Matt couldn’t have put it better, “Lest you think this move to open source is inspired by a cloud of cannabis smoke, the report also mentions significant improvements in interoperability (31 percent), cost reduction (8 percent), and quality improvements in the municipal governments (22 percent).

If that’s what open source delivers, pass the bong!”

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Behold, the cupcakes (we are actually missing one kind in this shot - it had a cherry on top):

And the judges plate:

Delicious. Happy Friday Everyone!!!

The best tools for the job. Secure hosting trusted by over 1,400 users in the first month. An active community of developers. A feature-rich roadmap. ActiveState on your side.

Sign-up for your free account today. Create a Workspace project before July 15 for a chance to win a Dell Netbook.

Each year the SD Times 100 recognizes companies, non-commercial organizations, open source projects and other influencers for their innovation and leadership. The 2009 SD Times 100, featured in the June 15, 2009, issue of the newspaper and on SDTimes.com, is their listing of those that most broadly “set the agenda” for software development managers, developers, and the industry during the previous calendar year.

About the Tools & IDEs category: While sophisticated platforms are essential for teams, an individual programmer is only as effective as the tools on his or her desktop. Some programmers like to choose a selection of discrete tools, bringing together code editors, compilers, linkers, debuggers, analyzers and makefile utilities. Others like to work in a cutting-edge integrated development environment, preferably one that ties into other enterprise development platforms like SCM systems.

I'd been looking at getting a netbook for a while, so I looked over the various ones currently available.

Since I use Ubuntu on my main workstation, the thought of having it preinstalled on a laptop really appealed to me. In fact, I'd been looking for something like this for a while. A few years ago I went so far as to install NetBSD on my old NEC MobilePro 780. I stopped short of trying to build Komodo on it, but I did waste a fair bit of time trying to get the thing to actually be useful. I did end up using it as a portable ssh terminal (after spending hours getting a wifi card to work). I could edit files in Vim if I wanted to, and use a few other command-line tools, but running X was a never very stable. There wasn't a lot of software available from the NetBSD package repositories for the MIPS platform, and it really wasn't much fun to use.

So I trawled through the review sites and eventually decided on a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v - like the one we're giving away. I ordered the Ubuntu version.

It arrived the other day, and I've been putting it through it's paces. So far, so good. Here's a summary of what works well:

• Boots quickly.
• Suspends and restores properly - something I was never able to get working properly on laptops I've installed Linux or BSD on myself.
• The base-level 120GB drive is quiet and big enough for my purposes.
• Video playback is fine (with Ubuntu - some reviewers have reported artifacts and glitches running Windows XP)
• Wifi "just works" with all the networks I've tried.
• Battery life is decent (around two and a half hours with the base-model 3-cell battery), and the battery monitoring widget in the taskbar gives you a pretty good estimate of how much time you have left.
• Keyboard is usable, and actually quite nice once you get used to the (slightly) smaller layout.

These are things which most people expect to work well on any laptop, but there were some pleasant surprises too...

• The small screen size is not much of a problem, especially when using the 'Ctrl+Alt+F' fullscreen switch for application windows. You quickly get used to switching to this mode, and for web browsing it's nice to get that extra screen real-estate.
• Skype works. This shouldn't be a surprise, but having fought to get it working on another Ubuntu system, it was nice to be able to get it up and running so quickly with no additional configuration required for the built in webcam.
• A little LED "night light" on the AC power connector. It gives you just enough light to help you attach the cable in the dark.
• A nice selection of pre-installed software: OpenOffice, Adobe Reader, Firefox, Evolution, Pidgin, GIMP (though it's not listed in the menus for some reason), and a couple of usable media players.

There are a few nits of course, but surprisingly few:

• The trackpad buttons are part of the trackpad. This takes some getting used to, and you may find yourself accidentally triggering them with your thumb.
• Trackpad scrolling: Not sure if this is a nit or a pleasant surprise. Before I figured out what was happening, I thought my application windows were suffering from some kind of periodic spastic scrolling disorder. It turns out my thumbs were hitting parts of the trackpad reserved for horizontal and vertical scrolling (bottom and right sides respectively). This is incredibly handy once you know they're there, but disconcerting for a laptop neophite like myself. This is, of course, configurable in the system preferences, so if my thumbs can't learn to behave I can turn it off.

I'm happy to report that Komodo and all the other ActiveState tools run well on the Inspiron Mini. I use SVN on Workspace to keep documents in sync between the netbook and my main workstation - this does an end-run around the synchronization problems I've always had when using a laptop previously.

I suppose the thing I like best about this netbook is that it's running Linux and I didn't have to install and configure it myself. A lot of people still claim Linux is unsuitable for "the desktop", citing the supposedly difficult install experience and problems getting all the hardware configured. Well, Dell deserves some credit for giving Ubuntu a fair shake here. The experience I get when I first turn on this machine is not unlike that of someone turning on a new Windows or Mac laptop: the OS is there and all the hardware works with it.

Stop the presses!

Do my internets deceive me? Is it true that the Mini 10v Ubuntu, like universal healthcare and curling on TV is not available in the United States? I could have sworn I saw it on the US Dell site just weeks ago. Hilariously, the website still has a "Select my Operating System" page in the configuration wizard, with "Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition SP3" as the only option. Perhaps it's time for them to remove the "Help Me Choose" link too.

Well, at least you can still get it in an assortment of pretty colors.

He discusses how for a long time the message behind why companies should adopt open source was to break free from dreaded vendor lock-ins, or as he puts it “Stop feeding your firstborn sons to the beast in Redmond!” Instead, more companies realize that choosing open source (and third party support) also reduces costs and increases IT efficiency. Sounds great, huh?

“It’s time for the marketing message around open source to move beyond “and justice for all.” Cost savings, performance boosts, etc. are far more relevant to likely adopters of open source. Such open-source customers are less concerned by the intricacies of open-source business models than they are by tangible returns on their open-source investments.”

In this economy who doesn’t want to save money and use what’s left more effectively? Read the full post.

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Komodo IDE
$295 $245 singles
$1180 $995 5-packs
Perl Dev Kit
$295 $245 singles
$1180 $995 5-packs
Tcl Dev Kit
$295 $245 singles
$1180 $995 5-packs
ActivePerl Pro Studio
$495 $445
$1995 $1780 5-packs
ActiveTcl Pro Studio
$495 $445
$1995 $1780 5-packs

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Extremely affordable in comparison with other major conferences, the community-based, volunteer-run program attracts audiences from all over the world and features the biggest names in open web-related topics and technologies.

This year’s conference promises to be at least as exciting as last year’s with keynote sessions by Rickard Falvinge, leader of Sweden’s Pirate Party, and Angela ‘webchick’ Byron, Drupal 7 co-maintainer and Lullabot. For more details, see the schedule.

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