Due to hardware issues on my netbook I ended up using my old machine and I installed Ubuntu 9.10 aka Karmic Koala. My old machine is a Lenovo C3000 N100 so as you can see, it’s beginning to age. But no Karmic Koala didn’t give me headaches the way I had other issues in the past. What’s the initial impression that I got from using Karmic Koala? It’s shiny! Seriously. I found the new GNOME quite shiny. It’s a whole lot more polished compared to the older GNOME releases. It really looks clean and whoever passed by my desk would comment at how clean and professional looking it is. Tsk, them of little faith~! But I also like the choices of desktop backgrounds that came with it because they looked great even... [Read more]

Asia Source 3 is over but the spirit of the camp will still be alive. This is one thing that I could see from the Facebook and Twitter updates of everyone. There are people who miss camp already and there are those who are now asking more things about free and open source software. For me, that is something encouraging and heart-warming. As a first time facilitator and participant, Asia Source 3 was a learning experience. It was not the typical workshop or conference as it was 6 day camp for us. There were focused discussions, activities and parties practically every single day. During the day, we’ were quite busy with the various discussions and activities that deal with open source communities and tools that we need for managing... [Read more]

A co-worker just asked me earlier: What blogging software should he use on his desktop? I could not answer the question right away. Part of me was thinking that he could have answeed that quite easily. But not really. One of the first things he asked is: “Is WordPress a light enough solution?” It is indeed worth noting that WordPress is fairly light. The download from the website is never bloated. Just several MB. Here’s the catch though: It runs on Apache and you need MySQL and PHP as well. For those who are using Apache, MySQL and PHP to test applications locally on their machines, this is fine. But for those who don’t, then I don’t see the reason to download something like WordPress. And my co-worker... [Read more]

One thing that old and new Linux users might sometimes forget is the community. For newbies, it’s the fear of the unknown territory that might make it feel like something so difficult. That or they feel it’s an adventure they could take. All by themselves, that is. But if you think about it, venturing into the unknown world of Linux and the free and open source software movement is much better with like-minded people who want to experience these things. It could be one heck of an adventure or one long boring ride into the uncharted regions another planet. Reaching out to ask for help could be intimidating because it might make you feel a bit insignificant. But what is life without other people being with you to experience... [Read more]

Asia Source 3 gathers people to have 5 days of camp fun dealing with free and open source software. There are 4 tracks in this year’s Asia Source camp. Managing your information Migration Broadcasting your information Community building Participants shall be joining in a track to interact with fellow participants in order to learn something new from each other. Whatever they learn from this camp will hopefully be very helpful for them when they go back to work in their respective organizations. I was able to talk with some of the participants here and they have different backgrounds and needs. But they are quite interested in the tracks they have signed up for and as early as now they have many questions. And there are also many... [Read more]