The year is finally drawing to a close, a year that has seen doom and gloom for many, what with the recession shaking things up in every possible way imaginable.

For the world of Open Source (and closed source for that matter), innovation seems to have slowed a little, with many a project focusing on monetization and enterprise penetration (think stability, minor improvements and paid support). This is all good of course and has had the result of positioning Open Source directly in the crosshairs of the CIO’s 2010 budget.

I personally took a step back from Open Source this year (a tiny step) and instead delved into the worlds of IBM, Microsoft (Big thanks for the assistance!) and Oracle (all embracing Open Source in one way or another – click the links), with a view to supporting more platforms with existing / future projects and at the same time feeding my ever hungry brain with fresh ideas.

While I let a few of my projects slip and failed to post as often as I wanted, I managed to gain insight into the feature sets and API’s of some of the leading closed source platforms (Open up folks – it won’t hurt!). It really pays to diversify, you never know where or how your code will be used, but honestly, I have no intention of changing the name of this site to Closed Source Consultancy any time soon!

So after all the ups and downs of 2009 we finally find ourselves slap bang in the festive season, and with 2010 just around the corner, can we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel?

For starters 2010 should see the UK exit the recession (I’m optimistic) and the future of the MySQL database may eventually become clear, but is it too late? Think PostgreSQL 8.5.

We have Perl 6 to look forward to (has it really been that long!), followed closely by OpenJDK 7 (will Modularization make this a no brainer) and with Google looking to take over the Netbook / Mobile markets (along with every other market you can think of), 2010 is definitely warming up to be an interesting year!

I’m hoping that a decent e-reader device arrives (Google/Apple?). The Kindle etc look impressive but they still feel first generation and I prefer to wait for the second Wave before diving in. .

New years resolutions

I didn’t do too bad with my resolutions for 2009, what with my knowledge upgrade of Microsoft SQL 2008 and Oracle 11G, making a start on the FreeBSD package for AuthStor, and upgrading all my local servers to FreeBSD 7.1+ (FreeBSD 8 rocks!). The only 2 resolutions I failed to achieve were non-techie (Guitar and Ableton) so that’s ok right?

Here’s my attempt at a list for 2010!

1. Redesign this site (and post frequently)
2. Code more (AuthStor, BinaryStor, dbRecorder, Informeer etc) and innovate
3. Upgrade to Perl 6 and Java 7 – not at the same time of course!
4. Play the guitar (maybe once or twice a month this time)
5. Row at least a million meters

Exciting times ahead!

Right I’m off to enjoy Santa Clause The Movie, so without further ado, I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous Open Source 2010!!