F-Spot - open source answer to Picassa

There is only a handful of applications which ensured that I continue using Windows. Picassa from Google (picture and video editing and management program) has definitely been one of them. Personally, I could never understand why they resist releasing a version of Picassa for Linux, but resist they do.

However, Linux community responded, as usual, and equivalent tool emerged. It's name is F-Spot, and comes from: http://f-spot.org/ F-Spot can be used on a non-Linux platform as well - if you download a Mono-Live CD , which comes with all sorts of goodies, F-Spot included.

The current version, 0.1.10, is actually quite good and stable. I haven't tested it fully yet, but it certainlyy is usable. The only feature I'm missing is video clips management, but this is very early days for the project, and developer team is keen to hear of any "shopping lists". Versioning is good, editing less comprehensive than that of Picassa's, but on the whole the time of good by to Windows is nearer and nearer.

Any QA person reading this - relax, I will maintain a system for course design applications, at least until we get to use some portable standard ;-)

New phase in X server evolution

For a while Novell seemed to head for the open source community doghouse, for working on the new X standard (Xgl) behind closed doors. They have also been developing a new window and composition manager called Combiz. Well, both of these products have now been released into Xorg repositories. So all is well. Is it? There are two issues that this has raised. One is the new wave of standard in-fighting that we are seemingly face. This is because as soon as the community accepted Novell's Xgl (or Xegl - OpenGL version) as the future for X11, Red Hat put the spanner in the works by promoting an alternative: aiglx (accelerated indirect GL X. Red Hat's argument would be sound - both Xgl and Xegl are brand new solutions, which would require a lot of work on the part of driver creators, whereas aiglx is just an extension to the existing X server standard. Hmmm. Here we go again... The other issue that occurred to me is more of the philosophical nature. It refers to the reasoning Novell offered in defense of the 'keep it behind the closed door' approach to the design. The "design by committee" concept is what most companies face, and have to deal with. Novell chose to go against the politically correct community involvement in the early stages of planning, spec'ing and designing. They are being slagged for it, but should they really. For one, I fully agree with Dan Winship's reasoning...

See: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2006-February/msg00115.html .