Looking Ahead to 2012

I truely can't believe is has got to that time of year again so fast! It seems like last month I was writing up 2010. http://linux.or.ug/blogs/billynkid/2010/12/2010-how-did-we-fare

Well let's see how this year fared on our to do list.

• Still a lack of community involvement

I think the community has really grown, we now have a very active Makarere Facebook Group, more and more we are seeing community members popping up on other IT Mailing lists to advise on the availability of FOSS. It really no longer seems unusual for someone to have knowledge of FOSS solutions.

We are now seeing new members blogging on the revamped website (Thanks Kyle) and this I really hope to see grow in 2012.

• Policy and Government engagement;

Although we have had active debate in the field I would say overall we still need to do better. One big help has been the launch of VUU. http://www.virtualuni.ac.ug and look forward to seeing how we as a community can continue to support this organisation who have and use FOSS at there core.

We continue to try and foster good working relationships with the Ministry of ICT and look forward to continuing to do so next year.

How ever a plan is forming how we can formally engage government going forward, so watch this space.

• Engaged business sector directly;

We did try and engage a couple of local IT Shops to use FOSS, but due to the differences and a lack of some basics this didn't get to far. How ever I see this evolving as more and more users switch over to FOSS based solutions. During TechFest http://www.techfest.ug we has some great conversations about FOSS and technology based solutions. It was a fantastic event and I thoroughly look forward to organizing next years event.

• Did not do enough around gaming

We still have not managed to organize a gaming tournament, but it is very much on our radar so keep a keen watch on this. In other news how ever FOSS gaming is growing in leaps and bounds and I'd encourage readers to check our both http://www.humblebundle.com and http://www.desura.com who are making great strides in promoting Linux and FOSS gaming.

• Outside Uganda

The continued growth of Android keeps a Linux based platform very much alive in the mobile sphere, although Google's source code release policy did have us questioning their commitment to FOSS principles. I think this will be one to watch, and monitor closely.

With Nokia's announcement to use Windows Phone OS. the transition of the Meego platform seemed doomed, but I having been following the Nemo Project http://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Nemo and this looks like a very exiting FOSS project especially for my N900 phone, continue to keep running Linux.

The OpenStack Project http://openstack.org/ got a lot of great support this year and due to it's far more FOSS based ethos over that of Eucalyptus got my vote also. I still need to find time how ever to really learn this project along with Ubuntu cloud offerings and I'd like to try an organise a install-fest around this early next year.

HP's announcement to work with Canonical proved that Ubuntu is being taken very seriously by some big players. http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/software/ubuntu/index.html

Also HP's announcement to Open Source WebOS, although I think might prove to be too late, might also seed some interesting results, but probably not for HP or WebOS.

Also the announcement of Ubuntu being available on tablets and phones for some of us was no surprise, especially with the push on the Unity interface. This has not been a smooth transition for Ubuntu and I think they still have a long way to go in persuading the masses but I think the 12.04 release will hopefully go a long way to shore up peoples confidence.

One happy side is that once again the Linux community seems to have become enlivened with debate over different Windows Managers, such as XFCE, LXDE (Lubuntu), Mate and Gnome MGSE http://www.linuxmint.com. Recently I see the Cinnamon Desktop Environment http://smashingweb.ge6.org/gnome-shell-looks-like-gnome-2-cinnamon-desktop/ also seems to be making waves.

Personally I think this just shows the power of FOSS, I always think more is better. These other efforts in no way will stop Ubuntu's efforts, but they continue to give us all choices.

The IT community continues to grow in Uganda and I'd like to give out some shout outs to a few supporters; to Brian over at COSS/FOSSFA, Robert and his team at S7, D. and her team at VUU, Daniel at MoMoKla, Albert and his team at PCTech as always Reinier and his team at Mountbatten for hosting us. James and his team at RokeTelkom for supporting us during the UCC conference. Boaz at UGO for helping us find a new venue/friend at Finafrica. I look forward to trying to work with all of them in the new year.

Well that is it for another Year. I'll be on leave in January, but when we come back I look forward to helping organise some exciting events in 2012.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!