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[Linux-aus] The passing of a Linux advocate
Nigel McFarlane, noted Australian open source advocate and freelance writing contributor, passed away this week.
Nigel was a fantastic freelancer with whom to work and his intellectual power in the free software debate will be sorely missed.
Nigel was the author of a couple of books on the subject of free software browsers so close to his heart. His latest Firefox Hacks book released just a few months ago was truly ahead of the curve.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0596009283/qid=1119586601/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-3186071-6851933?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
In March, Nigel wrote a piece for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald on the emergence of Firefox in business. It was one of the best-received pieces we have ever run, and one of my most fulfilling as an editor in working with a writer.
I commend it to everyone here:
Firefox Explorers
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/03/21/1111253920087.html
Nigel was always keen to collaborate on projects and brought with him a great deal of passion. He received feedback eagerly and was always keen to contribute.
I extend my deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues in the free software community.
The exchange below at a web developer conference last year is typical of the verve that Nigel brought to his passions.
http://we04.com/resources/session7.cfm
Nigel McFarlane
Hello. I'm the token open source person. They've had me locked up till now.
Joe Clark
How did he get out?
Nigel McFarlane
I work with the Mozilla community and Mozilla is going to be in all Nokia mobile phones.
Doug Bowman
Wait! He gets notes?
John Allsopp (moderator)
Yeah, he's Australian. He's been educated. He can write.
Nigel McFarlane
I'm not the smartest, tallest, youngest so I'm going to cheat. Since I'm an open source person you're going to help me cheat or nothing's going to get done. We will have a practice. If you like something I say, I want you to say hear hear. Let's hear it. If you don't like something I say, I want you to say fi.
Audience
How about wanker?
Nigel McFarlane
Come on. Fi.
Audience
Wanker!
Nigel McFarlane
How many people develop their web pages with front page 2002? Fi.
John Allsopp
Isn't that out next year?
Nigel McFarlane
My point is that one of the reasons we're here in this conference is because of money. You might have noticed all the big corporations are making no money out of the web. Microsoft's not selling tools, IBM's not selling tools, that means it all comes down to us and our work. That's where all the money goes. I think that's a good thing.
Audience
Hear hear!
Nigel McFarlane
No worries. A lot of the tools we use is free. Mozilla's free, Firefox is free, scripting languages are free. That's all a good thing. It helps everybody everywhere around the world. But technology marches on forever and nothing ever stays the same. All of those vendors, HP, Microsoft, sun, even the Mozilla community are all already developing the next generation of technologies. Technology is designed to go past the net and some is threatening your jobs.
Audience
Fi.
Nigel McFarlane
Why is Internet explorer no good? Because we're all waiting for Microsoft to produce something very expensive that we will have to buy and use in three years time. Fi.
Joe Clark
When does this become interesting?
Audience
Hear! Hear!
Nigel McFarlane
It is that if I lose, you lose. Do you want to be distilled by new technology?
Audience
Fi.
Nigel McFarlane
Do you want to spend $3,000 on a development tool that uses XML language and only works in Windows?
Audience
Hear. Hear!
John Allsopp
That's the Microsoft guy. Do you want poor people to have access to the web?
Audience
No!
Nigel McFarlane
Can I leave now? Do you want kids to be able to learn how to code web pages easily?
Audience
No!
Nigel McFarlane
Are there any Labor voters in the audience?
Audience
Hear! Hear!
Nigel McFarlane
So what I'm saying is the reason we are here at this conference is because you've got to support web standards. You've got to use the latest browsers and you've got to make sure that you don't fall into the trap of using older technology that will sideline you in the future. The way to maintain your community, the way to maintain your industry, the way to maintain the value of your work is to make sure that the standards you use are the standards that are supported right across the web and not just the standards of one vendor because if you commit to the standards of one vendor or the nonstandards that are supported by one vendor then when that vendor moves, you will move as well.
If you want to live in the Microsoft camp, use the Microsoft standards and when they move, you'll move. If you believe in the web standards group, if you believe in universal access to the web, you have to vote with your feet. You have to start implementing these standards now. Maybe not a lot. You only need to put one feature in your page that is a standard feature that Internet explorer does poorly otherwise you're all acting like visual basic programmers.
Nathan Cochrane
:NEXT:
IT Editor
The Age and Sydney Morning Herald
www.theage.com.au/technology/
Check profile on LinkedIn
www.linkedin.com
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