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Open Source Weblog: April 2006 Archives
Too much choice? MySQL details storage engine plans
April 26, 2006
MySQL says it wants to enable customer choice by enabling multiple storage engines to snap into its eponymous database management system. It's certainly doing that, with no fewer than 10 different engines listed as part of its new MySQL Certified Storage Engine Program.
From small acorns: open source finds gaps in the market
April 25, 2006
After Pentaho's coming of age this week it was the turn of open source business intelligence rival JasperSoft to mark its coming out with the delivery of its new architectural blueprint for developing an integrated open source business intelligence suite.
Red Hat and Oracle - the beginning of the end?
April 21, 2006
Red Hat's chief exec, Matthew Szulik, has responded to Oracle chief Larry Ellison's suggestions that the company might - or might not - acquire its way into the Linux business, comparing the US software industry to the US auto industry and accusing the proprietary software model of failing to serve its customers.
Pentaho comes of age with Professional Edition
April 20, 2006
A key sign of the maturity of an open source project used to be when it reached version 1.0, or when the likes of IBM offered support for it. The success of the enterprise-focused open source model demonstrated by the likes of MySQL and JBoss means that most open source projects are commercially supported from day one.
A sure sign of maturity for these projects is the delivery of a Professional Edition, bundling the open source code with commercially licensed extensions. With that in mind, congratulations go to Pentaho for achieving a milestone with the launch of Pentaho professional editions.
Ellison explains why he would NOT buy Novell or Red Hat
April 18, 2006
You've no doubt read a lot of headlines this morning about how Larry Ellison has revealed that Oracle is planning to buy Novell, or Red Hat, or launch its own Linux operating system.
It's all good fun, but that is not what Ellison has said at all, in fact the transcript of his interview with the FT is illuminating precisely because it reveals why the company would NOT acquire either Novell or Red Hat, and - apparently - why the company did not buy JBoss.
MySQL has a Solid foundation, and more to come
Told you MySQL was working on a new database transaction engine partnership. You might even have read it here first had I not kept to the agreed embargo that Solid itself broke while I was enjoying bank holiday Monday.
Either way, I can now share with you some comments from Paola Lubet, Solid's VP of marketing and business development, on how the deal strengthens MySQL's position in the market.
How open is open?
April 13, 2006
Andy Updegrove has an interesting article on the ConsortiumInfo.org standards blog about the differences between IBM and Sun's plans to open up their processor and hardware architectures, examining "what does 'open' mean in the context of hardware?"
Novell has the last laugh? Takes SCO to Court of Arbitration
April 12, 2006
News that Novell has asked the court hearing its slander of title case against SCO to stay the case while it is referred to the International Court of Arbitration in Paris sent me to Google Desktop in search of UnitedLinux references, and unearthed this gem of a quote from the former CEO of SUSE, Richard Seibt.
"They signed a joint development agreement with us, and there is a cross-licensing agreement between the four of us. This will turn out as one of the biggest jokes," he said in 2003 of SCO's claims against Linux. According to Novell's recent filings, that cross-licensing agreement is about to come back to haunt SCO.
Was Oracle's purchase of Innobase a blessing in disguise for MySQL?
The more I think about MySQL's response to the acquisition of Innobase, the more I believe that it could turn out to be a hugely positive turning point for the open source database vendor.
When Oracle acquired Innobase, the developer of InnoDB, MySQL's storage engine of choice, there was a natural fear that it would enable the software giant to hold its open source rival to ransom. Now it appears the acquisition will put MySQL in an even more competitive position.
Now Red Hat has JBoss, what next for Novell?
April 11, 2006
Red Hat's acquisition of JBoss may not suggest a large impact on Novell at first glance, aside from its chief Linux rival opening up more routes into customers and increasing its size and market share, but the deal is significant for Novell, and how it responds could be a good indication of how much the company has adopted the open source ethic.
Who are the open source VIPs?
April 10, 2006
Open source is about people as much as it is products and companies, but the role of individuals in establishing the open source industry is often overlooked given headlines like “IBM makes $100m investment in Linux”.
To celebrate the role of the individual in establishing open source as the industry it is today, CBR is putting together a list of the most important people in open source, and we want your help to put it together.
JBoss to be acquired, but by who?
The indications are that open source Java vendor JBoss is about to be acquired, the big question is, who by. The Oracle rumours came to nothing but the suggestion that JBoss is ripe for acquisition just won't go away, with Linux distributors Red Hat and Novell both linked with the company.
MySQL renews InnoDB license, plans alternative
April 07, 2006
MySQL's vice president of marketing, Zack Urlocker, has revealed that the company has renewed its relationship with Oracle for the InnoDB storage engine Oracle acquired along with InnoBase in October 2005.
The deal should put to rest some of the speculation regarding Oracle's intentions towards MySQL, but the story does not end there. MySQL is also expected to unveil an alternative transaction engine later this month.
Is there room for Xandros in the Linux server market?
After almost two years of talking about it, desktop Linux specialist Xandros has finally named the date for its first Linux server product. But with the like of Red Hat, Novell, and Mandriva having a substantial start on the company, is there room for Xandros Server?
Microsoft opens Port 25 to Linux Lab
April 06, 2006
Back in December or so I had the chance to chat through the details of Microsoft's Linux and Open source Lab with Bill Hilf, the company's then director of platform technology strategy.
Shortly after the interview was completed, and before the resulting feature was published, Hilf was promoted to take on responsibility for the company's shared source initiative after its former manager, Jason Matusow, stepped up to the role of director in the corporate standards strategy team.
Red Hat shakes the Foundation of Fedora
Red Hat has cancelled plans to create an independent foundation for its Fedora community-led Linux development project after the plan ran into problems and other projects developed at a rate that made it unnecessary.
The company is maintaining its plan to increase community involvement in the Fedora Project, however, and has announced plans for a new project leadership model that will involve more community members.
A note to Microsoft's partners on missed opportunities
According to an article in Microsoft's Partner Update magazine (see page 13), half a million PCs will ship in the UK next year without an operating system.
Microsoft isn't happy about that, and the company is discouraging all its partners from selling naked PCs, pointing out that they are missing out on opportunities to market software and services.
Here's an idea though, rather than forcing customers to buy something they clearly don't want - an operating system they don't need or already have a license for, for example - why not offer them something they might want, such as a copy of Linux.
The Portland Project and the false dichotomy of choice and standards
April 05, 2006
One of the great things about open source is that it offers users a huge amount of choice. In all areas of the open source software stack there are at least two choices, and if you don't like what's available, you are free to modify it to make it fit your needs.
From an enterprise point of view, of course, this causes problems. ISVs and IHVs would rather have fewer choices to make, and fewer operating systems to port to. This is why many of them have embraced Linux as the potential successor to the multiple flavours of Unix.
However, for Linux to fulfil that potential, there needs to be a limit on the choices available. The apparent dichotomy between maintaining choice and standards explains why initiatives like the Portland Project to develop common interfaces for the Gnome and KDE desktops need to exist.
Microsoft supports Linux with free Virtual Server
April 04, 2006
Yes, you read that right, the big news from the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo on Monday came from Microsoft, with its announcement that Release 2 of Virtual Server 2005 product is now available as a free download and that it will be providing technical support for Linux running as a guest on the software.
Open source virtualisation: all change
April 03, 2006
My ComputerWire colleague Timothy Prickett Morgan has the scoop on series of announcements from LinuxWorld in Boston that promise to make a big impact on the server virtualisation market this year.
The filth and the Fleury: is JBoss CEO really open source's bad boy?
Is JBoss chief executive Marc Fleury the second most hated man in open source after Bill Gates? BusinessWeek seems to think so, but is this just a case of the facts being bent to fit the headline?*
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