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When writing software for Linux systems, it's often wise to plan on packaging your software using RPM. Having an easily installable package for your software lets you install and maintain your software using a suite of automated tools. Many software developers don't plan on building RPMs from their sources, but instead rely on operating system distribution vendors and third-party enthusiasts to package their software. This is possible thanks to the flexible nature of RPM's build system, but if you plan ahead, you can have your own build scripts produce RPMs, gaining more control over the packaging in the process.

These days, it seems like every time I turn around I am being asked how the economy is affecting Three Pillar Software. I'm cautiously optimistic as I answer, we have more business and a larger pipeline now than we have ever had. To some degree, that may simply be a result of our new focus on developing business. Until just a few months ago, Three Pillar had grown from myself to our current state almost exclusively through being opportunistic.

Suppose you are happily coding away, about to finish a new feature on a shiny new product. You attempt to run your code when an ugly exception rears up from the middle of some code that you call, but did not write yourself. You attempt to use your team's version control software to figure out who wrote that code, and what sort of changes have happened to it that might be the source of the problem. Alas, your version control software reveals that Joe, who left the project months ago, wrote the code throwing the exception.