October 23rd, 2009

Frugal Friday: Mac refresh, Magic Mouse, Verizon DROID, The Nook, Windows 7, Likewise

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 8:00 am

Categories: Business, Desktop, Linux, Microsoft, Open Source, Personal Technology, Virtualization

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Mouse, Verizon Communications Inc., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, E-books, Mice, Operating Systems, Software, Personal Technology

Frugal Networker Ken Hess and I discuss the 4th quarter 2009/Q1 2010 Apple hardware refresh, the new Apple Magic Mouse, the quaintness of keyboards, the new Verizon DROID smartphone, the Barnes & Noble “Nook” Android-based ebook reader, the Windows 7 launch and Windows XP migration solutions, and talk with Barry Crist, CEO of Likewise Software, the Windows networking and identity management interoperability company for Linux, UNIX and Mac.

Click Here to Listen to the October 23rd, 2009 Frugal Friday Podcast.

October 20th, 2009

Who's a candidate for Desktop Linux? Your Kids.

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 11:03 am

Categories: Desktop, Linux, Open Source, Personal Technology, Software Infrastructure, Virtualization, Web Technology

Tags: Desktop, Children, Desktop Linux, Linux, UNIX, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software, Jason Perlow

“Hannah Montana Linux” may not be ready to give to your kids yet, but it’s an idea that has legs.

My partner in crime in the Frugal Tech Show, Ken Hess, who blogs over at Daniweb, recently published his list of Top 10 Linux Distributions for 2009. His readers gave him a lot of feedback due to the exclusion of some of their favorites, so he published a second piece, a “Reader’s Choice” list of their Top 10 based on their submissions.

One of the distributions on that list that caught my eye was “Hannah Montana Linux”. No, I’m not joking.

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October 9th, 2009

Frugal Friday: The Software of Stallman, Psystar/Apple, Parallels

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 7:37 pm

Categories: Apple, Desktop, Enterprise Computing, Free operating systems, General, Hardware Infrastructure, Linux, Open Source, Podcast, Server, Software Infrastructure, Virtualization

Tags: Software, Apple Inc., Psystar, Podcasts, Tools & Techniques, Cloud Computing, Storage Management, Virtualization, Utility Computing, Internet

Frugal Networker Ken Hess and I discuss Ken’s interview with Richard Stallman, Psystar’s newly announced OEM Licensing program for Mac Cloning, the greater implications of hardware and software vendor tie-in, and talk with Jamison Moore of Parallels, the virtualization company.

Click Here to listen to the October 9, 2009 Frugal Friday Podcast.

Disclaimer: The postings and opinions expressed in this podcast are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

October 5th, 2009

Psystar's Thermopylae: The Nightmare Hypervisor Arrives

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 3:54 pm

Categories: Apple, Desktop, General, Hardware Infrastructure, Open Source, Software Infrastructure, Virtualization

Tags: Hypervisor, Apple Inc., Psystar, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Storage Management, Utility Computing, Litigation, Desktops, Hardware

Miami, Florida-based Psystar, which is currently under litigation from Apple for producing Mac-compatible clones and is counter litigating the company for monopolistic practices, has announced that they are OEM licensing their virtualization technology and ICAP so that any PC vendor may easily produce Mac clones.

In July of 2008, in my piece entitled “Psystar’s Thermopylae won’t end Apple’s Clone Nightmare” I wrote the following during the heat of the inital phases of the Psystar vs. Apple imbroglio:

“…If I were Psystar, I’d poison pill the entire situation for Apple by making all of the ICAP they created to build the systems — sans the Apple OS X software itself — available on a public website. Then Apple will have a huge mess on their hands.

Such a thing doesn’t exist now, but give it a year, and Nightmare Hypervisor will rise from the depths to bite a chunk out of Apple’s juicy flesh

Let’s face it — virtualization is eventually going to make the hardware dependent eccentricities of OS X and Mac’s feeble attempts at DRM meaningless..”

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September 20th, 2009

Why I Can Never Be Exclusive to Linux and Open Source on the Desktop

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 5:32 pm

Categories: Business, Desktop, Enterprise Computing, Free operating systems, General, Linux, Microsoft, Open Source, Software Infrastructure, Virtualization, Web Technology

Tags: Desktop, Microsoft Office, IBM Corp., Linux, UNIX, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software, Jason Perlow

My profession as a Systems Architect requires that I live in both the Windows and Linux worlds. But even if I wanted to run Linux exclusively, the file compatibility of the current productivity stack for Linux and the lack of a few key applications that I need for work requires at least a minimal virtualized Windows environment for me to get my work done.

As some of you may I know, I have been a proponent of the Linux operating system and Open Source for quite some time. I’ve been using Linux on a day to day basis in various different incarnations on both the server and client side since 1997 or so, and I served as Sr. Technology Editor of Linux Magazine from 1999 to 2008 where I wrote a column about using Linux as a desktop OS. However, in all that time, I have never been able to use Linux as my exclusive operating environment, due to practical limitations that have kept me from doing so, and I don’t expect the situation to change anytime soon.

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September 4th, 2009

Frugal Friday: Media Outrageousness, Snow Leopard Woes, Mac Virtualization, VMWorld 2009, EU kiboshes Oracle/Sun, Brocade

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 7:15 pm

Categories: Apple, Business, Enterprise Computing, Hardware Infrastructure, Networking, Podcast, Server, Software Infrastructure, VMWare, Virtualization

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Oracle Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., Brocade Communications Systems Inc., Media, European Union, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Storage Management, Server Virtualization

Frugal Networker Ken Hess and I discuss the new “outrageous” trend in media and blogging, problems with the Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 upgrade, Mac Server virtualization, the European Union temporarily halting the Oracle/Sun Merger, reduced attendance at VMWorld 2009, and talk with Harry Petty, Vice President of Marketing for Brocade, the Ethernet/LAN and SAN switching solutions company.

Click Here to Listen to the September 4, 2009 Frugal Friday Podcast

September 4th, 2009

VMFS-3, How Do I Despise Thee

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 2:09 pm

Categories: Business, Enterprise Computing, Hardware Infrastructure, Linux, Microsoft, Networking, Server, Software Infrastructure, VMWare, Virtualization

Tags: Network, File System, VMware Inc., VMWare ESX, Virtualization, Ip storage, Linux, Hardware, Operating Systems, Software

The VMWare Cluster Locking File System, version 3 (VMFS-3) Is one of the core technologies used in VMWare ESX/vSphere 4 virtual infrastructure environments. Unfortunately, it’s also a completely proprietary black box that makes interoperability nearly impossible.

One of the perils of being a practicing systems integration expert versus someone who strictly writes about or reports on technology is that when it comes to taking care of paying customers versus attending trade shows, my customers come first. So while I would love to attend every industry trade show that would allow me to network with other industry peers and touch base with the companies that I write about, it’s not always possible.

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August 31st, 2009

Frugal Tech Show: Speaking with Centrify at VMWorld 2009

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 1:50 pm

Categories: Business, Enterprise Computing, General, Podcast, Server, Software Infrastructure, VMWare, Virtualization

Tags: Security, Centrify, Survey, Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Storage Management, Utility Computing, Hardware, Storage, Jason Perlow

Ken Hess and I talk to Frank Cabri of Centrify, which recently conducted a survey of 500 large businesses which use virtualization in their enterprise. The full results of the study, of which Centrify published today on their web site yielded some interesting and unexepected data:

Virtualization Market Dynamics: The survey results showed that server virtualization platforms are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and they reflect the diversity of OSes in the physical server environments. 58% of the respondent organizations have Hypervisors from more than one vendor. They are deploying bare-metal hypervisors from vendors such as VMware and Citrix while, in parallel, they leverage virtualization technology built into the latest AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, Linux and Windows operating systems. Over 24% of virtualized environments have no VMware at all and are using virtualized using solutions from Microsoft, IBM, Citrix, Sun, HP, and others exclusively and in combinations.

Centrify’s study polled 30,000 enterprise customers, of which 500 returned complete survey results.

Security concerns: The respondents were forthcoming about their security concerns. Though they were implementing a range of security controls, they were not confident about whether they had complete control of the security of their virtual systems.  According to the respondents, security, compliance and operational issues were the top three concerns. 70% believed they had orphan accounts on UNIX/Linux, 44% shared root passwords, 55% were unsure about how well they managed privileged user accounts. Overall, concern about security was the leading reason (46%) that virtualization could be slowed. As the CSO of an enterprise with thousands of servers and more than 80,000 people noted in one of his responses, “We are playing catch-up, cost drivers pushed virtualization without [us] properly looking at [the] security impact.”

Download: Centrify_Virtualization_Survey_Detail_Responses (PDF)

Download: Centrify_Survey_Summary_Presentation (PDF)

Click here to Listen to the VMWorld Frugal Tech Show Podcast with Frank Cabri of Centrify, Inc.

August 30th, 2009

Apple's Snow Leopard Completely Blows It Virtually

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 8:21 pm

Categories: Apple, Business, Desktop, Enterprise Computing, Hardware Infrastructure, Linux, Microsoft, Open Source, Server, Software Infrastructure, VMWare, Virtualization, Web Technology

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Apple Mac OS X V10.6 Snow Leopard, Operating System, Server, Apple Inc., Apple Mac OS X, Operating Systems, Linux, Apple Mac OS, Desktops

Built-in Hypervisor-based virtualization and paravirtualizized kernels are  now de rigueur  with every major x86-based enterprise OS on the planet, including on Linux, on all major UNIX OSes, and even on Windows Server. But on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, it’s nowhere to be found.

I have said on numerous occasions that Apple has missed the boat when it comes to enterprise adoption. This is sad, really, when you consider how good an operating system Mac OS X really is, in that it is the only UNIX-based OS that really could have had any chance in displacing the status quo of Windows and Microsoft hegemony in large enterprise environments with a “full stack” for end-user acceptance as a desktop OS. Consumers may enjoy its niche status, but In the enterprise, Apple is a “Coulda Been” contender of unfulfilled potential.

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August 28th, 2009

Frugal Friday: SONY e-book readers, SCO, Snow Leopard, SCALE Computing

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 8:01 pm

Categories: Apple, Enterprise Computing, Hardware Infrastructure, Linux, Networking, Open Source, Podcast, Server, Virtualization

Tags: Sony Corp., SCO Group Inc., Apple Inc., Computing, E-book Reader, E-books, Open Source, Personal Technology, Jason Perlow

Frugal Networker Ken Hess and I talk about the new SONY e-book reader launch, Apple’s Snow Leopard Mac OS X Update, The status of the UNIX copyrights and speak with Jeff Ready, CEO of SCALE Computing, which sells commodity hardware for clustered scalable storage using open source software.

Click Here to Listen to the August 28, 2009 Frugal Friday Podcast.