I'm in the middle of marking exams at the moment which means that I've not had much time to think or write about the implications of Dave's announcement -- that Frontier (is to be) Licensed (as) Open Source Software [but I have had time to dream up a silly acronym - FLOSS - ;-)!] And like many of the acronyms I come up with I belatedly find that FLOSS is already in use but that it's even more contrived than mine! How about FLOSSIE - FLOSS (for) Interest (and) Education? Darn it FLOSSIE is taken too. And I suppose FOSSIL (Frontier Open Source Software (for) Interest (and) Learning) might upset the watch company or be construed (incorrectly I hasten to add) as a wee bit cheeky.

In fact, in biological evolution, we have learnt an immense amount from the fossil records and so I'm quite taken with FOSSIL as, in terms of technological evolution, I will be able to learn a great deal from Frontier's source code! So, from now on I'll be referring to my own involvement (whatever that may be) with Frontier OSS project(s) as FOSSIL - a term I will use with endearment and affection in the same way as I would refer to a beloved relation of advanced years as 'an old fossil' ;-)

I have also been reading with much interest the comments by Frontier old-timers such as Brent [Frontier kernel open-source and Frontier and Forking], Jim [Frontier as open source], and Seth [UserLand Planning to Release Frontier's Kernel]. Although personally I would be considered an old-fogey too I can't really claim to be a real Frontier old-timer as I've only been involved at the periphery of Frontier developments and my first contact with Frontier was circa mid-1990s IIRC.

FWIW, my primary interest in Frontier has been as a programming environment and I've often commented how much I am enamoured of it. For example:

• Dave's Pushback to Apple
• Moore's Law for software?
• Thanksgiving for RU
• Thanks Dave.
• Frontier 7 Beta for MacOS X
• Thank goodnes for Frontier
• HBWT | The old school reunion
• Dan Bricklin's Radio Weblog
• Dave: A note to C developers
• Dave's influence on my undergraduate project suggestions

In researching the above I'm ashamed to note that I was Guilt-ridden at precisely this time two years ago. Obviously, displacement activity is rife at exam marking time ;-)

And finally I leave you with an inkling of one aspect of my own plans for FOSSIL archaeology from my Code Trek post ;-):

"Radio, the latest Frontier(tm). These are the voyages of the starship... Optimise. It's continuing mission: to explore strange new macros, to seek out slow code, and non-optimisations, to quickly go where slow ones have gone before!"

Free Downloads from Bruce Perens' Open Source Series

"The Bruce Perens' Open Source Series is designed to give a voice to up-and-coming Open Source authors. Each book in the Series is published under the Open Publication License, an Open Source compatible book license. Electronic versions will be made available at no cost several months after each book's publication."

There I was interested to find the link to the free and downloadable copy of Embedded Software Development with eCos which claims to be

"...the first complete guide to building solutions with this flexible, low-cost, royalty-free embedded software development platform. Author Anthony J. Massa covers eCos architecture, installation, configuration, coding, deployment, and the entire eCos development platform, including support components. Extensive code examples and a full application case study demonstrate every key programming concept, including exceptions, interrupts, virtual vectors, threads, synchronization, networking, Web connectivity, debug/bootstrap, and even porting eCos to new hardware."...

BBC NEWS | Technology | Police 'need more e-crime skills'

"The police could face a crisis unless action is taken now to improve the way they handle digital crime, says a report.

An e-crime study by the IPPR think-tank says there is a huge backlog of so-called e-crimes and a serious shortage of skills to deal with them.

If police skills are not improved, the report warns that victims of e-crime could take action into their own hands"...

ColdFire gains MMU -- expect 'real' Linux soon

"Freescale will unveil the first ColdFire processors ever to include a memory management unit (MMU), and therefore able to run full-scale Linux, this week at the Embedded Processor Forum in San Jose, Calif. Simultaneously, Freescale tools subsidiary Metrowerks announced that it plans to offer Linux development tools for the core, and will continue to offer -- and enhance -- its uClinux tools for MMU-less ColdFire cores."...

Jeremy Bowers - one of the Frontier old-timers - comments on Frontier Open Sourcing and asks himself...

"...as someone who might be interested in developing the product, what does an Open Source Frontier bring to the table?"...

Luckily for those of us that have wrestled with this same question Jeremy answers at length. My personal thanks too for saving me a load of brain cycles as I agreed with virtually all of his comments and so don't need to repeat them here.

Update: Actually Jeremy isn't old enough to to be known as an 'old-timer' but he's certainly been an active Frontier/Radio user/developer.