Open Source

Tristan Louis gives weight to new term that I like a lot: fauxpen. Faux in French means “false” or “fake”. So fauxpen means fake open. There has always been a lot of that going around, but since the world of tech inevitably contains more of everything, there’s more fauxpen stuff than ever. In his post Tristan issues a fresh warning about some of what he calls “a venus flytrap of technology”. His definitions:

• Fauxpenness: Calling a system or platform open while it is, when more closely scrutinized, under the tight control of its provider.

• Fauxpen system (or fauxpen platform): a system or platform that claims to be open but, upon closer examination, isn’t. (continue reading…)

Tux

There’s no avoiding it, if you’re using a computer (or just about anything else) the operating system needs to be maintained. This article addresses Linux maintenance issues and techniques, along with things you would expect to deal with, coming from a Windows background.

Read the full guide on Linux.com

Mozilla Fennec

Is a full-fledged, add-on-powered mobile browser something you want for your phone? Jay Sullivan, Mozilla’s Vice President for mobile, works every day to make it happen. Read what Sullivan has to say about Fennec, iPhones, Android, and all things mobile.

Sullivan leads the team at Firefox maker Mozilla creating a mobile version of Firefox, dubbed Fennec, which would be available as both a pre-installed browser on cooperating phone makers’ models and as a free download for as many phones as possible. We’ve taken screenshot tours of the first alpha, and newer betas and alphas are available for download for touchscreen Windows Mobile phones, Nokia tablets, and for desktop testing.

Sullivan talked with us by phone just under two weeks ago about where Fennec is at the moment, what platforms we might see it on, and what it could mean for the future of web development.

Read the full interview on Lifehacker.com…

Last week I was having a discussion with one of the members of the Linux Foundation about a series of articles I am writing for Linux.com. The series centers around helping new users either discover open source alternatives to Windows applications and/or help the new user learn how they can run those “must have” Windows applications by emulation or virtualization.

During this discussion we discussed what it would take to create a “definitive manual” for new Linux users migrating from Windows. It became all too clear that there is one issue at the heart of the creation of any single “definitive manual” for the Linux operating system. That issue? Too many choices.

I know, I know…absolute crazy talk. But hear me out before you label me a mad man. This issue is fairly key to the wider adoption of Linux.

When someone comes to you asking for help in the migration from Windows to Linux how do you help them? You might start off telling them about the fundamentals of Linux, how it came to be, and what open source means. You will discuss the abundance of applications available. You will discuss the Linux desktop and how many choices there are. And that discussion will fuel the first flames of confusion. When this confusion builds you will eventually come around to the topic of distributions. It is at this point where you can finally start showing your newbie the similarities and differences between Windows and Linux.

Now, imagine that scenario if you didn’t have to worry about finally getting to the point where you had to sell the user on a distribution. Imagine, if you will for a moment, there was only one “officially sanctioned and supported” Linux distribution. How much easier would the task of migrating users be? Not only would you not have to worry about standardization, you would also speak the same language as other Linux users and gurus.

We all know there is a standards-based organization – the Linux Standards Base. This organization works in conjunction with the Linux Foundation to come to some semblance of standards for the Linux operating system. This hasn’t been an easy task because their are so many distributions to standardize. But imagine if one distribution could be chosen above all else to “officially represent” and be sanctioned by the Linux Foundation, Linus, and possibly a governing body made up of developers, media, and corporate sponsors.

This distribution could easily be the focal point of plenty of documentation, education, support, you name it. Migrating from Windows would become a piece of cake because every user of the “official Linux” would speak the same language for a change.

Think about it for a moment. Let the idea sink in. Now, would you be willing to give up your favorite distribution for this to happen? Or would you be willing to accept the idea that your favorite might have to become nothing more than a variant of the “official distribution”? Because we all know that even this wouldn’t stop the open source community from continuing to create the way they do. But even if forks of the “official distribution” were developed, there would still be “the one” that companies and new users could migrate to and know what they were getting, know that they could get world-wide, standardized support.

via TechRepublic.com

Open Source Initiative

As LinuxCon moves closer, we’ve been talking to the keynote speakers for the event, to get a sense of what their message to attendees will be and to give attendees a better sense of where the message is coming from. Next up in our series of interviews is Bdale Garbee, Chief Technologist for Open Source and Linux at Hewlett-Packard. Garbee is a steady fixture in the Linux community, known for his work at HP as well as Debian Project Leader. His keynote “The Freedom to Collaborate,” will delve into innovation from open source and how to keep that innovation alive.

Linux.com: Can you give us the quick run down on your job with HP and some of your community responsibilities?

Bdale Garbee: I serve as Chief Technologist for Open Source and Linux at HP. What that means is that since 2001 I’ve helped to establish HP’s technology and business strategies around Linux, advocated for greater engagement in open source across all of HP’s many business units, mentored internal teams on how to participate as good citizens in open source development communities, and helping to establish and maintain HP’s open source governance processes. Today I serve as one of the most visible points of interconnection between HP and various open source communities. I also represent HP on the boards of both the Linux Foundation and the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum.

But many in the Linux world may recognize me better as one of the longest-serving contributors to the Debian project. I’ve done a lot of things for Debian over the years, including serving for a year as the elected Debian Project Leader. I currently chair the Debian Technical Committee, and continue to personally maintain a number of packages that are essential to the system.

I am also President of Software in the Public Interest, which is the non-profit umbrella organization started many years ago to give Debian a legal and financial existence in the United States, which now also provides such services to a number of interesting projects like PostgreSQL, freedesktop.org, Gallery, and the Open Voting Foundation.

Linux.com: What’s HP’s overall philosophy regarding Linux and open source?

Bdale Garbee: I think we could distill HP’s overall philosophy regarding Linux and open source down to three words: choice, integration, and confidence. We understand that customers deserve to have a meaningful set of choices, whether we’re talking about hardware architectures, operating systems, application stacks, or the relationship they want to have with their technology providers. For open source choices to be meaningful, customers expect HP to have made the right investments and participated in the development community in ways that lead to high quality, well integrated solutions that directly address their needs. I think we mostly get that right, as evidenced for example by our position as the undisputed world leader in sales of Linux servers for more than a decade. All of that means that customers can confidently deploy HP solutions including Linux and other open source components to address the IT challenges posed by their ever-changing business needs.

Linux.com: Given the current economic climate, do you anticipate HP’s approach to Linux remaining constant?

Bdale Garbee: Yes, at a strategic level I don’t see any changes in our approach. But at a tactical level, HP programs and employees related to Linux and other open source software have certainly been affected alongside everything else by the current economic climate.

Linux.com: When you keynote at LinuxCon, what will be the theme of your talk?

Bdale Garbee: Rockets, of course! ;-)

Actually, I want to talk about the roles that freedom and collaboration play in support of innovation. One of the things I always look for when evaluating new open source projects is who gets to participate, and when. It’s very clear to me that “being open source” is necessary but not sufficient, yet I don’t think this gets enough attention in the flurry of excitement around each new announcement in our industry.

Linux.com: What technologies or projects excite you when looking at the future of Linux?

Bdale Garbee: Most of my enthusiasm right now is around embedded and mobile uses of Linux. Linux now runs on a significant fraction of all of the servers in the world, and interest in Linux on the desktop continues to grow, but new device and service categories are emerging where we don’t necessarily carry the baggage of prior experience and expectations. It’s a huge win when users can have great experiences without having to think about the underlying technology. The opportunity to create compelling products that embody new ways of using technology to communicate and collaborate, all built around Linux, is pretty exciting!

Linux.com: What are some of the challenges you believe Linux will need to address in the days ahead?

Bdale Garbee: The biggest challenge for Linux itself may be just that it works so well in so many places that it’s becoming easier to take it for granted and let most of our attention be drawn elsewhere. But Linux itself, the kernel and common core of software packages around it that are at the heart of every distribution, are critical components that we can’t afford to let get lost in the swirl of announcements about new technologies above and around us.

via Linux.com

The open source software industry has an unlikely benefactor–it turns out that the global recession is one of the best friends that open source can have as businesses from large to small that are looking to save money have been opening their IT shop doors wide and giving it a try.

According to a new Worldwide Open Source Software 2009-2013 Forecast, conducted by Boston-based International Data Corp., open source software (OSS) revenues have heated up as the global economy and recession worsened last year, and it looks like the trend will continue. How much will it grow? The study reports that global OSS revenue for 2008 was $2.9 billion, which is expected to grow by 34% in 2009 to $3.9 billion. By 2013, that global revenue growth is expected to hit $8.1 billion.

“The OSS market has seen a strong boost from the current economic crisis,” said Michael Fauscette, the IDC Software Business Solutions division analyst who wrote the forecast. “OSS is increasingly a part of the enterprise software strategy of leading businesses and is seeing mainstream adoption at a strong pace.”

There is, however, a reality check here–those revenue numbers still pale compared to the global revenues earned by sales of proprietary software applications by a huge margin. According to IDC figures, proprietary software revenues in 2008 dwarfed the OSS revenues–$137.3 billion compared to $2.9 billion, while projected revenues in 2009 are $138.8 billion for proprietary vendors and $3.9 billion for OSS. By 2013, the revenue gap is still huge and favoring proprietary products–$169.5 billion compared to OSS’s $8.1 billion.

The good news for OSS, however, is that the recent revenue growth spurt for the industry comes at a good time and does show its promise, Fauscette said. “It’s a big percentage of small numbers,” he said. “It’s still early but there’s still a lot of room to grow.”

At the same time, though, OSS revenues won’t likely be catching up to the rest of the software market any time soon. “I don’t see any huge enormous threat or danger right now for the big software companies’ bottom lines but over time… it’s going to continue to grow,” Fauscette said. “I think the days of ignoring it are gone. This is mainstream stuff now. This is not like the Wild West and you’re [not] taking a risk doing this. Companies understand that.”

In addition to the global recession fueling OSS revenues, another key factor is that open source is seen as a far more acceptable and worthwhile alternative–especially one that can save money for cash-strapped corporations–than ever before in its brief history, Fauscette said. That new-found acceptance is critical to the fast recent growth of OSS, he said.

“[Open source] companies are gaining customers,” he said. “It’s not just operating systems anymore. It’s not just Linux, it’s still moving up the stack, to middleware and applications.”

But that hasn’t happened everywhere, he admitted. “On the desktop, open source hasn’t really made a dent,” he said. “Ubuntu has grown but is not huge. Last year we started to see huge growth in middleware.”

via Linux.com

LinuxCon

Even in a gloomy economy, open source conferences continue to surprise. If you missed the recent OSCON event in San Jose, you can watch the sessions online, and now one of the most talked about brand new conferences is coming up: LinuxCon. It’s slated for September 21st through 23rd, at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront, in Oregon. You can register for the event for $399, and the list of speakers includes many luminaries–including Linus. Here are some of the notable sessions slated for the conference.

LinuxCon is a totally new conference, put on by The Linux Foundation. Amanda McPherson from The Linux Foundation has posted her thoughts on can’t-miss sessions here, and Savio Rodrigues casts his ballot here.

Linus Torvalds will weigh in with his thoughts on the Linux kernel, along with several other notable panelists, in a roundtable discussion called The Linux Kernel: Straight From the Source. With Linux and open source on the rise during the down economy, the session Beyond the Hype: The True Cost of Linux and Open Source looks worth sitting in on. It’s moderated by blogger and Alfresco exec Matt Asay, and Noah Broadwater from Sesame Workshop.

Some of the sessions at LinuxCon look like they’ll include some fun. Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier is Community Manager for OpenSUSE at Novell, and has also written for OStatic. He’s delivering a keynote address at LinuxCon called A Musical Guide to Linux. Here’s the tagline: “Why is Linux like the Ramones? Can Linux be the Beatles instead? An interactive presentation looking at where we are, and where we should be going next.” The Beatles? I nominate Radiohead for Linux’s musical alter ego.

Savio Rodrigues notes that a panel discussion called Why Open Standards Matter to Linux looks good. Several heavy hitters are on that panel, including The Linux Foundation’s Jim Zemlin and IBM’s Bob Sutor. It looks like there will be some good social activities at LinuxCon too. There is a “Bowling for Penguins” event with drinks and penguins posing as pins.

Some say that OSCON may head back to its original home in Portland after appearing in San Jose this year. If so, it looks like Oregon will be able to stake claim to two notable open source conferences.

via ostatic.com

OpenOffice.org

As word processors for Linux keep picking up in popularity, household names in the computer industry are getting into the act. Like Sun Microsystems, Novell and IBM Lotus are both offering word processors based on OpenOffice.org‘s open source Writer application, but none of these offerings is exactly alike. Meanwhile, Moblin–a Linux-based netbook environment first launched by Intel–is now on the verge of packing more power around word processing and other aspects of office productivity.

Neither Lotus nor Novell are strangers to word processing, of course. But with IBM Lotus Symphony and Novell office suites, the vendors have made their first forays into Linux word processors, a space also occupied by dozens of rivals, ranging from Sun to large numbers of small .orgs. In the same general vein as StarOffice, Sun’s commercial edition of OpenOffice.org, Lotus’ and Novell’s suites for Linux and other operating systems feature word processing solutions based on OpenOffice.org‘s Writer.

If you’re interested in OpenOffice, why bother to use a big vendor’s rendition when the community edition is so readily available, both over the Web and bundled with netbooks? Well, Novell’s version of OpenOffice–available for Linux as part of SuSE Linux and on a standalone basis for Windows–contains features not built into the community edition. In line with Novell’s multi-year interoperability deal with Microsoft, many of these capabilities are geared to Microsoft Office compatibility.

IBM Lotus Symphony, on the other hand, offers a user interface (UI) widely regarded as simpler and nicer looking than that of OpenOffice.org. Symphony is also strongly integrated with Notes and other Lotus products, although a standalone edition is also available for all three supported platforms: Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.

For its part, Moblin is not an office suite but an entire software environment, specifically tailored to netbooks and other embedded devices. Over the past few months, both Novell and Phoenix Technologies have issued promising announcements around Moblin.

via Linux.com

Last week, Datamation published an article on the rise in value of Linux job skills in today’s economy. Linux system administration skills are now the number 2 hottest IT job skill. In the last year, the value of Linux skills has risen 50 percent, an astounding rise in a tough economy.

Many pundits who have seen this data have postulated that the economy is actually the source for this rapid rise in valuation, as companies are flocking to open source software due to budget constraints. Anecdotally I have seen this as well, and our members tell us they are seeing it too.

Some drivers contributing to the rise in Linux vale:

• There is a surge in Unix to Linux migrations happening in the enterprise. The economy is partially responsible for this, as is some of the natural fall out of aging applications and hardware and the uncertainty in the Unix market as a whole.

• Linux clustering has rapidly evolved in the last year, delivering great value to companies who make use of this.

• The rise of Linux in embedded devices of all kinds. You have phones, GPS units, TVs, watches and many other devices all using Linux. That means there are many more companies needing to hire Linux talent.

• The economy pushes companies into consolidation mode, as consolidation means more leverage with vendors and easier hiring. Right now, the server OS market is a two horse race with Linux and Windows.

The need for Linux talent is so acute we created a Linux training program, at the behest of our Technical Advisory Board. This program offers in person and online training on a broad range of topics, especially Linux development. The need is obviously out there for qualified Linux professionals and developers. Our training program — and others from Novell, Red Hat, etc — can make it much easier for individuals to find and retain good jobs, even in this economy.

via linux-foundation.org

Colleges and universities are as much about research as they are about the classroom experience, and just as open source software can provide cost savings, independence, and flexibility to educational institutions through courseware and recordkeeping, it can assist in the research process. Open source and open data standards play a role in collaboration, laboratory and literary scholarly research, publishing, and managing the overall research programs at institutions of higher learning.

References for Individuals and Institutions

Naturally, the role that software of any type plays in academic research varies greatly with the field of study. Software itself is at the center of computer science and physics simulation research, for example, while it plays more auxiliary roles such as data mining and statistical reporting in the social sciences. Literary criticism and history depends heavily on library work, where open source can provide important infrastructure.

Regardless of the field, however, collecting, studying, and tracking the work of predecessors and contemporaries is always critical, as evidenced by the large number of open source projects designed to help track sources and manage bibliographical resources. The simplest applications, such as I, Librarian, help the researcher collect, organize, and annotate reference material. Most such applications allow full-text and metadata searching of collected resources, and can be used to directly search online catalogs from publishers such as PubMed and arXiv, and major online reference sites like JSTOR and ARTstor, or Google Book Search and Google Scholar.

Full-featured reference management applications include Web-based tools like Aigaion, Connotea, and Wikindx, desktop applications like Referencer, Pybliographer, JabRef, and BibDesk, and specialty tools such as the Firefox extension Zotero and Bibus, which is designed to integrate with OpenOffice and with Microsoft Word. Most of these reference management applications add features beyond cataloging and searching, such as the ability to share collections with team members, manage multiple collections as projects, and the ability to automatically generate formatted citations for inclusion in a paper, in general BibTeX or EndNote format as well as in the preferred styles of major journals.

Several applications take the additional step of emphasizing the Web publication of collected bibliographies. BibCiter, refbase, and RefDB can be used to build online indices. Refbase and RefDB can be used to create searchable, personal archives of an author’s own work–a practice known as self-archiving–as well as larger institutional repositories collecting the research of individuals from entire organizations.

via Linux.com