Open Source Distribution, Where Did it Go Wrong?

I have not been a Windows user for many years in my home. There are exceptions in places like where I work, where I go to school and even the local libraries. For the most part, I keep a clean and very secure laptop running Linux with me to use at these places.

The reports of SourceForge providing adware and other bad things to Windows users for the sake of making money isn't exactly new news. However, it is a huge black eye to the open source community in general.

Projects like FileZilla, The GIMP, VLC and nmap have been hit with the baddie installers coming from SourceForge, which the company deemed the projects as abandoned. I can understand SourceForge's need for money to sustain their business platform, but the way they are going about doing it not only tarnishes the individual projects, but also makes Windows users have a bad first impression of open source by getting and running the bad installers from SourceForge.

SourceForge has posted a series of blog posts (all which uBlock will show the screen the I added above in this post) that try to sweet talk you into believing they are doing a good thing. Here are some of those blog posts:

* SourceForge Past, Present and Future: Working to Maintain the Integrity of Our Open Source Backbone

* When projects fade, you can revive them

* GIMP-Win project wasn't hijacked, just abandoned

* Analysis of nmap project and data

Over time, a good portion of projects have moved to Google Code, GitHub, GitLab and so on. What most people don't understand is that all of these sites are businesses or projects themselves that are backed by some kind of venture capitalists that expect some kind of monetary gain to recoup their funds and make some money in the process.

We have found in recent months that even huge companies like Google can't maintain a truly free code distribution platform like their Google Code service, hence why they are shutting it down in the near future. These big named hosting platforms need some way to maintain a revenue stream to support the hardware, bandwidth and management of the various projects they host. I am in no way validating the practice that SourceForge has decided to do.

The best way, and not always economically sound, is for the projects to host their own distribution servers that they control themselves. This would keep big businesses from taking over their projects and keeping everything safe for the developers and end users alike.

Do you run an open source project? Do you host it on SourceForge, GitHub or any other big name distribution platform? Do you make an open source distribution platform that others can use for their projects? I would like to hear your opinions. Please comment below.

Jon Stewart to Leave The Daily Show?

It's not exactly a big secret by now, unless you've been living under a rock with no Internet connection (How are you reading this, if that was the case?), that Jon Stewart has let it slip that he will be leaving his post at The Daily Show. All the big news outlets are making a big fuss over this.

I got to thinking a bit. How is this any different than the change of hosts for The Tonight Show over the years? I'm not all that old, but I can remember the switch from Johnny Carson to Jay Leno. Then in 2010 was the big farce when it was passed on to Conan O'Brien, but Leno whined and cried about losing his cash cow and favorable time slot, among other things, thus Leno resumed as host until 2014, when the reigns was passed on to Jimmy Fallon, who is currently hitting it out of the park.

To be honest, I am not shocked one bit that Stewart is planning to move on. He made his huge splash in political news by adding comedy to it. He has taken on the crazies like Bill O'Reilly, Anderson Cooper and even played a little Hardball both in staged debates and to bring down the curtains on their own shows. A simple YouTube search will net you some great clips.

Since a successor has not been announced as of yet, I think it would be great to move John Oliver into that spot. He has already worked on The Daily Show before as a news correspondent and as a guest host while Stewart was off filming his movie for a few months.

I believe that if John Oliver were to get the position, a lot more younger people would be interested in current events happening in the world. Since The Daily Show is mostly a comedy news show based around real events, it can be thought of as a more serious version of The Onion. I personally would watch more.

What do you think? I would be very interested in knowing who you think would fit as the replacement for Jon Stewart when he leaves The Daily Show. Let's talk about it in the comments.

Abobobobo.......bo

Have you ever spent countless quarters in the arcade or convenience store to play Double Dragon? Have you ever associated the big, bald muscle guys with Mr. Clean? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then I can show you how you how you can be one of those big, bald muscle guys and get your revenge...

Abobo was always bullied back in the Double Dragon days. It didn't matter if he was white, brown or green. The whole Abobo race was discriminated against. Abobo's son, Little Abobo, has been kidnapped by Billy and Jimmy. That was the last straw. You will not tolerate the abuse any longer. It's payback time!

You will find yourself going through many areas that have seemingly familiar sights. Is it a case of deja vu? As you battle through each area, you will release your rage in the form of a can of whoop ass. Will you be able to make it in time to save your son and restore peace to the Abobo race?

I played the web version of the game, but the Windows version runs very well in WINE on Linux. I about died laughing while playing this little gem. Lots of the sights from various big name platforms on the NES are represented here. It just really shows how much trouble this Abobo is willing to go through to save his son.

Link: Abobo's Big Adventure