Comic’s Vista gig, software quality

Seinfeld’s Vista gig

Although this news emerged late last week it is still causing mirth among open source fans and bloggers. Funnyman Jerry Seinfeld is reportedly to receive $10 million for his role in a Vista promotional campaign called “Windows, not walls”.

Gawker writes: “Yes, because if there’s one surefire way to convince everyone Vista is cool, cutting edge and not liable to get frazzled by life’s minor complications, it’s hiring a 1990s sitcom star and professional kvetcher! Who, um, very visibly owned a series of Macs on his show.”

One day all software will be free

Open source fans are often quick to proclaim the quality of free software. It seems that they are not completely wrong.

In the recent Infoworld Best of Open Source Software Awards, Zenoss Core was named the best Network Monitoring tool. And here’s the thing. Infoworld’s Test Center executive editor was so impressed by the quality of the open source software in the contest that he had this to say: “The breadth and quality of open source software continues to amaze us. We’ve singled out 60 products for Bossies - developer tools, middleware, firewalls and routers, productivity apps, CRM and ERP, etc. - and we’re only scratching the surface. When you look at all that’s available, and how good it is, you start to think that someday all software will be free.”

Translate on Facebook

One of the success stories of free and open source software in Africa has undoubtedly been Translate.org.za, the SA-based localisation experts. If you’re a fan of Translate’s work then you might want to hook up with their Facebook group and become part of the Translate community.