Red Hat Launches Entertainment-Centric 'Mugshot'

Havoc Pennington writes "A small team of us have been working on a new project called Mugshot, we're calling it a "live social experience" and hoping it will bring open source to more people who aren't using it already. The project is public as of this morning. Check out the developer site for more."

Comments

100% Serious (don't get mad)...

[ImaLamer]

I went to the developer site and looked all over the Wiki, and I saw mugshot.org. I see your (potential) projects, software clients and web functions, but I can't tell exactly what the aim is. Where is the tie that binds all of this?

Anyone can respond, I'm sorry to point my question at the developers. I just want a more fleshed out proposal. The summary would have been a good place to put it, but below will be fine.

Re:100% Serious (don't get mad)...

[Havoc Pennington]

We're trying to do a variety of things that might appeal to people who aren't using Linux or open source already. There isn't necessarily a strong connection between all of them (though there is some "platform" that we've been sharing among features so far, such as an XMPP server connecting everyone's desktop, friend lists, groups, etc.)

There are two very specific features we already started on:
http://mugshot.org/links-learnmore
http://mugshot.org/radar-learnmore

So those are very specific, but the project is open to all kinds of stuff, no need to artificially limit it.

Mugshot? Mugshot you said?

[Anonymous Coward]

The always classy Havoc Pennington of Red Hat today announced a new project, named "Mugshot". And I ask you: what is Mugshot? From the front-page of the project you get absolutely no information of what it does. Reading its "About" page we get a bit more information, but we still can't quite pinpoint what it is exactly: "Mugshot is an open project to create a live social experience around entertainment." We had to read the... Terms and Conditions page just to get a better idea: "Mugshot is an online service that enables Users to share information and communicate with others."

In other words, this Mugshot thing, is nothing but yet another Orkut/Friendster/MySpace-kind of social networking site and client, but with a twist towards entertainment and media sharing. What a useless project. Is this Pennington's super secret project that he has been working on for the past year? Is this what he spent Red Hat's money on? On yet-another social networking site? Instead of using his team, money and energy making Linux and Gnome better (e.g. adding a full Bluetooth front-end, fix the damned phone/pda sync app that's been in alpha for 4 years now, or add video chat on Gaim, or make Nautilus ask for the root password when you try to copy/delete files out of your ~ folder), he spends it on this thing that only interests teenagers -- and only for a fortnight until they move on to something else? I am in complete shock.

Re:Mugshot? Mugshot you said?

[jdub!]

Eugenia, Eugenia, Eugenia, when will you learn?

http://eugenia.blogsome.com/2006/05/31/mugshot-mug shot-you-said/

Re:Mugshot? Mugshot you said?

[el_chicano]

Instead of using his team, money and energy making Linux and Gnome better (e.g. adding a full Bluetooth front-end, fix the damned phone/pda sync app that's been in alpha for 4 years now, or add video chat on Gaim, or make Nautilus ask for the root password when you try to copy/delete files out of your ~ folder)

Why on earth should Linux or Gnome ask you for the root password to copy or delete files from a user's home directory??? Linux is inherently a multi-user system and not everybody has access to the root password on systems where they have user accounts.
 
If you want to prevent people from copying or deleting files in your home directory here are a few hints:

man chmod
man groups
man groupadd
man chgrp

Re:Mugshot? Mugshot you said?

[hp-rh]

1 - It doesn't overlap the functionality of orkut/myspace type sites much, other than "the system keeps track of your friends list" but your mail and IM do that too. Mugshot is not intended to be a "social networking" site in the myspace sense.
2 - I spend my time and energy on whatever I consider valuable... others can do the same with their time and energy. The nice thing about open source is that everyone gets to vote with their work.
3 - there's a Red Hat desktop team still working hard on desktop stuff.

Re:Mugshot? Mugshot you said?

[Eugenia Loli]

[got my passwd back, I am now logged in]

LEARN TO READ, before you reply.

>Why on earth should Linux or Gnome ask you for the root password to copy or delete files from a user's home directory???

I did not say about a USER's home directory. I said OUT of a user's directory. For example, when I try to copy a file on to /usr/share/app/ I want the file manager to ask me for a root password so the file operation goes through!

>Linux is inherently a multi-user system and not everybody has access to the root password on systems where they have user accounts.

Oh, really? We didn't know!! :P :P

Look pal, if someone doesn't know the root password, he simply clicks "Cancel" on the dialog. But if you do know the root password, the application should provide you with that dialog and let you do the operation without having to open a terminal to do so, or open another Nautilus window as root. Apple's Finder asks for the password dialog and it's really, really, REALLY convenient. And no, there are no security problems with it.

Re:Mugshot? Mugshot you said?

[Eugenia Loli]

>Mugshot is not intended to be a "social networking" site in the myspace sense.

WHAT is it intended to be then??? Because your web site says absolutely nothing about it! It just doesn't spell out, or gives examples, or mockups of what it does. 99% of the people who have commented on Mugshot don't get it. That's your error, as manager of this project.

>I spend my time and energy on whatever I consider valuable...

That's like saying that Alexander the Great has decided to stop inventing other countries and will focus on scuba diving from now on. Good for you, but useless for the rest of us who expect more from the Linux desktop and have associated you with it. And possibly financially-problematic for Red Hat too, and let's not forget that RH is a public company...

>there's a Red Hat desktop team still working hard on desktop stuff.

Oh really? And then why they have done pretty much ZERO desktop advancements in Gnome in the last 1-2 years?? The changes on Gnome the past year are only *superficial*. The juicy stuff, like a full Bluetooth front-end, doesn't even exist in the drawing board yet.

Classic corporation communication

[Bogtha]

Does the Slashvertisment tell me what it does? Nope.

Does the website tell me what it is? Nope.

Does the developer site tell me what it is? Nope.

Does the FAQ entitled "What is Mugshot?" tell me what it is? Nope.

If you want to know what it is, you have to read the FAQ entitled What does it do?, in which it explains:

Mugshot currently offers two activities:

• Link Swarm - Share web links with individuals or groups in real time, and get live feedback when people visit those links
• Music Radar - Show off the music you listen to using services like iTunes, Yahoo! Music, and others on your web site, blog or MySpace page

Mugshot works with mainstream applications like iTunes, Yahoo! Music Engine, Firefox and Internet Explorer and currently supports Windows XP and Linux platforms, with limited support for Apple's OS X.

So basically it's like del.icio.us with added media specialisation. Timothy, isn't it your job to make sure writeups include enough information to make sense?

Am I the only one?

[scaryjohn]

When I saw "Red Hat" and "Entertainment-centric", I thought they were rolling out a media PC distribution, maybe incorporating an optimized version of MythTV.

No?