Freedom

Posted by Stu on 2011/10/05.
Tags: ,

What is freedom to you?

Well, at the moment for me, it is no longer having my PhD thesis to work on, having finally handed that in last week. That means I’m now moving into job hunting (like some other people on the Planet – I may post more about that in a bit). It also means I have again a little time for KDE.

MeeGo is dead, long live MeeGo

No, you read that right. Intel are switching to Tizen and this time it is going to work (just like when they switched from Moblin to MeeGo). But for those people and companies who care about a real collaborative effort at a mobile-optimised Linux platform and those who think that there is more to app development than HTML5, MeeGo lives on. With the likes of Plasma Active as a user interface, we could build a compelling case for mobile software freedom.

KDE eases out of puberty

KDE will shortly be 15 years old, just about the age where its hormones will start to settle down. However, it may begin to get interested in girls – or boys, depending on KDE’s gender and preferences – or start experimenting with things it shouldn’t, so there may still be some turbulent times ahead.

Either way, we’ll be asking you to show your love for KDE on its 15th birthday – keep watching the Dot for more details. It’s almost time to celebrate 15 years of desktop freedom.

To finish, a little rant about 1&1

It’s not often that I rant here, so please forgive me but I feel the need to end with this…

  • If you want a web host whose control panel does not work in Konqueror
  • If you want a web host that buries renewal information in a mystifying maze of submenus
  • If you want a web host that sends you renewal invoices without specifying the domain that is up for renewal
  • If you want a web host where you cannot cancel a contract without logging into a whole different website, clicking through a confirmation email and harassing their customer service reps*.
  • And, most of all, if you want service with a snarl…

…then please sign up with 1&1.

If not, you might prefer another webhost. For example, I’m very satisfied with my main host, ICDSoft.

*Actually, I’m still not sure it’s done. I wish they’d give me the freedom to cancel 😉

3 Responses to “Freedom”

  • sebas says:
    2011/10/05 at 10:28

    Best cancellation of online service I’ve seen so far is with SliceHost. I’ve had a virtual server there for some time, but needed a performance upgrade, in which segment their offering was relatively expensive, so I decided to move away.

    Cancelling SliceHost was a breeze, the webinterface is very clear, the option is easy to find, says exactly what will happen, tells you that your data is completely deleted from their records, basically everything that makes you feel comfortable after having it done (and wondering why, with such good customer understanding, you’re leaving there).

    Thoroughly impressed.

  • Romário says:
    2011/10/05 at 20:46

    Am I the only one who finds the creation of applications with HTML 5 – a _Markup_ language – a total nonsense?

  • Guillaume Ponce says:
    2011/10/12 at 09:19

    @Romário

    Between HTML4 and HTML5 the evolutions in the markup language are marginal.
    The real evolutions are in Javascript, so webapps in HTML5 are basically apps in Javascript.

    To make a parallel with KDE developpment:
    HTML5 markup QML (which is also a _markup_ language, AFAIK)
    HTML5 Javascript C++