Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 by Gary Keorkunian
Posted in Free Software, Security | 3 Comments »
Gary’s Note: The following article points out the risk of using some free software. I recommend that no user ever make use of tools that provide free coupons or other teasers that require you to install spyware such as the comScore program. You should also avoid any “free” software tool that automatically installs such spyware. I recommend only installing software from reliable and safe sources. The Free Software Catalog here at gara.com is a great place to find software that does not stealthily install spyware.
by Dan Levine and Jim Finkle | Reuters | Aug 23, 2011
Online data tracking service comScore Inc siphons confidential information including passwords, credit card numbers and Social Security numbers from unsuspecting users, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.
The proposed class action lawsuit, filed on behalf of two plaintiffs who downloaded comScore software, also says comScore scans all files on users’ personal computers and modifies security settings, among other allegations. (more…)
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Thursday, August 18th, 2011 by Gary Keorkunian
Posted in Free Software | No Comments »
Google has announced that it will no longer support its toolbar for Firefox, stating the features no standard in the browser are supplanting the need for the tool.
The Google Toolbar for Firefox has been removed from the Free Software Catalog.
Read more from Google here.
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Monday, April 18th, 2011 by Gary Keorkunian
Posted in Free Software | 1 Comment »
by Ryan Paul | Ars Technica | April 18, 2011
In a statement issued on Friday, Oracle announced that it intends to discontinue commercial development of the OpenOffice.org (OOo) office suite. The move comes several months after key members of the OOo community and a number of major corporate contributors forked OOo to create a vendor-neutral alternative. (more…)
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Thursday, March 31st, 2011 by Gary Keorkunian
Posted in Free Software | No Comments »
by Nic Williams | Mashable | March 31, 2011
Open source software (OSS) is recognized for the cost savings it delivers when compared with proprietary alternatives. As enterprises continue to adopt OSS, the open source communities, mostly made up of volunteers, have been calling on enterprises to make contributions and donations with the aim of fostering open source software innovation and growth. (more…)
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Saturday, March 26th, 2011 by Gary Keorkunian
Posted in Free Software | No Comments »
By Derek Baldwin | Gulf News | March 26, 2011
Dubai: Don’t believe everything you read about tech camps siding only with either proprietary software (PS) or open source software (OSS), says a Harvard Business School professor.
Dr Josh Lerner, co-author of a new book, Comingled Code, said on a growing scale, businesses, governments and educational institutions are mixing both forms of private and free public software to achieve their needs, nixing the notion that it’s one winner takes all in the software industry.
Lerner, who co-authored the book with Mark Schankerman, said: “Standard dichotomy between PS and OSS is exaggerated and misleading”, and that both forms are increasingly being used in an evolving co-existence to get the job done.
“While they are different, each has strengths and weaknesses, but it’s not like it’s oil and vinegar that they are diametrically opposed,” Lerner said.
“We did a survey across 15 countries of 2,000 software developers and 2,000 users comprising non-profit, governments and corporations. We found there was a very striking overlap on the user and producer side.”
After crunching the survey data, Lerner said one of the things which stood out was “co-mingling was taking place here.”
The big reason for the mixing, he said, is that quite often proprietary software that is heavily restricted by large corporate giants such as Microsoft cannot cover all user needs, who could then use free open source software to fill in the gaps.
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Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 by Gary Keorkunian
Posted in Free Software | No Comments »
by John Sullivan, Free Software Foundation, March 22, 2011
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 — Free Software Foundation president Richard M. Stallman announced the winners of the FSF’s annual free software awards at a ceremony on Saturday, March 19th, held during the LibrePlanet 2011 conference at Bunker Hill Community College. (more…)
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Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 by Gary Keorkunian
Posted in Free Software | No Comments »
by Mozilla
The Mozilla Blog
March 22, 2011
Mozilla, a global, nonprofit organization dedicated to making the Web better, is proud to release Mozilla Firefox 4, the newest version of the popular, free and open source Web browser. Firefox puts users in control of their Web experience, providing a streamlined user interface, fun new features, a boost in speed and support for modern Web technologies. (more…)
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Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 by Gary Keorkunian
Posted in Free Software | No Comments »
by Steve Kovach
Business Insider
March 22, 2011
After several delays, Firefox 4 will officially launch today.
We got our hands on the final version after it leaked yesterday and picked out the best and most useful features so far.
Right off the bat, we noticed that browsing is faster. But it seems like a lot of the design tweaks such as tab placement and the add-ons library has been borrowed from Google Chrome.
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Thursday, February 25th, 2010 by Gary Keorkunian
Posted in Free Software, Personal Computing | No Comments »
Most desktops and notebook computers today come with Microsoft Windows already installed. It wasn’t included free, however. The license fee was included in the price. If you have a Windows based PC, that’s fine. After you read this article, however, you will see there is not much need to pay additional licensing fees. (more…)
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Thursday, February 18th, 2010 by Gary Keorkunian
Posted in Free Software | No Comments »
Small Business folks have been using Microsoft products for so long that switching to open source tools seems like too risky a move. Of course anytime we change the way we do things we expose ourselves to some risk. So, as with most changes, the best way to mitigate our risk is to do some due diligence, use pilot tests and go slow. Here are some ways you can begin using open source software (OSS) in your small business. (more…)
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