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Google makes Chrome OS open source
Google made the early code available to the open source community and claims external developers will have the same access to the code as internal Google developers.... Continued »
Category: Distributions
November 18th, 2009
Competition made Microsoft open source embedded .NET
Regular readers here have probably guessed why Microsoft decided to open source .NET Micro under the Apache 2.0 license.
Competition.
Makers of embedded devices have been moving strongly into open source, especially Linux, and Microsoft was at great risk of being left behind. The announcement was made at the company’s Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles.
The news comes against the backdrop of falling market share for Windows Mobile, and increasing market share for Microsoft open source, as revealed in the latest Black Duck figures. They’re not being nice here, they’re being practical.
Here is how Microsoft community development manager Peter Galli put it on his blog:
The result of this is that the .NET Micro Framework has become a seamless development experience, bringing a single programming model and tool chain for the breadth of developer solutions, all the way from small intelligent devices, to servers and the cloud. There are also no more time-limited versions.
Note that Microsoft is not open sourcing the TCP/IP stack that .NET Micro links to. That’s someone else’s. But the news will let developers create Internet-linked device networks using .NET. It gives Microsoft an in to a technology open source, and Linux, were threatening to run away with.
The handwriting was probably on the wall here years ago, when Linux bought Wind River, and when innovative start-up Cavium bought MontaVista resistance became futile.
It must be noted that software is just a small part of any embedded, Internet-linked solution. It doesn’t mean you’re getting something for nothing, because the chips the software is expressed in are sold as part of larger devices.
It’s all part of a vision I covered early this decade of wireless networks acting as application platforms, using Internet standards to create systems for home automation, medicine and entertainment that are always on and live in the air.
Now Microsoft has a viable play in this game, and this is very good news for .NET developers.
November 16th, 2009
Montavista embedded Linux eaten by Cavium
Embedded Linux is proprietary by its nature.
Expressing software inside a chip, then selling the chip, gives embedded Linux a business model, but that business model is tied closely to the success of the chip being sold.
So as chip makers have turned to Linux to power their new designs they have bought the software houses that pushed embedded Linux. Intel bought Wind River and now Cavium has bought Montavista.
LinuxPundit Bill Weinberg is troubled by this, but not for the reason you think. Very few of these companies are left now, and those are very small. But Weinberg is concerned more that Montavista failed to bag the really big bucks it was seeking at its founding 10 years ago.
What embedded Linux means for users and software developers is that there are open source on-chip tools you can write to and use for building bigger applications. Who controls the embedded Linux company is less important than that it succeed.
Cavium is considered a “start-up” networking chip company, but it’s doing some cool and interesting stuff.
This month Cavium showed a networked high-definition WiFi design, dubbed netHD, that can move 1080 HD feeds around your home on an 802.11n set-up. It’s working with Hitachi on “security processors” and drives the latest Netgear firewall. Despite continuing losses stock buyers have bid the company up to $850 million.
One can argue that, while Montavista hoped to sell for more, its investors are now getting a taste of a fast-growing proposition. And their success, Cavium’s success, will be open source’s success as well.
NOTE: My apologies to those who like to engage in flame wars here, for delivering a story that contains nothing but good news. How about this….Microsoft! (Stallman?)
November 11th, 2009
Linux to your grandma this Christmas
It’s really just another demonstration of what Linux can do.
It started with a BBC story and quickly became an Internet detective piece.
(If you recognize this picture you’re either a middle-aged Brit or a trivia expert. The lady at the center is the entry point for what follows. She is shown in her mid-1960s heyday hosting the BBC children’s show Blue Peter.)
According to the BBC former children’s presenter Valerie Singleton (center at right), now running a Web site of discounts for seniors, got together with a small computer store chain recently to offer a PC for older folks who’ve never touched one before.
On start-up users could first see a video from Ms. Singleton, demonstrating the basics, then face six big buttons for applications that are all built-in.
A BBC reviewer called it both patronizing and expensive, but the 80 year-old computing newbie he brought with him appreciated the gentle learning curve. We all know so much, even kids know so much, about computing, that going back to a time when it was all new is hard to conceive. But for some that’s reality.
Then came the detective work. I wanted to verify what the BBC was saying, after all.
- Singleton’s Discount Age makes no mention of the offer on its home page — you have to go inside.
- The man credited by the BBC as the designer makes no mention of the offer on his own blog — he’s drinking in sorrow over turning 42.
- The computer store is a billboard site.
- The help site referenced in the story makes no mention of the offer.
- There is a Linux called Simplicity, which released a new version last month, but it’s apparently no relation to what Singleton is trying to do. (Simplicity Linux focuses on making old hardware useful.)
Turns out all this is a sales channel. Valerie Singleton, her site, the computer store, the designer, they’re all acting as a channel for Eldy, an Italian outfit which offers a Linux interface based upon Linux Mint, focused on the needs of old newbies.
Which means our detective story has become A Christmas Carol.
Let’s say you have a grandma, or grandpa, here in the U.S., who has never used a computer, claims not to care, but whom you know is just blustering because they don’t know the first thing of what to do.
Check out Eldy. They have a nice slide show on their home page demonstrating the features and benefits of the software.
Then, if you like, download Eldy to whatever hardware you have, load it on an old laptop, and spring it on them for your Christmas visit, sitting by their side as they learn it.
They won’t have Ms. Singleton, but your American grandma likely doesn’t know Valerie Singleton from Adam’s Off Ox.
Once grandma gets the hang of things, they can turn off the Eldy interface and have a solid, basic Linux to work with. They’ll be programming rings around you by Easter.
Who says Santa Claus has to have a long, white beard, or that he only cares about the needs of children? We’re all children — you, me, Valerie Singleton, and your grandma — inside.
Help one this Christmas.
November 9th, 2009
Where should Mozilla go from here?
Five years into Firefox, the Mozilla Foundation’s plans seem mainly geared to an aggressive release schedule, so that the browser can compete with Google Chrome.
There is irony here, because the bulk of Mozilla’s income comes from Google, in the form of royalties on the Google search box which sits on the upper-right corner of the program’s interface.
Thus we have a browser created to stop the Microsoft monopoly pushing what some say is the next dangerous monopoly, that of Google.
Firefox is not Mozilla’s only project. There is the Thunderbird e-mail client, the Bugzilla bug tracking system, and SeaMonkey, which combines Firefox and Thunderbird with Web development tools and chat.
But Firefox is what Mozilla is known for, and most of its work, and that of its add-on makers, is devoted to Firefox and the technologies that emerged from it.
Firefox has transformed the Web, by creating real competition to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The question to ask today, however, is where does Mozilla go from here?
- Can Mozilla expand its funding sources to become truly independent of Google?
- Can Mozilla create real market share outside the browser?
- Should Mozilla be focused on browser share, or leave that to Google Chrome and concentrate instead on HTML-related technologies?
- What is Mozilla, in the end? What does the Foundation want to be?
These are the questions born of success. They are not attacks on Mozilla, but the most successful experiment always raises more questions than it answers. Mozilla is, as they say when a soccer team is attacking, “asking the questions.” Which questions should it be asking?
Where, then, does Mozilla go from here? Now that certainties have disappeared, how does its dreams survive? In an open source world, these are not just questions for the Foundation’s directors. They are also questions for you.
November 9th, 2009
The importance of Sixth Sense going open source
No one can say Sixth Sense is not innovative.
The creation of Pranav Mistry, a PH.D candidate at MIT’s Media Lab, it’s described as a “wearable gesteral interface” whose hardware comprises a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera.
(The illustration is from Mistry’s Web site.)
Mistry’s idea is that these components will be worn like pendant, with the computer they’re wirelessly connected to kept in a pocket.
Using Sixth Sense, data is displayed in the air and manipulated using hand gestures. When Mistry is demonstrating it, he looks like a magician.
It’s cool. And it’s going to launch as open source.
“I don’t want this to comply with some corporate policy,” he told Rediff while in India demonstrating the interface at the TEDIndia Conference. “I want people to make their own system. Why not?”
Mistry’s decision has meaning beyond Sixth Sense. The desire of inventors is always to get their work into the market as quickly as possible. Usually this means waiting for it to be turned into a useful, profitable invention. Mistry is bypassing this by going straight to open source.
There is no report on which license he will use, but whichever one he does choose he has put paid to the canard that open source and innovation are incompatible, for all time.
November 6th, 2009
Why Google released Closure Tools
Javascript.
The release of Closure Tools by Google under an open source license is all about putting more muscle behind Javascript, whose underlying Java language is under a cloud due to the Oracle-Sun merger.
Web developers face a choice between using Javascript and the Microsoft AJAX Library, part of .Net, in developing Web applications. Google would rather you use tools it depends on, its AJAX Library, and its Web Toolkit.
As C}Net’s own Stephen Shankland notes today, Google has pushed Javascript to its limits in GMail and Google Docs, and developed its Chrome browser in part so Javascript could run faster. Google likes Javascript like Cookie Monster (above, from yesterday’s Google home page) likes cookies.
Anything Google can do to make Javascript more valuable to you is in its best interests, and the tools described on its blog today are pretty marvelous.
- Closure Compiler is a Javascript optimizer that packs code tighter than your best friend’s jeans.
- Closure Library is a Javascript library with low-level utilities and high-level widgets that work on a wide variety of browsers and can be called on as-needed.
- Closure Templates are implemented for both Javascript and Java, so they can be called from clients or servers.
It is indeed, as one wag put it, a Javascript candy store. It wants to be your favorite candy store. It wants to be your only candy store. No Pepsi, Coke.
November 3rd, 2009
Skype plays footsie with open source
As I wrote earlier today, when something goes open source we should ask how.
So in contrast with Yahoo’s open sourcing of Traffic Server, let’s talk about Skype’s “open source” move.
Yahoo was trying to build value from community. Skype is trying an embrace and extend strategy like that of Blackboard.
To its credit Skype is being frank on that.
Yes, there’s an open source version of Linux client being developed. This will be a part of larger offering, but we can’t tell you much more about that right now. Having an open source UI will help us get adopted in the “multicultural” land of Linux distributions, as well as on other platforms and will speed up further development. We will update you once more details are available.
It’s a half-cheer for open source.
All Skype really plans to open source is a Linux version of its client. The protocol remains proprietary. So if you have a Linux phone (Moblin, Android, etc.) and want to support Skype’s proprietary protocol on your new hardware, you can.
This is the first technology move by Skype since eBay sold it to private investors for $2 billion , followed by assorted legal shenanigans. Everyone involved in that deal wants to protect that value.
But telephony is a low-bandwidth application. Its value going forward shouldn’t be voice as-such, but the integration of voice with other computer applications. In that world being wholly proprietary is a disadvantage. But opening up completely may be seen as giving away the goose that lays golden eggs.
Skype is caught east of the rock and west of the hard place. It knows it needs an open source strategy, but it fears giving itself away.
My view is this is not going to end well.
November 3rd, 2009
Yahoo does right by Traffic Server
It’s easy to become obsessive over whether a piece of code is open source.
How code becomes open source can be just as important. Is it being given the resources and sponsorship necessary to grow? Or is it being tossed over the side of a sinking ship?
By those standards, Yahoo has done its Traffic Server, acquired early this decade along with Inktomi, a solid service, placing the code with Apache.
The code is available right now from Apache’s incubator. This brings the number of incubator projects to 36.
Traffic Server is designed to optimize Web sites by caching popular content at the network edge, closer to users. It’s not something Google needs — they have their own solution — but it could be very useful for relatively new, fast-growing sites. It can keep them from going down when everyone “rushes to the rail” for access.
The software is being released in time for ApacheCon, which plans a Meetup on the software at 8 PST tonight. If you’re at the Con go to Room 4. There you can get the lowdown on features, performance and history from people who have actually written code.
Shelton Shugar of Yahoo told CNET’s Stephen Shankland that Yahoo hopes Traffic Server grows like Hadoop, the cloud computing technology that has since spawned the start-up Cloudera.
What do you think it can be?
November 2nd, 2009
Mozilla goes back to the beta with Firefox 3.6
Barely four months after launching Firefox 3.5, Firefox has shipped its first beta version of Firefox 3.6.
Mozilla takes release numbers seriously. As our own Stephen Shankland notes, this is not Firefox 4, nor is it Firefox 3.5.x. It’s being pushed as a minor tweak, one with no visible user interface changes.
There are two ways to look at this.
- Oh goody. Mozilla is increasing the pace at which it delivers updates and upgrades.
- Oh bother. Does this mean Firefox 3.5 is buggy and insecure?
Among the features in the new release:
- Personas, a set of “skins” for the browser surround of menus.
- Alerts on delivery of new plug-ins.
- Support for full-screen native video.
- Support for WOFF fonts.
- New support for CSS, DOM and HTML5.
If you have ever thought to yourself, “gee, I’m not a programmer, and I can barely afford my daily bread, how can I help an open source project,” here is your answer. Download this buggy code and report on what’s wrong so it can be made right.
No excuses if you’re Basque or Czech or Georgian. This beta has you covered. Yes, even if you’re Telugan, the new Firefox beta understands you. Download it now.
Oh, and feel free to complain below.
October 29th, 2009
Ubuntu Karmic Koala launches
Ubuntu 9:10, known as Karmic Koala, has officially been launched at Ubuntu.
Correction The original story incorrectly identified reviews for the release candidate of Ubuntu 9.10 as being for the final version of Ubuntu 9.10.
It comes in desktop and server editions, which have been getting wildly different reviews.
Reviews on the release candidate of the desktop version are negative, due to the fact you can’t run multiple drives with the current code base. This means a netbook user may be happy but a desktop user (my desktop has three hard drives) will not be satisfied at all.
The server version is getting stronger reviews thanks to its support for clouds. By using Eucalyptus the company has a decent cloud implementation that should make it more competitive with Red Hat, at least in Europe. (Canonical offices are close to the European mainland.)
Drop your own experiences with the new Ubuntu into the talkback thread below. We’ll be waiting.
October 28th, 2009
What the DoD now says about open source
Open source can be compared directly with commercial software and it offers unique advantages for rapid prototyping and sharing across the military.
Those are the key takeaways in a new memorandum now circulating the Pentagon from deputy CIO David Wennergren (right).
While it’s not a complete endorsement of open source, it does give people a green light to go get some.
The Wennergren Memo says that open source should be included in any market research on department needs, and also debunks some common myths that have been spread by commercial vendors:
- Open source places no restrictions on who can use it.
- Instructions against use of public domain code should not be interpreted to apply to open source, as government employees can fix bugs.
- It is not true that any improvements to open source must be distributed to “the community” (including potential enemies). They can be legally shared throughout the DoD under any open source license and kept there.
- Release of open source code can be controlled, and should be done when in the government’s interest, when the government receives “unlimited rights” on upgrades, and where there is no law, like an export control, that might stand in the way.
The memo says additional information will be posted at the Defense Department Web site and encourages use of the official military software forge at http://software.forge.mil.
Cut through the bureaucratese and you do have a remarkable turnaround in attitudes. Under the previous Administration contracting was the only way to go. Now officers are being allowed to try do it yourself solutions.
That’s a very big deal.
October 27th, 2009
Will OpenSolaris survive Oracle?
With Apple having followed through on its promise to dump the ZFS file system, and Oracle still preparing to take over Sun any time now, we should consider the future of the technology, and perhaps the OpenSolaris operating system it rides on.
OpenSolaris was Sun’s attempt to secure a future for what had been its proprietary Unix. It has some advantages over Linux, on which its advocates will gladly bend your ear over a couple of beers.
But there’s a curious thing about technical advantages in the age of open source. They don’t matter as much as they once did. After all, if open source can compete with proprietary products that have decades’ head start and armies of programmers behind them, how big is an open source program’s technical details?
Open source has taught some hard lessons.
It’s pretty clear that the programming of a few little features don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy software world. Oracle has its Unbreakable Linux program in which it has invested heavily. Does it really make sense for Oracle to keep carrying OpenSolaris, or is it time for Larry Ellison to tell it, “Here’s looking at you, kid” and just walk away?
Best movie ever? You decide at Amazon.com.
October 26th, 2009
Ubuntu celebrates Thursday drop of koala desktop and server
Ubuntu held a teleconference this afternoon to celebrate the Thursday launch of its new desktop and server edition, karmic koala.
The new desktop is built around “Ubuntu One,”a collection of backup, note and contact synchronization and file-sharing services integrated into the operating system, offering 2 Gigabytes of free storage and more by subscription.
The Firefox 3.5 browser and improved audio support are also part of the offering. GNOME 2.28 is the shipping desktop interface.
On the server side the situation is more cloudy, but in a good way with the addition of full support for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, from Eucalyptus Systems, that lets you create your own mini-cloud based on open source. The clouds feature host and guest virtualization under KVM and guest virtualization under Xen.
Most new features were previewed in April.
A complete online tour of the new desktop is already online. A list of supported netbooks is available, but the company is suggesting you pack a thumb drive with its Ubuntu Netbook Remix when you go to the store, just to make sure. Should make Friday at Fry’s fun.
October 19th, 2009
Microsoft breaks Firefox
Mozilla vice president for engineering Mike Shaver is being polite about it, but basically Microsoft pushed some software into Firefox last week that left users vulnerable to attack.
(Wise guys might confuse this Three Stooges bit with a recent Microsoft security meeting.)
Windows Presentation Foundation (which those with a sense of humor now call Windows Thepresentation Foundation or WTF), along with .NET Framework 3.5 (which is now OK), were originally pushed as part of Windows in February, and their problems within Windows were fixed in May.
On Tuesday Microsoft pushed a patch to fix the problem within Internet Explorer. So if you’re patching your Microsoft browser your Firefox is safe. Let me repeat that. Microsoft insists its MS09-054 patch made even Firefox users safe.
But if you’re not following Microsoft directions then WTF you may now be vulnerable to exploit. So Mozilla told Microsoft it would “blocklist” both WTF and the .NET Framework, backing off on the latter after discussions with Microsoft.
The WTF plug-in supports an XML-based user interface called XBAP, and lets its XAML applications run. But the technology was vulnerable to a “drive-by” exploit, in which your hitting a specific Web page would download malware.
I’m reading a lot of blog posts calling this deliberate, even malicious. I don’t think it is. I suspect Microsoft is confusing its convenience with users’ security desires, rationalizing that this power lets it fix security holes automatically.
But its technology makes Microsoft the potential source of great big security holes, which can leave it with egg on its collective face. The kindest thing one can say is that this is vaudeville comedy. Others will call it burlesque or, perhaps, a horror show.
What’s your view?
October 14th, 2009
Why Mac open source gets no respect
For a system evolved from a BSD Unix the Mac OS does not get much respect from the open source community.
There are Mac-only programs in the open source firmament. AppleJack is a nice troubleshooting assistant. The XBMC media center . has no counterpart in the Windows world. Fink connects the Mac to the Linux open source mainstream.
NOTE: The XBMC folks write to say that there are versions of their software for both Windows and Linux, as well as the Mac.
But most of the popular Mac open source products out there are familiar to Windows users. These include the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox and Thunderbird, Gimp, and the VLC Media Player.
Why hasn’t open source made more of an impact in the Mac universe? Following are some theories. Feel free to add your own, or just heckle:
- Mac people are users. As opposed to programmers. When your initial bundle is filled with usable software who needs to go into the code?
- Steve wouldn’t like that. Apple is not friendly to open source. Their attitude makes the relationship between Microsoft and open source look like a first-class bromance.
- No critical mass. I don’t mean there aren’t enough Apple users out there, I mean there aren’t enough angry ones. Linux people know they’re on their own, and Microsoft frustration abounds. Are you an angry Mac user? Do you have any other friends?
- No profit in it. A lot of open source effort is driven by the profit motive. How much money can one make in Apple open source?
- Apple gets there first. Apple is quite adept at exploiting new niches within its own ecosystem. The capabilities of its operating system are full available in the commercial market.
- Mac people are upscale. Since Macs generally cost less than PCs, ownership of a Mac shows you are not a penny pincher. This changes the make-or-buy equation, tipping it strongly to buy.
- You’re not looking hard enough. There’s really a ton of Mac open source out there, but PC-using reporters are too lazy to go look at it.
What would you add to this list?
October 12th, 2009
Netgear slammed for doing the right thing
Over the weekend a controversy erupted over Netgear’s shipping some proprietary software with its GPL router, the Rangemax Wireless-N.
This is one of those stupid kerfluffles that give open source a bad name.
Harald Welte, one of the good guys, got things started with a blog post titled Netgear trying to fool their users with “Open Source Router,” (Picture from Wikimedia Commons.) The text doesn’t match the intensity of the headline.
Welte’s complaint is that Netgear did not “study the Open Source market that they’re trying to address.” The company ships proprietary software with the router, then lets users download open source replacements if they wish.
This doesn’t please open source advocates, but they’re not the whole market for this product. Addressing multiple markets with one router is called marketing.
Netgear’s Pat Choudhury explained the company’s position at its Myopenrouter web site.
What makes the router open source is that Netgear lets you flash open source onto it. In fact they give you tools for this, and software. They’re happy if you do, and happy if you then build applications on the open source software you flash.
But if you don’t care, if you just want a super-fast router you can use out of the box, then Netgear wants to have its own software there, software it supports, software it understands. Yes, that’s proprietary software. So what? If you don’t care where’s the harm?
Santa Claus, who does his online business under the name megacoder, immediately chimed in under Choudhury’s post with an attaboy, but I wonder how many times open source advocates need to cry “wolf” when there is no wolf before people stop listening when there is a wolf?
Harald Welte has more power than I do, power he has earned over many years with good works. It doesn’t matter much when I shoot from the lip. It matters when he does.
October 6th, 2009
Netgear offers an open source router that is an applications platform
Netgear launched a new open source router called the RangeMax Wireless-N, a Linux-based unit with both Gigabit Ethernet ports and ReadyShare USB storage access.
The company is supporting the downloading of firmware and community development around the router at a site called MyOpenRouter.com.
This is precisely what I wanted to see when I started writing my blog posts about “Always On” at Corante in 2003.
The idea is that with storage and processing at the router, applications can live in the air independent of the PC. Clients on such a network might include security systems, RFID chips so you could find your stuff, and medical applications living on your body.
I was allowed to speak about this vision at the 2004 Accelerating Change conference at Stanford, and it is gratifying to see it finally being supported.
Unfortunately, router vendors resisted this concept for a long time. Early Linux routers seemed to emerge by accident, after programmers found they were using open source code without releasing it, and they were not supported by marketing.
Now things are changing. It will be fun to see where it goes from here:
- Security systems that can let police watch your break-in in progress, even from their police cars.
- Home automation systems that know when to water the plants and turn the lights on-and-off while you’re gone.
- Music systems that find you and deliver your tunes to the nearest speakers.
- A way to find your keys, your wallet, and your hat if you’re senile or just have ADHD.
- Systems that monitor the aged so they can age at home, not a nursing home.
- Medical systems that monitor your heart and blood sugar while you sleep, so ER techs are there as you have your heart attack instead of your getting the victory hug from the fellow in the brite nitegown.
All this, and more, can be developed on a platform where routers act as servers, wireless does the work of wires, and clients can be as small as a single RFID chip.
Now get to work and make yourself some money.
October 5th, 2009
What Everyblock owes Knight after its open source success
The Knight Foundation, as part of its efforts to improve online journalism, gave a $1.1 million grant for the launch of Everyblock in 2006.
Everyblock used the money to build a GPL code base that aggregates local information for use by news sites. Here, for instance, is its recent report on my home zip code.
Last month, however, Everyblock was acquired by MSNBC. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but should Knight get its money back, even a little of it?
A better question might be, is there any money to get? In making the announcement the Everyblock blog indicated it was really looking for a way to sustain itself after the Knight money ran out, and MSNBC’s investment will go mainly into making the site more valuable.
And the code is still available, all of it, under the GPL.
Founder Adrian Holovaty is mainly involved these days with another open source project, Django, and his own post on the deal drew a string of attaboys from around the world. There are no reports of him tooling around his home town of Chicago in a fancy car, buying fancy threads, building a fancy home or buying Oprah Winfrey dinner.
It wasn’t that kind of acquisition.
Despite this some journalists who commented at the Nieman Lab blog posting about the deal seemed to have a feeling of seller’s remorse. One asked whether all the code was released. Another asked whether revisions to the code would remain open source.
All this upset Holovaty, who responded within the thread that the charges are not true. All the code was released, he said, and he has given Knight kudos in every interview.
At the Online News Association show in San Francisco, Knight journalism program officer Gary Kebbel said future grant language will change. Again, he was not specific.
Andrew Hazlett noted that when “The Civil War” became a huge hit producer Ken Burns repaid much of his grant money. But Everyblock is not “The Civil War”.
There is an assumption among journalists that when a company is acquired its founders become rich. This often happens. More often, founders just breathe a sigh of relief knowing they have survived the experience and their baby has found a new home.
Some statement from MSNBC about the financial facts would probably end the speculation, my guess being that they only paid enough to sustain the project. And MSNBC’s future generosity to the Knight Foundation might be worth a press release as well, whenever that occurs.
But this jealousy by journalists is unseemly and based on ignorance.
In the world of open source projects move from non-profit to for-profit sponsorship all the time. It is normally considered a good thing. It is not a sign the original sponsors are bad. It means they have a solid structure in place to keep development going.
It’s an illustration of just how far journalists live from the real world that they could get jealous over good news.
October 2nd, 2009
Open source and forced obsolescence
One of the primary reasons for FOSS was to fight forced obsolescence.
When something works well you don’t want to spend good money to replace it. Different is not always better.
(I found this little cutie at a blog site in 2005. She’s probably in first grade by now and looks nothing like this.)
But many proprietary companies force you to upgrade anyway. It’s necessary for their business models. A company that sells the market once can’t keep paying its people, so the old stuff must wear out in some way and you must insist the new stuff is better.
I know many people who chafe at this. For them open source is a godsend. They can ignore the siren call of change, use what works, and save money.
But obsolescence is a double-edged sword.
One of the biggest problems open source projects have is that users resist security updates. Unless you patch your stuff when called upon you are insecure, an easy mark for a hacker who can exploit the old code.
In this way bad guys become the best marketers you have. Security patches maintain the link between buyer and seller, providing a steady stream of service that buyers find worth paying for.
Security patches don’t make software functionally better. They are simply necessary, especially if your open source runs under Windows.
But you are left back where you started. The project has a continuing obligation to patch, and a continuing reason to keep dinging users for support. If the project fails users still have the code, but they are on their own against the bad guys.
So is forced obsolescence really a problem, or is it a challenge?
September 24th, 2009
HP supporting Oregon State Linux portal
Hewlett-Packard is quietly lending its support to a new Oregon State support portal for Linux, Communitylinux.org.
The site is hosted by Oregon State’s Open Source Lab and, while its content is HP-centric, it is pointedly not part of the HP domain.
(This happy little penguin is supporting the Linux Foundation’s annual membership drive. Are you?)
The idea is that non-commercial Linux distributions running on HP hardware can find support, even though it’s not officially coming from HP. We’re talking about server versions of Asianux, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE and Ubuntu.
All these programs can now be run on HP servers without violating their hardware warrantees.
Bdale Garbee, HP’s Linux head, indicated at LinuxCon that HP’s support over time will include loading tests and certifications it has done with Linux onto the site so the community can use the data.
It’s a small announcement, but LinuxCon is a small show.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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