| InfoWorld: The open source community loves its freedom, but Sun's chief open source officer, Simon Phipps, says standards are the only way to create true freedom. A weakness in the community is the assumption that everyone is the good guy; governance is lacking and creating problems in motivation to develop, as well as adhere to — and understand — licensing and patents. He'd like to see his own company reduce the number of licenses in use. He'd also like to see the community increase coordination on alternate models: patents grants, compulsory licensing and non-assert covenants. | Sponsor: IT Manager Development Series | | Maximize Your IT Management Career
This collection of 10 PDF-format books is packed with real-world advice that will help you realize your full potential as an IT manager. And the bonus IT Manager Toolkit includes 80 Word and Excel tools you can use right away. > Click here to learn more. | Techworld: Open source guru Bernard Golden reminds us that, even though certain analysts and vendors are fixated on studying the ROI of migrating to Linux vs. upgrading Windows, there is much more under the open source sun. He references a couple of stellar projects at Oregon State University and at Swiss company ABB which, though quite atypical, illustrate how the right solution can integrate with existing technology and help the bottom line. ROI reminders from Golden: Treat each project individually; use the proper time horizon; and consider the entire organization — a pioneering open source project may produce cost benefits in later projects that build on it. Computerworld Australia: Here's a great offer: Black Duck Software is making use of its software assessment product, protexIP/OnDemand, free until the end of 2005. The service evaluates and analyzes software projects to identify any open source licensing issues that may exist by comparing code with its knowledge base. Code fragments as small as 10 or 20 lines can be detected. Support and training in use of the service is included in the offer, and there's no limit on the number of projects a company can have analyzed. | | Special Offer: Free White Paper VoIP: Creating a Strategy That Enables Future Voice Applications
Enterprises are discovering that the most critical component to evaluate as it forges a solid VoIP strategy is the underlying architecture of the unified messaging system. The architecture determines system performance, IT overhead, and future application readiness. This informative white paper outlines the architectural components needed to create a foundation for future advanced communications applications. Check it out today! | | | | SearchOpenSource.com: After suffering through inflexibility, excessive dependencies, inadequate support, rising costs and staffing requirements, and a failed database system migration with an implementation of HP's OpenView infrastructure monitoring tool, risk management application provider Yodlee replaced the system with an open source solution, GroundWork Monitor. Yodlee got the exact set of features it needed, better performance and support — all at less than half the cost of a comparable Openview solution. NewsForge: Software developers love to tinker, and they certainly are a competitive bunch (both among themselves and with Microsoft). Thus, promoting Linux through a contest seems like a good idea. The Code Project, Mainsoft and IBM took that approach by sponsoring The Race to Linux. The idea is to encourage creation of .NET applications to run on the open source operating system. Contestants were instructed to port Microsoft's Issue Tracker Kit, Time Tracker Starter Kit and Reports Starter Kit to Linux. The winner in the Issue Tracker category was Megapump president Brian Hendrickson, who used his Code Stylist integrated development environment (IDE) to port Issue Tracker to PHP. The Time Tracker category winner was Abishek Bellamkonda, who used Grasshopper to port Time Tracker to Linux. There were two awards in the Reports Starter Kit category. Juan Ignacio de Paula used Mono to port to Linux and Hector Armando Rodriguez Esparza accomplished the task using Grasshopper.
Small Business Computing.com: The Xandros OS is designed to look and feel more like Windows than other open source programs and, therefore, is appropriate for less technically savvy users. Xandros is designed to be compatible with many Windows features and functions. For instance, it enables users to easily join a Windows network and work with Microsoft Office. The author asks a good question: If Xandros is designed to be like Windows, why wouldn't the user simply use the real thing? The price, he says, is about the same (approximately $129 for Xandros and $150 for Windows). There is one big difference, however: The user needs to buy a separate license for each "instance" of Windows being used, while one Xandros purchase extends to all users in the organization. According to the author, Xandros works on less powerfully outfitted machines and, perhaps more importantly, is considered more secure. The piece goes into significant detail about installation — it's easy, the writer says, and can exist on the same machine with Windows — and management tools. | IT Marketplace | | | | | Tell the IT Business Edge audience of technology decision makers about your product, service, event, or job. Click here to list it in the IT Marketplace! | | 3 QUESTIONS:
The Evolution of Web 2.0
With Peter Yared, CEO and founder of ActiveGrid, which provides enterprise features built on the LAMP stack to help enterprises rapidly build rich Web 2.0 applications. Question: How are open standards and open source driving Web 2.0?
Yared: All of the leading Web 2.0 companies, ranging from Google to Friendster, run open source stacks like LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl) on large grids of commodity machines. Initially, these companies chose open source from a cost standpoint, since the existing licensing mechanisms of software vendors made it unrealistic to deploy their software on large clusters of machines. So the Web 2.0 companies pieced together open source projects and have created an environment of "software Darwinism," where the strongest and best code survives. After a few years of thousands of really smart engineers piecing together systems, stacks of open source software such as LAMP have emerged. Question: What are the real changes that you see Web 2.0 creating, for tech companies and their staffs? And for the tech industry as a whole?
Yared: There have been some rumblings that the "Web 2.0" term is a little over-hyped, I think particularly because of all of the startups out there with no business model. The important thing to consider is that Web 2.0's core pieces — scaling out on commodity machines, rich Internet Ajax applications and open source stacks like LAMP — are definitely getting traction throughout the technology industry.
These technologies are starting to be used by large traditional enterprises, not just small startups and large-scale Web sites. The biggest reason for this shift is that it is hard enough with the existing toolsets to build an application with a reasonable user interface that communicates with a single database. When you graduate to rich user interfaces and numerous Web services and databases, the existing infrastructure is completely inadequate and forces a shift to the architecture that has been proven by Amazon, Google and Yahoo. Question: What companies/organizations do you see leading Web 2.0 most successfully? What is it they are doing right?
Yared: Clearly the leading, well-known Web 2.0 companies (such as Google) are doing something right. Companies like SABRE/Travelocity, Lufthansa and E*TRADE have evolved from running J2EE on expensive UNIX machines to running open source on grids of commodity machines, some with rich user interfaces. All of these companies are taking a pragmatic approach to technology and showing a willingness to try something new.
Sticking with whatever IBM, BEA and Sun are selling is the easy choice. On the other hand, learning from the Web 2.0 leaders like Google lets you quickly integrate new technologies and provide better value to your customers. Just recently, it was still normal for your CRM system not to be able to talk with your ERP system. In a world where a random guy can make a mash-up of Google Maps and Craigslist, there is an expectation that all of your systems should work together, and have a rich user interface as well. | | Also from IT Business Edge: Voice & Data Convergence Voice & Data Convergence examines the strategic and tactical implications of emerging IP telephony technologies, from VoIP services to advanced CRM systems to security considerations. Find out what every IT decision maker should know. Click here to sign up! |
By the Numbers
Over 20 percent Increase in open source database deployments in the last six months, according to Evans Data. 81 percent Small and mid-sized companies in a recent InformationWeek Research and Optaros survey that said they look to open source to reduce expenditures on commercial packaged software. $6,000 Cost of analyzing a 25 MB project for possible software licensing issues with Black Duck's protexIP/OnDemand product. The service is being offered free — for any size project — until the end of 2005.
Breaking Headlines
Tekrati: Security concerns are one reason MySQL and other open source database solutions are attracting developers and IT departments. MySQL use jumped by more than 25 percent in the last six months, according to Evans Data's Fall 2005 Database Development Survey. Fully 44 percent of developers in the survey are using the database. When open source database software was compared to proprietary solutions, open source came out on top in security. The proprietary databases were about twice as likely to suffer a breach. Proprietary databases were more likely to be hit with a network intrusion; open source databases were more likely to see a user authentication breach. internetnews.com: To help make sure that Linux continues its momentum in mobile handsets and other portable devices, Open Source Development Labs has created the Mobile Linux Initiative. Initial members Intel, BT, PalmSource, Motorola, MontaVista, Trolltech and Wind River will concentrate on encouraging developers to create mobile apps for Linux and improving features especially crucial in mobile devices: power management, real-time capabilities, security, memory, quicker booting and a multimedia framework. ADTmag.com: If developers could compile to a standard set of requirements, instead of multiple sets for disparate Linux distributions, development and support will be less costly, independent software vendors may be more likely to be interested in the Linux desktop and end users will have more choices on the desktop. With those goals in mind, the Linux Standards Base Desktop Project aims to standardize core components of the Linux desktop and urge ISVs to adhere to the standards and guidelines during development. The project's first specification is expected in early 2006. Emerging Trends
Forbes: Hackers around the country are using open source and low-powered mesh networks to find open radio frequencies and broadcast over them. Some take a wireless router, remove the proprietary software, and replace it with open source software that allows them to adjust frequencies and signals. This doesn't make broadcasters, telcos or other owners of FCC broadcasting licenses too happy. Eben Moglen, Columbia Law School professor and chief legal officer for the Free Software Foundation, is leading the movement to force the Federal Communications Commission to stop interfering with this kind of guerrilla broadcasting — in fact, he'd like the agency to go away entirely. He says he envisions himself explaining to the U.S. Supreme Court why the broadcasting system is unconstitutional in about 2025.
Computerworld: At his company's O'Reilly European Open Source Convention, CEO Tim O'Reilly gave his take on the changes that have already begun to transform the open source community. With successful, headline-grabbing companies like Google, eBay and Amazon taking full advantage of building their large sites on open source and "delivering their software as a service," the trend, often called Web 2.0 these days, is well under way. In addition, mashups — projects that bring together data and/or services from separate sites — are causing developers to re-evaluate where they concentrate their efforts. IT Manager's Journal: Cross-platform development, though it can be more costly, is becoming more common, with even development for Windows happening on open source tools. Evans Data recently found that 20 percent of .NET developers had also written a Linux app. Evans COO John Andrews says as Linux gains market traction, developers are paying more attention to it. The trend may produce larger numbers of Linux developers; .NET developer numbers will likely remain steady, while the numbers of UNIX developers are dropping. IT Business Edge: Leveraging Open Source
| Issue 30, Vol. 1 | | DISCLAIMER: At the time of publication, all links in this e-mail functioned properly. However, since many links point to sites other than itbusinessedge.com, some links may become invalid as time passes. | | This e-mail is sent by: NarrowCast Group, LLC, 124 N.First St., Louisville, KY 40202 | Copyright ©2003-2005 NarrowCast Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
| | 
Research
Consultant Rates
Free for Subscribers! | | Don't budget IT projects in the dark! Find out what contractors are charging for the skills you need by querying our database of more than 12,000 consultants and firms. Click here to begin your research now! | | Find Related Technology Solutions | | Find Related
IT Contract Resources | | Find consultants and contractors with the skills you need in your area! | | • | Apache Web Server | | • | Linux | | • | Redhat | | | | | About the Editor
Kachina Dunn honed her research skills as a professional librarian in non-profits and is a former editor for TechRepublic.com, a site for IT professionals. She is Editor in Chief for IT Business Edge. She can be reached at investments@itbusinessedge.com. | | |
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home