With Bill Gates’ retirement this week, there’s been an excuse for lots of chatter about his career with Microsoft, and what they have done in the world of computers over the years.

I came across this post about “Things No One Gives Microsoft Credit For (But Should)“, which I thought seemed a bit… uninformed. But I was surprised to realize that it was posted on Gizmodo, which I had expected to post more accurate and educated content. So, as there is nothing good on TV right now (or more specifically, nothing good on “my” TV right now, thanks to my wife) I thought I’d pick it apart; (more…)

June 30th, 2008 | Devices and User Interfaces, Freedom, The Internet, WWW | No comments

Just over a week ago, the the third revision of the GNU Public Licence was released. This is a software licence designed to protect free software, ensuring that users and developers are free to use and develop the software as they wish, while ensuring that any modifications or improvements made remain accessible to the free software community.

In an age where software development and computer technology is so governed by copyright and legal restrictions, the knock-on effects that this legal licence will have mean that it is probably a more significant release than new versions of most software applications.

Having already talked about Free software and the commons (and still with a few more things to say about it in the future), I thought it would be worth talking about exactly what “Free software” is and what it means to software users and developers. (more…)

July 9th, 2007 | Freedom | 2 comments