IT Troubleshooter | Harper Mann » March 2007

March 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Posting a Nutty

TAGS: Open Source

Every once in a while, I get wind of a "nutty" blog rant pertaining to open source - and the post I ran across today was top-shelf.

This poor blogger is being driven mad (you can just feel the anguish in the text) by colleagues, co-workers and customers who, out of ignorance, avoid anything non-Microsoft.

"...Here at the offices of FCGenius, we're afraid of the non-M$ world. We can't handle anything that has installation procedures more intense than "Next Next Next Next Finish." Oh, and we don't like anything that's (said with great disdain) 'Open Source'.

See, if you buy food and they hand you the recipe and cooking instructions, there's obviously something wrong with the food, right? I mean, what possible benevolent reason could they have for such openness and honesty? The mind does boggle!"

His "devious" plan (to introduce the open source Nagios monitoring tool) may be his only shot at evangelizing the open source gospel...

"I'm thinking about lighting a candle instead of cursing the darkness (when I'd much rather light a flame-thrower), and trying to sneak in a Nagios implementation under the radar so I can go, 'Hey, why don't we use Nagios? We've already got it up and running,' and then show them the nice dashboard."

I'll be interested to see how this drama plays out.

Posted by Harper Mann on March 15, 2007 01:40 PM

March 14, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Open Source Prescription: RHX

TAGS: Open Source

Peter Mui, the Open Source Community Advocate at GroundWork, was at Red Hat's worldwide launch of RHEL 5 today in San Francisco. He tells me Red Hat rented a theatre in the Metreon (in downtown San Francisco) for the introduction and flew out the "big honchos" from North Carolina for the launch and lunch.

At the launch, Red Hat also announced a new online marketplace called Red Hat Exchange or RHX for short, which goes live later this year. RHX is designed to be a single source for research, purchase, online fulfillment and support of open source and other commercial software business application stacks. The media was certainly interested - read about it here and here. More info at Red Hat's site here.

Many recognizable open source companies, including GroundWork, are part of RHX. Alfresco, MySQL, and Enterprise DB are also involved.

Given Red Hat's leadership with Linux, with RHX Red Hat could be in a position to become the Amazon of open source software.

That being said, will they offer free shipping during the holidays?

Posted by Harper Mann on March 14, 2007 04:33 PM

March 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)

The toothpaste is out of the tube

TAGS: Open Source

Late last week, BMC announced the hiring of William Hurley, the former CTO of Qlusters.

On a recent webcast, Hurley said his new role at BMC would be to "architect an open source strategy that makes both BMC and the open source community at large successful; really forge the collaboration between the company and the community."

Regarding the BMC hire, Raven Zachary posted on 451 CAOS Theory his curiosity as to the reactions of other open source systems and network management companies.

Well, Raven - below are the thoughts from GroundWork Open Source and Zenoss.

GroundWork's CEO Ranga Rangachari answers...

"What an interesting turn of events! Continuing with the trend of legacy proprietary software vendors cozying up with open source (a la Microsoft), BMC is the first of the 'Big 4' - which also includes HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli and CA Unicenter - to make the bold admission that open source represents the future of systems and network management."

Zenoss' VP Mark Hinkle writes...

"BMC's hiring of open source expert, 'whurley' just goes to show that even the largest enterprise systems management vendors understand that they need to look to open source to stay competitive going forward. It's a positive sign to see them acquiring talent versed in the collaborative nature of open source. It should be a strong statement to any enterprise systems management user the direction the industry is headed."

So, what's the right cliche here... The toothpaste is out of the tube?... The student becomes the teacher?...or...You can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Posted by Harper Mann on March 13, 2007 03:53 PM

March 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Open Source Myths Hold Water

TAGS: None

The open source vs. proprietary debate has had plenty of ink over the last few years. I think I've seen the same basic arguments and banter wrapped in what seems to be a hundred different packages.

But this article in particular from Roger Greene in Network World's "Face-Off" grabbed my attention. And it caught the attention of MuleSource, whose recent blog post took Roger to task point by point.

Now, I work for an open source company and yet, I think the problems he identifies are correct. However, the solution is not to avoid open source, but rather to engage commercial open source. That is, work with companies that can connect and enhance what open source tools can do. Companies that serve as immediate liaisons for both the open source community and the business community. Ultimately, companies that can provide what end users need.

My thoughts on the open source myths Roger lays out in his article...

"Myth #1: Open Source is Free."

No, open source is barter ware. The currency is contributions. Open source has a community which is a huge advantage because you have interested users. Commercial open source vendors can serve as a conduit for access to community by providing expertise in the technical aspects of the project(s) while remaining upstanding members of the open source community itself. These companies can help people access open source easier... at a reasonable cost.

"Myth #2: Bug fixes are faster and less expensive."

Commercial open source companies know how to use the open source projects. To remain an ongoing concern, these companies have to fix bugs immediately to completion and submit the fixes to the community so they are available in ongoing releases. That's part of their value-add. As cool new features are added to open source, which often happens faster than in private software, commercial open source companies can plug it into their product quickly. When organizations go it alone, and try to fix within then sure, it will take longer and probably be more expensive.

"Myth #3: Your IT staff can buy a 'raw' tool and shape it to their needs."

Your IT staff is much too busy to waste time messing with "raw" tools. That's why you want to outsource that task to commercial open source vendors. They maintain the expertise with the tools so you don't have to. It's far cheaper to ask these vendors to add and fix stuff than to have your poor overworked guys go learn the complex tool, yet again, which takes time because they haven't messed with it in months.

Without question, there are benefits to using open source. Also, without question, there are challenges associated with open source. But commercial open source vendors can stand in the gap and make open source work well within organizations.

Posted by Harper Mann on March 6, 2007 10:58 AM