Author: Steven Garrity

How I Became a Free Software Zealot

by Steven Garrity

It started innocently. I started using a free/open-source web browser, then called Phoenix (now Firefox). It seemed to me to be faster, easier, and generally better than Internet Explorer on my Windows XP powered laptop. Soon after, having been unhappy with the performance of Microsoft Outlook with my large volume of archived mail and unwilling to pay for or pirate the promising new (2003) version, I switched from Microsoft’s Outlook to the Mozilla Thunderbird mail application.

Soon after, I made the switch from Trillian to the free/open-source instant messaging client, Gaim. It then dawned on me that the three applications I use most, my web browser, email client, and instant messaging client, were all free/open-source software. Not only were these applications free software, they are also available across multiple platforms (Windows, Linux, and some for Mac OS X).

Armed with the realization that I was close to platform independence, I intentionally sought to weed out the few remaining Windows-only applications in my arsenal. I made the switch from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org. This left some games, and Photoshop/Illustrator as the last key proprietary/closed-souce applications in my regular use.

Driven primarily by curiosity and technical/professional interest (particularly in alternative user-interface design), I decided to exercise my newfound platform/operating-system independence and switch my primary laptop to Linux. This was over a year ago and I’ve been relatively happy, given some challenges, since.

All along, these decisions and similar decisions at the company-level where I work were pragmatic. Open-source software is good, but it’s really about using the best tool for the job, be it free/open or proprietary. While the free/open systems were generally beating out the proprietary systems, the decisions were still driven primarily by a (relatively) qualitative comparison of features/quality, rather than any philosophical best about licensing.

I had always been turned off by Microsoft-hating Linux-zealots that play into my stereotype like a bad gay sitcom character. Microsoft has many problems, but they also develop some remarkably good software (I’m a fan of the Office suite and love Microsoft Streets and Trips). What bothered me more than the last-computer-conference-I-was-at-Tshirt attire was the fundamental belief that free/open-source software was better than proprietary alternatives.

However, having lived in a mostly free/open-source software environment for over a year now, I am starting to drink the kool-aid.

I had been running Mac OS X on a old iMac for browser testing purposes and following the development of OS X for a while too. It dawned on me that one of the primary reasons keeping from using OS X as my primary operating system (in addition to not wanting to replace my working hardware), was due the licensing, control, and ownership of the software and platform.

Mac OS X, since it is built largely upon open-source components and protocols, carries with it many of the pragmatic benefits of open-source software. However, since a significant amount of the Mac OS X system is not free/open-source, you do not have all of the freedom you would have on a completely free/open-source system. You are, in the long term, still at the whim of a private corporation (Apple Computer).

To many people, quite understandably, this will not matter – especially since Apple is producing some great software lately. That’s fine with me. I’m not at a point where where I want to force everyone to use free/open-source software. The idea of forcing something in the name of “freedom” just doesn’t sit well with me.

That said, I am starting to think that governments and other public institutions might have some kind of moral and ethical (though not, at this point, legal) obligation to share software it develops or has developed on its behalf.

While I’m not about to start burning the Windows XP license that came with my laptop in the street, I’m starting to take into account licensing and freedom to use and control software in the decisions and recommendations I make for myself and those around me.

 

Charlottetown Municipal Politics Report

by Steven Garrity
Bruce Garrity - he's my dad!
Bruce Garrity, Charlottetown city councillor, and my dad!

I don’t often write about local affairs, since many who read this weblog do so from a distance. However, I have a bit of local news I thought worth discussing. My father, Bruce Garrity is in his second term on the Charlottetown City Council. In his role as chair of the police committee, he helped lead a successful move to close down bootlegging operations in the city.

The bootlegging establishments, though clearly illegal, have long been a very public tradition in the city. Their closing prompted national press coverage and even inspired an artistic campaign of support by some.

Now, just weeks after the closing of the bootleggers, he has been shuffled out of his significant positions on the police committee, bylaw enforcement committee, and fire and emergency services committed. He is now responsible for intergovernmental affairs.

The CBC Prince Edward Island coverage of the shuffle is quite good.

 

Cleaning Your Bedroom and Improving the World

by Steven Garrity

When I was growing up, my bedroom was always a mess. Every week or two, my parents would get me to clean my room. I wasn’t interested in cleaning my room, but I had to get it to at least pass a quick visual inspection my mom or dad.

To make sure I passed the informal inspection with minimal amount of work necessary, I would stand at the door of my room, where my parents would stand, and look in. I would scan the room and make note of the first thing I noticed that was out of place – pants on the floor, the unmade bed, or whatever was the most visually obviously out of place. Once this was taken care of, I would go back to the door, have another look, and pick the next thing I noticed. I would repeat this simple process until things were looking good enough.

This process has stayed with me ever since and often proves to be useful way to decide what to work on first. Over the past year, I’ve tried to apply this bedroom cleaning prioritization technique to help improve, in a small way, the open source desktop computing experience.

Last fall, I looked at my desktop computing environment and took note of the first thing that didn’t feel right. At the time, it was the ugly old Firefox icon (then called Phoenix). That helped, in small part, get the process started that culminated in the redesign of the visual redesign of all things Firefox and Thunderbird.

More recently, now having a beautiful web browser, I returned to my bedroom cleaning technique and took another look at the desktop and see what bothered me next. This time, it wasn’t visual. Rather, it was the sounds used in the Gaim instant messager application that were the most prominent rough edge.

I set out a few months ago to improve these sounds. Like with the Firefox visual work, I didn’t have all of the skill needed to do the work myself, so I looked to others for help. This time it was Brad Turcotte, a musician (aka Brad Sucks), that came to my aid. He and I bounced sounds that he created back and forth for a while until we had something that sounded right.

These new sounds have now been accepted by the Gaim developers and will be included in a future release.

Now, I’ll have to head back to my bedroom door and take a look around to see what rough edge I notice next.

 

Emblems in Gnome

by Steven Garrity

This might seem obvious to anyone who uses the Gnome desktop environment for Linux, but since most of you don’t, I thought it worth pointing out. In Gnome, You can put “emblems” on files or folders. The emblems are small icons that help differentiate and identify particular items. They work something like an graphical/icon version of Mac OS “labels” or GMail “labels”.

The small screenshot below shows (full-size screenshot) a few of the default emblems, and a few of my own custom emblems (the Windows and Acts of Volition icons).

Gnome Emblems screenshot

There is a handy set of default emblems to start off (eg. Urgent, Web, Documents, New, Personal, Photos, etc.) and you can easily add your own custom emblems.

 

Creative is not a noun

by Steven Garrity

Pet peeve: people who use the word “creative” as a noun. Example:

“The ad will run on Friday, but the creative will be ready by Wednesday.”

If you say things like that, I don’t like you. Don’t bother offering justifications.

(disclosure: According to Dictionary.com, “creative” can be used as a noun to describe a person who “displays productive originality” – I don’t like that either, but it’s not as bad)

 

Acts of Volition Radio Christmas: Session 17

by Steven Garrity

Acts of Volition Radio: Session Seventeen While I’m a confessed scrooge about most things Christmas and I do hate most Christmas music, there is some truly great Christmas music. I share some of it in the seventeenth session of Acts of Volition Radio.

Christmas music that doesn’t suck. Recorded Saturday, December 11, 2004 by Steven Garrity. Run time: 32 min.

Session Seventeen Playlist:

  1. Crash Test Dummies – The First Noel
  2. Smashing Pumpkins – Christmastime
  3. Low – Long Way Around the Sea
  4. Barenaked Ladies (with Sarah McLauchlan) – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
  5. Wintersleep – We Three Kings

For more, see the previous Acts of Volition Radio sessions.

Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio
Acts of Volition Radio Christmas: Session 17
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