Everybody does not have to be a programmer to use open source software, but…

By | February 2, 2017

One of the prides of the free and open source software development model has been the ability of individuals to modify software as a result of the availability if the source code of such software. This has led to many wonderful benefits in the FOSS community. It has reduced the development time of large and… Read More »

The shape of open source

By | January 27, 2017

At its core, open source is about collaboration. Whether it’s version control, licenses, or issue trackers—everything exists to support people working with each other. Open source embodies a model for people to work together, building something greater than they can create on their own. Open source projects on GitHub come in all shapes and sizes,… Read More »

Why be a pirate? Use open source software instead

By | December 16, 2016

Close to half of all computer users around the world tend to get their software illegally, and business decision-makers are no exception. That’s one finding from a recent survey commissioned by the Business Software piracy Alliance (BSA) lobby group, which reported the results in a blog post  last week. “An especially troubling finding in the… Read More »

6 popular open source applications you might not know are open source.

By | December 1, 2016

There are many applications that are awesome and are widely used by many people today that they do not know are free and open-source software or apps (FOSS). One of the common misconceptions about FOSS is that it is not good enough for the general public (only for hackers and programmers). So to disprove this… Read More »

Introducing the Free and open source Community

By | November 24, 2016

  In the corporate proprietary world the development of software is restricted to the four walls of the the company/organization responsible. Here it is the organization that determines what is included or removed from the software. But in the Free and Open source software (FOSS) world it is tied to the community. The FOSS community… Read More »

Does Microsoft Finally Get Open Source?

By | November 7, 2016

  When Microsoft first started addressing market pressure toward open source, the company didn’t get it. Probably it’s more accurate to say Microsoft didn’t want to get it. Or wanted to pretend not to get it. A key exhibit was the Shared Source Initiative (SSI), an early 2000s initiative to allow certain parties to view… Read More »

A Doctor Turned Programmer Through Open Source

By | October 28, 2016

Judy Gichoya is a medical doctor from Kenya who became a software developer after joining the open source medical records project, OpenMRS. The open source project creates medical informatics software that helps health professionals collect and present data to improve patient care in developing countries.   After seeing how effective the open medical records system… Read More »

How to transit to a Free and Open Source operating system like Linux

By | October 7, 2016

There is no doubt that Linux is the best free/open source operating system (OS) out there. But we’re living in a Window-lized non-free country, and so a transition to a free operating system would not be a day job. And I’d like to share some lessons on how one can easily try (and probably move… Read More »

The Unification of Free and Open Source Software Package Distribution: a step in the right direction?

By | September 27, 2016

One thing that many newcomers to Linux discover when installing applications on their systems is that they’d always have to install directly from the internet – – most times. To add to the web of these technicalities, different distributions (distros) support different format for distributing and utilizing their applications (e.g. the .deb for Debian-based systems… Read More »