Infrastructure Upgrades at LQ

December 28, 2005 1 Comment

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.
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–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

Microsoft’s Top 10 Challenges for 2006

December 27, 2005 Leave a comment

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.

–jeremy

Filed under Main Page, Microsoft

Dell Pre-Installing Firefox in UK?

December 27, 2005 Leave a comment

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.
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–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Microsoft, Open Source

Creative Commons Needs Your Help

December 26, 2005 Leave a comment

(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.
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–jeremy

Filed under Main Page, Open Source

LinuxQuestions.org Reaches Two Million Posts and Two Hundred Thousand Members

December 20, 2005 1 Comment

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).
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–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

LQ is a SCALE 4X Sponsor

December 12, 2005 Leave a comment

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
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Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

The LQ Code Upgrade is Live

December 3, 2005 3 Comments

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

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

Unpatched IE Flaw Is Worse Than Expected

November 29, 2005 Leave a comment

It looks like a security hole that was reported many many month ago, but considered minor by Microsoft and therefore never corrected, turns out to be a remote arbitrary code execution flaw. My question is why IE holes go uncorrected for this long – this isn't the first time something like this has happened. One thing I found scary is that a full third of the visitors to the SANS site are vulnerable to the problem. Keep in mind that anyone who has even heard of SANS is more security conscious than the average user, so if that amount of people actually visiting the site are vulnerable..well, the situation is bad. In other news, Firefox 1.5 has been released.
–jeremy
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Filed under Main Page, Microsoft, Open Source

MySQL AB to Counter Oracle Buy of Innobase

November 24, 2005 Leave a comment

Another issue that I've posted about before. It looks like MySQL AB may be developing their own transactional database engine for MySQL. From the article: “Obviously because Oracle made that acquisition we are evaluating options to replace that functionality in some way,” said Richard Mason, vice president of MySQL for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). “We're not at the point yet where we can go public with what that plan is but we will be shortly.” So, still not a ton of concrete information available, but it's now clear which way MySQL AB is going to go with this. One still has to wonder why they didn't acquire Innobase OY themselves, when they had the chance. Whether MySQL AB will attempt to write the new engine from scratch or use one of the exiting ones as a base remains to be seen. This could also just be posturing as an attempt to get Oracle to renegotiate the InnoDB deal, but considering the size and histories of the companies involved that seems extremely unlikely. I still find it interesting that Oracle considers MySQL AB a direct competitor – I always considered them an indirect competitor. One thing is becoming clear though, and that is that MySQL AB is in a tough space right now. With SQLite, firebird and PostgreSQL gaining popularity on the Open side and free or extremely inexpensive releases of Oracle, MS SQL and DB2 available on the proprietary side, MySQL is in that sometimes dangerous middle ground. They do however have one significant advantage though, and that is application support. If they can continue the current trend of many popular apps only containing support for MySQL, that could be the wild card they need. As the other DB's gain in popularity though, that may be a tough thing to do.
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–jeremy

Filed under Main Page, Open Source

Microsoft to Open up Office Formats?

November 23, 2005 1 Comment

This is a topic I've covered quite a bit recently and one that I think is extremely important. The main problem I see with this press release is the lack of details. I've seen rumors that only the information to write will be included, which would seem odd, considering MA's main concern was people being able to read Government documents. It should be noted that this is at least 12-18 months off (an eternity in this industry). It should also be noted that this is going to be an ISO standard, not a completely “open” standard. This could get Microsoft the ability to say their documents are a “standard”, without being beneficial to others in the way a standard developed transparently in the open would. How? Let's say they release office version X and then submit to ISO. 12-18 months later the standard is available and people like OOo can properly implement. By the time that is done though, Office version X+1 will be nearing release. Microsoft could completely change the format, submit to ISO and then the waiting game begins again. In reality, the competition's access to the format lags so far behind that it's nearly useless. Sneaky. This is something I'll be watching closely and I'll be sure to post updates as more information becomes available.
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–jeremy

Filed under Main Page, Microsoft, Open Source

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