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Open Source Weblog: June 2007 Archives
The next big thing? Four open source start-ups to watch
June 29, 2007
A group of open source start-ups have appeared on CBR's radar in recent weeks. I thought it was worth taking a quick look at their credentials to see how they progress from here. They are, in no particular order: Apatar, GravityZoo, LoopFuse, and Untangle (alright I lied, they're in alphabetical order). Here's our first impressions:
JasperSoft closing Series D funding round
June 28, 2007
Open source business intelligence vendor JasperSoft has confirmed that it is on the way to closing a $12.27m Series D funding round, which would bring its total funding to date to $35.57m
The Software God Delusion
June 26, 2007
Like a great many people in the UK I have been reading Richard Dawkins' autobiography/pro-atheism thesisThe God Delusion. It's an interesting read, even if I do find myself agreeing with Andrew Collins that Dawkins is incredibly smug and self-regarding.
What I did find particularly interesting is his suggestion that there is a tendency for religion to become the default view, and that people end up bending over backwards to avoid insulting religion because there is an assumption that the majority is likely to be offended (when the opposite is quite possibly true).
Anyway, it got me thinking about how the term religion is often applied to open source software, and how religion can become a default position for determining software choices (and not just for open source, there are more than enough desktop administrators out there who believe that Windows is the one true OS and Macs are the work of the devil).
Centric CRM responds to OSI hard line
June 25, 2007
Following the response by SocialText to Michael Tiemann’s announcement of a new hard line approach to the use of the term “open source”, Centric CRM has now also responded.
While the OSI does not have the trademark for the term ‘open source’ its desire to protect the use of the term obviously carries weight given the respectful responses of both SocialText and Centric CRM.
Centric CRM may believe that it has every right to use the term “open source” but it is increasing its use of OSI-approved licenses and it is open to further discussion.
Open source by any other name
June 22, 2007
Yesterday I wrote that a decision by the Open Source Initiative on whether the SocialText Public License should be approved or not would help clear up the confusion about whether certain vendors can claim to offer open source software or not.
I should mention that in fact SocialText recently withdrew that license, as well as the proposed Generic Attribution Provision (GAP) from consideration.
Given the current debate it is worth considering the company’s reasons for doing so, as well as its respectful response to OSI president Michael Tiemann’s stance over the use of the term open source, as well as its attempt to find an alternative term.
GroundWork lays the foundations for wider adoption
Last week I had the chance to catch up with open source systems management vendor GroundWork on its progress and evolving strategy. ComputerWire subscribers will have been able to get the details here but I alo wanted to publish the details here as well.
The big new is that the company is to de-emphasize its focus on small-to-medium-sized businesses this year as it attempts to gain traction among larger enterprise with its free open source download.
Does OSI have the right to enforce the use of the term "open source"?
June 21, 2007
I find it interesting that much of the reaction on Slashdot to the OSI cracking down on the use of the term "open source" questions whether the OSI has the right to do so.
When is open source not open source?
When the Open Source Initiative says it isn’t.
OSI president Michael Tiemann has announced his intention to open a can of whup ass on any vendors that claim to be open source despite not actually using a license approved by the OSI.
“Enough is enough,” wrote Tiemann in his latest blog post. “Open Source has grown up. Now it is time for us to stand up. I believe that when we do, the vendors who ignore our norms will suddenly recognize that they really do need to make a choice: to label their software correctly and honestly, or to license it with an OSI-approved license that matches their open source label.”
UK government launches open source CO2 calculator
June 20, 2007
Back in March the UK’s Conservative Party vowed to encourage the adoption of open source adoption if elected at the next General Election.*
Today the Labour Party did its bit by releasing the code behind its new carbon footprint calculator under the general public license.
Mandriva won't pay Microsoft "protection money"
June 19, 2007
After Red Hat and Ubuntu/Canonical, Mandriva is the latest company to rule itself out of a patent-based interoperability deal with Microsoft.
Paying for software you can’t use – is Microsoft really good for schools?
June 18, 2007
Last week Microsoft announced that a study carried out on its behalf by Wipro Technologies found that European schools prefer Microsoft software to open source alternatives.
Most people will have learned long ago to take vendor-sponsored studies with a pinch of salt, so I’m not going to evaluate the rights or wrongs of that particular report. It is worth mentioning in the context of this news from Norway, however, where Microsoft has backed down on attempts to charge schools to license Windows on computers that run Linux or Mac OS.
“From now on, schools will only be licensed for PCs actually using Microsoft software, and not for all computers, including PCs using software from competitors like Linux, Mac and Openoffice.org,” notes Linpro, a Norwegian Linux and open source provider that complained to the Norwegian Competition Authority (NCA) about the previous arrangements.
Time for a change at the OSI
June 15, 2007
Open Source Initiative president, Michael Tiemann, has posted a fascinating article discussing the future of the keeper of the Open Source Definition and approver of open source licenses.
It is time, Tiemann argues, for a new OSI, and he is eager to make use of design thinking to ensure that the open source industry at large is answering the right question for the new OSI structure and role to answer.
A slight difference of opinion: Linspire’s deal with Microsoft
June 14, 2007
“When the dust settles around this partnership, it will be interesting to see the reaction from the Linux and open source community. Will they embrace Novell and Microsoft's IP plan or will Microsoft continue seeing its attempts to hold back open source rendered futile?”
Kevin Carmony, Linspire president and CEO, November 3, 2006
“Microsoft and Linspire have developed a framework to provide patent covenants for Linspire customers. The patent covenants provide customers with confidence that the Linspire technologies they use come with rights to relevant Microsoft patents.”
Linspire press release, June 13, 2007
Whatever can have changed Linspire’s opinion I wonder?
To be honest, pointing out the contradictions in Linspire’s response to Microsoft’s deal with Novell and Carmony’s explanation of its own deal with Microsoft is like shooting fish in a barrel, but I guess somebody’s got to do it, so here goes.
Jonathan Schwartz offers a dinner invitation to Linus Torvalds
June 13, 2007
An interesting opportunity regarding the future of Linux and OpenSolaris has developed thanks to a fractured conversation on the Linux Kernel Mailing List and Sun CEO, Jonathan Schwartz’s blog.
The result, assuming Schwartz can cook, and Torvalds has decent taste in wine, could be the greater integration – or at least improved coexistence – of the two operating systems.
Deja view
June 12, 2007
Over at All About Microsoft Mary Jo Foley has an interesting article presenting a Microsoft-centric journalist's view of Apple’s annual developers’ conference in San Francisco in which she argues that many of the Leopard features presented by Steve Jobs look a lot like features she’s already seen in Windows Vista.
As has been pointed out (not very pleasantly in some cases) in the comments, the reason so many of the features look like Vista is that, rather than new additions to the Mac, they are in fact tweaks to features that have been on the Mac since way before the arrival of Vista.
"It’s always possible these people are out of their minds...
June 11, 2007
...or just enamored of freeware, but I doubt it."
Dana Blankenhorn on Booking.com's adoption of MySQL.
It made me laugh anyway.
I'm in the midst of putting together an article on open source user stories and you would not believe the crazy reasons people have for adopting open source: reducing licensing costs, increasing flexibility, making better use of their skills, reducing ongoing maintenance costs, decreasing development time... the list goes on.
Of course, it is always possible these people are out of their minds.
Open source exit routes
Stephen Walli has posted a blog about MySQL CEO Marten Mickos’s presentation at the recent OSBC event, including a copy of his slides (PDF).
It looks like an interesting talk and I’m sorry I missed the event, but in particular my attention was grabbed by the chart on p19 regarding open source success stories, not least because it started out life as a sketch on the back of a napkin during a conversation I had with Marten at the start of the year.
Ingres’s Roger Burkhardt on the innovation opportunity of open source
June 07, 2007
This morning I had the opportunity to sit down with Roger Burkhardt, president and COO, and Emma McGrattan, senior VP of engineering, at open source database vendor Ingres for a chat about the company’s database appliance plans (more of that later) and open source in general.
Burkhardt has some interesting perspectives on open source, not least because was previously chief technology officer for the New York Stock Exchange, where he led the move towards electronic trading and the adoption of open source software.
“The reason I got into open source at the Stock Exchange was not about the economic model, it was all about innovation,” he said. “The open source model was a much faster route to innovation.”
Fonality CEO on open source networking
We've recently added executive Q&As to the CBRonline news service and one of the first features Chris Lyman, chief executive of open source networking vendor Fonality.
My colleague Rhonda Ascierto posed the questions and you can the results are here. It's an interesting read as Lyman discusses the acquisition of Avaya by a private equity consortium, the impact of open source on the networking industry, the hosted PBX model, and the competitive advantage of open source.
Here's an example of his thoughts on the latter:
Q. When Fonality beats out competitive proposals from Avaya, Nortel and Cisco is it primarily because of cost?
A. Yes.
Q. So, in addition to cost, what is open-source's competitive advantage over proprietary?
A. There is one other distinct advantage we have and that is being a standards-based approach. We are totally standards based and everyone else is propriety. This means telecommuting flexibility. That basically the fundamental recognition that the phone system is the world's network and not bounded by the four corners of your office. When you take your office phone or soft phone home and plug it into your DSL modem, you can instantly dial anybody in your office for free, with no configuration. That's the result of standards-based approach because everyone is using the same standards but the oligopoly is not. They require you to purchase a special license, etc.
And we took a really simple approach whereby you pay one price and you get every feature.
Click here for more.
SCO’s IP revenue hits zero
June 06, 2007
It’s been a while since I mentioned the SCO Group on this blog, largely since it stopped shouting its mouth off about its legal claims and its various court cases are slowly winding their way towards conclusion.
The company’s second quarter financial results deserve special mention, however, as the company reported revenue of $0 from its SCOsource IP licensing business in the quarter. Zip, nada, nothing.
What’s the most significant thing about the GLPv3?
June 05, 2007
Given the debate about DRM and the Microsoft-Novell deal it’s easy to overlook another significant announcement regarding the last call draft of GPLv3: the fact that it will be compatible with the Apache license.
Given the depth and breadth of free and open source software projects that it will be possible to integrate under Apache 2.0 and GPLv3, could this, in fact, turn out to be the most significant element of the new version?
What, in your view, will history remember the GPLv3 for?
Xandros has signed a Microsoft patent deal.
June 04, 2007
In answer to my earlier question - yes it has.
Xandros has signed up to interoperate with regards to systems and server management, office document compatability, sales and marketing, and intellectual property assurance.
Has Xandros also signed a Microsoft patent agreement?
A report published (and then withdrawn) over the weekend suggest that Xandros has become the second Linux vendor to strike an interoperability and patent deal with Microsoft. The original eWeek story was here but has been removed it would seem, leaving us with some analysis by Mary Jo Foley and a copy of the original story on WinBeta.org.
Are Microsoft and the FSF heading for the mother of all court battles?
June 01, 2007
Continuing the thought process from my previous post:
Does distributing subscriptions for the support of GPL code make Microsoft subject to the GPL? Can the company be held to a license that did not exist when it made its agreement with Novell? Is there really any code in Linux that infringes Microsoft's patents anyway?
These are questions that only legal experts can answer, and unless Microsoft is going to walk away from its partnership with Novell it seems increasingly likely that legal experts will have to solve them.
In recent weeks Microsoft has tried to paint itself as the victim of a concerted effort by the free software community to sabotage its agreement with Novell. While it is undeniable that the FSF is doing its utmost to prevent a repeat of the patent deal that is because it believes the deal itself was an attempt to split the free and open source software movements.
Given Microsoft's positioning of itself as the victim, it is entirely plausible that the company could be preparing to challenge the right of the FSF to rewrite the rules (even if it did right the rules in the first place) to prevent it going about its business. Win or lose, any legal challenge could tie up the progress of the free software movement for a long time.
Microsoft hoisted by its own patent petard
This had already been predicted but I didn't want to cover it until the Free Software Foundation made it official, which it has done with the publication of the last call draft of the GPLv3, but it appears that Microsoft's plan to restrict its patent covenant to SUSE Linux users has backfired.
According to the FSF, Microsoft's patent protection will apply to all GPLv3 users as soon as Novell begins distributing GPLv3 code within the SUSE Linux Enterprise distribution.
Open source heals the backbone of the Internet
Sometimes it takes a comment from outside the industry to put the role of open source in to perspective. This from Planet Chiropractic, the online community for chiropractors:
"If you are wondering what any of this means to chiropractors or Planet Chiropractic, it's important to remember the open source community has provided the backbone of nearly everything we have done (as well as the majority of the web) online, from webservers (apache), databases (mysql), operating systems (fedora, ubuntu, freeBSD), and numerous other packages and tools made freely available thanks to open source."
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