Reading

Intrinsic Motivation in Open Source Development The open source movement has become one of the most powerful forces in technology in the last few years. But why do it? What’s in it for the programmer who releases his mind-work into the open for no tangible compensation? This paper is a good read if you’re interested in the motivations behind open source. The second half is full of some fairly heavy economic terminology and ideas but the first half is readable by anyone. There are also lots of references pointing to related information.

Media

Linus Torvalds on Git Git is quickly becoming one of the favorite version control systems for the open source world. It’s my personal favorite too. This presentation at Google has Linus Torvalds talking about Git’s technical merits and what makes it so attractive. The talk is fairly technical, but I don’t think that should be a problem for my readers.

Software

Ubuntu 9.04 Beta If Git is becoming the most popular version control system, Ubuntu seems to be becoming the most popular consumer linux distribution. The newest Beta includes new versions of GNOME and X.org. Despite the beta label, it should be quite stable though you probably don’t want to trust it with your full workflow just yet.