Sparkling Gems and New Releases from the world of Free and Open Source Software
FOSSPicks
Nate explores the top FOSS, including the latest version of the Plasma desktop; a fun Rock, Paper, Scissors game; a Firefox-based browser; and an Egyptian horoscope reader.
Copyleft Conundrums
At the start of this year, I was delighted to receive a letter from one of Linux Magazine's most loyal readers, Frank, asking two very important FOSS-related questions: Had we noticed that films like The Social Network (2010) feature the KDE desktop, and should royalties be paid to developers each time this happens?
I was working in a cinema in 2010, so I saw this scene several times. Props to the filmmakers for using KDE 3.5 (released in November 2005) to reflect FOSS of the early noughties. Whether this kind of product placement is legal is more nuanced. Most Linux distros are open source, but many major operating system names are registered trademarks. The beauty of Linux, though, is that it's relatively easy to create a desktop without any visible branding or trademarked terms.
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