What do You Want to Read About?

July 13, 2004 3 Comments

As many of you may know, I write a monthly “Tech Support” column for Linux Magazine. I am lucky enough to be able to write about almost anything (Linux related) that I would like. What I want to know is – what do you want to read about? The column is limited to one page, so topics can't be *too* complicated. If a more in depth topic is of interest to you however, let me know and I will consider it for a longer article that does not run in the “Tech Support” space. Thanks for your feedback.
–jeremy

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Speaking of Major Companies Moving to Linux

July 12, 2004 Leave a comment

According to this article, Oracle will finish switching its 9,000-person in-house programming staff to Linux by the end of 2004. Why?
“By the end of the year, (Linux) is our core platform,” Coekaerts said. Oracle is switching because Linux systems are less expensive and faster, he added.
A few other interesting points:
– The new systems are provided by multiple computer makers and use several versions of Linux from the top two sellers of the open-source operating system, Red Hat and Novell. This seems to be a fairly common trend. Seems that companies like that they can get a quality product from multiple vendors and avoid the vendor lock in that has happened in the past. Imagine that.
– It's not often that Oracle makes such a change. The last time it did so was in the early 1990s, moving from Digital Equipment's VMS to Sun's Solaris, he said. This should serve as more evidence that moving to Linux and Open Source should no longer be seen as a gamble.
–jeremy

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Novell and Open Source

July 12, 2004 3 Comments

A decent read about some of the issues Novell may face as they embrace Open Source. I find it interesting that OSS may be what is finally able to pull Novell out of the gutter. One other thing I find interesting is that the main stream press is still saying things like:
“The perception that Novell is abandoning the NetWare OS in favor of Linux could accelerate the erosion of its customer base, particularly among companies not ready to gamble on open source.”
What I would like to know is, at what point will Open Source no longer be considered a “gamble”? We have OSS companies that are profitable (proving the model works), have major companies moving to Linux themselves and even have governments, which tend to be slow to adopt anything, making the switch. Linux and Open Source are here to stay. It's not a fad. It's not a fluke. The paradigm has shifted.
–jeremy

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Firebird and Mozilla Clarification

July 12, 2004 1 Comment

I've seen some mis-information on this in a couple of places now, so I feel the need to comment. A few days ago a vulnerability was reported in Mozilla/Firebird that allowed arbitrary code execution under windows. What some people seem to be missing is that this was a vulnerability in *windows* not Mozilla. The bug does not effect any OS but windows, and will probably be patched in XP SP2. Why some people are using this to say things like “see, it's not just IE that has problems” is beyond me. While Mozilla surely has bugs, let's view the facts on this one.
– Only Windows is vulnerable
– A Windows SP will address the issue
– A fix was provided by Mozilla within 12 hours of a report on FD
It is simply FUD to see this incident being used as an example of how OSS is flawed. If anything it's an example of how an OSS program was able to work around an OS issue in less than 12 hours, which is quite impressive to me. It's clear that some people still don't get it. We'll keep making our point with code and response times like this, instead of just talking about it.
–jeremy

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BayStar being probed

July 11, 2004 Leave a comment

Looks like BayStar is being probed by the SEC. From the article:
“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at whether hedge funds, tipped off to Pipe deals by brokers, made bets against the companies' stocks before the deals were consumated and publicly announced,” according to the WSJ.
Usually such “bets” are in the form of short sales, sometimes “naked short sales.”
WSJ said BayStar Capital, a California hedge fund, is specifically being probed.
As is almost always the case with SCO news, you can get more info over at Groklaw.
–jeremy

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… they don't.

July 8, 2004 1 Comment

Looks like Dell is distancing themselves from the announcement made by Questar. Dell issued a statement saying the Questar announcement was “inaccurate” and was issued “without Dell input”. Could be that the announcement was not taken well by Microsoft (who OEM's Windows to Dell). Could also be that Dell prefers you by a Red Hat preload from them (unfortunately limited to a very small number of models). Either way, as I said earlier, we need a major OEM or two to step up to the plate and start offering Linux as an option on all models. I don't know which OEM this will be (IBM would be nice), but I have a feeling they will be well rewarded by the Linux community.
–jeremy

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Dell Launches Desktop Linux Line…or do they?

July 6, 2004 Leave a comment

I was happy to see that Dell announced that they had launched a Desktop Linux Line in Europe. Getting a couple major OEM's to preload Linux is absolutely instrumental if we want to get any kind of penetration/acceptance in the desktop market. After actually reading the release, however, this isn't really Dell shipping Linux at all. It's a partnership with a company called Questar. Now, kudos to Questar for partnering with Dell on something like this, but we need one major OEM to step up, and this deal does not qualify IMHO. It may be that Dell is testing the waters so to speak though, so it may be a good sign. Should be interesting and is worth keeping an eye on.
–jeremy

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Want Gmail?

July 6, 2004 7 Comments

Just to see if anyone is reading this, I'll give a Gmail invite to the first person who leaves a comment in this entry saying they'd like one. Have fun ;)
–jeremy

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Use a different web browser II

July 6, 2004 1 Comment

I found it interesting that there is even an article running on MSN that recommends that you ditch IE. So, Are the Browser Wars Back? I think so, and this time the underdog just may win.
–jeremy

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Linux Indemnification

July 2, 2004 Leave a comment

There is a good article up at LinuxDevCenter that covers the many Linux indemnification options that are currently available. While I (and many others) don't think these will be needed in the long run (since they would require that SCO have a case), the reality is that some large enterprises worry about things of this nature. The offerings covered are from Novell, HP, Red Hat and Open Source Risk Management (OSRM).
–jeremy

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