Interviewed by Ronald Lewis

March 6, 2006 Leave a comment

“Interviews with Ronald Lewis” has just posted an interview with yours truly. I met Ronald at the SCALE 4X top of the Radisson party. He's just starting out and it was a pleasure to be one of his first 10 interviews. He's getting quality names like Mark Spencer (a fellow SCALE 4X attendee) and I wish him the best of luck. I'd like to apologize in advance to Brad for completely and utterly goofing on his last name. Considering I wrote an article for Linux Magazine about memcached just yesterday, I'm claiming temporary insanity. The good news Brad is that your name is correct in the “Tech Support” article.
–jeremy
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Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

2005 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Award Winners Announced

March 6, 2006 Leave a comment

The polls are closed and the results are in for the 2005 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards. With well over 26,000 votes cast, the turnout for this has gotten better ever year we've done it. A couple of mild surprises IMHO this year, but nothing too crazy. I was most surprised to see that the app that won by the biggest margin was bash in the Shell of the Year (89.67%) category. MySQL seems to have pulled ahead a little compared to the last couple of years, which is not necessarily what I would have expected. amaroK managed to unseat xmms as the favorite audio app, despite coming in distant second last year. Finally, I think it's interesting that no single Linux distribution managed to get over 20% of the votes. The winner, Ubuntu, came in at 19.49% with the second place Slackware right on its heels at 19.05% and three others (Fedora, Suse and Debian) at or near 10%. The full results are available here. Keep in mind that these results are anecdotal at best, are only indicative of what the LQ community thinks and are in no way officially meaningful outside that scope. It is fun though, and some edge cases aside I think the LQ community is quite indicative of the general Linux community at large. As usual, I voted for about half losers and no I will not tell you who I voted for in any category :) Congratulations to all the great projects who were nominated. If you've won, an email, certificate and logo will be on its way soon.
–jeremy
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Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

LQ Conference Updates

March 2, 2006 Leave a comment

Due to some last minute unforeseen circumstances, I won't be attending eTech next week. While I hate to miss eTech two years in a row, it just wasn't avoidable. I should be back in San Diego next month for the Desktop Linux Summit though. I will still be attending the SD conference the week after eTech, so all is not lost. Also on the bright side, it looks like some space for us may have opened at LinuxWorld in Boston. I don't have written confirmation yet, but it will be great to once again exhibit at LWE. That sums up the next month or so. I also hope to hit up the MySQL User Conference and possibly Linux World Canada in April, so it's going to be a busy couple months. If you'd like to connect at any of these conference, drop me a line.
–jeremy
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Filed under Linux, LinuxWorld, Main Page, Open Source

OSDL, Say It Ain't So

February 24, 2006 Leave a comment

We all know how silly some of the “Get the facts” benchmarks/reports were. When I saw this commentary on the Linux TCO study that was recently co-sponsored by OSDL, I figured it was just the anti-Linux Rob Enderle we've grown accustomed to. Then I read the report. Let me start out by saying there are some very accurate depictions in the report and I think a report like this was something we needed. But, some of the claims and numbers in this thing are so unbelievable that I'm almost surprised OSDL put their name on it. Have we really stooped to this level…even after calling Microsoft out on it like we did? While the commentary by Rob is also full of a few holes and is greatly exaggerated, the fact that we give him any fodder at all is a bit disappointing. Hopefully I'm just missing something, but let me make a few comments:
* The report starts off comparing itself to older Microsoft studies. This study should have merit on it's own, so the older studies really aren't pertinent IMHO. This is tangential at best and makes the report seem biased. To be fair this is more of a personal gripe than a legitimate compliant.
* A quote from within the report: A large hosting site reported 100% availability across 230 managed servers since October 2001 Wow, 100% over almost 5 years? Not a single reboot, hardware failure, power issue, system upgrade or user error in all that time? I guess it's possible, but 100% seems either highly anecdotal (and includes oh, we didn't count foo, bar or zed when considering availability numbers) or the number is a bit exaggerated (which is something you don't want in a study like this).
* They seem to knock Windows for “requiring twice the memory” of the Linux distributions covered, but if you look at the number they give it's 256M. If you are really purchasing production servers with that kind of RAM at the current prices, please see your purchasing department immediately. The cheapest Penguin box I can find won't even let you go below 1G.
* When comparing pricing, they use Apache/JBoss on the Linux side, which is a J2EE-compliant solution. They for some reason then choose Microsoft ISA Enterprise as the “web server” for the Microsoft side. The problem there is that ISA is not a web server! That is a $23,996 mistake but more importantly shows you that there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the platform. This is the biggest blow to the report IMHO.
* Also on the pricing costs department, the compare RHEL 4AS which is a one year subscription to a product that includes top level 24/7 support with a purchased version of Windows 2003 that would need per incident support. That's apples vs. oranges at best. To be fair there is a little disclaimer about the pricing, but it doesn't give someone without an understanding for the two products an indication of what the numbers really mean. They should have really justed used numbers that are fair to both sides, which is certainly possible.
I'll stop there, but you get the idea. So, while the report contains a ton of highly relevant and highly accurate data, the fact that it is marred by such inaccuracies means that the validity of the whole thing can now be called into question. This report could have been so much more – it could have been proof that we do things right and could have been used as a shining example of why Linux really is better.
–jeremy
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Filed under Linux, Main Page, Microsoft, Open Source

MySQL Makes an Acquisition

February 21, 2006 2 Comments

A bit more on a previous post about the acquisition offer Oracle made MySQL recently. The more I think about it, the more I think SAP is the intended target here. Why? Just look at the money involved. While MySQL is profitable, the numbers involved in the MySQL balance sheet are nothing when you compare them to the numbers involved in the CRM battle Oracle and SAP are locked in. With Peoplesoft and JD Edwards already absorbed, SAP is really the only competition Oracle has at the upper end. By partnering with SAP and MaxDB, MySQL may very well have painted a bullseye on their chest. If Oracle is able to scoop them up, it would severely impact SAP's future plans. I for one am glad to see MySQL is not laying down though. They just announced the acquisition of Netfrastructure, which includes Jim Starkey who will now be working for MySQL full time. Jim is the father of Interbase (which later forked into Firebird) and is extremely well known and respected in the database world. He's been working on Netfrastructure for six years now, as some of the things they've been doing look extremely interesting. One has to presume that his first task will be leading the development of an in house transactional backend for MySQL, but I think long term he will benefit the company far beyond that. While MySQL now has the benefit of learning from the limitations of multiple transactional backends and has a highly skilled lead at developer for their project, one still has to wonder if they can successfully pull off the migration from InnoDB. This is not just from a technical perspective, but also from a perception one as much as they hyped Inno with the release of MySQL 5.x. Here's an interesting interview with Jim, whose departure from the Firebird project as a result of this will surely be missed.
–jeremy
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Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

Google Windows Apps Coming to Linux

February 19, 2006 Leave a comment

More on a topic I've covered before. It seems that Picasa may soon be coming to Linux. This won't be a native port, but rather is being done via a CodeWeaver's middleware layer. This means you probably won't need a wine or CrossOver install, but that Picasa will be compiled against winelib (possibly a custom version). The article is a little light on details, so for now I'm speculating a bit. This is Google's first attempt at something like this, so they appear to be taking the path of least resistance. Realistically, for an app like Picasa which was done Windows only, a port is analogous to a rewrite. With Google leading the way, is this the beginning of a slew of closed source Windows apps running via middleware (as opposed to real ports)? We'll have to see, but my guess is that if this works out for Google, other companies will follow. This clearly has two sides to it. On the plus side, we may get some badly needed apps running on Linux without the trouble of Wine or overhead of VMware. On the flip side, is a middleware layer that is tied to the Win32 API really the way we want to get there? Also of note, the article mentions that a native Linux version of Google Talk should be coming soon, which is probably why Google hired Sean Egan a couple months back.
–jeremy
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The Oracle MySQL Bid

February 16, 2006 Leave a comment

A quick follow up to this post. It looks like Oracle did indeed attempt to acquire MySQL AB. The answer for MySQL AB CEO Marten Mickos? “We will be part of a larger company, but it will be called MySQL”. So, are the 2 recent MySQL-related Oracle acquisitions really just an attempt to get MySQL to play ball and sell? Zend seems to fit into that play nicely (and was part of the recent rumor), since they are part of the P in LAMP. I'm sure we'll find out more in the near future as this all unfolds.
–jeremy
MySQL, Oracle, Zend, Open Source

Filed under Main Page, Open Source

Oracle's Open-Source Shopping Spree – SleepyCat

February 15, 2006 Leave a comment

Looks like at least part of the Oracle shopping spree rumors were based in fact. They have recently announced the acquisition of SleepyCat. That's right – both of MySQL's viable transactional engine are now owned by Oracle. The claim that the two companies don't really compete with each other is now clearly squashed. One has to wonder if these two acquisitions are just a competitive move against MySQL who is starting to encroach on Oracles low end, a reaction to the MySQL/SAP partnership (SAP and Oracle are in quite a CRM battle at the moment and SAP's partnership with MySQL is clearly a move to try to squeeze Oracle out of getting a piece of every SAP install at the DB level), a play to leverage MySQL into an acquisition or a mix of all three. It's possible Oracle is just trying to increase the breadth of their product offerings, but past company history isn't indicative of that. Open Source does offer Oracle some compelling benefits at certain infrastructure levels though, so maybe they are just trying to gain developers and OSS mind share. Interestingly, I got a chance to chat with David (a SleepyCat employee) at SCALE for a solid 30-45 minutes. I learned quite a bit about both the company and their products that I didn't know. They are used in a whole bunch of places from Gmail to Amazon to Cisco routers. Looking through an average Linux distribution, BDB is all over the place. They don't really directly compete with MySQL AB, focusing more on embedded. With the company being private, profitable and widely deployed in addition to being to remaining transactional storage engine you have to wonder – why didn't MySQL AB acquire them before Oracle did? I have no idea at all. After the Innobase acquisition it would have been a natural and logical progression you'd think (although you'd also think MySQL AB would have bought Innobase in the first place). Who knows what the future of BDB and InnoDB are inside Oracle, but the MySQL business division (if they have one) is making me a bit nervous at this point. In what I consider a stand up move, the CEO has posted about the acquisition on the SleepyCat blog.
–jeremy
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Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

Back From SCALE 4x

February 15, 2006 Leave a comment

I've been back from SCALE for a little while now, but some business craziness has been keeping me extremely busy so I haven't been able to comment yet. The event was fantastic – congrats to Ilan and the entire SCALE team…you did a fantastic job. The speaker list was quite impressive and included Andi Gutmans, Chris Dibona, Jono Bacon, John Terpstra and Hans Reiser (who wore an LQ shirt during his talk). As impressive as that list is, that is only a partial list of the talks I actually saw. I often had to miss things I really wanted to see, including what I hear was a interesting one from Adam Leventhal about DTrace. Some of the talks got fairly technical, which is always great. The atmosphere during the event was quite low key and many of the speakers and organizers could been seen walking about and chatting. The expo floor was small, but energetic and included some companies that I don't see at any of the other Linux events I go to. There were seven LUG in all if I counted correctly, which is impressive even for a metropolitan area as large as SoCal. I also had a chance to have a couple drinks with some of the speakers and organizers after the first day. All in all a great time and I definitely hope to be back next year.
–jeremy
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Oracle's Open-Source Shopping Spree

February 10, 2006 Leave a comment

I don't have too much time to put this post together (my plane to SCALE 4X leaves in about 2 hours) but I wanted to make a quick comment on this article about “Oracle's Open-Source Shopping Spree”. This worries me a bit. One great thing about Open Source projects, and one reason I think they are so successful, is that they are free to make technically correct decisions without having to worry about marketing department input, meetings, PHB's or any of the other things you're likely find in a large organization. They are simply free to innovate. Basically, they often avoid this problem. Another benefit is that since most Open Source projects are independent of each other, we get a large amount of choice…and so do they. The Open Source arena may look much different in a few short years if the current trend continues, and I'm not sure it's for the better. If a handful of very large corporations own the majority of successful Open Source projects, I think we lose a lot of the benefits. Now, there are things to gain for the projects – money, stability, a steady pay check, additional resources, etc. If the projects benefit, of course we benefit too. The “price” you pay for that however, is extremely high. Basically, you lose most (if not all) control over direction. I know a flurry of “but the code is Open Sourced, so it doesn't matter” comments may follow, but the reality is that it does matter. If all the developers go with the sale, the amount of work needed for another group of developers to get up to speed is significant. That is if another group of developers as talented is even interested. That is *far* from a given.
The most surprising name in the linked story in my opinion is JBoss. With Oracle having a directly competing project, where would that put the future of JBoss? When Larry says things like: “We are moving aggressively into open source. We are embracing it. We are not going to fight this trend. We think if we're clever, we can make it work to our advantage.” it doesn't instill a whole lot of confidence in me. Clever?? What I'm wondering, is will the Open Source projects of tomorrow simply become a proving ground for a company/technology so it can be swallowed up by one of the huge players. Will successful Open Source companies like MySQL become a thing of the past? It's a great win for the corporations, that's for sure. Why waste money on R&D when OSS will do all the work and you can pick only the choicest winners. You get only cream and expend no real time doing so, just money. Money that you already have and are guaranteed to get more of by filling your stable with only proven winners. I hope that isn't what the future holds, but the current indicators all make me think it may become inevitable. What the means in the long run, I'm not entirely sure. I do have a long plane ride to think about it though. See you in LA.
–jeremy
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Filed under Main Page, Open Source

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