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OpenSource.com Releases First Ever Open Source Yearbook (opensource.com)

Posted by yaelk on from the hags dept.

Community manager Rikki Endsley writes: The open source label was created back in 1998, not long after I got my start in tech publishing. Fast forward to late 2014, when I was thinking about how much open source technologies, communities, and business models have changed since 1998. I realized that there was no easy way (like a yearbook) to thumb through tech history to get a feel for open source. Sure, you can flip through the virtual pages of a Google search and read the "Best of" lists collected by a variety of technical publications and writers, much like you can thumb through newspapers from the 1980s to see how big we wore our shoulder pads, neon clothing, and hair back then. But neither research method is particularly efficient, nor do they provide snapshots that show diversity within communities and moments of time. The idea behind the Open Source Yearbook is to collaborate with open source communities to collect a diverse range of stories from the year. We let the writers pick the criteria, which means the yearbook isn't just full of the fastest, most popular, smartest, or best looking open source solutions. Instead, the yearbook offers a mix of open source solutions and projects, from a range of writers and communities, to offer a well-rounded (albeit incomplete) glimpse at what open source communities and projects looked like in 2015. The yearbook is now available for a free download.

8 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Download? by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Informative

    What is this, 1995? Downloading from a PDF? Shirley it is possible to just view it in HTML?

    1. Re:Download? by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oh wait I see the reason now: they are harvesting email addresses so they can send you spam. No thanks! But welcome to 2016.

    2. Re:Download? by jfbilodeau · · Score: 2

      Mod parent up!

      'Open' source my ass. Anyone got a direct link to the PDF?

      --
      Goodbye Slashdot. You've changed.
    3. Re:Download? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here you go: https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/2015_open_source_yearbook.pdf

    4. Re:Download? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      I agree, way to ruin whatever good work you did opensource.com. I was excited by the idea until I hit the forced "give us your email and we'll send you a link" - and realized that they blew it.

      I don't know who to be more mad at, the person who made the choice to hide things behind an email wall or the people that allowed this to be linked to. :/

    5. Re:Download? by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      Well now don't I feel like a horses ass?

    6. Re:Download? by KGIII · · Score: 2

      Bugger 'em. I have a spam email address. I now have the PDF.
      http://www.filedropper.com/201...

      Open source it is, then.

      I too missed the option to get it by HTML but I wanted the PDF. In order to get the PDF, it took like ten new tabs and fourteen button clicks to download it and then giving them my email address and awaiting the arrival of the email - which included tracking in the address, to a limited use download link.

      I'm thinking they have a different view of open source than I have. I mean yeah, I guess, it's open - in that I can edit it and it's even free. However, the concept of sharing includes ease, not a bunch of hoops. I selected to not get any additional email from them - not checking any boxes. Lets see if they adhere to that request.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    7. Re:Download? by KGIII · · Score: 2

      Ha! I remember those. (I haven't cracked open the PDF yet.) I do remember those. I remember when eWeek was actually good and InformationWorld was still reputable. In the 1980s there were tons of magazines but, alas, it wasn't until the late 1980s that I even began to *like* using computers.

      This is gonna be a bit long. You have been warned! At the end is your free million dollar idea. If you make it, I will buy 10. I will buy another 40 for gifts and spares. I suspect that even you will want one. Yes, even with your eyesight.

      I touched my first one, I went to a ritzy preparatory school, in something like 1969. We had a link to one of the larger universities (Concord maybe?) somewhere around 1971. We even had our own observatory and a giant telescope and, get this, we could actually send images out over the network back then. Err... I'm pretty sure? I did not take any of the astronomy courses but I did go get high and then go up and look at the stars in the middle of the night. Yes, yes that was awesome.

      Then, after my first enlistment, I went to school. Again, I was accepted into a very nice (but expensive) school. The GI Bill paid a lot of it and computers were, to me, mostly useless. They didn't do a damned thing unless you knew how to make them do stuff. I seem to recall liking Zork. Other than that, I hated computers. But, I did pick up a Trash 80. And a Vic 20. I think this was pre-Amiga. I kind of liked those a little better, they were largely useless.

      Ah - but I discovered some magazines and could type code. Except, I couldn't type worth a damn and still hated them. I could load games via cartridge, cassette, or diskette. (Don't copy that floppy! Like hell I won't.) I started to get a bit of network access. That was pretty boring. I re-upped and came back out and computers really hadn't changed that much from my perspective. I did some courses while I was enlisted but not many. I'd reenlisted to get more of that GI Bill lovin' and I needed it.

      Back to school... *sighs* As I said, they were still largely useless but things started to change. And oh boy did they change. Man did they change fast. I could dial into the school and then access so many things. I could dial into local BBS' hosted/owned by private parties. I sent an email to Australia - and it got there... It took like six hours but it not only got there, I got a reply! I was starting to hate them less and less.

      Then, I had no choice but to use them. That's kind of the whole premise of my career. It was kind of mandatory. Only I had no formal training - just some typing of BASIC into the system and writing a few small programs to learn a bit more. BASIC was obviously not going to cut it. So, more magazines! More reading! I had a subscription to C User's Journal - I'm pretty sure. I seem to recall that one issue came with a diskette that had a compiler on it. If I'm remembering correctly, the magazine sometimes came with disks but not all that often. I want to say that they might have been free(ish) for subscribers only and that they weren't included in the newsstand issues but that one could order it from the newsstand issue if they wanted - I think it needed PoP/UPC and a couple of bucks shipping? I may be conflating a couple of different publications.

      So, yes... I remember those. And newsgroups. Man, if it hadn't been for newsgroups, I'd be a penniless bum today. We were quite a different crowd back then. I was *grateful* for the help and helped others where I could. I'd try to make a couple of free hours, every day, for Usenet. 'comp.lang.c' was a frequent haunt back then. I appreciated some of the help enough to gift hardware and, on more than one occasion, we knew each other well enough so we'd gift money to someone in need. We used real names and damned if someone wasn't gonna get tossed on their ear for trolling. My oh my, how the times change.

      And the physical books? Oh, I still have them. Worn, written in, and maybe even missing pages. But, as you mentioned, the print magazines... Those wer

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."