Google Chrome OS: A new interesting announcement

So, now it's official. Google is taking on Microsoft in operating systems. Google announced that it is developing a Google Chrome OS, an open source lightweight operating system aimed for net books and other low end devices.

It is quite simple system. A Google chrome web browser running on top of Linux kernel and a custom windom manager. Applications are basically implemented in web based techniques and work for all standard browsers on any platform. The OS runs both on ARM and x86 based platforms and makes it possible to use it in multiple different embedded devices as well as on net books.

Google emphasizes that Chrome OS and Android are two different products, as it has been rumored that Android will be used on net books too.

As a happy user of Google Android Dev Phone I feel like the new Chrome OS is something that makes me love net books even more. I'm happy with my Eee PC, but not as happy as with Android and I feel like the OS is making the difference. If Google reaches the same level with Chrome OS as it has reached with Android... I hope so as we need better user experiences at low cost to innovate more effectively in future.

This is also good news for companies like IT Mill, that develops a toolkit for web application development. Go guys!

Mobile hype continued

It's been a busy week in mobile handset world. Latest news is that LiPS forum joins forces with LiMo Foundation. This is a good step in preventing the foreseen problem of Linux in mobile devices: Fragmentation.

These two key players have already before made some work together to unify the platforms, but this certainly is much better. Now from fragmentation point of view, the only problem is Google and Open Handset Alliance.

I personally don't yet view the fragmentation as a major problem as I see that each platforms have their own purposes and they fit those very well. Maybe later on there will be need to align different platforms, but until then. Keep on developing and contributing. I'm waiting for the result eagerly...

Open source mobile hype

The hype about open source based mobile phones is increasing all the time.

- Google Android is coming, although might be a bit late
- OpenMoko based Neo Freerunner is ready to be shipped
- Symbian is about to be open sourced
- Nokia bought Trolltech that has implemented a open source mobile platfrom Qtopia as well as the highly popular cross- platform GUI application framework Qt
- LIPS forum, Open Handset Alliance and LiMo foundation are gaining popularity
- Nokia has announced to bring a Linux based device to market that has telephony sutpport

And so on. Don't even get me started on MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) and UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PC)... (Well, I have to: Atom, maemo, UME, mobilin etc. :) )

There seems to be a huge hype about these and for a reason. Open source enables smaller companies to step up and enter the markets. It enables users to customize and freely develop applications and the platform to better suit their needs. It makes open innovation possible.

Problem still seems to be that the rules and regulations (both juridical and the community rules) seem to be a bit hard for companies to gasp. Almost everyone know nowadays that open source is good thing and now we are thinking how to gain benefit from it? Someone introduced already that we are moving towards FOSS 2.0 where we really get business benefit from open source.

I'm currently working on "Benefit from open source" course and I'm full of ideas. The problem is that the course is just one day long and there won't be enough time to go through all the exciting stuff. What do you think are the most important things a company should understand when starting to do business with open source?

Summer holiday

Finally my summer holiday started!

I had to delay the start by one week due to a bit busy situation at work (in fact, I've been working whole morning at home to get things done). Have to say that now it feels really free and relaxed. I even have time to write to blog and to read few books that I've been thinking about reading for few months already.

I also feel like I should develop at least something during the summer holiday. Just to have something to do during rainy days :). The problem is that I have had a huge number of ideas during the winter and spring about tools that should be done, but now my head feels empty. Well, maybe I should just start with open source Scrum tools project that I've been considering for ages. If you have any ideas, please let me know...

Agile way

I've just started a new project for automatic generation of article reference list website. As I've been reading, studying and teaching agile methods for a while already, I felt that I should try some practices in my own project too. So I started doing this Java application in test-driven way and I also created my own build server for continuous integration. The first impression on TDD is great: The software is building up almost by itself, refactoring is easy, Test & Profiling Tools Platform is smashing and everything works nice.

However the next step on the model is to create some kind of view. UI development in Java is not my strongest side and I guess test-driving that is not so easy. If someone knows how to do this, please drop me with a comment or an e-mail.

Well, I'll report on the progress of the project later on and we'll see if I'm able to get it out with some open source license. But before that, it should have some more functionalities and a clear direction where it should be developed to.

P.S. The Agile forums is a place to be in case you have questions about agility.

Very nice portal for free software

I just lately found the Wikipedia portal pages and immediately made one as my starting page: Free software portal. Now I'm waiting mainly on the possibility to gather parts from the interesting Wikipedia portals into my own customized portal. This portal would at least contain some RSS feeds on computer, ICT and business related news, some links to agile development pages and few starting pointers for open source software.

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List of basic open source SW for Windows

I found a nice little list of Windows open source software. The list contains the most common programs for a common user and each of the software, at least on the "Basics" section, is easy to use and well documented. I even started to make few modifications on one of the note taking software to make it fit my needs better. I'll come back about how that turns out.

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Interesting sites gathered

I have been gathering some more or less interesting links at my del.icio.us list for the Managing Dynamics: Creative Content Business course. Looking back to the links I've remembered to save shows the way I've been going through the course. At the beginning I've saved some definitions related to the early topics. I felt unease with the new things and didn't yet know what to think about the cases and the whole course.

While the course progressed, I felt that I made some progress too. I started to save things that interested me: Creative commons, open source, mobile phones and even Christo's and Jean-Claude's installations...

Well here's few top picks from the link list in case you don't have time or interest to browse them through:

Creative Commons comic: A Spectrum of Rights
A nice comic explaining the ideas and usage of Creative Commons license.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar
A great book about open source and the differences between commercial "cathedral" way and the open source "Bazaar" way.

Lawrence Lessig
A homepage of a person who has contributed a lot on Creative Commons license.

Website of Christo and Jeanne-Claude
An artist couple that creates temporary environmental installations. Nice looking pieces of art and interesting business model behind it

OpenLife.cc | Open Life: The Philosophy of Open Source
An open source book about open source. Extremely interesting!

Individual readings and thoughts about open source

As two of my individual readings mainly concentrated on open-source, I'll try to reflect on my own ideas of it after reading some of these books. The Creative Economy by John Howkins takes a very traditional view on the creative content business with explaining different viewpoints. On open source Howkins mainly explains the basic licenses behind them and just touches the brilliant business and social models behind the whole thing.

The most interesting book of these three was Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture. It consists of many case reports about free culture, copyrights, open source and public domain. Interesting cases, some of them were already familiar to me, some of them were interesting smaller cases. All in all, the practical view and cases was just what I could think people would need to see the benefits of open source and creative commons. Also seeing that even open-source or public domain can make income to you. I must agree on Lessig on the potential of open source, but the time it takes for open source to grow will take long. As Lessig states in his conclusion:

"I’ve told a dark story. The truth is more mixed. A technology has given us a new freedom. Slowly, some begin to understand that this freedom need not mean anarchy.We can carry a free culture into the twenty-first century, without artists losing and without the potential of digital technology being destroyed. It will take some thought, and more importantly, it will take some will to transform the RCAs of our
day into the Causbys.
Common sense must revolt. It must act to free culture. Soon, if this potential is ever to be realized."

Creative commons seemed to be a license of choice for individual writings and open-source for small trivial software. Should I write something down every time I'm learning something? Should I publish software written for my own aid or just as an aid for learning? I can't think a reason why not. So I guess I'll license this blog under creative commons.

Back to the readings: The open life by Henrik Ingo was mainly chosen because I haven't had time to read this through before and this would force me to read it. :) The main point in this book is that it also concentrates on the social aspects of open source. It describes the actions of open source community and tells how the open source software projects are carried. Everything has a person centric start point and the results seem to be promising. The different business models in different cases are also a nice way to tell the reader that this "free open source thing" doesn't mean that you don't ever get paid for your job. The little practices for every day jobs from open source projects could benefit almost any academic worker.

Interesting readings and more thoughts on mind. Open source and creative commons feel natural choices right now. I'll guess I'll change this to Creative Commons right away.

Individual readings for the course (business, open source and creative commons)

Just case studies and some discussion around it is not enough for this course. In parallel with the case study work each student has some individual readings. I felt like I would like to read about open source and creative commons, after all those were the main issues that made me participate this course. I'm also interested in open source and web 2.0 business models. How do you make money from it? Who has your money and how do you get it from them?

So from these viewpoints I found three different books. First one was from our course instructors, The Creative Economy: How people make money from ideas by John Howkins. This was just the kind of practical book that give a simple examples and explanations on how to start from an idea and make it profitable.

The other two books are about open source and creative commons. The other is written by Lawrence Lessig, who is strongly encouraging people to publish their writings under creative commons licence. He also does as he preaches, so the book, Free culture, is also available for free from the website. The second one is more interesting from my point of view. This is written by Henrik Ingo, who used to work at the same company I'm currently working and also is my friend's brother. He published Avoin Elämä in April 2005 and it's currently also available in English.

So next task is to read a bit and try to find a common ground for these different books and try to learn something new about creativity and how open source helps it and business. Hopefully I'll have time to write something during next week. Maybe I'll start with the creative commons and apply it with my blog...