Why Multiple Competing Standards are a Bad Idea

June 11, 2007 Leave a comment

A good look at why multiple competing products using an open standard is good, but multiple competing standards that do almost the exact same thing are not:

I guess one good result is that Microsoft has encouraged voting for OpenDocument, because that’s the only logical thing it can do if it really believes that having “many conflicting formats are a good thing”. In contrast, there’s no reason that someone who wants a truly open single format needs to vote for OOXML. It’s perfectly reasonable to reject OOXML on the grounds that it conflicts with an already-existing ISO standard (OpenDocument). If there’s something that OOXML does that OpenDocument doesn’t, it would be much easier to add that tweak to OpenDocument, because OpenDocument builds on existing standards while OOXML fails to do so.

Microsoft is not a “universal evil”, and I praise them when they do good things. But encouraging multiple conflicting standards for the same area is not a good thing. In some sense, I don’t care if MS XML or ODF become “the” format for office documents, as long as the final specification is truly open. But the materials noted above lead me to believe that MS XML is not really open; it appears to be effectively controlled by one vendor, both in its current and future forms, as one obvious example. So MS XML isn’t really an option, and we already have a nice working solution.

What I want is a single document format that is fully open. What’s that mean? See Is OpenDocument an Open Standard? Yes! to see what the phrase “open standard” really means. And let’s look at it in practice. Currently I can edit text documents using the program “vim”, and I don’t even bother to ask if the other person uses emacs, or Notepad… just by saying “simple text format” we can exchange our files. Similarly, I can edit a GIF or PNG file without wondering what originally created the file – or who will edit it next. That’s generally true with other standards like HTML, HTTP, and TCP/IP. That’s the beauty of open standards – real open standards enable a thriving industry of competing products, allowing users to choose and re-choose between them. I want to see that beautiful sunlight in office suites as well.

Interestingly, the issue of a single rail gauge standard during the civil war has come up in at least three recent examples that I can think of.

–jeremy

Filed under Microsoft, ODF, Open Source

Hello MediaTemple (mt)?

June 9, 2007 2 Comments

My apologies to all blog readers for the recent performance issues. This site is currently hosted by a MediaTemple (gs) GridServer account. The performance has been nothing short of horrific. It’s a shame – (mt) clearly has some really smart people and the (gs) product looks really compelling from a technical standpoint. I like the idea of having my blog off the main LQ infrastructure for a variety of reasons, including the fact that if there is a problem with the main LQ colo I can post updates to my blog. With the state of the current setup, some blog posts have been taking literally hours and dozens of attempts to post. In the last two days, multiple posts have simply been completely lost. A simple ‘ls’ sometimes takes 10-15 seconds. I’d highly suggest to (mt) that they stop accepting new customers until they can fix the current issues, but in the mean time I’ll be looking for a different provider. Thanks for sticking with me in the mean time.

UPDATE: MediaTemple has been beta testing a new storage model that they think will vastly improve performance. They’ve been kind enough to offer to move me to that ASAP. Maybe I won’t have to move the blog after all. Stay tuned. BTW, kudos to (mt) for having a sysadmin start answering my tickets as opposed to a Customer Support Agent.

–jeremy

Filed under LinuxQuestions.org

A Patent Lie

June 9, 2007 Leave a comment

It’s great to see that the current patent situation is getting some attention in the main stream media. From the article:

The Gates memo predicted that a large company would “patent some obvious thing,” and that’s exactly what Verizon has done. Two of its patents cover the concept of translating phone numbers into Internet addresses. It is virtually impossible to create a consumer-friendly Internet telephone product without doing that. So if Verizon prevails on appeal, it will probably be able to drive Vonage out of business. Consumers will suffer from fewer choices and higher prices, and future competitors will be reluctant to enter markets dominated by patents.

But don’t software companies need patent protection? In fact, companies, especially those that are focused on innovation, don’t: software is already protected by copyright law, and there’s no reason any industry needs both types of protection. The rules of copyright are simpler and protection is available to everyone at very low cost. In contrast, the patent system is cumbersome and expensive. Applying for patents and conducting patent searches can cost tens of thousands of dollars. That is not a huge burden for large companies like Microsoft, but it can be a serious burden for the small start-up firms that produce some of the most important software innovations.

Yet, as the Vonage case demonstrates, participating in the patent system is not optional. Independent invention is not a defense to patent infringement, and large software companies now hold so many patents that it is almost impossible to create useful software without infringing some of them. Therefore, the only means of self-defense is the one Mr. Gates identified 16 years ago: stockpile patents to use as bargaining chips in litigation. Vonage didn’t do that, and it’s now paying a very high price.

Only patent lawyers benefit from this kind of arms race. And Microsoft’s own history contradicts Mr. Smith’s claim that patents are essential for technological breakthroughs: Microsoft produced lots of innovative software before it received its first software patent in 1988. As more and more lawsuits rock the industry, we should ask if software patents are stifling innovation. Bill Gates certainly thought so in 1991, even if he won’t admit it today.

Here’s hoping some progress is finally made on actually fixing the issue.

–jeremy

Filed under Microsoft, Open Source

Mobile is dead! (or the flexibility of Linux)

June 7, 2007 Leave a comment

Reading this post is a great reminder as to just how flexible Linux really is:

Back in the good old days we created mobile software from scratch. We created home grown operating systems for mobile phones, mobile stacks and UI frameworks, primitive light weight file systems, and so on. Back then, CPUs were lazy and flash was poor. Thus, we built dedicated software for mobile devices – and we called it Mobile Software ™.

Today, we run Linux, X, Gnome, Flash, and friends on Nokia N800. Our big idea form the start was to run –as closely as possible– a desktop Linux stack. Others will start to do the same and I predict that mobile software will thus eventually die. All we need is software that runs everywhere.

The N800 is a great example of this. For the most part it runs a fairly stock Linux (It’s Debian based – if you’ve never seen an N800 it’s a fantastic device and one I’m throughly enjoying). This is becoming the case even with things as small as a mobile phone. It’s “just” Linux. On the other end of the spectrum we have mainframes that run “just” Linux as well. Now sure, there are differences in kernel compile options, and while the mainframe will utilize NUMA the phone will have many things ripped out. In the end though, both are true Linux. That means you can use the same tools, the same developer knowledge and in many cases the same apps. Whether it be a phone, a tablet, a desktop or a server – it’s Linux. That’s a powerful proposition. OS X looks to be offering that same flexibility (and it’s not surprising, being BSD based) with the iPhone. Compare this paradigm to the Windows world. If you have a mobile or tablet it may run Windows Mobile, but it may run Windows CE. For a desktop you can choose between a couple versions of XP or myriad versions of Vista. For a server you have Windows 2003. Now most apps that work on XP will work on 2003 and many will work on Vista. I don’t think there is any compatibility between say Vista and Mobile or even Mobile and CE. You have different tool sets for many of these, completely different kernels in many cases and some have arbitrary limitations that I don’t quite understand from a technical perspective. Behind the scenes this all has to be a nightmare to manage and I’d guess the duplication of effort is astounding. Makes me glad I run Linux on almost every device I own :)

–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Microsoft, Open Source

Free Ubuntu Live Conference Pass

June 7, 2007 Leave a comment

I’m happy to announce that as a Media Sponsor I’ve just been informed that LQ is able to give away one full Ubuntu Live Conference pass absolutely free of charge. To be eligible please post in this thread saying how you are involved in the Ubuntu Community and why you’d like to attend. One winner will be randomly selected on June 19th. Ubuntu Live is being held in Portland, Oregon and is July 22-24. Good Luck!

–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Open Source, Ubuntu

Xandros signs up with Microsoft

June 4, 2007 Leave a comment

It looks like Xandros has signed a deal similar to the recent Microsoft Novell one. From the press release:

Today Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Linux platform provider Xandros Inc announced a broad collaboration agreement based on a set of technical, business, marketing and intellectual property commitments. These commitments provide customers with enhanced interoperability, more effective systems management solutions, and intellectual property assurances, all of which extend a bridge between open source and commercial software and deliver customers real value in mixed systems environments.

For Xandros, the agreement marks a major milestone in its vision of delivering end-to-end Linux desktop and server solutions as well as Windows(R) and Linux cross-platform management and interoperability tools.

“Companies today are running a mixture of Linux and Windows systems,” said Andreas Typaldos, chief executive officer of Xandros. “Cross-platform data centres are a reality. To meet evolving customer needs, vendors need to recognise the value of sharing intellectual property, developing more interoperable solutions, and providing management tools that are familiar and easy to use.”

— Intellectual property assurance. Through the agreement, Microsoft will
make available patent covenants for Xandros customers. These covenants
will provide customers with confidence that the Xandros technologies
they use and deploy in their environments are compliant with
Microsoft’s intellectual property. By putting a framework in place to
share intellectual property, Xandros and Microsoft can speed the
development of interoperable solutions.

— Microsoft sales and marketing support. The companies are committing to
a set of sales and marketing efforts to promote the output of their
technical efforts. As part of this effort, Microsoft will now endorse
Xandros Server and Desktop as a preferred Linux distribution due to
Xandros’ efforts to establish rich interoperability and deliver IP
assurance to its customers. Also, a specialised team of Microsoft
staff will be trained on the value propositions of this collaboration
to customers and channel partners. Xandros will also become a member
of the Microsoft Interop Vendor Alliance.

It should be interesting to see how the community responds to the one. Xandros hasn’t exactly been able to get much traction in the marketplace and this may very well have just been a move to stay alive. Details are a bit light at the moment, but I’d guess we’ll be seeing more very soon. Stay tuned.

–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Microsoft, Novell, Open Source

There is a light that never goes out

June 1, 2007 Leave a comment

A good post by Jeremy Allison about “Intellectual Property” in the software industry:

But “Intellectual Property” is a weasel phrase. It covers several different things, each of which is treated very differently in terms of property rights. For software this can mean trade secrets, copyright or patents. Let’s look at each in turn and see how Microsoft accounting can get creative and determine how much we all owe them for being presumptuous enough to be using Free Software not developed by them.

Much of the post centers around patents and why they make very little sense for software. Indeed, 20 years is an eternity in the context of computer software, so a patent is roughly analogous to a lifetime monopoly. When is the last time you heard a software engineer who was trying to solve a difficult problem say he was going to see if there were any expired patents that covered the issue so he could glean some insight into a solution. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? But adding knowledge to humanity is the stated purpose of the patent system. It’s abundantly clear this isn’t happening. Hopefully one of the current reform initiatives will make some headway. With the amount of lobbying dollars going toward keeping the (broken) status quo, it’s certainly going to be an uphill battle.

–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Open Source

Ubuntu Live and CrossOver Linux Discounts

May 31, 2007 2 Comments

Would you like to attend the upcoming Ubuntu Live Conference? As a media sponsor, I’m happy to announce that LQ can over you a 35% discount. Simply used the code ubu07ucm when registering and the discount will be automatically applied. I’m looking forward to attending Ubuntu Live (and OSCON, which starts the very next day).

While on the topic of discounts, the recent LQ CrossOver promotion has been so successful that I’d like to extend it another 10 days. Until June 10th you can get 20% any CrossOver Linux product by making your purchase here and using LQCO20 as a discount code.

–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Open Source, Ubuntu

Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit

May 28, 2007 Leave a comment

I’ve finally booked the trip to Mountain View for the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit. I’ll be getting in on Tuesday night and will be staying at the Wild Palms Hotel, if anyone wants to meet for a drink/chat. It looks like quite a few attendees are staying at the Wild Palms, so it should be interesting. Really looking forward to the summit.

–jeremy

Filed under Google, Linux, LinuxQuestions.org

LQ Site Outage

May 28, 2007 Leave a comment

The main LQ site is currently down. A card in one of the core routers went and a tech has already been dispatched. Thanks for the patience. The following sites are still up, and should prevent you from going into complete LQ withdrawal:

LQ Wiki
LQ Radio
LQ ISO
LQ Screenshots

–jeremy

Filed under LinuxQuestions.org

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