While on the Topic of Google

January 11, 2006 3 Comments

While on the topic of Google, I ran across this interesting read from Jason about his predictions for Google for 2006. He was lucky enough to be backstage after the recent Google keynote at CES. He foresees a calendar (which I think most people do) and an office suite, but goes a huge step further by prophesising: by the end of the year they will come out with a Linux-based OS and offer it for free to PC makers. Those PC makers will love Google for giving them a free OS and Google will love extending the reach of their money maker: google Adsense.
Now that would be extremely interesting, although I'm not sure 2006 is the right time frame for a Linux-based GoogleOS. I think at some point one is nearly inevitable though. One bit of news that already did come from Google in 2006 is that they released their own DRM. Isn't that borderline evil? I still have never seen an argument that lead me to think that DRM was anything but extremely bad for consumers. According to this article, Google Video is only going to work on Windows, so not only are they creating yet another silo for video options, they're creating yet another silo that we can't even check out. Not exactly how I had hoped they'd start the year out.
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–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

Google Pack Released

January 11, 2006 1 Comment

Contrary to many of the rumors that were swirling, Google did not announce a cheap PC at CES. What they did announce was the Google Pack. Am I the only one this doesn't make sense to? Let's put aside the “Google Pack is only available for Windows XP” requirement for a moment (although it's actually worse than that… it's Windows XP with Administrator privileges). A cobbled together mix of unrelated software (some of questionable stability) from a variety of vendors with no integration seems like an uncharacteristically poor decision for Google. Add to that the fact that Norten is actually a time limited product and it gets even stranger. Some of the products focus on some segments and some focus on completely different ones. Firefox is a great decision, but no gaim when they recently hired the projects lead developer? What is the vision for this product and where is it bringing Google and the consumer? I have no idea. What's worse, this actually would seem to help one of their biggest competitors (Microsoft) in multiple ways. Strange indeed.
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–jeremy

Filed under Main Page, Microsoft, Open Source

Linux/Unix Vulnerabilities Outnumber Microsoft Windows' 3 To 1

January 6, 2006 4 Comments

Or do they? This is a fantastic example of numbers not meaning anything if you're just throwing something against the wall. Actually, these numbers are less than useless, they're just plain silly. The original stats are from the US-CERT site, but that fantastic headline came from this article. From the article: Tallies kept by the U.S. government's computer security group show that Linux and Unix operating systems faced nearly three times the number of vulnerabilities in 2005 than did Microsoft's often-maligned Windows.
In the US-CERT (United Stated Computer Emergency Readiness Team) year-end vulnerability summary, Linux/Unix accounted for a whopping 2,328 vulnerabilities, about 45 percent of the 5,198 total.
Now, before you get worried… let's dig into this numbers a bit. First, why are they lumping Linux, UNIX and OS X into a single group and then comparing it to a single vendor? Would you lump Lexus, BMW, Infinite, Toyota, Honda, Porsche, Volkswagen, Saab and Volvo into a single group, compare them to Chevy and then say that Chevy's are safer? I'd hope not. It gets worse though. They note only include things that are in no way related to the OS (GNU GNATS Gen-Index Arbitrary Local File Disclosure/Overwrite, Yukihiro Matsumoto Ruby Infinite Loop Remote Denial of Service (Updated), and Yapig Cross-Site Scripting & HTTP POST Requests Validity are three good examples, but you'll need to take a look at the full list to get a real appreciation) but they include multiple reports from different *NIX vendors about the same issue as different bugs. A bzip vulnerability is on there 10 times! The disturbing reality is, someone giving this a cursory glance might believe these asinine numbers. Never mind that they include safari in the *NIX number, even though that can't possibly impact you if you run Linux. Complete junk. Beyond the stupidity of the numbers though, there is a bigger issue. Security issues in Open Source actually get spotted and fixed on a regular basis. This is a *good* thing and it makes you much more secure in the end. The security by obscurity and closed source aspect of Windows means that a bug is only acknowledged and fixed when Microsoft decides to do it. Remember those png/jpeg issues from a couple years ago? They are just getting fixed now in Windows, where the Open Source world addressed them in 2003. You decide what is more security, but always look into the numbers you are given as opposed to just reading a headline that is meant to get readers. I look forward to the day when journalism like this just doesn't happen. Why do I think I'll be waiting a while?
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–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Microsoft, Open Source

You Never Forget Your First Web Server

January 2, 2006 Leave a comment

A great post from Jeremy Zawodny about the first public web server he had. I remember mine quite well also. It was a dual PentiumPro 180 with a PR440FX Intel board and would become the first machine to run LQ. I think I had the server online in 1999, although LQ didn't go up into 2000. The distro was Red Hat 5.2, aka Apollo, although by the time LQ was public it had been upgraded to zoot. As Jeremy says, you used to actually upgrade machines as opposed to just replace them. I remember having to bring LQ down for a couple hours to upgrade the machines single IDE drive to multiple SCSI drives with an Adaptec PCI controller. It also received a memory upgrade some time later. I even installed an LCD in it at one point. The machine actually sits just a few feet from my desk, right next to the second machine to run LQ (which was actually a rackmount server). LQ's come a long way since then. I've attached a old picture.

–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

Dell vs. Microsoft II

December 30, 2005 2 Comments

A sort of follow up to this post. It looks like Dell is standing strong in its decision to back Blue-ray (which it had a hand in creating) despite Microsoft pressure and incentives to back HD-DVD. The Dell/Microsoft partnership definitely is not what it was just a few years ago. The power balance is slowly shifting and when you add in the legal scrutiny that Microsoft is under, they just can't strong arm like they used to be able to do. If a major vendor like Dell starting to preload OpenOffice.org as a default and then offer Office as an upgrade, it would have major implications. Not only would it impact the profit center of Microsoft, but the precedent would be set. Dell is poised to step out of the shadow that it has been in and be able to make decisions like this without fear of retribution. Does that mean you'll soon see real Linux preloads from Dell? I doubt it, but some day I think it'll be inevitable. It's just a matter of how far away some day is.
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–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Microsoft, Open Source

BusinessWeek Looks at How Open Source Did in 2005

December 29, 2005 Leave a comment

Here's a BusinessWeek article that looks at what they consider the five biggest Open Source events of 2005. Not sure I agree with all of them, but it's always good to see the mainstream media report positively op Open Source. I think one thing true about 2005 is that CIO's did buy into Open Source (literally). Companies such as Red Hat did extremely well. In this initial adoption phase though, companies seem to just purchase Open Source as they did with closed source and proprietary items. In a couple years, when they realize the true benefits of buying into the ideals of Open Source, it will be interesting to see how companies like Red Hat do. I'd guess they'll adapt to the times and flourish, but it's going to be a major shift. These are fat times in a lot of ways and things are going to get much more competitive I think. That's good for everyone though, and someday I look forward to a day when the vendors that do the best monetarily are the ones who treat their clients the best and have the best product. In the past, the “No one's ever been fired for buying X” mentality has ruled far too often IMHO…
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–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

Infrastructure Upgrades at LQ

December 28, 2005 1 Comment

With the code upgrade at LQ recently completed, I decided to do some infrastructure upgrades that I had been putting off. Two weeks ago I made the switch from PHP 4.4.x-> PHP 5.1.x and just now I made the change from Apache 1.3.x -> Apache 2.2.x. So far, things seem to be running smooth – almost too smooth. With multiple changes this big I expected more problems. Maybe they're just waiting for a more inopportune time ;) I have to say that it's great to finally have a dev server to test these changes out on before I roll them out to LQ. It should be interesting to see how Apache2+PHP5 compare to Apache1+PHP4 with some serious traffic. Anecdotally it seems that Apache2 uses a bit less memory, but that may be a result of the long uptimes that I was used to seeing Apache1 at. If you notice any speed difference do let me know. One thing to keep in mind is that we ran fairly modified and tweaked versions of both Apache1 and PHP4, while Apache2 and PHP5 are mostly stock as it is now. As I am comfortable with the stability of the new setup, I'll get to the tweaking.
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–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Open Source

Microsoft’s Top 10 Challenges for 2006

December 27, 2005 Leave a comment

Directions on Microsoft has listed Microsoft’s Top 10 Challenges for 2006. While a couple of them are interesting, one really stood out to me. Deliver Clarity on Managed Solutions (I should also note that I think at least two items are missing from the list, but that's a post for another time). So, why does that one stick out to me? One area that Microsoft has usually gotten kudos in, is the way it treats its channel. It may have strong armed its customers and business partners, but the channel was immune to that. The fact that they are now cannibalizing that is a sign to me that they are a little nervous and looking to generate cash in ways that are somewhat short sighted. If they lose even a portion of that huge channel, their sales will eventually suffer…and with them scooping up huge clients like Energizer, it's inevitable that some channel partners will get a bit jaded and start offering non-Microsoft solutions. After all, if you have to actually compete with Microsoft for the “managed solutions” business, how can you win? This may be the sleeper downfall of Microsoft in 2006 and is something I'll definitely be keeping an eye on.

–jeremy

Filed under Main Page, Microsoft

Dell Pre-Installing Firefox in UK?

December 27, 2005 Leave a comment

Looks like there is a lot of speculation that Dell is preinstalling Firefox in the UK. While that is fantastic for Firefox, it may not make a huge difference in actual acceptance numbers, since IE appears to be the default. It will likely make a small difference though as some people will click it out of curiosity. The bigger news here to me is that Dell is finally standing up (albeit in a very small way) to Microsoft. They simply would not have done this 3 years ago. One can only hope that this goes well. OpenOffice.org seems like the next logical step if it does, and from there a true Linux preinstall hopefully won't be too far off. Maybe that EU decision did have an impact, even if only a psychological one.
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–jeremy

Filed under Linux, Main Page, Microsoft, Open Source

Creative Commons Needs Your Help

December 26, 2005 Leave a comment

(Courtesy of Lawrence Lessig) The Creative Commons needs your help. In order to keep their tax free status, they apparently need a certain amount of donations to prove “public support”. The Creative Commons is a great cause and it's our license of choice for the LQ Wiki. I'll be donating on behalf of LQ and would recommend that if possible you donate whatever you can. As of this posting, they need roughly $50,000 over the next 5 days.
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–jeremy

Filed under Main Page, Open Source

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