phpBB Weekly

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3 Episode (73.6 MB) | Download Episode Chat Log

Episode Duration: 1:20:22
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples), Micheal Cottingham (Techie-Micheal), Adam Reyher (AdamR)

On this episode, we’re all pumped up in anticipation of the OSCON 2009 convention taking place this week in San Jose, California. OSCON (O’Reilly Open Source Convention) is one of the biggest and longest-running events focused on free and open source software, and thanks in part to the fact that it moves from Portland, OR to the Bay Area for the first time this year, phpBB is going to be there via our OSCONvasion 2009 Bay Area phpBB Users Meetup, exclusively sponsored by phpBB Weekly.

And so, as we get ready to mobilize to San Jose, we dedicate this episode to free and open source software. We discuss what free and open source software is, what it means (note the oft-quoted “Free as in speech, not as in beer”), and some of its history. We also discuss a bit about some of the legal documents that helps keep free and open source software free and open source, such as the Creative Commons licenses and the GNU General Public License (including some discussion about the differences between GPLv2 and GPLv3 and other GPL variations). We also discuss a bit about the idea of copyleft and how these licenses use copyleft to extend the freedoms and rights normally reserved by copyright. And finally, we talk a bit about how open source is actually helping to make all kinds of software better, and how it helps make phpBB and many other PHP-based web programs better as well.

If you’re going to be in the Bay Area this week, we hope that you’ll come to OSCON. There’s a bunch of free events and a great Expo Hall with lots of great exhibitors, all of which are available to you with a free Expo Hall Only registration. And of course, our OSCONvasion 2009 meetup, which will have involvement from lots of team members, live phpBB demos, and much more. And if you can’t come, we will be streaming OSCONvasion 2009 on a special phpBB Weekly episode this Thursday evening, and everyone is invited to listen live and join in on our TalkShoe chatroom and ask any questions you want to the panel that will be presenting, just like we did at Londonvasion last year! We hope to see you in person or in spirit (via the internet) on Thursday! It’s sure to be a blast.

Our last phpBB Weekly Poll Question was “What would be the most likely impact of enabling Quick Reply on your board?” Here are the answers:
“The front will fall off.” 8 votes / 31%
“The energy saved by not loading the reply forms will qualify me for a tax rebate for being ‘green.’” 7 votes / 27%
“The ‘Post Reply’ button will go on strike and accuse me of hiring scabs.” 6 votes / 23%
“The earth’s magnetic field will suddenly turn upside down, and we won’t be able to hang things on refrigerators ever again.” 3 votes / 12%
“Truckloads of pointless ‘I agree’ replies to sort through.” 0 votes / 0%
And 2 “Other” answers:
“The universe WILL implode! And ketchup will taste like mustard.”
“It still doesn’t make me coffee ”
Total Votes: 26
There will not be a Poll Question this week, our next poll will be announced next Saturday.

The MOD of the Week is Syntax Highlighter by UseLess, and the Style of the Week is polyethylene by Zergall.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3 Episode (21.5 MB)

Episode Duration: 53:41
On This Episode: Douglas Bell (Fountain of Apples) and David Lewis (Highway of Life)

A sarcastic thanks to a couple of phpBB team members (who shall be nameless) for correcting my mistake: #phpbb-mod is “hash phpbb-mod”, not “pound phpbb-mod”, even though most people in the US of A call it a “pound” and the rest of the world calls it a “hash”. From now on, I’m just calling it a “number sign”. *rolls eyes*

phpBB3 RC-2 has been released! The changelog for this release includes a whopping 113 fixes and changes. Plus, for the first time, upgrading with the built-in auto-updater is officially supported! Douglas tried out the auto-updater this morning, and sings its praises (as well as explaining how it works).

The GNU General Public License version 3 is final, but according to Meik “AcydBurn” Sievertsen, don’t expect phpBB to be using the new version. Douglas talks a bit about what this means, and also what it means in terms of licensing MODs.

It was announced today that submissions to the MOD Database are now open! First impression of the new forms: lots of bugs! However, paul999 has been moving quickly to fix as many bugs as he can today, so hopefully we can give you a better impression next week.

Finally, we talk a bit about the MOD Authors Convention that has been ongoing today, including critiquing it and offering suggestions for how we think it should be run. The convention continues today in #phpbb-mod until 8 PM Eastern time tonight!

The MOD of the Week is Collapsed Categories by Default by Wicher, and the Style of the Week is JM-Ignited by jmignited (view demo).

Finally, a shout out to phpBBCast, thanking them for promoting and covering phpBB Weekly episodes!