Category Posts: Open Source

One of the good things about the good old Firefox 3 was that when in Ubuntu flash videos were downloaded to the /tmp directory. All you had to do was wait for the buffering to complete, minimize the Firefox window, got to the /tmp directory and copy and paste the video into the folder of your choosing. Playing the video is easy enough; vlc plays pretty much any format from .mp4 to .flv.

In my previous article I mentioned the fact that Ubuntu is not much fun without the Internet. It has been my experience that not all Internet Service Providers (ISP) are the same and that there are some caveats for a Zimbabwean Ubuntu user/administrator when it comes to either choosing an ISP or administering his system especially in the matter of upgrades and downloads and indeed sometimes this is critical if your system will get connected to the internet at all.

The first thing anyone ever notices after installing Ubuntu is that they cannot play mp3s, .avi/.vob/.mpeg/ or any of their videos unless you are one of those freaks that happened to have .ogg media files in your music collection. With this discovery comes shock, anger and finally frustration.

Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu operating system, released a new version of the popular open source operating system last week.

This latest version, named ‘Natty Narwhal’, comes with some changes including a move from OpenOffice.org to LibreOffice as the default office suite and a new desktop environment called Unity which, until now, was only used on the Netbook edition. The Ubuntu netbook edition itself has been merged with the desktop edition.

Of the new electronic classifieds platforms to emerge in Zimbabwe’s during the past few years, Dipleague and classifieds.co.zw stand out and have achieved relative success to Zimbabwean internet users.

It’s common knowledge in Zimbabwe that to get some meaningful response for a classifieds advert you cannot afford to ignore the 2 platforms. And unlike traditional newspaper classifieds posting adverts on these platforms is free.

As I went through the various articles and tweets this on year’s first IDLELO conference, I couldn’t help wonder about Zimbabwe’s standing on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). I generally find FOSS issues interesting and intriguing. I’m quite fascinated by basic concepts of humanity at work.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) 2009 global software piracy study released this month showed a global piracy rate rise to 43% from 41% in 2008. BSA says this means that “for every $100 worth of legitimate software sold in 2009, an additional $75 worth of unlicensed software also made its way into the market” globally.

Yes, the Zimbabwe Ubuntu LoCo Team finally said something. So all you party animals (and not-so-social geeks, seriously, here is your chance to interact with like minded dudes) make time this Saturday to celebrate freedom.

The release party will take place at 335 Herbert Chitepo Street, Alliance Française in Harare and it starts at 2PM. You can send an email to events@ubuntu.org.zw for directions. And for all the naysayers out there (and Windows fanboys) who don’t believe in freedom, there will be a demo to showcase the special features that distinguish Ubuntu as an Operating System.

On Thursday, the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) officially launched a new Learning Management System website, ZOU Online. The new system uses the open source eLearning and eWorking platform, Claroline, and like typical Learning Management Systems, it allows lecturers to build online courses and manage learning and collaborative activities on the web.

The Zimbabwe Open University has implemented the new system in partnership with a local ICT company. We’re yet to establish which ICT company this is. We will let you know once we find out.

We finally received a copy of the strategic plan from the ministry. Here it is for download.
We provide a summary of the most significant strategic objectives for those of you too ‘busy’ to read the whole document. We also note a few important issues at the end, that we feel are lacking in the ICT ministry’s’ strategic plan.

According to the Information Society Statistical Profiles 2009 report prepared by the International Telecommunications Union, in 2008 there were 11 internet users out of every 100 inhabitants in Zimbabwe. 2009 itself saw more Zimbabweans connecting to the Internet owing to the introduction of mobile Internet by telecoms operator Econet. Even more connections will be made over the next several months as the economy stabilizes and ISPs & mobile operators take on more subscribers.

Tech blogs have been awash with news about Google’s release of the Chrome OS source code since last week. The release announcement itself was made at the Google Chrome OS launch event in Mountain View CA, in the States. Great … Continue reading →

See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Technology Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwe Ubuntu Loco team (website not updated yet) will celebrate the release of Ubuntu 9.10 code name Karmic Koala on the 31st of October. The Loco team has been quite active lately, making quite an impression of the volunteer … Continue reading →

The Ubuntu stand could have easily been nominated the most lively and most visited stand at the 2009 ICT Africa show. The “Freedom Toaster”, a Linux Installation media vending machine in which you insert a blank CD and burn any … Continue reading →