Archive for September, 2005
Friday, September 30th, 2005
Geronimo Challenge!
IBM is sponsoring a challenge that looks like a hunt for clues that could land you a 42″ plasma TV - who says open source doesn’t pay! (oh, MSFT, that’s right..) All for installing the Apache Geronimo server - not a bad deal.
I find it odd that in 2005 we have companies sponsoring events to use open source projects - but hey at least it’s a true OSS project. Unlike others (ahem, Sun) IBM and HP tend to stick close to the GPL/Apache licenses which I consider essential for the long term viability of OSS.
Thursday, September 29th, 2005
The birth of a standard; a new star is born
Ever wondered what happened way back when the first group rolled out TCP and the protocol was picked up by others, gathered a following, and eventually became the de facto standard? Well watch what’s happening today with OpenDocument. It will only be a few years and everyone will be trading .odf files!
Corel now has OpenDocument plans coming out. In all fairness Corel was a leader in developing the standard and so supporting OpenDocument shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. eWeek, however, found it quite newsworthy - and so do I. Now let’s just get WordPerfect Office support back on Linux again!
The key to a Linux desktop future = Adobe/Macromedia + Corel + Canon (ok, so I’m selfish in needing decent drivers for my photo printer)
Sunday, September 25th, 2005
2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back
China has done a remarkable turnaround to truly become the growth platform for untold innovation and opportunity in the coming decades. But there are still signs of leadership not truly embracing an open environment. Just as Thomas Friedman pointed out in “The World is Flat” there are some things emerging countries find hard to let go of. In China, it seems to be freedom of press and censorship:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9480527/
How does a country become a truly global leader when it’s own citizenry are only partially informed? Like I said in the title, this is a step back. Is China a new study of “compassionate totalitariansim” - totalitarian, but allows exceptions when the state economically benefits?
I just hope no citizen of China reads this and ends up in prison. If your in China, don’t link my RSS feed!
Sunday, September 25th, 2005
Google Maps - Check out pre/post Katrina
To get an idea of how bad Katrina devasted New Orleans, check out the Google Maps pre/post Katrina views:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=New+Orleans&t=e
Saturday, September 24th, 2005
Funny Firefox Commercials
Check out these funny Firefox commercials. Who would have thought a web browser could spark such creativity:
http://funnyfox.org/themobile.htm
Saturday, September 24th, 2005
Oddest thing… has Microsoft taken over the Internet
I accidentally copy/pasted this URL into my previous entry:
http://http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=406459
The Odd part is that www.microsoft.com came up?? What the heck? I’m using Firefox on Gentoo Linux… I can guarantee I do not have any preferences set to microsoft.com… Can anyone explain?
—–
Ok, figured it out - Firefox by default searches bad urls on Google. If you go to Google and search for “http://” for some reason microsoft.com is the first result. So, Firefox users are re-directed to microsoft.com…. let’s fix that Google.
Saturday, September 24th, 2005
Linux on the Desktop
Three things that irk me about people writing about Linux on the Desktop (LoD):
1) Those who write about it and appear to have never ventured outside 1 distribution (RHEL WS is not a desktop OS but rather a business Workstation OS):
Red Hat does a pretty good job with their automated patching system that patches everything from Firefox to the OS kernel (with a reboot), but their annual Enterprise support fees makes the cost of buying a copy Windows look cheap.
Take a look at Ubuntu, Mandriva, or Linspire and your story may change. Take a look - harm free.
2) It’s only about TCO: No, it’s not just about TCO - the State of Massachusetts is coming around to this - take a look below.
2) Those who assume “there are no applications like on Windows” - arguably true, but what did it take to make Linux ready to kill off UNIX and Windows Server? IBM invested a billion dollars in Linux, HP probably invested the same, Dell is making consider investements, and of course the open source community kept chugging along at a pace MSFT and Sun couldn’t keep up with.
Now, for the desktop to “happen” we will need similar investements - in GUIs, in ISV development, and in hardware/gaming support. It’s surprising to me that today we’re seeing nVidia and ATI battling over who offers the most features in their Linux drivers - they know the early adopters of their technology are the same guys/gals churning out FOSS code! We’ve seen games like Quake and Unreal Tournament take on that same category of gamer. But what’s left are the Adobe’s (w/Macromedia), Canon’s (cameras / printers), Corel’s (who is on the fence with Wordperfect suite on Linux), and all the hardware/gaming companies coming together to create a total solution for LoD. That’s when LoD will take off. It’s not a problem that “KDE and Gnome should merge” - they both have stable, innovative desktop experiences.
Saturday, September 24th, 2005
Absolutely Hilarious
Take a look at this video clip - a sign of things only made possible in the age of the internet:
Saturday, September 24th, 2005
Doomsday at MSFT? Wall Street Journal tells a compelling story!
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112743680328349448,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
Take a look at page one of WSJ! They pull together a great story about the problems inside MSFT. What happens when you get too big?? Things start to fall apart…
“What happened when the American car companies failed to update their manufacturing lines? There was a more efficient way to bring cars to market for a lower price and they lost their market,” says Microsoft Vice President Chris Jones. “We’re in a little bit of a different industry but it’s the same thing.”
The Journal continues on to tell the story of bringing Vista to market and the troubles the giant faces. Take a look, it’s a great article. And of course Linux is cited as a contributor to the problem - hat’s off to the FOSS community!
Friday, September 23rd, 2005
Google’s Summer of Code Experiences
Unless you are non techy or were in Antarctica without Internet access, you probably heard of Google’s “Summer of Code” program for college students to get paid for working on Open Source projects this summer. OpenOffice had a few interns and I found it enlightening to read about their experiences. I’d like to see more companies take part in this program in the future.
Friday, September 23rd, 2005
Massachusetts Approves OpenDocument Plan
Finally, the first state to officially mandate all documents must conform to OpenDocument standards - a huge win for open source and open standards.
“The Commonwealth’s decision is a watershed event for the adoption of open standards,” said Bob Sutor, IBM’s vice president of standards on Friday. “Massachusetts residents, rather than any one vendor, now control their own information.”
This should pave the way for others going forward and I’m glad to see the world opening up to investigating just what the legal rights are within their own files. I’m sure we’ll see more activity out of Europe but I’d like to see more U.S. companies pushing OpenDocument. Some day MSFT may just have to adapt Office to support it. Didn’t they say something recently about “we’ve listened to our customers and we’ve changed”??
Tuesday, September 20th, 2005
Nicholas Carr - Open Standards Matter?
While I could never agree with Carr’s “IT Doesn’t Matter” theory, I liked his recent blog entry regarding open standards and the State of Massachusetts’ decision to implement the OASIS open document format. I would have naturally assumed he would argue there is no value in open formats, but if you read the entire post, he does something I did not expect - agrees with a decision that seems to go against his most (un)popular stance on the value of IT…
Microsoft is, in essence, arguing for the maintenance of the status quo. It says that “Commonwealth agencies should be allowed to choose the technologies that best suit their needs, particularly in a context where, as here, multiple open and competing technologies/formats are available and supported in the marketplace, with many document conversion utilities already available and with no licensing barriers to future conversion software.” But this reveals the flaw in Microsoft’s position. The state has determined that the status quo is neither desirable nor sustainable. It believes that the lack of standardization in technology and data is undermining its ability to do its work effectively on behalf of its citizens. The state, in other words, has made a conscious decision to endure short-term disruption in order to achieve a flexible and efficient IT architecture for the future.
Monday, September 19th, 2005
Great Interview with Samba’s Terpstra
Quite possibly my favorite quote (today):
Sunday, September 18th, 2005
I’m off to try another distro… OpenSuse
It may be a few days before I’m back, but I just finished downloading the OpenSuse 10 RC1 iso’s. I’ll be wiping my precious Gentoo install (oh the hrs of compiling that will be lost…) and looking to use Xen to multiboot the various OS’s. Sure sure, “just use grub” you may say, but I’m more interested in checking out the hypervisor functionality of Xen.
My question is, has anyone tried this out yet? I’m looking to at least have OpenSuse, Gentoo, and maybe XP… Any tips are appreciated.
Sunday, September 18th, 2005
Nokia 770 - Portable Internet Tablet… and it runs Linux
We’ve seen a plethora of Linux based devices come out, catch press, then fade into the dark. Nokia may have the best shot for mainstreaming Linux with this unbelievable device - the 770 Internet Tablet. I want one now! It has a widescreen display and from the site looks to be running Gnome. MobileBurn.com reports it will have an email client, RSS reader, browser (looks like Opera) and in the next software release will include IM (GAIM I hope) and VoIP. MobileBurn.com has a great preview with pictures. They expect this to retail at $350 which isn’t too bad. I’d expect the price to end up around $200. They’ll need a harddrive, MP3 player, video player, etc to maintain that price level.
Unlike a lot of the new Linux devices (i.e. HP laptops with Ubuntu), this one will be available in the U.S. I’m not sure yet what labeling the OS as “Internet Tablet 2005″ means, but hopefully we can add, install all our favorite Linux apps.
Friday, September 16th, 2005
Race to Linux - Integrating .NET and Linux Developers, I love it!
Check out the “Race to Linux” on TheCodeProject.com - it’s a race to see how fast you can port .NET apps to Linux. How ingenious! You can win an Xbox 360 in the process. If anything this shows the great strides the OSS community has made in making Linux and OSS interoperable with Windows. What a great story - the OSS community becomes the glue to bridge the gap from proprietary standards to open standards!
Thursday, September 15th, 2005
10 Things Your Lawyer Needs to Know About Open Source
I just loved the title so much. The advice is fairly beneficial for approaching your company’s attorneys regarding the use of open source and how to debunk some of the common “concerns” lawyers love to have.
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,104508,00.html
Tuesday, September 13th, 2005
Linux Command Line - Dealing with spaces in filenames
A friend asked me today how to say cd into a directory that has a space in its name… (a newbie)… If anyone else has wondered the same, the answer is to use the backslash just before the space… so to enter a directory called “This Dir” you would enter at the prompt:
# cd This\ Dir
This works for files as well (i.e. # cat This\ File.txt) For long filenames or dirs, try using tab complete (start typing the name then hit tab and it will fill in the rest of the filename for you).
Tuesday, September 13th, 2005
Wall Street Damaging Long Term Tech Growth?
How much impact does Wall Street have on a company? Too much? I saw this excellent article from Jack Trout at Forbes.com which basically says the Street’s obsessive focus on growth is troublesome. The focus on short term growth hinders a company’s ability to plant the seeds for long term profitability.
He puts it best saying:
“Wall Street often creates an environment that encourages bad, sometimes irrevocable, things to happen. In a way, it sets up a greenhouse for trouble, and like a greenhouse, it’s all about encouraging things to “grow.”
Then I also read this week about Novell. I must admit I am a Novell shareholder simply b/c they are undervalued and yet have the best Linux / OSS value proposition in the industry. They have the tools to truly compete with Microsoft. With Linux behind them, this is a real possibility. They’ve made many great moves. First they acquired Suse, then launched a HIGHLY successful OpenSuse which I just read is growing by 5,000 users per day and is downloaded every 18 seconds. What a great story to show for planting the seeds for future Novell sales and technical skills. Linux has always been about choice and OpenSuse brings that choice back to the Suse community.
Ahhhh… but then there’s Wall Street. Just look through this list of headlines from last week. First you’ll notice Novell was upgraded… then CSFB and investors urge Novell to make changes, give Novell advice… Now the company has done a 720 degree turnaround from having an absolutely end of life product suite to now having the most promising and exciting suite around…. and now investors want to make demands??? Let them execute! Let them grow their seeds and reap the rewards. Linux is growing far faster than the market - Novell will catch up in revenues.
I only hope Novell looks to the long term and ignores what I consider to be a near sighted request from investors…
Monday, September 12th, 2005
Open File Formats - A New Hope
Think of the last sci-fi movie you saw - let’s say Star Wars. Did you ever hear the actors/actresses say “sorry Luke, but I don’t have Office 2003 and so I can’t open your file.”? … Of course they don’t say that - we assume that in the future technology becomes pervasive and accessible by anyone. I find it impossible to take one company’s response that “in 100 yrs you won’t want to open your file anyway” - how far from the truth could that be?? Does R2D2 ever stop at the local Microsoft planet to upgrade his Office suite so that he can open new files?
Let me propose a situation with 2 possible approaches:
The Library of Congress digitizes every book in its collection over the next 5 years.
Situation 1) The LoC chooses to standardize on the OASIS, open, non-proprietary standard for documents in XML format.
Situation 2) The LoC chooses to standardize on Microsoft’s Word 2003 file format.
Just as the LoC finishes scanning it’s collection in 2010, Office 13 hits the stores.
Hypothetical Question: Does the LoC need to upgrade all its files to Office 13? What happens in 2015, 2020? Is the LoC on a neverending MSFT upgrade cycle? The empire strikes back every 5 years… You may say “yeah but those files are old - I don’t have files from 1995 anymore!”
Ah, but now think of software and IT today: we are amassing HUGE volumes of data, information, text, documents. SOX alone has probably doubled the data we’re storing in this country. The legal system has millions of pages of documents stored in its systems. When was the last time you saw a lawyer with the latest Microsoft Office installed…. I’ll give a free plug to the first lawyer who emails me an Office 2003 document.
Should all court documents just “disappear” in the next 3 years? 5 years? What about the transcript of Joe Con who killed a family of 4 and did X number of other offensive things… Should he be given parole in 2013 b/c we can’t open the Office 2002 file containing the testimony of a witness? You can see where I’m going.
Let’s say the LoC chooses option 2; what happens in 2050 when someone wants to open the Office 2003 file which has long since been unsupported by Microsoft… would an open source application be able to open it? No - not legally at least…
What’s the reality here? It’s that file formats are not the value a word processor provides - that’s not what anyone pays for as there are hundreds of file formats that no one uses. People value the ability to access content in digital form. Why should 1 company with a profit interest in mind be in charge of defining that standard?
I’m a MSFT shareholder (odd reasons) and honestly am extremely disappointed in its moves to lock the next Office XML file formats up in patent limbo. It was an obvious move to stave off Linux without any merit - why not release the format as open source? Heck with OpenOffice missing release dates it would be years before they caught up anyway…
And so I applaud the State of Massachusetts in its efforts to stave off a major problem before it starts. It has chosen to implement the OASIS document standard. MSFT could easily choose to support this standard in Office just as well - we all know MSFT will not, but it easily could. I have to ask why not?
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