Gates Vs. Google

May 5, 2005 Leave a comment

Although it has a slightly over exaggerated title, Gates Vs. Google, this Fortune article has some interesting info. It's clear that Google has now really gotten under the skin of Gates (and Microsoft in general)… and for good reason. Google has hired a huge amount of Microsoft employees, including some very big names, and has even opened up an office in Redmond. They continue to be first to market on many non-search apps and not only are they first, but often better. The article contains much more info and is a suggested read. One thing is clear – we're in for quite a battle here. This is definitely not going to be Netscape all over again. As one ex-Microsoft employee put it, Microsoft has to play Google's game to compete with Google. That's not something they are used to. Between Google on one end and Linux/Open Source on the other end, Microsoft has not seen competition this fierce in a long long time. Should be interesting to watch and see how they react.
–jeremy

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OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications Approved

May 4, 2005 1 Comment

OASIS has announced that the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0 Specification has been approved. The OpenDocument format is intended to provide an open alternative to proprietary document formats including the popular DOC, XLS, and PPT formats used by Microsoft Office. I've covered the importance of Open Document formats before. The new standard will be the default in OpenOffice.org 2 and support is already in the latest Koffice beta. No word when/if Microsoft will support the standard, but they are an OASIS sponsor. Now that the spec is a standard, let's hope that we get some quick adoption, especially in Government. Using an Open Document standard has many advantages, most importantly allowing you guaranteed access to your data and avoiding vendor lockin.
–jeremy

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Running kernel.org

May 3, 2005 Leave a comment

KernelTrap has an in-depth look at what it takes to run kernel.org. It's always interesting to get a behind the scenes look at what really goes into running a large site. H. Peter Anvin, Nathan Laredo, Kees Cook and team do a fantastic job. Kudos to them and ISC, who donates two Gig-E Internet links. As Linus says, “I have been very happily relying on others to do all the work with kernel.org.” He went on to say, “I've literally never needed to lift a finger for kernel.org maintenance, which is wonderful”. Wonderful indeed.
–jeremy

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Interview with Mandriva (ex Mandrake) Linux Founder Gael Duval

May 2, 2005 Leave a comment

Just posted an interview with Gael Duval over at LQ. Some interesting topics covered IMHO. Thanks again to Gael – he had the responses to the questions to me in about 24 hours, which is insane as I know he's quite busy.
–jeremy

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Microsoft Reaches Out to Open-Source Community II

May 1, 2005 Leave a comment

I've seen some people say that this is just a knee jerk reaction to Microsoft uncharacteristically missing their Wall Street projections. While it's possible, I'd say it's fairly unlikely. Microsoft traditionally doesn't do too many things in a knee jerk fashion. They don't have to. Even when they miss the boat like they did with the Internet, they don't panic. They about face, and get to work. They have enough cash at this point that they still don't have to worry. As I mentioned before, it's possible that they think they can make more money long term by not completely ignoring that Open Source exists. Don't forget also, to really be able to compete with something you need to understand that something (keep your friends close and your enemies closer also comes to mind).

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Microsoft Reaches Out to Open-Source Community

April 30, 2005 Leave a comment

It appears that Microsoft is reaching out to the Open Source Community. While my immediate response was something along the lines of “What are they up to now?”, after reading the entire article and thinking about it for a bit – I think they may be genuinely interested. Why? First, the culture over there has slowly been changing. With a company the size of MSFT this may take a long time, but it's a change that is coming from the inside out. That is, developers within the company are leading the drive. I've talked to numerous Microsoft employees at recent conferences that really some to “get it” and that's encouraging. Second, I think at a higher up level they are starting to realize that, from a business perspective, it's in their best interest to cooperate at this point. They aren't going to be able to squash this Open Source thing as easily as they probably thought they could. There is finally a case where cooperating may help them ship more units and it appears they may be willing to do so. I'd guess it's the middle tier in the company that will be the last to understand all this, but isn't that what you'd expect? So, in the end I would welcome open dialog. In fact, if anyone from Microsoft reads this, I'd even be willing to participate in open dialog. One final note, if you really want to “extend an olive branch”, how about proving that you are serious this time? Opening up document formats would be an outstanding start.
–jeremy

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Still Taking Back the Web

April 29, 2005 Leave a comment

has now hit 50,000,000 downloads. Amazing. If you aren't using Firefox yet, you should really try it out – regardless of what OS you are using. Keep up the good work FF team.
–jeremy

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BPLUG Presentation II

April 29, 2005 Leave a comment

The BPLUG presentation (mentioned here) went well (at least I think it did). There were quite a few other presenters and I learned a bit from each of them, which is always good. If you're in the area I'd recommend you check out the next meeting.
–jeremy

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Open Wallets for Open-Source Software

April 28, 2005 Leave a comment

I mentioned this a while back, but that post focused more on acquisitions. The trend is continuing and VC is now coming back to the Open Source space. JBOSS recently got $10 Million and the articles reports that almost $150 Million was raised by Open Source companies in 2004. Luckily, the funding seems to be a little more rational then it was during the bubble. Hopefully it will stay that way.
–jeremy

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Apple Gets Silly – Again

April 27, 2005 Leave a comment

continues to do its best to make people not like them, which is a shame since they make some really cool products. You may remember they recently sued sites giving them free press. They have now completely pulled all books published by Wiley from their stores, as a result of them publishing a biography on Steve Jobs that they didn't like. Amazing. Imagine if a company like Microsoft did something similar to this…you'd be enraged, right? You should be just as enraged that Apple is doing it (unless the book it factually incorrect and libelous, which it doesn't appear to be). I hope Apple stops acting like this before it is too late – eventually people are going to start caring.
–jeremy

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