Linux? Chances are you’ve never suffered from Tennis Elbow… If you’ve ever woken up in the morning with a hankering for a Tennis simulation on Linux, you’ve certainly been disappointed each time. Until now, the only simulation we’ve ever heard of — and the only one Google has ever heard of — is Free Tennis. [...]
Open Source Music Streaming Service Napster.fm Released
When the MP3 format was unleashed onto the relatively young Internet, it was an absolute game changer. It finally made audio files small enough to practically distribute over the Internet, as high-speed connections were still a luxury item for the majority of Internet users. But while it was the MP3 format that made it possible, [...]
GEGL Dev Seeks Crowd-funding Model For GIMP Components
GIMP developer Nicolas Robidoux seeks to leverage a freedom-based crowd-funding solution to bank-roll completion of the Nohalo/Lohalo/Lojaggy/Loblur suite of image resamplers for GEGL. The idea started back on Nov. 11th in the GIMP mailing list. Robidoux answers whether or not he plans to create a project on Kickstarter or not. Prospective GIMP “patron”: I would love [...]
Book Review: The Architecture of Open Source Applications
Without question, the biggest advantage of free software is that it allows information to be exchanged between developers, users, and anyone else who has an interest. Users can see how their favorite applications work, developers can peer into the workings of other applications to improve their own code, and so on and so on. By [...]
New GUI for IRAF, MYRaf, Releasing Next Week
While GNU/Linux might struggle with the simple things like getting more game developers on board, there is one area where this open source operating system has never had trouble: high performance scientific software. It’s no wonder, as Linux runs on most of the worlds most powerful supercomputers. If you’re a scientist looking to get a [...]
Mars Mapped With Open Source Tools From MapBox
With the recent successful landing of the Curiosity rover on the Martian surface, it seems NASA has managed to once again inspire the masses about the possibilities of space flight and exploration of other world in our solar system. But even for the most ardent of space buffs, it can be hard to truly grasp the scale and features [...]
The (Not) Open Garden: Using Open As a Buzzword
While browsing though the Google Play Store on my Android device this evening, I came across an interesting application that was featured prominently. “Open Garden” advertises itself as a free mesh networking tool: Your laptop can now access mobile Internet coming from your phone anywhere it has no Wi-Fi. Like tethering, but with no buttons [...]
Copenhagen Suborbitals Release Snowmix, an Open Source Video Mixer
The Copenhagen Suborbitals, if you weren’t aware, have a pretty simple goal: to launch a human being into space. As you might expect, this takes a bit of work to accomplish; and along the way they will be creating and researching many ideas and technologies that otherwise would be limited to global superpowers and corporate [...]
Rhythmbox Coverart Browser Adds Much Welcome Bling
Looking Better Than Banshee Now! Web Upd8 reports today that Rhythmbox plugin Coverart Browser has been successfully ported to GTK3 by AskUbuntu moderator fossfreedom. While Rhythmbox has always been a capable player, thanks to the classic iTunes-like functionality and Gstreamer backend, it has always suffered from a lackluster design. Opting for the utilitarian approach and avoiding the [...]
Google Donates $20,000 to Eclipse Foundation
Eclipse, the multi-language open source integrated development environment (IDE), has just received a considerable gift from Google’s Open Source Programs Office: a $20,000 donation to help refine the performance of the latest 4.2 release. A Friend in Need This donation wasn’t exactly out of the blue. It was made in direct response to a lengthy discussion [...]