“I had the idea to create collaborative software that combines aspects from software systems such as wikis, version control systems, issue tracking systems, and mailing lists,” Trieloff says. “I was accustomed to using these tools, and I found it irritating that collaboration outside of the software development industry did not work. [At one job,] after spending a week setting up version control, wiki, and bug tracking, I was frustrated, because I could not convince my co-workers to use these tools, no matter how productive we might have been. Their complexity and power made them nearly unusable.”

That’s when he got the idea for Mindquarry. Mindquarry is open source, collaborative, and easy to use, says Trieloff. It’s designed to remove the usability barrier.

After the usability barrier comes what Trieloff calls “data lock-in. We allow our users to cross this barrier by offering an open REST API and standards-based storage. The third barrier is lock-out of users due to restrictive proprietary licenses. With our participatory open source model we are tearing down this third barrier.

“My original idea was not to make [it] open source,” he says. “I already had gathered experience as a user, contributor, and developer in open source, but had not thought about the business opportunities in open source until my co-founders Alexander Saar and Alexander Klimetschek and our investor pointed me in this direction. It then became obvious: what the world needs is not only better software for supporting the teamwork of knowledge workers, but that in order to make the software useable by everyone, we had to remove all barriers.”

Trieloff says he’s on the pragmatic side of the open source philosophy. “We are offering open source, not because I believe software must be free, but because I believe it is the best option for customer and vendor,” he says. “Since the late 1990s I have been using open source software. My first real open source software was PHP3 and MySQL. I chose them not because they were free, but because they gave me options to develop software that other proprietary systems did not have. This, of course, was a result of freedom, but freedom was not what made my decision.”

Mindquarry will generate profits through a subscription model through which customers receive maintenance and support. “For our enterprise customers this removes another barrier: uncertainty when dealing with community-created software.” Mindquarry is also available in a hosted version where small companies can, for a fee, take advantage of a pre-installed version of Mindquarry that resides on remote servers.

Trieloff says the idea of community is the most important aspect of launching a business based on open source. “If you are using open source software internally on mission-critical systems, or starting a company on this software, make sure to be involved in the community,” he says. He also cautions that “the community that creates large parts of the software must be understood to keep your requirements and the development in sync. Without your contribution, the community will hardly create the software you need.”

Gmail, Google’s popular Web mail application, is already full of useful features all on its own. But Firefox users can further customize Gmail with a variety of add-ons. Some only change the appearance, while others add functionality that makes Gmail more like a personal planner than just a plain old email application. Let’s take a look at three Firefox add-ons for Gmail.

Extension series

The first extension, GTDinbox, is a complicated collection of helpful and semi-helpful features. GTDinbox author Andy Mitchell claims his add-on is based on the action management method popularized by David Allen in his book Getting Things Done, which is based on the premise that writing down tasks frees a person to actually get those tasks done in a more efficient way. GTDinbox tries to help Gmail users become more efficient by grouping and labeling email communications as projects and task-oriented to-do lists.

Right from installation. GTDinbox runs unobtrusively, making only a few default changes in the appearance of your Gmail screen. One of the first things you’ll notice is an option called “Compose Personal” under the original “Compose Mail” link. Click on Compose Personal and you’ll see a composition screen sans the usual From: and To: entry boxes. It provides a quick way of sending an email message to yourself.

GTDinbox adds a category called “Statuses” to your Gmail labels and places new labels under Statuses called “Next Action,” “Action,” “Waiting On,” “Some Day,” and “Finished.” All of your existing labels go under another GTDinbox-created category called “Miscellaneous.” By using these categories and labels, the extension hopes to help you get your inbox empty. That idea is based on another productivity theory authored by Merlin Mann, called “Inbox Zero,” which states that the fewer items in your inbox, the more productive you are. GTDinbox, Mitchell says, is highly compatible with Inbox Zero.

But how do you use all this to make it a worthwhile add-on? Mitchell has done a good job of explaining a typical process at the GTDinbox Web site. When a message arrives in your inbox, you have to determine if it represents an action that must be taken or a resource. Action messages should be acted on immediately, if possible; if not, you apply one of the status labels. You assign a project label to resource messages to group it with other related communication.

None of these GTDinbox features is unique, meaning that anyone could perform any of these functions with existing Gmail capabilities. GTDinbox simply makes it easier to get started with the GTD efficiency principles. The only unique feature of GTDinbox is the ability to right-click on any message and see a popup summary of its contents. It’s unique, but not that useful, since if you left-click on the message you can see the whole thing.

Overall, GTDinbox does what it is supposed to do, and will probably save you a little time in terms of getting your email organized, but it’s nothing even the greenest Gmail newb couldn’t do for herself.

A less complicated but more useful add-on is Gmail Manager, which helps you keep multiple Gmail accounts straight. To get started, register your Gmail accounts after installing Gmail Manager by selecting Tools -> Addons -> Gmail Manager from the Firefox menu, then click the Options button and add each Gmail account that you want Gmail Manager to keep track of.

The extension places a small icon in the lower right corner of the Firefox browser window. You can right-click on the icon and choose which Gmail account you’d like information for. Gmail Manager logs in to that account and gives you a small popup of statistics that shows the number of new messages in the inbox and in labels, with a small preview of each new message. This makes it easy for the “over the shoulder” email checkers (such as your spouse or children) to quickly check for new messages without disrupting your other work too much. Gmail Manager can also notify you when new messages arrive.

This add-on’s only drawback seems to be a lag time between the actual arrival of email in my Gmail inbox and when Gmail Manager reports that to me — sometimes a delay of several minutes. In spite of that one flaw, Gmail Manager is now a must-have for my household, if only because it keeps the compulsive email checkers at bay so I can get my work done.

Last, and tiniest, is dragdropupload. This little add-on is the simplest of the three, but for me the most likely to stay added to my copy of Firefox. Instead of browsing for the file you want to attach to a message, dragdropupload lets you drag and drop the file’s icon or file name onto the entry bar. This works best if you keep a window open for the directory in which most of your documents and other files reside. There are no options or settings to configure with this add-on — simply install it and you’re ready to save time, keystrokes, and mouseclicks.

There you have it: three add-ons for Firefox that make Gmail more useful, ranging from full-featured to simple goodness. All I need now is a Gmail add-on that will take dictation.

Virtusa, an IT services company founded in 1996, was using proprietary version control and collaboration systems to develop software for its clients until Sri Lankan founder Kris Canekeratne decided that a custom solution built on open source components was a better fit for internal use. As a result, the company ended up saving millions of dollars on licensing fees and acquisition costs.

Kuhn says a Lindows insider tipped the FSF off to the possibility of missing source code. Lindows insiders are those who have registered and paid a $99 fee to receive beta releases of LindowsOS and other non-public information. LindowsOS is a distribution based on the Linux kernel, which is licensed under the GNU General Public License. The GPL states, in part, that the program instructions in their original form as written by the programmer (source code) must be available to users of the program. The GPL also requires that users be allowed to copy, modify and redistribute the program freely, but they must in turn provide the source code.

Robertson does not deny that the source code for LindowsOS isn’t included in either of the two beta releases. “It’s a work in progress. We’re hopeful our first release will happen around the middle of the year. When we release an official version, all the GPL pieces will be properly distributed.”

Robertson doesn’t appreciate the negative attention focused on the Lindows project, likening it to “eating your young.” He says he is surprised that “some in the Linux community are quick to cast aspersions, with no facts.” Robertson points to his contributions to the Open Source community as proof that he has its best interests at heart, beginning with his career at MP3.com.

“We battled for the consumer at every step. We battled for open formats. We fought against secure music schemes. And we made contributions to Open Source software, since MP3.com was entirely LAMP based.”

And now that he’s working on making the Linux desktop a reality, Robertson says his dedication to Open Source continues. “We’ve joined KDE League at the highest corporate level. We hosted and sponsored Wineconf 2002. We worked with the project leader to identify the top 25 contributors and paid for roundtrip airfare for all of them, from as far away as South Africa and Norway, to San Diego. There was no registration fee. We also sponsored LPBN.org to broadcast the event.

“We’ve agreed to sponsor the upcoming Debian conference. Our sponsorship included funds to pay for an awards banquet for all attendees, as well as travel support for some. We’ve made a large investment in an Open Source company; we’ve also paid about a million dollars to get code produced … We’ve paid these funds to companies as well as individuals.”

And, he says, support for Linux and the Open Source community will also come by way of ingenious marketing. “If we can get to 5% market share, an ecosystem of healthy Linux companies will emerge which will be around for the long run. Look at the incredible things that would happen. Hardware manufacturers will ship Linux drivers for their peripheral devices, in the box. Computer stores will dedicate sections of their store. Major OEMs would ship computers with Linux. It’s a travesty you can’t walk into major retailers today and buy a computer running Linux.”

And while the code is important, that is not what it will take to get Linux to “20 million desktops.” Robertson says to help more people understand Open Source, better marketing and lobbying is needed. “And yes, battling Microsoft and their huge coffers which influence OEMs, retailers, politicians, and the press in ways you only understand if you talk to them personally, which I have.

“Hopefully, Lindows.com will contribute on each of these fronts, but it will take more than one company. It’s a shame that virtually every commercial Linux company has abandoned the desktop. Our goal is to build a company that will give consumers a choice for their operating system. At the same time, we’re committed to being a good corporate citizen and being a supporter of Open Source for the long run.”

Robertson seems dismayed by the FSF’s attempt to enforce the GPL. “No wonder there’s virtually no healthy Linux companies. The community seems to attack them when the real focus should be elsewhere.”

Robertson says that many of the critical pieces of GPL code that have gone into Lindows have been distributed back to the community already. “Where do you think that Codeweavers got their code for Crossover Office?” he asks.

A high level source at Codeweavers confirms that Lindows has indeed contributed an “enormous amount” of code to the Wine project. But while Crossover Office contains code that was created in conjunction with Lindows, it has also been built on code that was around before Lindows existed. According to the Codeweavers source, Lindows returned modifications to the Wine codebase only because it was persuaded by Codeweavers staff to return it. The Codeweavers/Lindows association was terminated in part because Lindows wanted to be able to keep its Wine modifications private.