This year I'm going to be giving a talk at Ubuntu Live called "Ubuntu Desktop Technologies." I'm excitied about the talk because I think it will help to address an issue that we have in Open Source. No, not desktop technologies, we've got lots of great work there. What I'm concerned about is the "where do I start" problem that many developers face when starting with Open Source.
When a developer starts to look at Open Source I think that they end up in a situation similar to The Paradox of Choice. There are so many libraries that do different things in a variety of ways; the whole landscape starts to become scary instead of empowering (which is what I think many Open Source veterans would describe it as). Because no developer is ever given the time to learn all the technologies they want, the new Open Source developer is forced to either guess at what seems the most useful or just port over some library they know.
With this talk I'm going to quickly cover some of the major libraries so that there is less guessing and more developing. Helping guide people towards the technologies that have become best practicies in the free desktop today. I'm excited about it and I hope that it will lead to more developers being introduced to and sticking with Open Source instead of getting frustrated and leaving the party.
posted Apr 14, 2008 | permanent link
