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Open Source Weblog: March 2006 Archives
Why Microsoft must pay the price
March 31, 2006
I have got to take issue with Ovum's take on the news that the European Commission has warned Microsoft that it has concerns about the bundling of new features into Vista.
Ovum software practice leader, David Mitchell seems to be suggesting that the EC should draw a line under its antitrust investigation into the software giant and move on, for the good of innovation.
The perspective appears to ignore one significant point, however: that Microsoft was found guilty of breaking European Union competition law in March 2004, and so long as its actions are not remedied, it continues to benefit from its illegal actions.
Former Sun exec calls for open source Java
March 30, 2006
The prospect of Sun open sourcing Java has arisen again thanks to an open letter from ActiveGrid founder and CEO, Peter Yared, to Sun's president and chief operating officer Jonathon Schwartz.
Yared is a former Sun employee, having served as CTO of the company's application server decision following its acquisition of NetDynamics - as well as a researcher with Sun Labs, and CTO of the company's Network Identity project - and he poses a pretty direct question for Sun.
Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers
No, not *that* video of Steve Ballmer again - oh alright here it is - but this time the Open Source Development Labs and Red Hat stepping up to the plate to meet the needs of open source developers.
Some things I did while our blog server was not working
Attended a Red Hat round table on virtualisation at which the company outlined its plans for a virtualisation special edition of RHEL and plans to focus on the needs of developers.
Gave myself a gotomypc-on-a-mac total brain workout* while working from home.
Completed my feature on open source and systems management looking at Qlusters, GroundWork, Nagios and the like, stay tuned for that one.
Scored a slightly embarrassingly high 34 out of 43 on Cerado's "Web 2.0 company or Star Wars character" quiz, although to be fair, knowing the names of companies is sort of my job, and I am part of the original Star Wars generation.
Thought about pretending to be able to speak Finnish.
GPL gets court approval
March 24, 2006
Filed under: things I missed when I was somewhere above the Atlantic
Between flying to Salt Lake City and back and attending Novell's BrainShare I missed the fact that the Free Software Foundation's General Public License has been cleared of price fixing and Sherman Act violation.
While I might be late with the news it worth mentioning, not only to set the record straight, but also because it could have significant implications for the future of anti-open source FUD.
Novell's Linux revenue figures don't add up
March 23, 2006
How is Novell's Linux product business doing? Better than its revenue figures suggest, according to the company's president and COO, Ron Hovsepian. That might sound like smoke and mirrors - and Novell's case is not helped by the fact that it keeps changing its definition of Linux revenue - but investigating the numbers suggests that he might have a point.
Desktop Linux's Window of opportunity
March 21, 2006
I've had some interesting conversations with Novell executive over the last couple of days about desktop Linux, as their excitement about the latest SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop enhancements have clashed with my recent doubts about the potential for desktop Linux.
Timing is everything
March 20, 2006
"We are first," maintained Novell's VP of Linux development, Eric Anderson, as he announced forthcoming support for the Xen 3.0 virtualization hypervisor technology in SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 at Novell's BrainShare conference in snowy Salt Lake City.
Commercialism and success, part two
My recent posting about whether an open source project needs to be commercial to be considered successful is pertinent given the ongoing debate between Mandriva's founder and its current management.
Mandrake founder plots lawsuit and new open source project
March 16, 2006
A lawsuit against his former employer and a new open source start-up are in the pipeline for Mandriva founder Gael Duval after he was fired by the Franco-Brazilian Linux distributor.
Mandrake Linux founder leaves Mandriva
March 15, 2006
Gael Duval, creator of Mandrake Linux and founder of the company now known as Mandriva has confirmed in a blog posting that he has left the company
Why Linux will never challenge Windows on the desktop
March 14, 2006
I just got halfway through scroll reading this Slashdot conversation on the potential for Novell's forthcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop product when I realised that Linux will never pose a serious threat to Windows on the desktop.
Does open source have to be commercial to be successful?
Given the amounts of VC money being thrown at open source software projects and vendors it is easy to assume that the commercialisation of a project is indicative of its success.
Google, Writely and a potential Web 2.0 convert
March 10, 2006
Let me preface this post by stating that I have a big, big problem with the term Web 2.0. As someone who lived and worked (mostly) through the dot com boom and bust I have a problem with anything that is as poorly defined but as easily referenced as Web 2.0.
SCO chairman: 'fight change you die'
March 09, 2006
Filed under "irony"
Ralph Yarro, Utah entrepreneur and president and CEO of ThinkAtomic, a high-tech incubator, will make a presentation to the Utah Information Technology Association on March 16 entitled 'Fight Change You Die - Affect Change You Thrive.'
Macros and music with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
Novell is previewing the next release of its business Linux desktop distribution, debuting a new name and several technology breakthroughs, such as the ability to cope with Microsoft Office macros, the ability to plug and play your Apple iPod, and new 3D graphics capabilities.
How many promotion organisations does an open standard need?
March 08, 2006
Despite the involvement of numerous vendors and industry groups in the development of the OpenDocument Format, its easy to see the emergence of the ODF as an 'open source versus Microsoft' story, or an 'IBM and Sun versus Microsoft' story.
Plenty of reports have taken that view (and indeed it appears that is the view Microsoft is trying to spin) but it's an incorrect one. The ODF story is all about standards - about open standards versus proprietary (or at best not-as-open) standards.
It's good to see broad support for the ODF standard emerging therefore.
The potential for open source networking
March 07, 2006
My ComputerWire colleague Rik Turner (who frankly knows a whole lot more about networking and routers than I do) managed to beat me to speaking to Vyatta, the open source networking company I mentioned the other day.
Rik managed to catch up with Dave Roberts, Vyatta’s VP of strategy and marketing, and got an interesting insight into the origins of the company and its potential for growth. The full story is available for ComputerWire subscribers but for everyone else here's a couple of snippets:
Ellison: 'some of my best friends are open source'
March 03, 2006
No sooner had I hit 'publish' yesterday on my blog about how proprietary vendors love to deny the impact of open source in their business segment while maintaining their love for Linux and open source in general, than I was listening to a recording of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison doing precisely that during a Q&A at Oracle OpenWorld Tokyo.
Ellison made some interesting points about the importance of big vendors in ensuring the success of open source projects, but his comments also reveal that he and his company are overlooking some of the key potential benefits to open source development.
Denial: the first sign of open source success?
March 02, 2006
It's always interesting to talk to proprietary software vendors, particularly those that are Linux supporters, about the impact that a specific open source project might have on their chosen software market.
What you usually get in response is an explanation as to why - despite the fact that they are big believers in open source and great supporters of Linux - they believe their chosen sector is impregnable to the open source effect.
I was reminded of this in recent days following conversations with IBM and Qlusters about the potential for open source to make an impact on the systems management software market.
Penguin computing - literally
March 01, 2006
It's not exactly enterprise computing, but maybe it's the key to desktop Linux adoption? Italian engineering company Acme Systems has come up with a plastic enclosure for its FOX Board embedded Linux systems shaped like Tux, the Linux mascot.
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