My FOSS Preferences

The class teams are to choose three open-source projects that we would like to participate in.  The tricky part is that we need to choose projects that have active communities.  So TeamFOSSil's prerequisites for the team project are as follows:  the open source project has to be written in python (member preference) and has to have an active community.  This shouldn't be too hard to find, right?!

Number One Choice:  Django 

The "D" is silent- pronounced "Jang-oh"

It was suggested by Lynn that we look into Django.  I had no idea what Django was in regards to open software.  The first thing that popped into my head was Jamie Foxx in that Quentin Tarantino movie- EXCELLENT movie by the way.  "Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design."  In a nutshell, it allows you to quickly build high-performing Web applications.  It was originally developed to manage several news-oriented sites for The World Company  of Lawrence, Kansas.  The framework was named after guitarist Django Reinhardt who is often regarded as one of the greatest guitar players of all time. Django has some bragging rights.  Here are a few sites that use Django- Instagram, OpenStack, Mozilla,  and (my personal favorite) Pinterest. Django is written in Python and has a VERY active community making it my favorite choice for this semester's project.  It also seems very newbie friendly- another bonus.

Choice Number Two:  SaltStack

Bobby vaguely remembers hearing about this choice at some CSCI talk.  SaltStack is a new approach to infrastructure management- it runs within seconds, scalable enough to manage tens of thousands of servers, and can communicate with these servers within milliseconds.  For newbies, the Saltstack site says- "There is no need to introduce yourself, or ask permission to join in.  Just help and be helped."  I like it.  There is a lot of documentation, an active community, and even a YouTube channel!  Plus it meets all of our prerequisites because it is indeed written in Python.  Oh snap.

Choice Number Three:  Gramps

This choice started off as a joke since it would fit perfectly with our FOSSils team name- Gramps just goes so well with our old team member theme, but it could in actuality be a decent choice.  This is free and open source genealogy software.  This is software for genealogists or genealogist hobbyists- a way to keep them organized.  Now the community for this choice is a little lacking- definitely nothing like the community for Django.  The site says that the filing and tracking of bugs has low traffic, but that discussions on using Gramps and issues relating to software development have medium traffic.  It is written in Python as well- but we have two much much better choices above.

The preface of the book reiterates why participating in FOSS is advantageous.  Alright. You've convinced me.  The preface also goes over class organization, a sample syllabi, and other support and guidance.  

Chapter 1 gets more interesting.  From last semester's readings, I was aware that software failures do happen, but for some reason I was still a little shocked to read that according to the 2009 CHAOS Report, only THIRTY-TWO percent of all software projects were completed on time, on budget, and with full functionality.  The text lists many reasons for these software failures, but it singles out "improper choice and deployment of an effective development methodology" as the main culprit.  

I will sign off with the

Four Freedoms of FOSS: 

1. Freedom to use
2. Freedom to modify
3. Freedom to distribute
4. Freedom to improve