Reddit Goes Open Source
Posted by James | Filed under Social, Web
Reddit has decided to open source their entire code base, allowing developers to see exactly how the social news site works. With the move, Reddit is encouraging developers to submit their own code and extensions for improving the site. Of course, they are also potentially opening up the site to serious gaming, since developers will be able to dissect precisely how Reddit’s algorithms determine what is popular and makes it to the homepage.
Steve Huffman, co-founder of Reddit, thinks this transparency is something users deserve, and is a strong competitive move against leading social news site Digg. “Digg has struggled to stay transparent with their users,” he said. “Social news in general has hid behind algorithms, which has caused some consternation amongst users. Users don’t get why things aren’t showing up on the front page.” Of course, he is referring to the fact that Digg’s algorithms are completely secretive, often creating frustration amongst users when stories with a lot of Diggs and comments are left off the homepage, but seemingly less important stories find their way to the front.
Much like Facebook’s fbOpen, the idea of going open source isn’t so much as to encourage developers to build their own Reddit clones. In fact, Reddit is using the same licensing structure as Facebook – CPAL (Common Public Attribution License) – which stipulates that anyone who uses the Reddit code needs to make their changes available to everyone, as well as acknowledge they are using it.
Reddit’s new site for developers – http://code.reddit.com – is now available. At this point, the race is on to see who can figure out the algorithm first, and it’ll be interesting to watch and see how heavily people try to game the site once it becomes public knowledge. It should be noted that when the company launched its new re-design a couple of weeks ago, within minutes the most popular story on the site was one about how badly it sucked, encouraging Reddit to bring back the old version!
Tags: algorithms, Common Public Attribution License, CPAL, digg, facebook, Facebook Open Platform, Open Source, reddit, social news
Firefox 3 Release Candidate 2 Released
Posted by James | Filed under Web
Firefox 3 Release Candidate 2 is now available for download, but read the release notes first so you can familiarize yourself with the known issues.
Some advice from that issues page:
- Don’t install Firefox 3 and Firefox 2 in the same directory.
- The Crash Reporter may not activate if Flash causes a crash.
- Delete an entry from history, then clear private data, and they know Firefox crashes already.
- You may need to reset some customized toolbars.
- Some Web pages don’t properly detect Silverlight.
- There’s not yet a Windows Media Player for Windows Vista users.
- DNS lookups may be slow on the Mac for IPv6 users.
- Linux users may have to reconfigure their mice.
Remember that this is beta code. That’s cool because use of beta code is one of your privileges — some might say obligations — as an open source user. The more beta-testers code has the more bugs are found and the better the final release.
Beta testing is not only troublesome fun but it gives you insights into the development process, which can lead you deeper into the open source world.
And don’t forget to read the bug filing instructions before reporting to Bugzilla.
Now get out there and find what’s wrong!
The final ship date for the software is still scheduled for later this month.
Tags: beta, browser, firefox, mozilla, Open Source, software
Sun Gets Into Database Market: Buys MySQL
Posted by James | Filed under Web
Sun Microsystems announced yesterday that it had entered into an agreement to acquire open source database company MySQL AB for $1 billion in cash and assumed stock options. MySQL is used by many of the web’s largest sites, including Google, Facebook, Digg, Wikipedia, and makes up the "M" in LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), one of the most popular open source web development stacks utilised by web sites today.
"Today’s acquisition reaffirms Sun’s position at the center of the global Web economy. Supporting our overall growth plan, acquiring MySQL amplifies our investments in the technologies demanded by those driving extreme growth and efficiency, from Internet media titans to the world’s largest traditional enterprises," said Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and president, Sun Microsystems in a press release.
On his blog, Schwartz revealed that Sun would soon be announcing a new set of MySQL support services. "Though many of the more traditional companies use MySQL," he wrote, "many have been waiting for a Fortune 500 vendor willing to step up, to provide mission critical global support." Previously, Sun sold support for competing open source database, PostgreSQL.
Schwartz also talked about having "assembled all the core elements of a completely open source operating system for the Internet." Sun’s open source development stack now includes Java, OpenSolaris, MySQL and GlassFish. It would appear that Sun is hedging its future on open source (though the acronym is harder to pronounce than LAMP).
Though many industry watchers see the Sun acquisition as a smart move and a great fit, some point out potential difficulties moving forward. Raven Zachary, an analyst at The 451 Group, thinks the purchase of MySQL "raises a whole bunch of issues concerning Sun’s close ties to Oracle, as well as their investment in PostgreSQL." And Larry Dignan wonders, "if Sun makes MySQL more enterprise acceptable does that diminish its mojo with startups?"
Tags: acquisition, business, mysql, Open Source, open source database, sun microsystems
Welcome to Jimmahdigital.com, personal blog of James Simm, Wigan/Manchester-based .Net developer.
