Linus Torvalds Interviewed

Business Week has an interesting interview with Linus. He comments on Linux/Open Source innovation, the biggest challenges facing Linux, kernel development organization and process and his role as “benevolent dictator”. One of my favorite quotes:
I am a dictator, but it's the right kind of dictatorship. I can't really do anything that screws people over. The benevolence is built in. I can't be nasty. If my baser instincts took hold, they wouldn't trust me, and they wouldn't work with me anymore. I'm not so much a leader, I'm more of a shepherd. Now all the kernel developers will read that and say, “He's comparing us to sheep.” It's more like herding cats.
–jeremy

Linux Economics II

Another remark I often see posted is that Open Source will put all programmers out of a job. This is not the case though, in reality. Most programming work is custom development done in house. These jobs would not be impacted by the release of gratis software. Another flaw with this thinking is that Open Source (“free”) software must always be gratis. As we have seen recently, this is not the case. In some cases writing gratis software makes a programmer more marketable and exposes him to the world – which will increase his salary and gain a job. There is also money to be made in the implementation and maintenance of this free software. I'd say we can compare programmers working on Open Source in their free time to a lawyer doing pro bono work, a doctor who volunteers at a clinic or a college professor who offers free tutoring after class. I don't think many people would argue that lawyers doing pro bono work puts all lawyers at risk of starving. Would they?
–jeremy
Part I

Pentagon Turns to Linux

Looks like the U.S. Department of Defense is now relying on two 256-processor Linux Networx Evolocity cluster supercomputers to improve on complex computerized battlefield simulations. Good to see that Linux is continuing to make progress getting larger government installs. That part that really struck me was: “David Morton, technical director at the MHPCC, said the Linux clusters were chosen because the Defense Department's procurement program found that they provided the best price/performance ratio for the project.” Why is that important? They didn't use Linux for philosophical reasons, or because they don't like a certain company, or because they read some trumped up “study”. They did the research and found that Linux was the best OS for the job, so they went with it. As others are resorting to FUD, we are gaining ground on technical merit. Kudos.
–jeremy

IBM Files Motion For Partial Summary Judgment

Good to see that things are still moving in the right direction in the SCO case. Things are continuing to unravel for SCOX and one has to wonder how much longer this can go on for. IBM is claiming that all parties involved in the contract between them and AT&T have now provided testimony in discovery that IBM has the right to do whatever it wishes with its own code. They also point out that any potential breech has been waived by Novell on behalf of SCO. Finally they point out that SCO has been offering the the 2.4 Linux kernel for download as recently as August 4, 2004 – which is astounding to me. tick-tock.
–jeremy

Newham Chooses All Microsoft Solution

Looks like Microsoft and the Newham Council have signed a ten year agreement, worth millions, that makes Microsoft the exclusive platform for the London borough. The decision was based, at least partially, on a report done by CapGemini that concluded that the MSFT solution would be 68% cheaper then an Open Source solution. The report was funded by none other than Microsoft. Why people keep using reports that are funded in this manner is absolutely beyond me. It's completely nonsensical. Shockingly, they will also be using IE. Why? “because Microsoft is very serious about addressing security concerns”. They need not look too far to see how silly that statement is. For a bit of proof that OSS is gaining acceptance and people are starting to get it, the media present at the press conference laughed out loud when the reason for going with the Microsoft solution was given. Hilarious!
In unrelated news, I have audited all available Linux websites, and have concluded the one I run is the best. I also have a bridge for sale cheap, please contact me if you are interested. It is the best bridge available.
–jeremy

Unisys…and Linux??

It looks like Unisys, the company that tried to sue webmasters for using gifs built with GIMP (and other “non-licensed” apps), has the escape from unix, and pushes windows on the mainframe is suddenly a Linux advocate. Now, don't get me wrong – it makes sense that they would like Linux. Sales for their mainframes have been dismal and Linux would surely help sell more…just ask IBM. But does Unisys really get it, or are they in it for a quick buck. And, if Linux on their hardware takes off and Microsoft gets upset, how will they react? Now, it's possible that they really had an epiphany and changed their tune. I'm a bit skeptical based on the history involved, but we'll have to wait and see. What does everyone else think?
–jeremy

Linux Economics

While I don't agree with everything in this article it makes some good points and brings up a topic I continually see – that Linux, and more specifically Open Source, is bad for the economy, will cause famine, and promotes communism. Now, while it's true that some OSS proponents do share some utopian similarities with communistic type ideals, the idea that OSS is anti-capitalistic is absurd. What Linux does do is threaten the monopolies and huge megalithic corporations by leveling the playing field a bit. These companies, in turn, do not like OSS and have the money to lobby against it and spread FUD. The reality is that Linux creates jobs, or at least has the potential to in a “net gain” sort of sense. What do I mean? Since MSFT has quite the monopoly going, they make an extremely large sum of money per employee. So let's say a large company with a lower revenue per employee (ie. most companies) saves 20M by going with a Linux solution. Since MSFT will lose revenue and possibly have to cut people, jobs may be lost (this ignore the fact that with it's current revenue per employee they could handle the same amount of employees with much less revenue). However, the company that moved to Linux will have saved money and can now expand, which means hiring people. Since they make less per employee, they can hire more people with that 20M then MSFT lost. Thus you have a net gain. There are many other ways that OSS is pro-capitalist, and I'll make a point of covering them in the near future. If you have any examples, feel free to comment.
–jeremy

MySQL Licensing Demystified

I've seen a lot of confusion lately regarding the dual licensing that MySQL uses. The MySQL website had included a clause regarding internal distribution that seemed to counter the GPL a bit and it seemed to worry people. This article mentions that the clause has been removed and contains some comments from Zack Urlocker, MySQL's vice president of marketing. It's good to see that MySQL AB is continuing to listen to their customers and stand clearly behind Open Source. To me, they stand out as a true success story. While LQ uses MySQL in a way that I know does not require a license, I am debating getting one anyway as I think they deserve the money.
–jeremy

LQ ISO Linux Download Site

About three days ago, we decided to add some stats to LQ ISO. Before three full days are up, over 1,000 Linux ISO's will have already been downloaded. Not too shabby for a site that is only 10 days old. The site already has 30 distros available and we are adding more very quickly. If you notice your favorite distro or mirror missing, do not hesitate to use the suggest feature.
–jeremy

Linux Adoption Exceeds Oracle's Expectations

This article points out that the rate of Linux adoption has far exceeded Oracle's expectations. From the article:
Linux has been adopted more quickly and saved more money for its users than Oracle Corp. anticipated, said director of Linux engineering Wim Coekaerts. The surprises will keep coming, as Linux 2.6 wows businesses with its high-end functionality and maturity, Coekaerts said, hailing the new kernel as the star of LinuxWorld Conference & Expo.
Companies like Oracle were really waiting for the NUMA stuff that has been included in the 2.6 kernel. NUMA stands for Non-Uniform Memory Access and will allow deployment of apps like Oracle on the 32 and 64 processor boxes that have traditionally been the realm of big iron unix boxes. It's great to see companies realizing the stability and scalability improvements of Linux clusters on commodity hardware.
–jeremy