I thought I'd do a post about open source email options for OS X as this is something I've not yet covered.
There are a couple of options for mail. The most obvious option would be apple mail, but of course, this is not open source.
I guess the most obvious open source choice would be Mozilla's Thunderbird. This is an excellent client. I used to use it a lot, back in the dark days when I used Windows. It has all the things you would expect from a modern email client and it also features add ons and plugins just like firefox.
For those of you who don't mind the command line, two of my favourite clients are Mutt and emacs/gnus (which is what I use primarily). Mutt can be a bit fiddly to set up but is very good especially if you are running your own mail server. Again, gnus can also be a bit of a nightmare to set up, especially if you want to use SSL connections to retrieve your mail, but I just like using emacs to write my mail.
Monday 1 September 2008
Monday 18 August 2008
Firefox FTW
Well, I've not posted about Firefox yet as, to be honest, it always slips my mind when I'm thinking about open source on my mac, even though it's probably the best known open source application. I'd even go as far as saying it may be the best known open source application on any platform.
I use this application everyday without fail. I would recommend it over Safari in a heartbeat. This is not only because it is open source, but also because of the plug ins that are available for it. In fact, I thought the best way to blog about this app was to tell you about a few of the plug ins/addons that I use.
The first and probably most used is the del.icio.us toolbar. For those of you who haven't check out delicious then it's definitely worth a look. You'll never be without your bookmarks again.
This addon allows you to quickly bookmark a page to delicious, tag it and also to access recent bookmarks in a very convenient way.
Secondly, I would definitely recommend the web developer toolbar, for all those web devs out there. This toolbar is the main reason I now find it very difficult to use any other browser when I'm debugging a site (as you may or may not know, I'm a web developer myself). This toolbar has great features like, being able to disable javaScript, quick viewing of CSS/HTML and also quick resize tools so you can test your site in smaller windows.
The last addon I thought I'd recommend is greasemonkey. This is a very powerful tool that allows you to write custom javaScript for specific pages. This is great for adding functionality to a page or even disabling annoying javaScript you may experience on a page you visit a lot.
I would just close by saying, if you have never tried firefox as an alternative browser, give it a go at once. You won't be sorry.
Thursday 31 July 2008
Further thoughts on the iPhone and Free Software
The Free Software Foundation has been very vocal recently concerning the newly launched iPhone 3G. In a new article on their blog they raise some very good points about the incompatibilities between the GPLv3 and the Developer agreement one has to sign in order to develop 'official' software for the phone.
One of the points that stuck out for me was they mention the fact that Apple use free software in OS X, e.g. the kernal is based on free software. Some of this software must be in the iPhone OS as we know it's a derivative of OS X. So, they reap the benefits of free software but don't want the users to do the same.
I found the blog post a very good read and look forward to the next installment.
One of the points that stuck out for me was they mention the fact that Apple use free software in OS X, e.g. the kernal is based on free software. Some of this software must be in the iPhone OS as we know it's a derivative of OS X. So, they reap the benefits of free software but don't want the users to do the same.
I found the blog post a very good read and look forward to the next installment.
Thursday 24 July 2008
Open source Twitter client
As some of you will know, I am quite a heavy user of Twitter. I've been hunting for a little while now for an open source Twitter client for OS X.
I've found a couple of free apps e.g. Twitterific, which in all fairness is a very good client, but not open source, which is what I'm looking for.
Now, there is one client that is open source in one sense, called spaz. The problem I have with this is that it's built on Adobe's AIR technology, which is not open source. I had an interesting discussion with the developer of spaz where he mentioned technologies like Java (although that is now going open source) and asked me if apps built on layers like that were not 'true' open source.
This is an interesting question and one that I'd like to explore further. Does a piece of software have to be open source all the way down the stack for it to be truly open?
The major problem with this from my context is that I'm running OS X, which, although built on some open source is not an open source operating system by any stretch of the imagination.
I'd very much like to get some reader thoughts on these points and I'll probably be doing a longer post on these issues in the future.
In the mean time, if anyone finds an open source Twitter client not built on AIR then please let me know.
I've found a couple of free apps e.g. Twitterific, which in all fairness is a very good client, but not open source, which is what I'm looking for.
Now, there is one client that is open source in one sense, called spaz. The problem I have with this is that it's built on Adobe's AIR technology, which is not open source. I had an interesting discussion with the developer of spaz where he mentioned technologies like Java (although that is now going open source) and asked me if apps built on layers like that were not 'true' open source.
This is an interesting question and one that I'd like to explore further. Does a piece of software have to be open source all the way down the stack for it to be truly open?
The major problem with this from my context is that I'm running OS X, which, although built on some open source is not an open source operating system by any stretch of the imagination.
I'd very much like to get some reader thoughts on these points and I'll probably be doing a longer post on these issues in the future.
In the mean time, if anyone finds an open source Twitter client not built on AIR then please let me know.
Monday 21 July 2008
Pwnage 2.0.1 released
The iPhone dev team have been hard at work and have just released Pwnage tool 2.0.1 that will jailbreak an iPhone running the new 2.0 software.
This will then allow you to install the Cydia community installer which allows the installation of free and open source apps.
I shall be upgrading my iPhone and jailbreaking it asap.
This will then allow you to install the Cydia community installer which allows the installation of free and open source apps.
I shall be upgrading my iPhone and jailbreaking it asap.
Friday 18 July 2008
iPhone 3G vs Open Source
Yes, I know there are about a million blog posts about the iPhone 3G, and I'm sure there's no need for another. But, there have only been a few on the iPhone 3G and open source and free software. One of the few groups that have spoken out against the new iPhone 3G is the Free Software Foundation.
I haven't really blogged much about my personal experience with the iPhone so I'll give you a bit of background before I comment on the new phone and its relationship to open source.
I bought a first generation iPhone when it first came out in the UK. I was very happy with it for the first few months. I was even known to say that it was "the best phone I've ever owned."
After about the first four or five months I started to want more though. For me, the biggest thing it was lacking was games. It's great to have games on your phone so that you can occupy yourself, where ever you are. So I did a bit of research and downloaded Ziphone, with the intention of jail braking my phone. This turned out to be unbelievably easy. It took literally two clicks and a three minute wait and I was downloading fully open sourced games for the iPhone.
When the iPhone 3G was announced, I decided it wasn't for me. Edge is working just fine, so no need for 3G and GPS is also not a strong selling point. The only other thing was the app store, but on doing some research, I found that the Apple NDA that one has to sign to develop for the iPhone officially is in conflict with the GPL.
The bottom line is, if you sign the NDA, you can't disclose your source code. There are still some open source java applications out there of course and the iPhone dev team have already cracked the v2 software.
I'm personally waiting for Ziphone to update so that I can update my phone to 2.0 and instantly crack it to get the best of both worlds. For now, I'm happy with my v1 iPhone running a cracked version of 1.1.4.
I haven't really blogged much about my personal experience with the iPhone so I'll give you a bit of background before I comment on the new phone and its relationship to open source.
I bought a first generation iPhone when it first came out in the UK. I was very happy with it for the first few months. I was even known to say that it was "the best phone I've ever owned."
After about the first four or five months I started to want more though. For me, the biggest thing it was lacking was games. It's great to have games on your phone so that you can occupy yourself, where ever you are. So I did a bit of research and downloaded Ziphone, with the intention of jail braking my phone. This turned out to be unbelievably easy. It took literally two clicks and a three minute wait and I was downloading fully open sourced games for the iPhone.
When the iPhone 3G was announced, I decided it wasn't for me. Edge is working just fine, so no need for 3G and GPS is also not a strong selling point. The only other thing was the app store, but on doing some research, I found that the Apple NDA that one has to sign to develop for the iPhone officially is in conflict with the GPL.
The bottom line is, if you sign the NDA, you can't disclose your source code. There are still some open source java applications out there of course and the iPhone dev team have already cracked the v2 software.
I'm personally waiting for Ziphone to update so that I can update my phone to 2.0 and instantly crack it to get the best of both worlds. For now, I'm happy with my v1 iPhone running a cracked version of 1.1.4.
Friday 14 March 2008
iPhone SDK
On Thursday the 6th of March Apple released the official iPhone software developer kit. As a lot of developers were hoping it is a 'real' SDK, working with Xcode and opening up the iPhone OS. It appears that the iPhone OS is very much based on Mac OS X, even down to running on a BSD derived kernel.
The most exciting layer for myself is the cocoa touch layer, where one can program all the user interaction level.
Personally, I'm very excited about developing for this platform and, naturally my first question was around open source. Apple have stated that one can produce free apps for the iPhone and they will not charge the developer anything. You must obtain Apple certification however and pay for the privilege to do so. It's a one off payment though and not very substantial.
The only bad news is the new software for the iPhone that enables apps to be downloaded; the appstore, will not be available until June. A good few companies have already been developing some very interesting apps though. Find out more on the Apple developer site.
The most exciting layer for myself is the cocoa touch layer, where one can program all the user interaction level.
Personally, I'm very excited about developing for this platform and, naturally my first question was around open source. Apple have stated that one can produce free apps for the iPhone and they will not charge the developer anything. You must obtain Apple certification however and pay for the privilege to do so. It's a one off payment though and not very substantial.
The only bad news is the new software for the iPhone that enables apps to be downloaded; the appstore, will not be available until June. A good few companies have already been developing some very interesting apps though. Find out more on the Apple developer site.
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