Revolution Through Software

April 14th, 2008 by Phil Hughes

We all talk about our Open Source or Free software as a mainstream thing. Today it is certainly hard to see it as anything else. When you find Linux in airplanes, on Wall Streat and in your set-top box it certainly feels mainstream.

Well, an article in The Daily Radical offers a different look—for some, a reminder look—at who we really are. The article is about the Third International Forum on Free Knowledge which was held in Venezuela but it goes way beyond in looking at what is going on in Venezuela.

Pretty different look than "yeah, Linux is mainstream".

The Venezuelan revolution is perhaps the first revolution in history saved by computer hackers and is one of the reasons the government is so very strong on promoting the use of free software, particularly in public administration. The Venezuelan government wishes never again to have vital infrastructure held hostage or sabotaged by agents of foreign nations.
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Phil Hughes

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From the Magazine

July 2008, #171

Heard of the Web? If not, read on. This month we talk with Matt Mullenweg about WordPress. If you want to get your hands dirty in Web code, take a look at the rest of our feature articles on WebKit, Dojo and OpenLaszlo.

In the rest of the issue, you'll find articles on OpenID, RDFa and Quanta Plus. Kyle Rankin puts a new spin (as in "no" spin SSD) on hard drives and also tells you how to migrate to that new disk (spinning or not). Mick Bauer continues his series on customizing live CD's. And, James Gray gives us a feel for the state of Linux in the enterprise. After all that, you may need some TV time. If so, check out our review on how to make that digital TV tuner card work in your Linux box.

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