Archive for June, 2008
Saturday, June 28th, 2008
Waterfalls in NYC? Yes, it’s true…
Maybe I’m just not one of the cool kids, but putting up scaffolding waterfalls in a metro-NYC environments is a bit odd to me…
http://www.newsweek.com/id/143636
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Web 2.0 gone all awry; Weather.com skiing for NYC in June
When “Web 2.0″ is implemented poorly you can get some odd results. For instance, weather.com today shows me that it’s a humid 80 degrees (F) today and yet… it let’s me click on a map to view Skiing conditions. It’s late June - slopes in Utah are not even open…
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
Ubuntu Mobile Internet Device (MID) Edition is here
Ubuntu has officially released its MID Edition. There is a KVM image you can download to try it out. I haven’t seen any news on what devices or vendors will be bundling MID, but I’m sure Mark has some ideas for that.
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS4429818312.html
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
I’d like to be one in 10 million…
Looks like being a millionaire is not all that small of a crowd these days… I wish I could be a 1 in 10 million… maybe some day…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25353615/
The number of people around the world with at least $1 million in assets passed 10 million for the first time last year, according to a new report. And their bank accounts are growing even faster.
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
Shameless Analyst Report Plug: “IBM & Linux – 9 Years Later”
A colleague sent me a link to this analyst paper today that takes a look at whether IBM has made good on the Linux promises it made back in 1999. I’m obviously biased, but I’m interested in hearing if anyone has thoughts on this topic.
Here’s the report: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/linux/pdfs/GCG_IBM_and_Linux-9_years_later.pdf
The opening teaser:
In 1999, IBM issued a series of announcements fully committing the company to supporting Linux. IBM vowed to Linux-enable all of their hardware platforms, including their non-x86 based mainframe, mini, and RISC-based systems. They also promised to release Linux versions of their software products and develop
Linux-centric service practices. Moreover, they pledged significant resources to the Linux community with the goal of advancing Linux and open source technology.So, nine years later, did IBM deliver on these promises? Was their commitment to Linux genuine or just lip service? This report examines IBM’s current Linux products, services, and community support in light of the promises they made in 1999…
While I think it’s obvious IBM has been a huge investor in the Linux community, one thing that I noticed reading the report is just how much IBM is actually different from other community members. There are some noticeable differences in the investments and approach to supporting the Linux platform and community. I often forget to just take in all the Linux technologies IBM has been heavily involved in from Xen, KVM and libvirt to filesystems, to systemtap, kprobes and then there’s RAS, scalability and performance enhancements.
Another interesting thought to reflect on is just how important it has been that there are multiple investors in this field. If this report captures just what IBM did, think of the industry combined. IBM couldn’t have done anything this big with Linux if it weren’t for co-creating with a community of enthusiasts, researchers, governments, Intel, AMD, Google, Nokia, Motorola, Oracle and thousands more. What would the report look like if you compiled all the investments and work the entire community leveraged across the industry. Linux is “bigger than huge” when you stop to think about it. This is also why I’ve said for a couple years now when you extend the investment model 3 to 5 years into the future, Sun and its anti-Linux, Solaris push against the tide of the industry loses in the end. I think we’re starting to witness that now. Sure, OpenSolaris is a great idea… it’s just 9 years late and it’s too late to matter now.
I’m interested in outside perspectives too - where do you think IBM stands? Has the community development and investment model worked? Where will this lead in the future and what will be the next evolution of the model? Red Hat seems to think the model will evolve to include increased customer co-creation - I tend to agree. Why? Because the incentive model to invest aligns very well - and when you have alignment, it almost naturally will happen.
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
McKinsey: “The next step in open innovation”
There’s a great article over at McKinsey Quarterly’s website on the next step in innovation. It offers a peak into where companies are headed now that they’ve (well some at least) established basic means for tapping into open innovation through communities. To access the full article you need a login.
For most companies, innovation is a proprietary activity conducted largely inside the organization in a series of closely managed steps. Over the last decade, however, a few consumer product, fashion, and technology businesses have been opening up the product-development process to new ideas hatched outside their walls—from suppliers, independent inventors, and university labs.
Executives in a number of companies are now considering the next step in this trend toward more open innovation.1 For one thing, they are looking at ways to delegate more of the management of innovation to networks of suppliers and independent specialists that interact with each other to cocreate products and services. They also hope to get their customers into the act.
I was particularly interested in the hurdles to evolving towards a more participative value chain model. These are the four hurdles McKinsey identified:
- Attracting and motivating cocreators
- Structuring problems for participation
- Governance mechanisms to facilitate cocreation
- Maintaining quality
I would add a fifth challenge which is maintaining visionary leadership. The challenge is that when a company open up to such participation, it’s too easy to justify investment in innovation to solve what customers, suppliers, etc are asking for today. What’s difficult in an environment with tons of user input is to also step back and recognize where you *should be* beyond what’s being asked for today. Think of Apple. If Apple had asked and listened to its customers about what to do next with the iPod next, customers would have posted a million points about X, Y, … N feature enhancements they’d like to see. What Apple did instead is look beyond what was right in front of everyone and set a strategy to take over the mobile device people carry with them. Apple looked further ahead and built an SDK platform for enterprise applications. They set a brilliant strategy that has now resulted in the iPhone becoming the next generation of what was just a music playing device. How many people will carry and iPhone and an iPod? Now look at the boost to Mac sales and you can see Apple has executed this strategy very well.
This challenge is also present in open source communities. Often the community will set many resources to what gap is in front of someone willing to speak up and complain or advise. The challenge is for that community to look a step ahead and identify what are the needs your users will want 3 years from now, not today.
I’ve diverted from my starting post, but while I thought the article was great, I felt compelled to add my personal addendum. The bottom line is that I think companies need to build into their open innovation model a means to capture this longer term vision either from the community if possible (without community NDAs) or through internal means.
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
The next generation
Interesting comic… how will learning evolve - and what do we define as learning in an age where limitless information is available clicks away? I think the education system needs to refocus on teaching “how to think” and “how to analyze” versus memorization.
Friday, June 20th, 2008
Red Hat bridges patents to the GPL - without coupons
Red Hat made a very interesting move in resolving patent litigation and opened a new intellectual property bridge between GPL software and patent rights. Red Hat fought for the community on this one settling with provisions to also protect up/downstream developers and distributors. This really was a crafty move and the SFLC appears to have blessed it as well. Groklaw quotes Eben saying:
“Red Hat’s settlement of outstanding patent litigation on terms that provide additional protection to other members of the community upstream and downstream from Red Hat is a positive contribution to the resources for community patent defense. We would hope to see more settlements of this kind–in which parties secure more than their own particular legal advantage in relation to the third-party patent risk of the whole FOSS community–when commercial redistributors of FOSS choose to settle patent litigation. SFLC welcomes Red Hat’s efforts on the community’s behalf.”
I need to spend more time thinking about all the implications of this, but one thing is clear… Steve Ballmer was not required to build this “bridge” ;-)
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Red Hat adds more virtualization and KVM into the mix
Anthony points out some interesting news regarding Red Hat, virtualization and in particular, KVM. IBM is also involved in building out these capabilities. If you read my site often, you know I’m already a big KVM fan.
“IBM works closely with Red Hat and the open source community to drive innovation within the Linux kernel,” said Daniel Frye, vice president, open systems development at IBM. “IBM has a heterogenous approach toward virtualization, with KVM one of several options. KVM leverages the core features of the Linux kernel, including paravirtualization interfaces contributed by IBM engineers. By combining Linux virtualization infrastructure with open management interfaces such as CIM and libvirt, we gain a solution that eliminates lock-in and open source community innovations, we are able to offer our customers a solution with outstanding performance, scalability and agility.”
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
Download Firefox 3 Today
http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.0&os=win〈=en-US
Let’s break a record…
UPDATE: The site is back up if you were experiencing download issues earlier.
Monday, June 16th, 2008
Nonsense in software distribution
Why is it that I can have a box with a DVD and 200 pages of printed software manuals delivered in 3 days to my doorstep for $50 cheaper (buying from Sony on Amazon.com) than to just pay for and download the software off a digital software distribution site (Sony’s own site)? Does something about this not make sense to you?
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
Wall Street’s Linux Frenzy continues; so does FUD
Just saw this on Slashdot today:
Market watcher Tabb Group estimates that Linux adoption among the 14 biggest investment firms this year will reach more than 72% of the installed operating server base vs. 60% in 2006
I’ve always known the financial markets companies in NY were big on Linux, but even I was a bit surprised the percentage has gone up from 60% to now being 72% of the installed OS base. 72% - wow!
Now aside from that reference to Linux dominating the install base, this article was very, very poor. It’s littered with nonsense about open source software licensing being an issue and companies being fearful of having to give up the code they change. Rubbish. First, I know that the investment firms that would have been surveyed know far more about open source software licensing than just about any IT user set. They know exactly what they’re doing, and believe me, they’re not afraid (heck, they’re using Linux everywhere!).
I don’t know Ellen, but I really wish authors would spend more time talking to the users they portray knowing insights about and not vendors or analysts pushing an agenda… Perhaps Ellen cross-checked with actual users, but knowing who I’ve spoken to, this is not that big an issue with the Wall Street crowd as the article makes it out to be.
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
El Reg: “OpenSolaris still has some Linux copying to do”
I had to laugh when I saw the headline, but it appears OpenSolaris’ attempt to copy Linux has a few shortcomings. It’s certainly better than Solaris 10, but in my experience, the drivers were an issue as was the lack of packages in the database. Another issue I was fed up with was the lack of gnu tools as the default but perhaps that’s unreasonable to assume the guys at Sun would change. Finally, just because OpenSolaris had similar software (e.g. Gnome) don’t expect it to be as well integrated and polished - try customizing or changing the default settings and you’ll see what I mean.
On the other hand, OpenSolaris will be helpful for Solaris developers who are tired of the server OS for development. If you’re already using Linux, why go back in time…
BTW, has anyone heard the phrase, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”? Now it’s time to imitate a community development process… and then these other issues should iron out over time ;-)
Friday, June 13th, 2008
The world loses a great man
I was stunned today when my wife sent a text message that Tim Russert had died. Unfortunately, it was true. Ironically I share two alma maters with Tim - JCU and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. I met Tim only once and only to shake hands at a John Carroll University event. I don’t know of another public figure with Tim’s absolute integrity, respect and passion.
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
June 17: Firefox 3
It’s official - June 17. I’ve been using v3 for a while now in beta and previews - it’s fast, really fast. I was having issues with Google Maps, but hopefully v3 will have the bugs fixed. If not, my fault for not reporting them ;-)
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Heading to Boston
I’ll be in Boston tonight through Fri - if you’re around and want to me up, send me an email or call my cell.
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Microsoft “Gets the Facts” on Windows Server 2003 (forgets the facts on Linux)
Interesting omission from Microsoft’s energy efficiency comparison ;-)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/11/microsoft_windows_server_2008/
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
New Cell processors kick supercomputing into the next generation (and efficiently)
Cell processors are kicking some processor silicon - 10x the closest competitor is a huge leap forward - 10x in a field that includes the best of the best and seemingly unlimited funding.
A “suped-up PlayStation 3″ powers IBM clusters to 1 petaflop performance - 10 times faster than its closest competitor.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Infrastructure/Los-Alamos-Computer-Fastest-Ever/
And guess what operating system powers this giant? Yep, Linux. The same Linux that is also the most power efficient OS for servers.
Roadrunner uses open source Linux software from Red Hat and is more efficient than most supercomputers, delivering 376 million calculations per watt, according to IBM. That should be enough to place Roadrunner among the most energy-efficient systems on the Green 500 list coming out later this month, IBM says.
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
NetworkWorld: “Red Hat Linux pulls as much as 12% less power than Windows 2008 on identical hardware”
URL: http://www.networkworld.com/research/2008/060908-green-windows-linux.html
An amazing story of the value the Linux community development process brings to the table in solving user problems. Now that Microsoft knows there’s a problem, their engineers have to spend months identfying where there’s a problem, months identifying who will have to fix the problem and how, and months fixing the issue. Then the issue(s) may have to wait until the next Windows release, or do they roll out in an update.
Either way, the community developing Linux saw the pain point right away a long time ago and built in “green” features that today show up in the stable RHEL kernel. This is just another example of when community based development can outperform because of the open contact with user communities.
For this test, we examined power consumption as a way to judge whether Windows Server 2008 or Linux is, in fact, the ‘greener’ operating system. As the price of power hits record heights, power reduction mechanisms shipping within an operating system should play a key role in you energy conservation plan.
…
The results showed that while Windows Server 2008 drew slightly less power in a few test cases when it had its maximum power saving settings turned on, it was RHEL that did the best job of keeping the power draw in check across the board.
Monday, June 9th, 2008
Amazon.com and Twitter are down…
What’s going on today? The internet is broken…
http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/1206/
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