Johan
Sep 23, 2020
Please welcome Johan Thelin, @e8johan, @fossnorth and @koderize, this week (September 23 to 30) on @imakefoss
Interview: https://t.co/7jYiJ8gzTb
@imakefoss is a Twitter rotation curation account. Wanna be a curator? Please get in touch. https://t.co/IaEMy96SGh
Sep 23, 2020
Hi all! @e8johan here. Very happy to be your @imakefoss curator this week.
Sep 23, 2020
@e8johan I’ll be writing about licenses, conferences, projects that have impacted me, different contributors, open source vs open projects and much more!
Sep 23, 2020
@e8johan So big thanks to @thekurtwk for last week, and @cybette for introducing me to @imakefoss. I’m really looking forward to this week and discussing with everyone listening to this account!
Sep 24, 2020
Good morning everyone! Today I’d like to talk about #conferences .
What are your favorite conferences and why?
- Johan
Sep 24, 2020
My personal favorite is @fosdem for the sheer chaos. 600+ seminars in two days, and thousands of visitors.
Sep 24, 2020
@fosdem Another one is #elce (Embedded Linux Conference Europe) run by @linuxfoundation . Tickets are quite expensive and the visitors are usually there as a function of their professional work, but the contents is generally great.
Sep 24, 2020
As some of you might now, I run the @fossnorth conference. This is a smaller FOSS conference taking place annually in Gothenburg.
Sep 24, 2020
@fossnorth Running FOSS conferences is something that quite often is done on a voluntary basis. Many people are exposing themselves to risks to be able to host nice events.
Sep 24, 2020
@e8johan @fossnorth @Argorak did some good work in helping organizers handling the situation when the pandemic broke out, but a lot of organizers are currently suffering alone. Help them, talk to them, be there.
Sep 24, 2020
So, how does a conference come about? I only have one sample, so I cannot really tell if there is a pattern here, but @fossnorth started as a local meetup.
- Johan
Sep 24, 2020
@fossnorth It all started with @bagder @claesjac doing #fosssthlm. Which inspired #fossgbg (aka FOSS Sthlm west - Swedish readers will get the joke :-P).
Sep 24, 2020
@fossnorth @bagder @claesjac The #fossgbg meetups ran monthly apart from summer break, winter break and the @fossnorth month. The intention is to return to that after COVID-19.
Sep 24, 2020
@fossnorth @bagder @claesjac But how do you start a meetup, or a local user group, as it used to be called? All you need is a topic and people. Try to reach people at your local schools, colleagues, etc and meet for a coffee/tea and discuss a topic.
Sep 24, 2020
@fossnorth @bagder @claesjac Having a group around a topic is powerful - now you can reach out to speakers and sponsors.
Remember - asking is free. You might get a no, but as long as you stay polite, that is not a problem.
I’ve asked Stroustrup for our local C++ group. I’ve asked Torvalds for fossnorth.
Sep 24, 2020
@fossnorth @bagder @claesjac When it comes to venues, I usually ask for a conference room, some lighter food, and wifi. In return, the hosting company gets to talk about themselves for 10 minutes.
Remember - recruiting is hard and expensive. If you can bring a group of people to a company, you bring value.
Sep 24, 2020
@fossnorth @bagder @claesjac When it comes to finding participants, I’ve ended up using Meetup. It is a proprietary platform, but it solves the discovery problem.
I try to keep news and additional info at https://t.co/Ikj9Ho6eON, and use Meetup as a way to be visible.
Sep 24, 2020
@fossnorth @bagder @claesjac I used Eventbrite earlier, but by making sure that the key info is on fossgbg’s infrastructure, the move was easy.
Sep 24, 2020
@fossnorth @bagder @claesjac Do you run a #lug or #meetup? Shout out here and I’ll retweet! Tell us what you do and where.
Sep 25, 2020
Good morning everyone! Today I would like to talk about #contributions . What is a contribution, what drives it, and why are all contributions important?
Sep 25, 2020
Do you contribute to an free and open source project? If so, in what way?
Sep 25, 2020
I, @e8johan, have a history of mostly contributing documentation, bug reports, and small patches. I very rarely write large chunks of code.
Sep 25, 2020
As a community we need the non-code contributions too. There are some forums for this, but our focus seems to be very much the code.
-Johan
Sep 25, 2020
A great example is @writethedocs by @ThatDocsLady . I had the pleasure to hearing her talk at @fossnorth - you can watch the recording here: https://t.co/Wtwt0om2dw
Sep 25, 2020
Poll: How do you contribute to #FOSS?
Sep 25, 2020
RT @e8johan: How do you contribute to #foss projects?
(as I can’t do polls via @imakefoss)
Sep 25, 2020
@alltinomit @e8johan I would definitely put it in that category
Sep 25, 2020
So, quite a few reactions to the poll - fun!
-Johan
Sep 25, 2020
The thing is - a lot of the contributions are not code, and lessening the value of the code, the rest is also key - especially as #foss is moving beyond the early adopters, hackers and tinkerers.
Sep 25, 2020
So learn to write a good bug report, and help by providing additional info when the devs ask for it. Help triaging bugs.
Sep 25, 2020
Help writing docs, blogs, answer questions. Recording videos. Make it easy to get started.
Sep 25, 2020
Help poking at web pages - fix what you can. And if you want to approach the code, do it! There are usually junior jobs, and if they aren’t listed, ask what you can help with. Even a one liner is valuable, so contribute.
Sep 26, 2020
Thank you for all the comments on how you contribute to projects yesterday.
-Johan
Sep 26, 2020
Today I’d like to discuss a bit about how open projects are governed. I’ve spoken about this a couple of times, e.g. in the #fossnorth #podcast, but also at various conferences such as @bornhack and #tdbi.
Sep 26, 2020
@BornHack The podcast episode sits over here: https://t.co/IjY7jjYLYA
(It might make sense to watch it as a video as there are some diagrams in the slides - don’t be shy to try watching it via https://t.co/3j8vHsKrTU - it is a #peertube instance for conferences)
Sep 26, 2020
@BornHack The theory is that openness of the source code is only part of it.
We can discuss the openness of the technical stuff - i.e. bugs, wip code, change history, etc
Sep 26, 2020
@BornHack But also the project itself. How is it governed?
For instance, who decides what features goes in? who decides what is important? who decides what does not go in?
Sep 26, 2020
@BornHack There is no right and wrong here - my very favorite example is #xscreensaver . Grab a tarball from a club owner, mail him your bugs.
It is definitely free software / open source - but it is not an open project. However, it is a person making code written for pleasure available.
Sep 26, 2020
@BornHack Another version is #aosp, where a company develops inhouse and then does annual releases that are ‘thrown over the wall". Very little transparency about development direction, etc.
Sep 26, 2020
@BornHack xscreensaver and aosp are similiar in one respect, but very different in another. This is where governance becomes interesting when deciding what to use and not - especially if building a product based on the technology so that you become economically dependent on upstream.
Sep 26, 2020
@BornHack This is definitely an area where business models and licensing models meet.
I.e. if a business does ‘open core", it has to be in control of what goes in and not, to preserve the value of the upsell.
Business models is the current topic over at the @fossnorth #podcast.
Sep 26, 2020
@BornHack @fossnorth Other aspects affecting this is contributor licensing agreements, CLAs. We had the opportunity to discuss with Catharina Maracke in this pod episode: https://t.co/v03q73XFm8
Sep 26, 2020
@jwz @BornHack I would say that the governance isn’t open per see, while the source is open. I’m not saying this is a bad thing - I think it is a great thing and there is a community, its in not just formalized.
Also, sorry if this nuance did not come across! No negativity meant!
Sep 26, 2020
@jwz @BornHack Nice one! (-:
When I speak about this, I usually start end end with xscreensaver. And the end word is that this is a successful open source project done out of passion. This is what it is about - sharing code. Be it free software, or open source. So don’t over think it. –>
Sep 26, 2020
@jwz @BornHack cont’d. So we don’t disagree in any way. I was just clumsy in my twittering as the space is limited! Sorry for that.
Sep 26, 2020
@badpoems2 @BornHack Good point! We’re still learning. At the end of the day, it comes down to production complexity. But I’ll see what we can do about this.
Sep 28, 2020
Good morning all! The weekend is over and today I want to discuss projects that I used or that have affected me. Stay tuned and feel free to join in with your projects too!
- Johan
Sep 28, 2020
I have to start with the most obvious one for me: @qtproject .
At #Chalmers university we ran HP Tru64 UNIX. I wanted to do GUIs and #Qt was the only thing that ran out-of-the-box.
/Johan
Sep 28, 2020
@qtproject I also ran into some sort of odd context menu placement bug due to the huge size of the X terminals which led to a bug report and a fix. That got me hooked.
Sep 28, 2020
Another project that I use daily is #nextcloud from @Nextclouders .
It has replaced the backup function from Google Photos, all types of Google Drive / Dropbox / etc for me.
Sep 28, 2020
@Nextclouders I’m actually running @NextCloudPi on a @Raspberry_Pi 4 and 2TB SSD.
I run nightly backups and it just works.
Sep 28, 2020
@Nextclouders @NextCloudPi @Raspberry_Pi One often overlooked aspect of running a #federated service like nextcloud is how you share things with your peers.
For all my friends running their own nextcloud instances, it is trivially easy to share access to parts of my instance to them and the other way around.
Sep 28, 2020
@Nextclouders @NextCloudPi @Raspberry_Pi No need to account creation or such, just use the federation and add user@domain and it works. Much like e-mail, #mastodon, #pixelfed and such.
Like the web was supposed to be!
Sep 28, 2020
Another daily driver tool is @kdenlive . I started using it back in 2017 to prepare the #fossnorth videos and have never turned back.
/Johan
Sep 28, 2020
@kdenlive Today I use it every week for the #fossnorth #podcast . I discussed my particular workflow in a blog entry a while back: https://t.co/0VGQ5Si89b
Sep 28, 2020
@kdenlive When I first tried kdenlive it was a bit buggy and rough around the edges, but these days it is a very stable video editor.
In the very rare case when it crashes, the project is usually recoverable, so I’ve not felt the frustration of losing a lot of data over the past years.
Sep 28, 2020
Another set of projects I’ve been using over the years are @buildrootorg and then @yoctoproject .
These are both tools for building embedded Linux system images. /Johan
Sep 28, 2020
@buildrootorg @yoctoproject I still have fond memories of spending hours and hours with @frozentux debugging intermittent OOM errors on an mc68k board without MMU running #Qt on #uClinux
Sep 28, 2020
@buildrootorg @yoctoproject @frozentux I guess I’m also running #openwrt on a couple of routers, but I would not say that it is a tool that I use. I want to mention it as it also is a embedded image building tool.
Sep 28, 2020
Another project that I’m in love with currently is @godotengine . Let me tell you why!
/Johan
Sep 28, 2020
@godotengine So everyone seems to be wanting to make games. I started there back with the C64, Atari and Amiga. I hope the kids of today are the same, but with other platforms.
Sep 28, 2020
@godotengine Godot provides a nice and comprehensive game engine that allows you to do both 2D and 3D games. GDScript is a Pythonesque language making it easy to get started.
Sep 28, 2020
@godotengine So right now I’m spending time with my kids (8 and 12yrs old) to create silly little platformers, VR scenes that you can visit from your phone, small puzzles and other projects to a) get some quality time with the kids, and b) get them interested in game development and coding.
Sep 28, 2020
@godotengine I’ve written a couple of blogs on the topic. One about 2D: https://t.co/OZogoY5s2K and one about 3D: https://t.co/tQPOx4JZpN
Sep 28, 2020
@godotengine I also did a couple of games for my son that I took all the way through the play store: https://t.co/bM5fFWHvvZ and https://t.co/uuCvYYZ8sP .
Building Android apps with Godot is trivially easy. Very impressed!
Sep 29, 2020
Good morning!
Today I’d like to talk about #foss from a slightly different angle - product life-time.
/Johan
Sep 29, 2020
A lot of today’s connected product, aka #iot devices, will reach a premature end of life as the online services supporting them goes away.
Sep 29, 2020
By providing an open firmware, the products can have a longer life, and they can also be repurposed / have their functional abilities expanded.
Sep 29, 2020
An extreme, but interesting, example of this is the #emutos firmware for the #atarist range of computers.
Sep 29, 2020
One issue when dealing with old computers is that the copyright for the original software has an owner, but the code is not being developed any further. This makes it possible to legally run emulators and to repair the computers.
Sep 29, 2020
The term #abandonware is sometimes used here, but it is legally questionable, even though I completely sympathize with the ethical standpoint.
Sep 29, 2020
But for the Atari ST line of computers, a complete #foss rewrite of the entire software stack exists: #emutos. You can even run it on an Amiga these days.
Sep 29, 2020
There is an amazing talk about this by Vincent Riviére from #fossnorth 2018: https://t.co/s3Z0IJaH6p
Sep 29, 2020
@henricones_ @godotengine Hi Henrique,
For my children, the limiting factor has been language. All programming more or less requires English, which means that 12+ is the only viable age here (Sweden).
However, I got both of them a RPi with Minecraft at 4yrs to get them used to using keyboard and mouse.
Sep 29, 2020
@henricones_ @godotengine So general computer familiarity is possible very early.
I’ve tried scratch and such, but is a bit too limited to really catch their fancy.
In @godotengine , I can write the code and create nodes. Then the kids can create levels and combine. That works even with the 8yrs old.
Sep 29, 2020
@henricones_ @godotengine We did some Arduino experiments as well, but that is a bit too complex - but very fun. Building robots and so on makes for great play, but they learn very little about coding.
Sep 29, 2020
Speaking of not having your devices deprecated due to some SaaS being end-of-lifed. A similar risk exists for your data. That is where something like federation comes into the picture.
Sep 29, 2020
So source code freedoms is one thing, data freedoms another. @Wikipedia and @WikiCommons are great examples of why shared data sets are good to have. But what about your data?
Sep 29, 2020
@Wikipedia @WikiCommons I have to admit - I was early on adopting GMail when it was cool. I even promoted it among friends. But the cost of free, when it comes to data, is becoming more and more obvious.
Sep 29, 2020
@Wikipedia @WikiCommons That is why I like the #fediverse. Federated services where multiple provides provide the same service, acting as one big service. For instance, #mastodon is a nice twitter replacement. It works similarly, but with a different feeling to it as it is driven by the users.
Sep 29, 2020
@Wikipedia @WikiCommons I don’t self-host my #mastodon instance (I’m @e8johan@mastondon.technology) but thanks to the nature of #federated services I can migrate my data, or even self-host. There are many instances available - there are even tools to choose one, e.g. https://t.co/oMNdtfaUP6
Sep 29, 2020
@Wikipedia @WikiCommons Other examples are @PixelFed , federated picture sharing.
@joinpeertube , federated video sharing. #fossnorth uses https://t.co/ehVQJ5tyhN
Another example is email.
Sep 30, 2020
Good morning everyone! Last day here, so I thought we’d have some fun. Ask me about my opinion on the triviala, but serious, stuff.
Feel free to join in and share your opinions.
/Johan
Sep 30, 2020
Let me start by saying that I prefer #spaces over #tabs - apart from in Makefiles, as they force me to use tabs (which I learned the hard way).
#tabsvsspaces
Sep 30, 2020
I’m a @kdecommunity user - have been since ages. I even stuck with #kde through the difficult KDE 3 -> 4 transition.
This does not mean that I dislike @gnome , #i3wm, and more. I just feel at home with KDE.
Sep 30, 2020
@kdecommunity @gnome Also - @kdeconnect rocks!
Sep 30, 2020
@josp0001 @kdecommunity @gnome Good one! I’m an apt-get’er (not even apt). I actually started with Red Hat back in ‘96, and did some Mandrake and Suse. But I really fell in love with @debian.
Sep 30, 2020
@josp0001 @kdecommunity @gnome @debian Right now I run @ManjaroLinux on my @thepine64 #pinebookpro, but I feel so far away from home that I’m considering reinstalling with Debian.
For other machines, it is Debian, or Raspbian for the @Raspberry_Pi computers that I tend to have too many of :-)
Sep 30, 2020
@josp0001 @kdecommunity @gnome @debian @ManjaroLinux @thepine64 @Raspberry_Pi Raspberry Pi’s are really nice for the small things that used to be an electronics project. E.g control panels such as this: https://t.co/xrPAbS465v
Sep 30, 2020
@josp0001 @kdecommunity @gnome @debian @ManjaroLinux @thepine64 @Raspberry_Pi But also hacks such as this: https://t.co/cAzCrxHh6Z
(control the lights of my sons train set from a web page)
Sep 30, 2020
So, it’s been a fun week! Let’s end it with another ‘picking sides" exercise.
/Johan
Sep 30, 2020
I started computing with a #zx81 that my dad bought. Then I did a fair bit of gaming on the #c64, but my very first computer that I got as my very own was an #atarist. The 1040STe model. I guess that makes me a member of #teamatari.
Sep 30, 2020
Having said that - I still love the #amiga too. I even have an #amiga1200 sitting in my office (for gaming purposes).
Sep 30, 2020
So, I’m a #spaces guy, using #kde, @debian and apt-get, with fond memories from the #atarist.
Sep 30, 2020
@debian And with that I’d like to say a big thank you for having me, and an equally big welcome to @reginaoradata . I’m really looking forward to following you over the next seven days!
Cheers!