource.com is preparing for our upcoming Beginners in Open Source Week starting February 17, we want to hear from our readers about which open source projects are best for beginners. After you've responded to the poll, mark your calendars for:

Intrinsyc revealed design wins for its Open-Q 8074 SOM Qseven module based on the Snapdragon 800, including a wearable device and a “MiWorld PCS” mini-PC. Intrinsyc tipped the Open-Q 8074 System on Module (SOM) last June as the heart of its Linux- and Android-ready DragonBoard 8074 Development Kit , but made no mention as to […]

Regular readers of this column won't be surprised to hear that I love both Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL. Rails has been my primary server-side Web development framework for about eight years, and it has managed to provide solutions for a large number of consulting and personal projects.

In proprietary software, the company contributes 100% of the code. If you think about a traditional proprietary software product, it has a development community of one: the software company itself. The company’s ability to support that product, to influence the features that come in future versions, and to integrate that product with other products in its ecosystem flows directly from its direct control over the source code and its development. In open source, it is rare that any one company controls anything close to 100% of the source code; in fact, it is often a sign of a weak open source community if one company dominates a project. The power and the value of the open source development model come from many individual and corporate contributors coming together. Using this thinking, we can look at the collaborative corporate contributions to OpenStack.

Plex is one of those applications I tend to write about a lot. It's not because I get any sort of kickback or even a discount, but rather it's just an incredible system that keeps getting better.

Whether the big media producers like it or not, digital technologies have made it easier than ever for popular culture fans to create remixes or derivative works from their favorite movies, TV shows, books, and other media. And the participatory nature of the Internet has arguably helped broaden the popular definition of a "fan community" from something exclusive to comic and sci-fi fans to being inclusive of many genres and people. This includes giving wider exposure to a vast and yet often overlooked demographic in pop fandom—women—and their influence on mainstream media stories.

Que, QI host? WHAT DO YOU MEAN Kildall was 'cracked'? What are we to do with Stephen Fry? Britain's go-to guy for advertisement voice-overs has had another attempt at explaining computing history, in his own unique way. But he's got it wrong, and at the same time sullied the memory of one of the industry's true pioneers.…

The open source license you choose for your project, or for the projects you choose to contribute to, can have significant effects on how what you contribute is used. One question that has garnered quite a bit of interest recently is the fall in popularity of copyleft licenses in favor of permissive licenses. An article last year looked at the issue of large number of projects on GitHub that have no explicit license and posited the question about whether we live in a 'post open source software' world, where seemingly open source software has no license. After some time, GitHub agreed that licensing is important and worked to improve the situation with a license chooser.

When I first started working at the Open Technology Institute (OTI), I was consistently challenged with the question: "Why would a UX designer want to work at an open source organization?" The truth, in my opinion, is almost all design and usability work is by its nature open source.

Giving back isn't just about code.

One of my favorite quotes is "We are what we celebrate." Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST Robotics, says this and it comes up on an almost daily basis one way or another in my work in open source hardware and education. One of the challenges of getting more young people into engineering and computer programming is that we're collectively competing with the high profile status that becoming a famous, professional athlete or musician, or reality show star, promises. I don't expect the mass media to change, because change happens from small groups of motivated people. And, this is where the maker, hacker, and open source software and hardware communities are making great progress.