Monthly Archives: September 2008

Adobe Hits Eleven on the Irony Scale

By | Published: September 30, 2008

I learn from Cali Lewis via her twitter feed that Adobe are talking about developing a version of Flash for the iPhone.

Paul Betlem, Sr. Director of Engineering at Adobe Systems confirmed that Adobe is working on Flash for iPhone. He was speaking at the Flash On the Beach Conference and said, “My team is working on Flash on the iPhone, but it’s a closed platform.”

Am I the only person to find it deeply ironic that Adobe should complain that the iPhone is a closed platform when their own web platform ‘Flash’ is closed, and they have no intention of opening it up.

Welcome to our world of pain Adobe.

Posted in Advocacy, Linux, Rant, Ubuntu | 7 Comments

My First Brompton

By | Published: September 27, 2008

27/09/2008

Just picked it up today, and so far I’m very happy with it. It’ll make my commute to/from work a lot easier and faster.

27/09/2008

Posted in Advocacy, Linux, Ubuntu | 12 Comments

Minor Annoyance of The Day

By | Published: September 22, 2008

Seeing “I might go back to Slackware if this bug isn’t fixed.”.

Crikey! Quick lads, refocus all bug-squashing resources on this one, we’re about to lose a user to Slackware!

Whilst I appreciate bugs can be irritating, making idle threats, demands or other pressure really doesn’t help at all. Basing your entire OS choice on one bug – however annoying it may be – might also be a somewhat flawed perspective. Just a thought.

Edit: For clarity, I’ll explain it’s not me that’s leaving Ubuntu for Slackware, that was what was said on an Ubuntu bug report by someone else.

Posted in Advocacy, Linux, Rant, Ubuntu | 10 Comments

No Competition

By | Published: September 19, 2008

The recent Microsoft TV advertisments reminded me of an incident which happened to me in a pub recently.

I went to the pub to meet up with some friends for a drink after work. The wife of one of my friends was also there. She and her friend came over to sit with us outside. I happened to be wearing a Firefox polo shirt which was noticed by my friends wife – she works for Mircosoft.

Friends wife: “Is that Firefox? Where have I heard of that?”
Me: (not wanting a conversation about geek stuff in the pub) “It’s a product which competes with one of Microsofts products.”
Friends wife: “Nah, we don’t have any competitors.”
Me: “…”
Friends wife: “Except maybe Google.

I didn’t say anything else.

Is that really the perception of people in Microsoft, that they have no competition from anyone? Isn’t that a touch arrogant?

If it’s true, why the TV ad campaign, why the Mojave experiment? Surely if they have no competition then they have nothing to worry about. Maybe they just know that they have (in Vista) a crap product that people don’t want, which requires significant ($300M) investment to bolster public perception.

Posted in Linux, Rant, Ubuntu | 3 Comments

Copycat Nonsense

By | Published: September 6, 2008
  • Microsoft sends experts into Apple stores to educate staff about Free Software.
  • The Free Software Foundation sends experts into computer stores to educate customers about Windows Vista.

At least I think I have that right.

Posted in Advocacy, Linux, Rant, Ubuntu | 1 Comment