Cutting Free
This is the obligatory introduction to the blog.
The main focus of "Cutting Free" will be Free Software at the cutting edge. By "Free Software", I mean "Free as in freedom". People generally understand this to be "Open Source", and the terms are usually considered to be interchangeable, but "Open Source" has a wider scope.
Free Software often leads the field in technological development and innovation. I shall focus on such projects, but probably also mention software that really should be brought up to speed.
Software that pushes the boundaries is what excites me, and being able to dabble in the code and get to see the workings doubly so. Free software has the unique position of enabling individuals around the world to play with an idea just because they want to, without having to worry about commercial viability. Microsoft spent a lot of time and resources on developing WinFS (a filesystem which uses a database to take care of the storage), but they dumped the project. It’s actually quite a good idea (although it would have reduced interoperability), but GNOME have explored the same idea through their GNOME Storage project, and that work continues.
There are, of course, examples where the volume of company money has enabled proprietary software to succeed where Free Software cannot. However, the unrestricted way in which Free Software can be developed, and the remarkable results that can come from that, that makes for a fascinating topic itself.
If there are any projects you would like me to feature, then please leave a comment.
I hope that I shall be able to make this subject as interesting for you as it is for me.
Michael
Copyright (c) 2006-2007 Michael J Kaye.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the content of this blog post under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.