suruma

The new challenge for freesoftware enthusiasts is the menace called 'Cloud Computing' which is basically Software as a Service(SaaS) shrouded in a catchy name. The new licence AGPLv3 is framed precisely  to counter this unhealthy trend.

Numerous service oriented web applications are available in GPL. Some business poeple use these freesoftware in web applications and proprietary modules are added to it. These are to be included in source code form under GPL when the software is distributed since these are derivative works. But the software is never distributed as such. Instead, the enhanced services are made available for the users through the web medium.

That is, GPL enforces the reciprocity of giving back the modified code by the copyleft clause. But this clause can be circumvent when such freesoftware is used in SaaS and it is known as the ASP loophole. Instead of addressing this issue in GPLv3 itself, a separate AGPLv3 takes care of  such loopholes.

One web operated company that largely makes use of such a loophole is Google, which uses many FLOSS tools. Maybe, for the same reason, Google Code does not allow hosting any AGPL projects. More and more players are getting interested in Cloud Computing. RMS has already  warned about this trap. It will take a lengthy post to elaborate on the perils this new business paradigm.

The AGPLMail is said to be a AGPL'd webmail application which competes with(hopefully) and somewhat mimic Gmail. So, it  is, in a way, 'AGPLMail is not Gmail' sort of thing. It is materialized by Ben Webb, a teenager who dreams of freedom in computing. (Quiz: Which is the popular freesoftware browser invented by another teenager?)

By the way, one very good AGPL'd software is Laconica, which powers Identi.ca, the increasingly popular microblogging service, a la Twitter.

AGPL, Google, FreeSoftware, Cloud, Web 2.0

Font management in GNU systems has improved over the years from the days of X fonts. The Fontconfig+Xft font subsystem has more or less replaced the X font subsystem. So, the days of specifying fonts by the long-winded xlfd names are now passé.

But there still exists a void when it comes to how we can manage fonts at system level or at user level. Things like preferring one font family to another, blacklisting fonts, aliasing etc. are still a headache. These things are normally done by the configuration files that come with the font packages. For a normal desktop user, changing there configuration can be a nightmare. So, the missing thing is a nice utility with GUI which can perform all these tasks.

Debian font management
Debian has a native font management tool:defoma. This is a great tool for managing system fonts. One can register or unregister different types of fonts for various applications using the hint files for fonts(don't be confused with the 'hinting' used with the rasterization of fonts). But it lacks a nice GUI(The old dfontmgr is obsolescent). Moreover, I don't know how defoma can be used at user level for overriding system settings.

Font managers
The most promising font manager for GNU systems is Fontmatrix. Based on Qt, it is in the early stages and can one day become an integral part of Scribus, the grand publishing system. Another one to be watched is FonyPython.

Editing the fontconfig file
For user level configuration manual editing .fonts.conf is the most effective way, as of now. For eg. if you want to blacklist a certain font, add these lines to your ~/.fonts.conf file

<?xml version='1.0'?>

<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>

<fontconfig>

....

    <selectfont>

        <rejectfont>

            <pattern>

                <patelt name="family" ><string>Font1</string></patelt>

            </pattern>

            <pattern>

                <patelt name="family" ><string>Font2</string></patelt>

            </pattern>

        </rejectfont>

    </selectfont>
....

</fontconfig>

Have a look at my .fonts.conf file