Review Mastering phpMyAdmin 2.11
Meta info.
Title: "Mastering phpMyAdmin 2.11" <http://www.packtpub.com/phpmyadmin-3rd-edition/book>
Subtitle: "for effective MySQL Management"
Author: "Marc Delisle" <http://www.packtpub.com/author_view_profile/id/3>
ISBN: 978-1-847194-18-3
Publisher: "Packt Publishing" <http://www.packtpub.com>
Pages: 318
Date: March 2008
Price: £21,99 - $34,99
Prelude.
When I was asked by Manuel Lemos of phpclasses.org to review a book about phpMyAdmin I was a bit hesitant as I'm not using it myself. I prefer to use WebMin, and I wouldn't want to compare the two as they have not much in common. I personally choose WebMin because I do not need the overhead phpMyAdmin gives me. Never the less I took the job on and running an (at that time still experimental) Ubuntu Hardy box, I installed PhpMyAdmin in a few clicks and had a fully running system without any problems. I mention this because it shows how user friendly phpMyAdmin is with all it's harnessed power. It's a effortless system and obviously therefor the interface of choice for many ISP's. But again IMHO phpMyAdmin is underestimated if you think that that would be the only place where you can deploy it. Thanks to Mozilla's experiment bringing web apps to your desktop with the Prism system, you can easily use phpMyAdmin for *all* database administration locally too. Now if I got you curious beyond the point of experimenting and you actually want to give phpMyAdmin a try, this book is probably all you ever need.
The author.
Marc Delisle, who wrote 'Mastering phpMyAdmin 2.11', a book already in it's third edition, is an active member of the MYSQL Developers Guild and actively involved in the development of phpMyAdmin. He was assisted by three 'reviewers' that all three have in one way or another worked on or with phpMyAdmin. This resulted in a book that leaves nothing to be asked about the primary MySQL web interface currently around. Marc has a clear, but sometimes clinical, writing style. Never the less he is able to share his knowledge in a way, even the most adept MySQL user can understand. Of course this is also an achievement of PhpMyAdmin that was programmed in a way that offers a clear and easy to understand interface.
The book.
Starts off with a preface describing each chapter and it's goals. Chapter 1 obviously will start with some background information on the application, chapter 2 will help you install the thingy (as I mentioned on a *nix box probably just a few clicks in your distribution manager). And if your unlucky enough to have hooked up with an ISP that doesn't have PhpMyAdmin pre-installed this chapter talks you trough the setup until you have a running system that you can admire in a walk around provided in chapter 3. The following chapters 4 to 14 show you how to create a database and how to export/import your work. The real every day dull work from searching, changing, adding and removing data and how PhpMyAdmin can facilitate in storing and saving queries and procedures. Chapter 15 to 19 go into deep water showing among other things how to administrate several aspects, from language files to character sets up to managing MYSQL from PhpMyAdmin. Chapter 20 last but not least goes into the topic of problem solving, debugging and bug reporting. Everything has been setup clearly with many illustrated examples and as usual for Packt Publishing books the Example code can be downloaded from their website.
Conclusion.
The book does definitely what has been promised. It leaves no secrets to uncover and when you have read it you probably won't need to read it again. Not only because the book is clear but again because of the logic behind PhpMyAdmin. So if you are a first time user of PhpMyAdmin this book is definitely worth every penny. What has bothered me a bit is the targeted audience on the back of the book. I don't think an experience developer will find much of use in the book. If you are a seasoned user of Php and Mysql (what experienced developer isn't?) this book reveals nothing that you won't extract from the interface. But the adept user will find a wealth of information and I think the book will also do fine in a instructional environment. It is also a good example of the philosophy behind Packt Publishing and I would like to point out once more that a book bought with them supports the Open Source project (in this case PhpMyAdmin) financially.
donderdag 1 mei 2008
woensdag 16 april 2008
Review Building Websites with Joomla! 1.5
Meta info.
Title: "Building Websites with Joomla! 1.5" <http://www.packtpub.com/joomla-version-1-5/book>
Subtitle: "From Technologies to Solutions"
Author: "Hagen Graf" <http://www.packtpub.com/author_view_profile/id/45>
ISBN: 978-1-847195-30-2
Publisher: "Packt Publishing" <http://www.packtpub.com>
Pages: 361
Date: March 2008
Price: £27,99 - $44,99
Content.
The book is a tutorial guide to Joomla! 1.5 and was already written and published during the development of Joomla! 1.5. This is the final version and it aims for "web developers, designers, webmasters, content editors and marketing professionals" and is suitable for anyone starting out with Joomla! 1.5, for people who upgrade to Joomla 1.5 and for those who just want a good printed guide/manual at hand.
Step through.
The first chapter called Terms, Concepts, and Deliberations lays the foundation for the rest of the book. I think this chapter clearly shows the author's fine teaching skills. Without realising it, the reader will be handed all the important basics and principles behind Joomla!. Here you will find an answer to questions about the history an structure of a great CMS. Among other things there is a great almost rant like comparison between the business models of Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. You can read about the spin-off from Mambo and the structure of a CMS. The chapter end's with an appetizer, showing off some web pages made in Joomla!.
Chapter two steps you through the installation of Joomla!. In only 20 pages, you will be shown what you need to install, run and manage Joomla. And then it steps you through several kind of installations on either Windows, several flavors of Linux and even a VPS. You will be shown how to setup a testing system or a production system and the differences between them. Installing Joomla! is a piece of cake, grab a bite.
Chapter three will then show you around through your newly installed system. It is a quick tour that is supposed to get you acquainted with the basic structure of the system. Joomla! tends to be a bit confusing in it's initial state because the sample data was meant to show off as many aspects as possible. Therefore it sometimes is a bit overwhelming. This chapter helps you to understand what you are actually seeing.
From chapter four to eleven give you a clear and understandable breakdown of all the features Joomla! has to offer you in it's basic state. Starting with the handling of several languages and the exterior look that can be changed by templates. Then the introduction to the administration interface. Once that has been covered , the book will guide you through the many setting that can be altered in the site menu. This is a typical 'must' read section as a lot of these settings will also influence the security of your system. Don't start without reading and understanding this. The following chapters explain how to create menus and content, and how to use some of the pre-installed components. Chapter ten will then show you how to use the extension menu. It's a considerably important chapter as it offers you the power to create the sites shown at the end of the first chapter, by extending and changing the default capabilities of Joomla.
Up to this point Hagen has given you a full manual to Joomla! 1.5. But the book doesn't stop here. In chapter 12 Hagen shows you how to use a few extensions that, not only show you once more, how to incorporate third party extensions in your website, but also gives you a few fine examples to add to your site. Fireboard is the more or less recognised standard for a forum extension. If you build a community site with forums this is the way you want to go. DOCman is an extension that will make your content management even better. DOCman enables you to work with remotely stored documents and enables an access control system. Exposé Flash Gallery will render images and video with the so called 'ahhhh' effect. It is based on Adobe's flash format and has many different options to present your images or videos. Now you don't have to install these to use Joomla!, but I can assure you from experience that it will make your Joomla! live much easier and interesting if you do.
Chapter 13 goes to the inner works of Joomla. The templates. These are made of a mixture of HTML, PHP and Joomla! tags to construct the final display of your site. This chapter shows you how to change or even create a template. This chapter is completed by chapter 14 that was actually written by Angie Radtke who created the Beez template. The chapter discusses the so called Barrier Freedom and demonstrates it use in the Beez template. To cut things short, it shows you how to NOT exclude people with a disability from your website, which is in some (civilized) countries indeed a legal requirement. I can only hope that Google uses these standard guidelines in it's web ranking system. The nice thing about this chapter is that it will show you how to change the Beez template by its own author. And before you ask, making the Beez re-size dynamically you just edit position.css where it says max-width: 1000px; to max-width: 100%; and deal with the pain :-) If you want to make a serious template please do consider reading this chapter.
Chapter 15 shows you basically how to create your own extensions. It covers a complete framework that can get you started and shows you the basics of MVC programming in php. If you want do do some serious extensions you are better off with one of the other Joomla books available that cover the subject explicitly, like Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and framework development from the same publisher by James Kennard. Never the less this chapter gives a good impression of the work involved by stepping you through every aspect in the making of a real usable component.
Chapter 16 and 17 form the grand finale. Here the author takes you through a step by step approach to develop a website with Joomla! 1.5. All the experience from prior chapters will be applied in a practical experience. In fact in a merely 30 pages, you will be building a website for a fictional family business site. After this building your own site will/should prove as easy as Joomla!.
Conclusion.
The book is very complete. It is a real beginning to end piece that has great instructional value. I can see it easily implemented in workshops etc. Up to chapter 13 not much knowledge is needed. Chapter 13 to 15 require some experience with php/html to be completely understandable. The only thing I really miss is a chapter about security. A lot of sites get hacked because of the behaviour of beginning developers. Some simple guidelines would have made a great addition especially for the beginning administrator. Hagen Graf was able to transfer his knowledge of the subject, combined with his teaching knowledge, in a way that organises the book into a complete tutoring and reference document. He is not just listing features and their use but also explains very clearly how Joomla! happened, what technology was used and how everything evolved. He is clearly very passionate about Joomla! which shows already in the preface starting of with "Joomla! is life!". But anyone that ever worked with Joomla! will easily forgive him and might be equally enthusiastic or become it after reading this book.
Meta info.
Title: "Building Websites with Joomla! 1.5" <http://www.packtpub.com/joomla-version-1-5/book>
Subtitle: "From Technologies to Solutions"
Author: "Hagen Graf" <http://www.packtpub.com/author_view_profile/id/45>
ISBN: 978-1-847195-30-2
Publisher: "Packt Publishing" <http://www.packtpub.com>
Pages: 361
Date: March 2008
Price: £27,99 - $44,99
Content.
The book is a tutorial guide to Joomla! 1.5 and was already written and published during the development of Joomla! 1.5. This is the final version and it aims for "web developers, designers, webmasters, content editors and marketing professionals" and is suitable for anyone starting out with Joomla! 1.5, for people who upgrade to Joomla 1.5 and for those who just want a good printed guide/manual at hand.
Step through.
The first chapter called Terms, Concepts, and Deliberations lays the foundation for the rest of the book. I think this chapter clearly shows the author's fine teaching skills. Without realising it, the reader will be handed all the important basics and principles behind Joomla!. Here you will find an answer to questions about the history an structure of a great CMS. Among other things there is a great almost rant like comparison between the business models of Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. You can read about the spin-off from Mambo and the structure of a CMS. The chapter end's with an appetizer, showing off some web pages made in Joomla!.
Chapter two steps you through the installation of Joomla!. In only 20 pages, you will be shown what you need to install, run and manage Joomla. And then it steps you through several kind of installations on either Windows, several flavors of Linux and even a VPS. You will be shown how to setup a testing system or a production system and the differences between them. Installing Joomla! is a piece of cake, grab a bite.
Chapter three will then show you around through your newly installed system. It is a quick tour that is supposed to get you acquainted with the basic structure of the system. Joomla! tends to be a bit confusing in it's initial state because the sample data was meant to show off as many aspects as possible. Therefore it sometimes is a bit overwhelming. This chapter helps you to understand what you are actually seeing.
From chapter four to eleven give you a clear and understandable breakdown of all the features Joomla! has to offer you in it's basic state. Starting with the handling of several languages and the exterior look that can be changed by templates. Then the introduction to the administration interface. Once that has been covered , the book will guide you through the many setting that can be altered in the site menu. This is a typical 'must' read section as a lot of these settings will also influence the security of your system. Don't start without reading and understanding this. The following chapters explain how to create menus and content, and how to use some of the pre-installed components. Chapter ten will then show you how to use the extension menu. It's a considerably important chapter as it offers you the power to create the sites shown at the end of the first chapter, by extending and changing the default capabilities of Joomla.
Up to this point Hagen has given you a full manual to Joomla! 1.5. But the book doesn't stop here. In chapter 12 Hagen shows you how to use a few extensions that, not only show you once more, how to incorporate third party extensions in your website, but also gives you a few fine examples to add to your site. Fireboard is the more or less recognised standard for a forum extension. If you build a community site with forums this is the way you want to go. DOCman is an extension that will make your content management even better. DOCman enables you to work with remotely stored documents and enables an access control system. Exposé Flash Gallery will render images and video with the so called 'ahhhh' effect. It is based on Adobe's flash format and has many different options to present your images or videos. Now you don't have to install these to use Joomla!, but I can assure you from experience that it will make your Joomla! live much easier and interesting if you do.
Chapter 13 goes to the inner works of Joomla. The templates. These are made of a mixture of HTML, PHP and Joomla! tags to construct the final display of your site. This chapter shows you how to change or even create a template. This chapter is completed by chapter 14 that was actually written by Angie Radtke who created the Beez template. The chapter discusses the so called Barrier Freedom and demonstrates it use in the Beez template. To cut things short, it shows you how to NOT exclude people with a disability from your website, which is in some (civilized) countries indeed a legal requirement. I can only hope that Google uses these standard guidelines in it's web ranking system. The nice thing about this chapter is that it will show you how to change the Beez template by its own author. And before you ask, making the Beez re-size dynamically you just edit position.css where it says max-width: 1000px; to max-width: 100%; and deal with the pain :-) If you want to make a serious template please do consider reading this chapter.
Chapter 15 shows you basically how to create your own extensions. It covers a complete framework that can get you started and shows you the basics of MVC programming in php. If you want do do some serious extensions you are better off with one of the other Joomla books available that cover the subject explicitly, like Mastering Joomla! 1.5 Extension and framework development from the same publisher by James Kennard. Never the less this chapter gives a good impression of the work involved by stepping you through every aspect in the making of a real usable component.
Chapter 16 and 17 form the grand finale. Here the author takes you through a step by step approach to develop a website with Joomla! 1.5. All the experience from prior chapters will be applied in a practical experience. In fact in a merely 30 pages, you will be building a website for a fictional family business site. After this building your own site will/should prove as easy as Joomla!.
Conclusion.
The book is very complete. It is a real beginning to end piece that has great instructional value. I can see it easily implemented in workshops etc. Up to chapter 13 not much knowledge is needed. Chapter 13 to 15 require some experience with php/html to be completely understandable. The only thing I really miss is a chapter about security. A lot of sites get hacked because of the behaviour of beginning developers. Some simple guidelines would have made a great addition especially for the beginning administrator. Hagen Graf was able to transfer his knowledge of the subject, combined with his teaching knowledge, in a way that organises the book into a complete tutoring and reference document. He is not just listing features and their use but also explains very clearly how Joomla! happened, what technology was used and how everything evolved. He is clearly very passionate about Joomla! which shows already in the preface starting of with "Joomla! is life!". But anyone that ever worked with Joomla! will easily forgive him and might be equally enthusiastic or become it after reading this book.
maandag 31 maart 2008
Review Mastering Joomla! 1.5 [ISBN 978-1-847192-82-0].
In January I managed to secure a 6th place in the Innovation Award contest on phpclasses.org and subsequently I was honoured with a price of my choice from the generously donated prices of sponsors of phpclasses.org. This turned out to be a bit tricky as most prices seem to target the Microsoft platform, but I was quit happy with the possibility of choosing a book form the Pact Publishing collection. My choice fell on Mastering Joomla! 1.5 - Extension and Framework Development, written by James Kennard [ISBN 978-1-847192-82-0]. The book was delivered to me within 3 days after processing, which I consider a feat of Pack Publishing as I live in Portugal and have different experiences with delivering of goods by mail. As I adhere by the principle of giving back to the community, I though it was a good idea to write a review on the phpclasses.org site.
I choose the book because I use Joomla and followed the transformation from 1.X to 1.5. As anybody using Joomla will know the platform went through some pretty steep changes for the better and the online documentation is a bit unhandy to use. Planning to write a few extensions for site's I host I was looking for a book that could at least in part be a replacement for this documentation. As I went through the site of Pact publishing My eye fell on this particular book because of the example chapter they show. And indeed now I have the book I'm in no way disappointed.
On first sight the book offers clear tables and lists and is accompanied with a lot of examples on how to use and implement the Joomla framework to build your own extensions. IMHO you can use the book in two way's. Either as a complete piece of course-ware that teaches you step by step to use the frame work or as a kind of dictionary to the classes referenced.
The book is targeted to the 'PHP developers who want to understand Joomla with a view to advanced customization or extension development.' In my opinion it might have been a good idea to state that a good knowledge of php, working with classes and objects is requested from the reader. If I look at a lot of extensions emerging on the the Joomla website and the way they are written, I think that a lot of people will have a hard time getting into the book or at last understanding what was written. For the rest, that probably form the professional group of users, it will be a great help and shed some light on subjects you would have to find in the forums or other sources.
James Kennard choose a logical approach for the content of the book starting of with an introduction to Joomla before he gets started with setting some things clear conserning how to start of with things. Most important here is the introduction to the main classes and the coding standard. After this he quickly enters the 'most wanted' territory by tackling the database.
The database is IMHO the most important part of Joomla and the access to it has been one of the biggest changes in Joomla 1.5. It has become more secure then ever (for how long one might wonder) but access has become easier as well, as long as you stick to the principles laid out in this chapter.
After this James tackles the components and especially the MVC setup of components. Never heard of it until the development of Joomla 1.5 but it's refreshing logic made me an advocate. Get into it and you will probably start rewriting anything you ever did, even outside of Joomla. I go strictly MVC now.
The next three chapters are targeting module, plug-ins and extension design. These give a clear and understandable picture of the place of your code and how it should interact. The next IMHO important chapter teaches how you render your output. No use of having your code 'do things' without output is it? It shows clearly how you may use templates for your code before stepping into the next chapter that shows how to customise pages and take care of translations and java effects.
The next chapter shows how to use web services and and ever so popular API's. It shows you how to incorporate AJAX, LDAP or email into your project, but also covers Google, Microsoft and Yahoo web services. Like to toy around with XML? Then this is definitely a chapter you should not miss
Then we hit another winner. A chapter about error handling and security. Now this is a chapter that is worth every penny you have to pay for the book. Look at it as if you get the rest for free. Most security problems arise of poor programming and this chapter points out how you can make your extension as secure as possible. SQL injection exploits have been and still are a major source of problems on any platform. Here you find info on how to prevent this from your code as well as how to use error handling and ACL in Joomla.
The last chapter is filled with goodies in the form of utilities and use full classes. Here you will find a lot of info on date and time handling in Joomla, the special helper class and how to make use of the JLog class.
When the book has nothing left to reveal, it's time for the appendix. Not the least usefull part of the book as it offers a detailed look on core classes, parameters and configuration of Joomla. It is organized in a way that it can be used as a easy accessible reference during development. As Joomla is very dynamic in it's development James points out that additional info can be found on api.joomla.org. I my case this means the book will probably collect additions and errata's in this appendix till it burst out of it hinges. And this is like it should be for any good book.
I'm very happy with this addition to my book collection, if you develop for Joomla it is a must have. On a scale of 1 to 10 I give it a all round 9 (don't do 10's). If you like a lot of hobby developers need more examples or some working code, this is also available on the fine http://www.packtpub.com website.
In January I managed to secure a 6th place in the Innovation Award contest on phpclasses.org and subsequently I was honoured with a price of my choice from the generously donated prices of sponsors of phpclasses.org. This turned out to be a bit tricky as most prices seem to target the Microsoft platform, but I was quit happy with the possibility of choosing a book form the Pact Publishing collection. My choice fell on Mastering Joomla! 1.5 - Extension and Framework Development, written by James Kennard [ISBN 978-1-847192-82-0]. The book was delivered to me within 3 days after processing, which I consider a feat of Pack Publishing as I live in Portugal and have different experiences with delivering of goods by mail. As I adhere by the principle of giving back to the community, I though it was a good idea to write a review on the phpclasses.org site.
I choose the book because I use Joomla and followed the transformation from 1.X to 1.5. As anybody using Joomla will know the platform went through some pretty steep changes for the better and the online documentation is a bit unhandy to use. Planning to write a few extensions for site's I host I was looking for a book that could at least in part be a replacement for this documentation. As I went through the site of Pact publishing My eye fell on this particular book because of the example chapter they show. And indeed now I have the book I'm in no way disappointed.
On first sight the book offers clear tables and lists and is accompanied with a lot of examples on how to use and implement the Joomla framework to build your own extensions. IMHO you can use the book in two way's. Either as a complete piece of course-ware that teaches you step by step to use the frame work or as a kind of dictionary to the classes referenced.
The book is targeted to the 'PHP developers who want to understand Joomla with a view to advanced customization or extension development.' In my opinion it might have been a good idea to state that a good knowledge of php, working with classes and objects is requested from the reader. If I look at a lot of extensions emerging on the the Joomla website and the way they are written, I think that a lot of people will have a hard time getting into the book or at last understanding what was written. For the rest, that probably form the professional group of users, it will be a great help and shed some light on subjects you would have to find in the forums or other sources.
James Kennard choose a logical approach for the content of the book starting of with an introduction to Joomla before he gets started with setting some things clear conserning how to start of with things. Most important here is the introduction to the main classes and the coding standard. After this he quickly enters the 'most wanted' territory by tackling the database.
The database is IMHO the most important part of Joomla and the access to it has been one of the biggest changes in Joomla 1.5. It has become more secure then ever (for how long one might wonder) but access has become easier as well, as long as you stick to the principles laid out in this chapter.
After this James tackles the components and especially the MVC setup of components. Never heard of it until the development of Joomla 1.5 but it's refreshing logic made me an advocate. Get into it and you will probably start rewriting anything you ever did, even outside of Joomla. I go strictly MVC now.
The next three chapters are targeting module, plug-ins and extension design. These give a clear and understandable picture of the place of your code and how it should interact. The next IMHO important chapter teaches how you render your output. No use of having your code 'do things' without output is it? It shows clearly how you may use templates for your code before stepping into the next chapter that shows how to customise pages and take care of translations and java effects.
The next chapter shows how to use web services and and ever so popular API's. It shows you how to incorporate AJAX, LDAP or email into your project, but also covers Google, Microsoft and Yahoo web services. Like to toy around with XML? Then this is definitely a chapter you should not miss
Then we hit another winner. A chapter about error handling and security. Now this is a chapter that is worth every penny you have to pay for the book. Look at it as if you get the rest for free. Most security problems arise of poor programming and this chapter points out how you can make your extension as secure as possible. SQL injection exploits have been and still are a major source of problems on any platform. Here you find info on how to prevent this from your code as well as how to use error handling and ACL in Joomla.
The last chapter is filled with goodies in the form of utilities and use full classes. Here you will find a lot of info on date and time handling in Joomla, the special helper class and how to make use of the JLog class.
When the book has nothing left to reveal, it's time for the appendix. Not the least usefull part of the book as it offers a detailed look on core classes, parameters and configuration of Joomla. It is organized in a way that it can be used as a easy accessible reference during development. As Joomla is very dynamic in it's development James points out that additional info can be found on api.joomla.org. I my case this means the book will probably collect additions and errata's in this appendix till it burst out of it hinges. And this is like it should be for any good book.
I'm very happy with this addition to my book collection, if you develop for Joomla it is a must have. On a scale of 1 to 10 I give it a all round 9 (don't do 10's). If you like a lot of hobby developers need more examples or some working code, this is also available on the fine http://www.packtpub.com website.
vrijdag 22 februari 2008
Als een IT professional ben ik gedwongen om mij dagelijks bezig te houden met trends en vernieuwingen op IT gebied. Ik begin dan ook meestal de dag met het checken van verschillende newsfeeds die ik in de gaten houd. Ze helpen me om zo de elektronische toekomst te voorspellen. Hoewel de trends erg snel gaan, heb ik de laatste jaren een aardige inzicht gekregen in het wel en wee in cyberland.
Deze week viel mij op dat Microsoft meer en meer een onderneming begint te worden die haar basis kwijt, en het spoor bijster is. Het lijkt erop dat met name de Europese commissie onder leiding van Neelie Kroes hieraan debet is. De zgn. antitrust commissie onder haar leiding wist via de rechter de bedingen dat, Microsoft moest stoppen haar software met het besturingssysteem Windows te bundelen, en openheid diende te geven over de in haar software gebruikte protocollen opdat andere software makers hun programmatuur hierop zouden kunnen aanpassen. Het geheel werd daarbij nog onderstreept met een vette boete van 497 miljoen.
Deze week las ik tot mijn verbazing een verklaring van Microsoft waarin Steve Balmer verklaard dat Microsoft van plan is de zgn. Open Source software onder de armen te grijpen, en openheid van zaken wil gaan geven omdat Microsoft opeens begrip heeft voor het belang en de rol die Open Source software speelt. Bovendien, zo zegt Balmer, worden daarmee tevens een aantal kleinigheden met de Europese commissie uit de weg geruimd.
Wat er werkelijk aan de hand is, is dat Microsoft al sinds 2004 met de Europese commissie in de clinch is, en dat zij tot op heden nog aan geen enkele voorwaarde heeft voldaan. Wel zijn er verscheidene malen toezeggingen gedaan die achteraf iedere keer weer onvoldoende waren. Die openheid van zaken is namelijk absoluut niet in het belang van Microsoft die zich de afgelopen jaren juist in de andere richting heeft ontwikkeld.
Wat Steve Balmer en zijn collega's echter vergeten of misschien bewust niet willen registreren is, dat juist door dit gedrag Microsoft meer en meer grond onder haar voeten verliest. Grote tegenspeler in dit stuk is daarbij Google die op de vooravond van een eerste schermutseling met Microsoft staat. Het gaat hierbij om de mobiele markt waar Microsoft flink afroomt. Google stapt hier binnen met een gratis besturingssysteem voor mobieltjes. Het is niet verbazend dat ze daarbij partnerschappen heeft kunnen organiseren met vrijwel de gehele telecom industrie. Wie wil nu voor iets betalen wat je ergens anders gratis krijgt?
Deze eerste slag lijkt bij voorbaat gewonnen. De organisatie van de coup was het grootste probleem. Wat is nu de volgende stap? Bedenk dat een licentie voor Windows al gauw rondt de 200 Euro kost. Bedenk dat die versie die u Gratis? bij uw computer kreeg de producent van die computer geld heeft gekost. Wat zou die producent dan weerhouden om het voorbeeld van de telecom industrie te volgen.
Dat mogelijke nieuwe besturingssysteem is inmiddels zover uitgerijpt dat de meeste programma's inmiddels zelfs voor Windows gebaseerde computers verkrijgbaar zijn. Dat besturingssysteem heet Linux en verovert momenteel de wereld onder de naam UBUNTU. Onderdelen bent u misschien al tegen gekomen, daar zijn Firefox de webbrowser, Open Office een volledige vervanger voor Microsofts vlaggeschip Office, Evolution de vervanger van Outlook en vele andere net zo productieve en soms zelfs betere programma's. Tevens is nu ook de desktop manager KDE voor windows computers beschikbaar.
Steeds meer overheden, waaronder de Nederlandse, propageren de overstap naar die Open Source Software. Er verschijnen steeds meer projecten die hiervan gebruik maken. Een mooi voorbeeld is het OLPC besturingssysteem van de One Laptop Per Child organisatie die probeert de derde wereld landen van educatieve laptops te voorzien. Ook deze is geheel gebaseerd op Linux. En dat nieuwe besturings systeem voor mobieltjes van Google? Ja inderdaad, Linux.
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