PUBLIC LICENSE

The World of Open Source

The folks at AdventNet have taken the Zoho Writer word processor offline with the Google Gears API. Previously you could save read-only versions to proof your work, say on a flight to China, but now you can go offline with multiple docs and edit them locally. Once you're back online, the Gear-enabled Zoho Writer handles the syncing and versioning between online and offline docs. Not all the online features are available offline, but it's a pretty robust Ajax app.

Posted by John Dorsey at 09:12 PM  Permalink |

(That means he's cool.)

Posted by John Dorsey at 08:47 PM  Permalink |

So is open-source software taking over Oracle-powered enterprises? Yes and no, according to a recent survey, which reports that most Oracle datacenters are running a wide array of open-source software, from operating systems and app servers to databases and systems management. However those implementations are not "deep." Few of those open-source apps are integrated into mission-critical enterprise apps; instead, most are dedicated systems or testing and development environments.

Continue reading "Open Source Adoption in Oracle Shops "

Posted by John Dorsey at 07:05 PM  Permalink |

Mozilla Labs is bridging the gap between apps in the browser and traditional desktop apps with a new project named Prism . Prism moves web apps out of the browser to run directly on the desktop. Right now only Windows support is available, but Mac OS and Linux versions should be ready soon. Mozilla Labs is also working on providing support for offline data storage and access to local 3D graphics hardware.

Posted by John Dorsey at 07:51 PM  Permalink |

Mozilla Lab is conducting a contest to find the next great Firefox add-on with its second Extend Firefox Contest

Continue reading "Extend Firefox^2 Contest Underway"

Posted by John Dorsey at 05:37 PM  Permalink |

The Open Source Initiative has approved two licenses proposed by Microsoft's Shared Source program. OSI determined that the Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL) and the Microsoft Reciprocal License (Ms-RL) satisfied the 10 criteria of the Open Source definition.

The two licenses are brief and identical, except for the additional Ms-RL reciprocity clause:

"Reciprocal Grants - For any file you distribute that contains code from the software (in source code or binary format), you must provide recipients the source code to that file along with a copy of this license, which license will govern that file. You may license other files that are entirely your own work and do not contain code from the software under any terms you choose."

Posted by John Dorsey at 06:10 PM  Permalink |

Lots of news from Zend/PHP 2007 conference 2007 from Zend, as well as several conference sponsors. Zend announced Zend Core 2.5, available now, and the beta of the Zend Studio for Eclipse (based on Eclipse PDT).

Continue reading "New PHP Tools at ZendCon07 "

Posted by John Dorsey at 08:26 PM  Permalink |

We've posted the source files for Dr. Dobb's FlipBook, our prototype e-zine built on Silverlight. The zip file includes all the Javascript from the e-zine, including the open-source Sarissa library, the cross-browser wrapper for native XML APIs, written by Manos Batsis. The download also contains the text and images content from our e-zine as placeholders, but not the video and audio.

Posted by John Dorsey at 07:40 PM  Permalink |

The JRuby team has announced that JRuby now includes a complete Ruby 1.8 compiler. As project lead Charles Nutter put it, "It is a glorious day in JRuby-land." The Team has also been improving the speed of interpreted mode JRuby so that it is "almost as fast as the C implementation of Ruby 1.8." Moreover, Charles and Thomas Enebo got the last bug fixes done while traveling to RailsConf EU and JAOO. Nutter also hinted at an additional JRuby compiler that will enable compiling Ruby into normal, static Java classes. That would allow Java developers to invoke Ruby objects from within a Java project. More info at jruby.codehaus.org.

Posted by John Dorsey at 02:43 PM  Permalink |

JavaScript developer (and MacBook Pro fan) Kevin Miller has updated his Accordion JavaScript control. The new Accordion v2.0 allows nested vertical accordions, horizontal accordions, and dynamically resizing accordions. It was built with Scriptalicious, works on all browsers, and is freely distributable under the terms of an MIT-style license.
Kevin also created the Lightwindow v2.0 control, and did I mention that he's a MacBook Pro fan?

Posted by John Dorsey at 07:38 PM  Permalink |