A sort of follow up to this post. It looks like Dell is standing strong in its decision to back Blue-ray (which it had a hand in creating) despite Microsoft pressure and incentives to back HD-DVD. The Dell/Microsoft partnership definitely is not what it was just a few years ago. The power balance is slowly shifting and when you add in the legal scrutiny that Microsoft is under, they just can't strong arm like they used to be able to do. If a major vendor like Dell starting to preload OpenOffice.org as a default and then offer Office as an upgrade, it would have major implications. Not only would it impact the profit center of Microsoft, but the precedent would be set. Dell is poised to step out of the shadow that it has been in and be able to make decisions like this without fear of retribution. Does that mean you'll soon see real Linux preloads from Dell? I doubt it, but some day I think it'll be inevitable. It's just a matter of how far away some day is.
Dell, Microsoft, OEM
–jeremy
Archive for December, 2005
Here's a BusinessWeek article that looks at what they consider the five biggest Open Source events of 2005. Not sure I agree with all of them, but it's always good to see the mainstream media report positively op Open Source. I think one thing true about 2005 is that CIO's did buy into Open Source (literally). Companies such as Red Hat did extremely well. In this initial adoption phase though, companies seem to just purchase Open Source as they did with closed source and proprietary items. In a couple years, when they realize the true benefits of buying into the ideals of Open Source, it will be interesting to see how companies like Red Hat do. I'd guess they'll adapt to the times and flourish, but it's going to be a major shift. These are fat times in a lot of ways and things are going to get much more competitive I think. That's good for everyone though, and someday I look forward to a day when the vendors that do the best monetarily are the ones who treat their clients the best and have the best product. In the past, the “No one's ever been fired for buying X” mentality has ruled far too often IMHO…
Open Source, Red Hat, BusinessWeek
–jeremy
With the code upgrade at LQ recently completed, I decided to do some infrastructure upgrades that I had been putting off. Two weeks ago I made the switch from PHP 4.4.x-> PHP 5.1.x and just now I made the change from Apache 1.3.x -> Apache 2.2.x. So far, things seem to be running smooth – almost too smooth. With multiple changes this big I expected more problems. Maybe they're just waiting for a more inopportune time 
I have to say that it's great to finally have a dev server to test these changes out on before I roll them out to LQ. It should be interesting to see how Apache2+PHP5 compare to Apache1+PHP4 with some serious traffic. Anecdotally it seems that Apache2 uses a bit less memory, but that may be a result of the long uptimes that I was used to seeing Apache1 at. If you notice any speed difference do let me know. One thing to keep in mind is that we ran fairly modified and tweaked versions of both Apache1 and PHP4, while Apache2 and PHP5 are mostly stock as it is now. As I am comfortable with the stability of the new setup, I'll get to the tweaking.
Apache, PHP, LAMP, Open Source, Linux
–jeremy
Directions on Microsoft has listed Microsoft’s Top 10 Challenges for 2006. While a couple of them are interesting, one really stood out to me. Deliver Clarity on Managed Solutions (I should also note that I think at least two items are missing from the list, but that's a post for another time). So, why does that one stick out to me? One area that Microsoft has usually gotten kudos in, is the way it treats its channel. It may have strong armed its customers and business partners, but the channel was immune to that. The fact that they are now cannibalizing that is a sign to me that they are a little nervous and looking to generate cash in ways that are somewhat short sighted. If they lose even a portion of that huge channel, their sales will eventually suffer…and with them scooping up huge clients like Energizer, it's inevitable that some channel partners will get a bit jaded and start offering non-Microsoft solutions. After all, if you have to actually compete with Microsoft for the “managed solutions” business, how can you win? This may be the sleeper downfall of Microsoft in 2006 and is something I'll definitely be keeping an eye on.
Microsoft
–jeremy
Looks like there is a lot of speculation that Dell is preinstalling Firefox in the UK. While that is fantastic for Firefox, it may not make a huge difference in actual acceptance numbers, since IE appears to be the default. It will likely make a small difference though as some people will click it out of curiosity. The bigger news here to me is that Dell is finally standing up (albeit in a very small way) to Microsoft. They simply would not have done this 3 years ago. One can only hope that this goes well. OpenOffice.org seems like the next logical step if it does, and from there a true Linux preinstall hopefully won't be too far off. Maybe that EU decision did have an impact, even if only a psychological one.
Dell, Firefox
–jeremy
(Courtesy of Lawrence Lessig) The Creative Commons needs your help. In order to keep their tax free status, they apparently need a certain amount of donations to prove “public support”. The Creative Commons is a great cause and it's our license of choice for the LQ Wiki. I'll be donating on behalf of LQ and would recommend that if possible you donate whatever you can. As of this posting, they need roughly $50,000 over the next 5 days.
CreativeCommons, Creative Commons, Lessig, wiki, Copyright, Open Source
–jeremy
Wow. 2,000,000 posts and 200,000 members. We've certainly come a long way. When I started LQ roughly six years ago, I had no idea it would grow to become what it has. It's been a fun and interesting trip. I'm happy to say that we're still just getting warmed up though. We've recently redesigned the site and have a bunch of new things coming your way “Real Soon Now”. I'd like to thank each and every member for making the site what it is. I'd also like to give an extra special thanks to the mods. They volunteer their free time to make LQ a better place. We wouldn't be nearly where we are if we didn't have what I consider one of the finest mod teams on the planet. As always, if you have any suggestions on how we can make the site better, please do let us know (we really do listen).
LinuxQuestions, Linux, Open Source
–jeremy
LQ will once again be a SCALE sponsor – this time it's SCALE 4X. I look forward to being able to attend the expo this year as last year it was held at the same time I was at a different conference. Ilan has been great to work with and the expo looks to be quite interesting. If you'll be attending drop me a line.
–jeremy
SCALE4X, Linux, Open Source
Well, we've been working on it for the last 12 hours or so straight…but as of about noon LQST the new LQ is up and running. A couple unforeseen issues arose, but they always do. Things actually went a little smoother than I thought they would. That may be due to the multiple test upgrades we did, which really allowed us to shake out a lot of kinks in the process. There are far too many feature and changes to list, so you really should go check it out. Let us know what you think. I also want to thank David for his help on this. He was a key reason why this went as smooth as it did and why it's as good as it is. FWIW, this is only the beginning really. This framework allows is to do some cool things, and we already have some additional ideas on the drawing board. Stay tuned.
–jeremy
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