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What if there’s good closed source software?

Open source is good for clashes, and the latest is a vote by GNOME on whether to continue as a GNU project.  (via)  The triggering event appears to be a request from Richard Stallman for GNOME to not mention software that isn’t open source.

The long-term problem with something like that is that closed source software doesn’t go away if you ignore it.  If people want to talk about the closed-source software they are using instead of open-source material, then you have to make the open-source software worth talking about.  Programs don’t improve by beardo fiat.  Plus, it only makes a difference as long as the producers are the consumers of the same software.  (via)

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Pkgsrc things to do

Proposed changes in pkgsrc:

Please follow each thread; they’re still in progress, so some of those removals may get canceled, or testing completed by the time this is read.

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Messylaneous for 2009/12/10

I’ve been building this entry up for a while, so some of these entries are newer than others.

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Hammer saves my bacon

Some of the ikiwiki configuration files on dragonflybsd.org were accidentally overwritten during a software upgrade.  Normally this would mean some work to locate and replace them from backups, but since it was a Hammer volume, a quick look in /var/hammer/usr/… found them for me.

I want to point out what Hammer does, here.  Restoring from backup isn’t new – it is in fact probably one of the most basic and necessary of system administration duties.  However, Hammer makes it so easy that the incremental work of using it falls to almost nothing.  There’s no extra preparation or syntax to learn for retrieval, which is wonderful.  Hammer’s easy fix has helped me out several times now, saving me time that, while probably still successful with any other backup system, would have been taken up just restoring things back to normal.

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Two twitters and a source

If you can produce an article on open source success factors by December 20th, the Open Source Business Resource would like to hear from you.  Also, the audio of a recent NYCBUG meeting is available online.  Both of those links come from Dru Lavigne’s excellent BSD Twitter feeds.  It’s worth watching the BSDEvents one because there’s literally daily BSD-themed events coming up, and she seems to catch every one.

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Holiday links

The end of year shopping season is on many of us again.  I did this last year, and it seemed useful, so here’s another geeky holiday shopping guide.

For DragonFly material, there’s a number of places that will ship you a CD/DVD.

If you want a computer hardware gift, but your friends/family don’t know that much about hardware, point them at Newegg. Tell them the general type of item you want, and the reviews can help them pick.

For general geek gifts, there’s the ever-popular ThinkGeek.  Wandering farther off the beaten path, there’s American Science and Surplus, Ward’s Scientific, Carolina, and United Nuclear.  Creepier: The Bone Room or Skulls Unlimited.

A good gift for the technically minded: a Leatherman Wave.  I’ve tried Gerber multitools and Swiss Army Knives, but I’ve been carrying a Leatherman Wave for so long people turn to me whenever something needs to be cut or opened, because they know I’ll be able to do it.

I’m linking to this even though it’s completely unrelated to this blog’s normal content: The Comics Reporter Holiday Shopping Guide.  It’s comics, through and through, and some wonderful stuff is noted there.

Unlike many other blogs, I don’t get kickbacks or commissions off this.  You can ascribe this to me “keeping it real” or that I’m bad at monetization.  You pick.

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Death of a contributor

Jon Birrell, a contributor to a number of BSD projects (primarily FreeBSD), has died.  His friend and coworker Craig Rodrigues has posted a notice about his death, along with some memories.  It’s always awful when someone dies, but it always strikes me about how when an open source contributor dies, it’s noticed, quietly, worldwide.