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- ZDNet Author Biography
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier is the community manager for openSUSE, a community Linux distro sponsored by Novell. Prior to joining Novell, Brockmeier worked as a technology journalist primarily covering the Linux and FOSS beat, and wrote for a number of publications, such as Linux Magazine, Linux.com, Sys Admin, UnixReview.com, IBM developerWorks,...- more about Joe Brockmeier »
ZDNet Resources
- Quick thoughts on the (possible) demise of OpenSolaris
- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes that the "writing is on the wall. OpenSolaris is on its way out." Is it really? And what does that mean for the FOSS landscape? It makes more sense for Oracle to fully embrace Linux. A well-organized transition from Solaris/OpenSolaris to Linux --...
- Tags: OpenSolaris, Oracle Corp., Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, Linux, Open Source, Operating Systems, Software, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-07-13
- Microsoft sneaks in Firefox extension via Update
- The good news is that Microsoft is writing extensions for Firefox. The bad news is, the Redmond giant is slipping the extension onto systems without notifying users and making it difficult to get rid of the extension. Even worse? It's an extension that allows Web sites to install software onto...
- Tags: Firefox Extension, Microsoft Corp., Security Update, Extension, Krebs, Security Administration, Patches, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Web Browsers, Security, Operating Systems, Software, Internet, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-05-31
- What do you want for free? Do users have to pay up to complain?
- Matt Asay excorates the whining masses that are taking Twitter to task for its ill-considered removal of the @replies feature. Asay says "pay money so that you actually have the right to voice your displeasure as a customer rather than as a user." However, Asay misses a glaringly obvious point...
- Tags: Twitter, Asay, Linux, Strategy, Open Source, Operating Systems, Software, Management, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-05-13
- Using selfishness to put crowds to work for you
- How do you enable "the wisdom of crowds"? Part of the power of community is that a group of people can solve problems much more easily than individuals, but only if you can provide tools that make it possible for them to do so and appeal to their own interests....
- Tags: Stock, Documentation, Derek Powazek, Open Source, Investment, Finance, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-05-07
- Miro puts code up for adoption
- I've heard of "orphaned" code, but this is a new one. The Miro project is trying a new approach to funding: asking enthusiasts to "adopt" lines of code. From the letter to adopters on the site: We're a small non-profit in a sea of big budget,...
- Tags: Internet TV, Video, Miro, Corporate Communications, Marketing, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-04-30
- Oprah comes, Oprah goes: Who cares?
- As a tool, Twitter has its advantages and disadvantages, but does it really matter if Oprah Winfrey decides to keep up with her account or not? Apparently the Silicon Alley Insider finds it fascinating, even tracking the number of people following her and the rate of new followers compared to...
- Tags: Oprah Winfrey, Twitter, Advertising & Promotion, Marketing, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-04-29
- The argument for free fonts
- Bring up free fonts around typeface designers, and you'll probably get an earful about the relative quality of free and open source designs against the professionally designed fonts. Mark Pilgrim, over on Dive into Mark gives an earful back. The context here is a discussion of using...
- Tags: Font, Pilgrim, Web Font, openSUSE Community, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-04-24
- What does Oracle mean for Sun's open source efforts?
- So much for a big blue Sun. Instead, the company is being gobbled up Oracle for about $7.4 billion. Does this mean that Oracle will become "the biggest contributor to open source," or a gaping hole in the FOSS ecosystem? Sun often likes to brag that it's...
- Tags: Oracle Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., Ellison, Open Source, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-04-20
- Prioritizing bugs to boost Linux adoption
- What are the problems that need to be solved to boost Linux adoption? And in what order? If we get the order right, we can make more users happier faster, says Scott Ritchie. Ritchie starts by looking at bugs in Wine. After 16 years in development (give...
- Tags: Bug, Linux, UNIX, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-04-18
- Yet another "Mac vs. PC" article that misses the point
- BusinessWeek has yet another article on the relative costs of Macs vs. PCs, and author Arik Hesseldahl comes down on the Mac side: PC makers in the Windows camp have done everything possible to make their products progressively worse by cutting corners to save pennies per unit and boost...
- Tags: Apple Macintosh, PC, Apple Inc., Desktops, Sales Strategy, Processors, Hardware, Sales, Semiconductors, Components, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-04-16
- Google releases source for Google Update
- Word came down from the Google-plex last Friday that the company has decided to release the source code for Google Update. Codenamed Omaha, Update is a software installer that automatically updates Google Earth, Chrome, and other Google-produced apps designed to run on Windows. The development team says they decided to...
- Tags: Software, Google Inc., Omaha, Development Team, Tools & Techniques, Open Source, Management, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-04-15
- Savory hacks the Kindle for ePub and PDF support
- Jesse Vincent is doing Amazon's work for it. Vincent has put together an app called Savory that runs natively on the Kindle to convert ePub and PDFs dropped into the Kindle 2 document folder. If you're feeling adventurous enough to hack your Kindle, you can read PDFs and ePub documents...
- Tags: Adobe PDF, Amazon.com Inc., Jesse Vincent, Vincent, E-mail, Online Communications, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-04-10
- Quality improves for Google Summer of Code
- The Google Summer of Code student application period wrapped up last week, and the overall number of applications is down from 2008. However, this is shaping up to be a good thing. Googler Leslie Hawthorn blogged about the numbers, and noted that the number of proposals (nearly...
- Tags: Google Inc., Patches, Security, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-04-07
- Perfectionists need not apply
- If you're a perfectionist, or prefer to solve problems alone, you're going to have some problems working with community projects. Individual contributors and companies need to get used to working in the open, and be willing to work towards perfection rather than trying to nail it the first time. ...
- Tags: Developer, Drupal, Open Source, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-04-06
- How to make technology conferences suck less
- There's a dirty little secret to technology conferences: Most of them suck to some degree. It's about time someone started thinking about how to make conference time more valuable and less stale, especially now that companies are cutting back on travel to shows. I've been thinking about...
- Tags: Conference, Wiki, Online Communications, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-04-02
- Tux goes on Spring break
- Everybody's favorite penguin Steve Ballmer excluded is checking out for the Spring. No worries, though -- a new fella from Down Under is going to be standing in, and it's all for a good cause. [caption id="attachment_225" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Tuz - The new Linux Mascot"][/caption] ...
- Tags: Auction, Tux, Tuz, LCA Team, Linux, UNIX, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-03-23
- Firefox inches towards 50%, Safari holds steady
- These are the kind of stats that should make the Mozilla folks very happy. According to W3Schools data, Firefox climbed to 46.4% in February, while the various versions of IE dropped by 1.2% to 43.6%. Granted, this is skewed towards developers, but most sources agree that IE is on a...
- Tags: Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Web Browsers, Internet, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-03-20
- Apple still neglecting developer community
- This week, Apple unveiled its iPhone 3.0 OS and wowed the world with new APIs and the addition of basic features that other mobile phones have had for years. But while the company is getting huge praise for its shiny phone OS, it still drops the ball when it comes...
- Tags: Apple Inc., Developer Community, FreedomVoice Systems, Advertising & Promotion, Marketing, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-03-20
- What happens for Linux if IBM does buy Sun?
- Rumor has it, IBM is looking at buying Sun. No surprise that we're seeing consolidation in a down market, but will this mean consolidation in the open source space? I'll let others speculate on the affect it might have on the hardware market, but I'm curious what...
- Tags: OpenSolaris, Sun Microsystems Inc., IBM Corp., Linux, UNIX, Open Source, Operating Systems, Software, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-03-18
- Vote early, vote often: Linux Foundation "We're Linux" voting begins
- The Linux Foundation "We're Linux" contest is entering its final stages. This weekend, the submission phase wrapped up and now it's time for the larger community to do what it does best: Submit the work to as many eyeballs as possible to find the best entries. Since...
- Tags: Video, Linux, Corporate Communications, UNIX, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software, Marketing, Joe Brockmeier
- Blog posts 2009-03-17
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