Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker | February 2008

MORE ENTRIES

February 2008

February 29, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Zmanda has introduced a new version of Zmanda Recovery Manager (ZRM) 2.1 which adds quite a few new capabilities for MySQL users. This version now includes enhanced snapshot support working with Linux LVM, Windows VSS, Solaris ZFS, NeApp SnapManager and Veritas VxFS. When they first told me about the performance on these systems I was blown away. I thought there must be some kind of a trick going on. The trick is to take advantage of the operating system's underlying snapshot capabilities to minimize locking on the database, typically less than one second. Robin, head of our product management group, tested the snapshot backup n a 1GB database and it put a read lock on the MySQL database for 1/10 of a second. (Your mileage may vary, but this is pretty darned good.)

Additionally, version 2.1 also has global management of backups. If you've got more databases popping up all the time, it's nice to manage them all from a single graphical console. For those who are used to the web-based console of MySQL Enterprise Monitor, you'll find Zmanda's console to be immediately familiar. Ok, Robin gave them some input. Still, it's nice to have the consistency. You can also get reports showing exactly what got backed up when and any issues or problems.

Lastly, and the Zmanda guys swear this is coincidental, you can now run the entire ZRM solution (and the core engine) on Solaris as well as on Red Hat Linux, SUSE, Fedora Core, Debian et al. We've always been cross platform at MySQL and it's great when others are too.

Zmanda is a great solution for backing up production MySQL systems. It's easy to use and plenty flexible. Download it and get going immediately.

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 29, 2008 02:14 PM

February 28, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft will prevail in the face of "freetards"

An aspect of the open source software nirvana has been the end of Microsoft's dominance. Well, anyone who sees Linux, OpenOffice or another OSS project/product as the death nail in Microsoft's coffin is not living in reality. It pains me to say this; it really does.

When you see Microsoft borrowing ideas from the OSS movement, it's probably best stop smelling the roses and pay attention. For instance, Microsoft's Sam Ramji has an interesting post on how OSS has influenced Windows Server 2008. Six areas Microsoft has learned from include:

Modular architectures
Programming language agnostic
Feedback-driven development
Built-for-purpose systems
Sys admins who write code
Standards-based communication

Sam writes:

"Overall, we've learned and continue to learn from open source development principles. These are making their way into the mindset, development practices, and ultimately into the products we bring to market. As all of the different organizations in IT continue to evolve, we'll learn from each others' best practices and make increasingly better software. As in science, this incremental improvement will move all of us forward."

InfoWorld's product review of Windows Server 2008 scored it an 8.5/10 and described it as an essential upgrade:

"Microsoft's slimmer and stronger server OS, bolstered by virtualization, networking, and security advances, is an upgrade that IT can't refuse, a 200-pound gorilla that eats commercial Linux"

Throw eggs at me if you like. But this should scare any OSS proponent. It seems like the folks at Redmond have been busy while the OSS movement has been prematurely readying Microsoft's eulogy.

I hope I'm wrong. But Microsoft simply appears to be meeting the challenge of OSS better than OSS appears to be meeting the challenge of displacing Microsoft.

PS: The term "freetards" used with attribution to FSJ.

PPS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 28, 2008 09:01 PM

February 27, 2008 | Comments: (0)

EU fines Microsoft $1.3 billion

Following on last week's announcement from Microsoft to be more interoperable and open, the EU has now fined Microsoft a cool $1.3 billion for failing to comply with a 2004 ruling. This brings the total fines the EU has levied on Microsoft to around $2.5 billion. This is the first fine in 50 years that the EU has imposed for a company because of a failure to comply with an anti-trust decision.

In reference to Microsoft's recent interoperability announcements, the EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes said

"We don’t want talk, we want compliance. If you cheat the rules, you will be caught.”

Ouch.

To most companies, a billion dollar fine would be enormous. To Microsoft, I'm not sure this has been an effective measure to get compliance. (Or at least, it seems not to have influenced their actions greatly.) But I wonder how customers in Europe feel about Microsoft's reputation. This can only hurt. And that impact could be far larger than the billions in fines.

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 27, 2008 11:55 AM

February 26, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Is OpenLogic the future of the OSS support business?

Many of you know that OpenLogic offers consolidated technical support, updates and indemnification for hundreds of open source projects. Earlier this year, OSS luminaries such as Shaun (of JBoss fame) and Rod (of SpringSource fame) questioned whether customers could receive the same level of technical support from vendors such as OpenLogic versus the OSS project owner.

Well, OpenLogic just released news on the state of their business:

OpenLogic tripled its number of customers. OpenLogic now has 3 companies in the Fortune 10 and many more in the Fortune 500.
The top 5 projects that OpenLogic provided consolidated support for in 2007 were PostgreSQL, JBoss, Tomcat, Apache HTTP Server, and Hibernate.
In 2007, the OpenLogic Expert Community grew to 160 members. Field experts who OpenLogic pays on a per-incident basis helped resolve almost half of OpenLogic’s support issues in 2007, with the remainder being resolved by OpenLogic’s in house experts.
Projects in OpenLogic's Certified Library more than doubled to 380 projects.

It's interesting to see that customers are going to OpenLogic for JBoss and Hibernate support versus using Red Hat.

As OSS products become more mature, what value proposition will OSS project owners offer to balance the needs of customers seeking one number to call for the 10s of OSS projects in use at their company? Don't get me wrong, I doubt that Red Hat or SpringSource is going to close up shop anytime soon. But, there is a case to be made for consolidated support providers such as OpenLogic.

As with most things, there's likely room for both models...

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 26, 2008 12:14 PM

February 26, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Integrating MySQL with Sun

We've now officially closed MySQL's acquisition by Sun this morning and I thought I'd make a few observations about the process. I've been through several acquisitions over the years, both on the acquiring and the acquired side, and so far, this one has gone the smoothest.

While Sun is obviously a much larger company than MySQL, the approach that the Sun execs and managers have taken has been professional and respectful every step of the way. Not once have I heard Sun employees say "This is the way we do things here." Instead, there has been a strong desire to make sure that MySQL can continue to operate "business as usual."

We will continue to release MySQL under the GPL license and support all mainstream platforms and languages just as we always have. Red Hat is still our most popular platform. PHP is our most popular language. There's no hidden agenda to migrate people to Solaris or Java or anything like that. If there's one thing that's clear with open source, it's about ensuring customers have freedom and choice. The good news is we now have even more resources to help us optimize performance for large scale operations and we can expand our reach into more markets.

To Sun's credit, they have demonstrated tremendous flexibility and agility with this acquisition. I'm sure there were times where they must have wondered "what's with these folks?" MySQL is a very passionate company and sometimes people can be, ah, rather outspoken.

A good example is how we've updated our Intellectual Property agreements. This is something we had been doing gradually at both companies. As MySQL was planning on going public we knew things would have to be updated any ways. Sun's IP agreements were traditional, big company 'we own everything' documents. Sun knew they also had to update their policies to be more open source friendly. After all, many employees (both at Sun and MySQL) also contribute to external open source projects in their spare time.

So working together, Sun and MySQL developed a far more flexible IP agreement and FAQ that covers most people's concerns. The Sun folks we worked with admitted that it might have otherwise taken 12 months to get these agreements updated. Instead they were completed in a matter of weeks. That's something we can all be proud of.

Over the coming weeks, we'll no doubt be looking for ways we can further integrate with some of Sun's key technologies and products to accelerate our roadmap and improve our scalability. We'll have more news in this area at the upcoming MySQL Conference & Expo, April 14-17 in Santa Clara.

As a result of the Sun acquisition we're seeing a dramatic increase in conference registrations. I expect that many of the tutorials will sell out, so if you want to make sure you get your first choice, I encourage you to register soon.

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 26, 2008 08:56 AM

February 21, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Is Microsoft using the "anti-lock-in" argument from OSS's playbook?

I'm finally getting a chance to read up on the Microsoft interop news today. It really sucked to see the headlines all day, but not have a chance to read them until now.

While the words "open source" are mentioned in the announcement and on Bill Hiff's post, this is really about open APIs, not open standards or open source. (Maybe 'not' is too harsh; maybe I should say 'and significantly less about').

Obviously Microsoft is opening up their APIs because it makes business sense. Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. have already made the business case for open APIs to closed software. If you ask me, the interop announcement virtually eliminates (on paper) the argument that Microsoft will lock you and your data up. Hmm...have we seen this playbook before? Maybe from OSS vendors? "Use our product and you won't get locked in. You have the source code so you can always go elsewhere if you're not satisfied with us." Understandably, Microsoft's position isn't as eloquent. However, it does counter a potential barrier to remaining a Microsoft customer. Let me be clear, I do not think Microsoft's interop announcement actually protects against lock-in. It seems like Cote would agree:

"Overall, the thrust of the press release is that Microsoft is going to make the documentation and access to its software better (easier? Doubtful. See Joel's piece), that is, more interoperable."

But, it doesn't matter what I (Joel or Cote) think. What matters is ho Microsoft can market the anti-lock-in angle and how customers will respond.

I have never thought that OSS would be the end of Microsoft or the commercial software market. The fact that Microsoft is borrowing (in their own unique way) from the OSS playbook should scare OSS "freetards" straight.

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 21, 2008 07:10 PM

February 21, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Double-plus open Microsoft

Earlier today Microsoft announced with great fanfare the start of a more open attitude. They have defined a set of principles around interoperability, open connections, standards and data portability. And they'll be publishing detailed specs on the company's APIs, protocols and file formats to provide greater transparency and support for industry standards and open source. This is good news. If Microsoft claimed to be open before, I guess they are now even more so. (You could say, they are double-plus open.)

Microsoft will be releasing 30,000 pages of API and protocol documentation for Windows, Office, Exchange Server, SharePoint and SQL Server. Developers will have the ability to create products that interact closely with all of Microsoft's high volume products using these previously proprietary protocols, in effect tearing down at least some of the proprietary barriers that gave Microsoft it's monopoly position in certain markets. Microsoft also says it won't sue open source developers for development or "non-commercial" distribution of implementations of its protocols. Microsoft is being clear that companies that want to commercially distribute implementations of their protocols still require a patent license.

Most of the reaction to the announcement has been positive, with many in the industry applauding Microsoft's openness. Of course, there's still plenty of skepticism. Perhaps the openness will improve Microsoft's standing with open source developers.

The more cynical reader might wonder where Microsoft's new found openness is coming from. While it's not until the last paragraph of the press release, Microsoft admits that:

"The interoperability principles and actions announced today reflect the changed legal landscape for Microsoft and the IT industry. They are an important step forward for the company in its ongoing efforts to fulfill the responsibilities and obligations outlined in the September 2007 judgement of the European Court of First Instance."

Well, even if it was legislated, it's still good for the industry. And its good for Microsoft customers. And ultimately, it's probably good for Microsoft to be more open. If Microsoft wants to attract the next generation of developers and users, they should take the hint: Open works.

Meanwhile, the EU, which has two new antitrust investigations launched against Microsoft in the last month, has a more guarded reaction to Microsoft's openness:

"This announcement does not relate to the question of whether or not Microsoft has been complying with EU antitrust rules in this area in the past."

What do you think? Does Microsoft have the will to provide true interoperability? Will they take concrete steps to work more closely with the open source community? Is this the start of new thinking under the leadership of Bill Hilf, Ray Ozzie and Sam Ramji?

Or will we look back and say

"It was a bright and cold day... and the clocks were striking thirteen..."

Me, I'm optimistic...
But lets judge Microsoft by their actions, not their words.

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 21, 2008 06:12 PM

February 21, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Open source alternatives to 50 proprietary apps

Jimmy Atkinson sent me a link to his blog WHdb with an article that gives alternatives to 50 top proprietary applications. While the focus is more end user than IT infrastructure, it's a pretty comprehensive list. Who knew there were alternatives to Norton Ghost, McAfee Anti-Virus, AutoCAD, Acrobat and others. Check it out.

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 21, 2008 07:05 AM

February 20, 2008 | Comments: (0)

How broadly will RHQ be used?

Sometimes it pays to be late with "breaking news" ;-) For those of us that weren’t at JBoss World 2008, here is a great presentation that explains the RHQ announcement:

"RHQ is a combined effort to provide management infrastructure
It is not a management product

Management technologies utilize the same types of infrastructure that are rebuilt over and over:

Inventory

Common agent infrastructure

Fine grained security and audit

Integration APIs

Plugin extensions for new product support

Reporting

RHQ delivers these core infrastructure services in an open source model as building blocks to be utilized in management products"

RHQ (which is GPL'd) will be used by Red Hat/JBoss products such as JON. However, any vendor could build a RHQ plugin. For example, vendor XYZ's plugin would "go deep vertically" in terms of managing/administering their own product. Additionally, a management product that supports RHQ would provide horizontal views/management of multiple products, including the product from vendor XYZ.

It'll be interesting to see if RHQ gets traction beyond RH/JBoss. And how it integrates/competes/etc. with the integration and interoperability goals of the Open Management Consortium.

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 20, 2008 09:52 PM

February 20, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Yes, Sun should compete against Linux

When I read Dana's post about leaving Jonathan & Sun alone, I couldn't help but side with Dana. But then I read Amanda McPherson (Marketing director at the Linux Foundation) original post and now I'm torn. Then I read comments on Amanda's blog from Sun employees, and I'm even more confused. (BTW, I urge you to read Amanda's post...she makes some great points).

The core of this discussion boils down to whether it is "okay" for Sun to compete against Linux with OpenSolaris. I have written in the past that I believe it is perfectly valid for Sun, or any company to compete with Linux or any OSS project/product. I am a fan of competition. I believe it helps all parties raise their game.

How is the OpenSolaris vs. Linux discussion different from MuleSource vs. WSO2, JBoss App Server vs. Apache Geronimo or JasperSoft vs. Pentaho, etc?

In the past, Mike Dolan (a fellow IBMer) commented that the issue isn't whether Sun should compete, but why they don't collaborate:

"Instead of "competition", think about what could happen if Sun worked proactively and in a contributory manner to help fight "Bug #1"? (See Ubuntu bug database...). If Sun's so relevant and its technologies are so great, why waste time fighting a community that consists of HP, IBM, Dell, Oracle, SAP, Cisco, Google, BEA, and thousands of others? Why not join in that community and provide your value-add? In my opinion, competing for OS lock-in is "so 90's" (as my youngest sister would say)..."

I can't argue with Mike from a pure "OSS religion" standpoint. But, regardless of what Sun wants us to believe, pragmatism is behind their OpenSolaris vs. Linux strategy more than "OSS religion". Few vendors would be able to walk away from the significant revenue that Solaris drives to Sun. And remember, Linux grew largely at the expense of Unix (Solaris was the #1 Unix OS vendor). It's a tough position for Sun to be in....especially since they want OSS to spell SUN.

Personally, I encourage Sun to continue competing against Linux. Let the market decide.

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 20, 2008 10:44 AM

February 18, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Replacing my Treo 650

I've been living with my Treo 650 for quite a few years. It's been a workhorse, but frankly, it's on a slow road to the glue factory. When I first got this phone it was state-of-the-art. In fact, it was the only smartphone available. I've been a Palm user since the original Palm Pilot back in 1996. I upgraded various models along the way, including the Palm III, Sony Cleo, Treo 600 among others. But updates from Palm were always slow; in recent years, they've become absolutely glacial.

Let's face it, Palm lost the plot a few years back. They spread themselves too thin. They failed to keep the OS up-to-date. And they got their clock cleaned by the Blackberry and more recently the iPhone. Palm invented the category of the smartphone but failed to stay relevent. No wonder Palm ranks last in a survey of customer satisfaction.

Maybe my Treo 650 has been dropped too many times and now the quality of voice connections is just too crappy. Some of the buttons have now become intermittent, so it's sometimes hard to turn the phone on or off. And there's a gaping crack in the seam between the front plate and the back that makes me nervous. In some ways, it's a testament to the quality of the Treo that I'm still using this phone after four years. Just about every other Treo user I know has moved on.

There's things I absolutely love about the Treo 650 and there's things that drive me nuts. Here's the quick rundown:

Pros:
-Its a GSM tri-band phone, and works pretty much anywhere in the world
-It's got a very good keyboard
-It's got good email (I use Snapfish)
-It's got a simple but effective calendar and contacts
-It's got a decent display
-The user interface is simple; not a lot of excess clicking
-There are plenty of third party applications (I use RunnersLog to track my running.)
-Battery life is decent (5 hours talk time) and you you can swap it out for a spare
-Syncing with windows outlook is pretty easy (though sometimes everything gets duplicated)

Cons:
-It's bulky (4.4" x 2.3 x .90) and heavy (6.3 oz)
-It's got this big stub of an antenna
-It doesn't fit into my pants pocket, so I use a clip on case that unclips anytime I bend down to pick something up or get into my car
-The voice quality is lousy; I've taken to using a headset all the time
-Speaker phone not very good
-The bluetooth connectivity is flakey and doesn't always work
-Web browsing is so slow as to be useless (though I will use Google when desparate)
-The camera is awful

So here's my requirements list for a new phone:
-Must be GSM tri-band
-Must have better voice quality
-Must weigh 4 oz or less
-Must be pocketable (smaller than the Treo 650)
-Must have a QWERTY keyboard I can type on
-Must have good email
-Must have a decent calendar
-4 hours or more of talk time

Optional requirements:
-3G support for faster browsing
-Built-in camera that is not completely useless
-Decent speaker phone

If anyone has made the switch from Treo 650 to something else, let me know how it went. Meanwhile I keep hoping to see if Apple's former "podfather" Jon Rubenstein can have a positive impact on Palm. And maybe the long-rumored GSM version of the Palm Centro will make its way to AT&T in the next week. Alternatively, maybe I just wait for something cool like the newly unveiled Sony Ericsson X1.

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 18, 2008 08:53 AM

February 15, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Kill all the lawyers (and start with Lerach)

I've long admired Shakespeare's simple solution to litigation: "The first thing, let's kill all the Lawyers," proclaimed in Henry VI Part II - Revenge of the Nerds. In Silicon Valley the sentiment against lawyers took a fever pitch when Bill Lerach started filing class-action lawsuits against leading tech companies. But as it turns out, Lerach himself was involved in a kickback scandal and has been sentenced to 2 years in prison, a forfeit of $7.75 million in profits and a fine of $250,000.

It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 15, 2008 08:34 AM

February 13, 2008 | Comments: (0)

On setting goals

Everyone knows that I'm an IBMer in the software division that competes with JBoss. I have a lot of respect for the folks leading JBoss, and hope that has come through in my public interactions with guys like Bill, Sacha & Shaun.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. JBoss is good for the middleware market. They (and other OSS middleware vendors) keep all the big vendors at the top of our game.

But as I read story after story about JBoss targeting a 50% share of enterprise middleware workloads by 2015, I was left scratching my head. First off, most stories just seemed to accept the "target" without questioning the likelihood. About the only story that separated aspiration from likelihood was by Dan Farber at BTL. Kudos Dan!

Red Hat's "Enterprise Acceleration" initiative, which underpins this 50% goal, consists of:

1] Comprehensive Enterprise Middleware Portfolio
2] Enterprise Products - From Community Development to JBoss Enterprise
3] Enterprise Acceleration Center

JBoss has been executing on #1 & #2 on this list for some time. The only "new news" would be #3. Come on Sacha, I wanted to hear something new out of JBoss World! ;-) What's the Enterprise Acceleration Center really about? According to Red Hat, key elements currently planned include:

Performance Tuning Lab - performance benchmarking, testing, best practice guides Interoperability Lab - interoperability testing with other environments and products
Live Certification Center - ISV and customers can test their applications on JBoss Enterprise Middleware and proactively adapt to new releases
Migration Lab - processes, partners, services and best practices to transition from other software to JBoss Enterprise Middleware

Will the combination of #1, #2 & #3 drive the conversion from users to customers?

Anywho, I wish the folks at JBoss the best of luck towards this 50% goal, just don't expect to get there without a fight ;-)

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 13, 2008 11:44 PM

February 13, 2008 | Comments: (0)

SourceForge.net marketplace vs. Guru.com?

Roberto recently spoke to SourceForge Community Manager Ross Turk. Ross gave a rundown on what SF has learned with SF Marketplace:

"First, we learned that people are interested in the idea. People are responding to it in pretty large numbers; growing numbers, in fact, and I think that’s good.
Second, we learned that there are a few types of transactions that people seem to want to do that our system doesn’t support. For example, people who want to sell services by the hour are working around the lack of that ability by creating listings for a single hour of service and dealing with the discrepancy in purchase price with the buyer directly. Adding the capability to have per-incident, per-hour, and per-project pricing would be useful to a lot of people."

When I first heard of SF Marketplace, I couldn't think of what services I would want to purchase from the developer(s) of a product I found at SF. Obviously I'd get support for things like JBoss or Spring via the appropriate vendor, but the majority of 'stuff' on SF isn't of the Spring kind. For example, would I really ever want to pay for technical support for Gallery 2? (I'm technical enough and can Google for answers with the best of them).

But I wasn't thinking broadly enough. I may not need support for Gallery 2, but maybe I want to integrate phpBB & Gallery 2 and throw in CAPTCHA on my site. Google can help, but maybe I'm in a rush. Or maybe I need a custom site/app developed using various projects on SF. Well, it looks like SF.net user faisi (and many others) can help.

I had imagined developer X, a contributor to project XYZ would offer services for project XYZ via SF Marketplace. That is one option. It also appears that developers A, B & C, who may or may not be contributors to project XYZ, are offering services around project XYZ. This could position SF Marketplace as a competitor to Guru.com or Scriptlance.com down the road. Interesting...

I hadn't considered SF Marketplace growing in this fashion. But hey, if users are happy, well done SF!

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 13, 2008 10:38 PM

February 13, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Why do cell phones suck so much?

On a recent Saturday night my wife and I went out shopping for cell phones. (I know, I know, doesn't sound like much of a date.) I'm going to replace my Treo 650 and my wife wants to replace her Motorola RAZR with something that's easier for texting.

We stopped by the local AT&T store to see what's on offer. (Although my wife's on Verizon.) Lots of choices but still pretty frustrating. There are phones that have 3G GSM and Wifi (but weigh too much) there are phones that have a great user interface (but no keyboard) there are phones that have a camera (but no wifi or vice verse) and phones that have all the right features but you'd never be able to figure them out.

I got to wondering a very basic question: why do cell phones suck so much? My thesis is that they suck because they've been designed by committees. I tried out several Windows Mobile 6 phones and they just seem to have the user interface wrong. Maybe I'm too used to the Palm Treo at this point to switch. But should it really take so many clicks to send a message? And why do I give up so much screen real estate for fancy windows borders, buttons? You get the feeling that the user interface is designed by someone who has no idea what the underlying hardware will be. And of course, that is how it's designed. So while there are lots of good Windows Mobile phones (AT&T Tilt, Samsung BlackJack II, Samsung I760 among others), they never feel like the software is designed for the hardware. More of a one-size-fits-none solution. Maybe I could get used to the user interface, but it's not always obvious how to do even basic tasks. You've got to guess your way through menus and options and I found myself unable to get back to where I started without going back to the Windows menu.

It's worth contrasting that experience with the iPhone. You can pick up an iPhone and figure it out in a couple of minutes. It works the way you would expect it to work. I don't know if this is because Steve Jobs is a relentless micromanager sweating every detail of the user interface. But that's my guess. And if it isn't Jobs doing it, he's instilled a culture that cares deeply about these things. (And that's pretty much the way things were at Palm and why I love the Treo user interface.)

I'm not saying it's easy to design a smartphone; it's the embodiment of deeply conflicting user interfaces and objectives. You've got to balance things like phone usage, battery life, screensize along with interfaces for a range of applications like email, text messages, web browsing and calendars. Not an easy task.

I think in the end it all boils down to a couple of things. If you want a good product, have a small team that cares deeply about the experience. It's worth sweating the details.

Maybe that's the reason Microsoft bought Danger...

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 13, 2008 09:31 AM

February 12, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Should Nokia worry about Android?

Yesterday's unveiling of Android-based prototypes at the Mobile World Congress has brought Google's Android platform back into the spotlight.

BusinessWeek has a story titled "Nokia vs. Google: The Battle Escalates", which suggests Android will have a large impact in the market. InfoWorld on the other hand reports that analysts doubt Android's promises will be fully realized. In a CBC News article, Paul Chapple, Nokia Canada's GM, seems to agree:

"Building phones is really hard. Making announcements is easy. It's taken a long time for software companies with a great deal of expertise to get this right."

The Open Handset Alliance is sharing the costs of the Android platform across tens of contributing vendors. Nokia builds similar capabilities using their own R&D budget and their own engineers. It clearly looks like the OHA wins on the cost criteria vs. Nokia's approach. It could be argued that OHA vendors could innovate faster than Nokia because of their collaborative 3rd party approach.

Will either of these things matter in the market where Nokia owns a 39%+ share of the 1.2 billion device market? I guess it depends on what how much of a mobile device's user experience is driven by the underlying software (i.e. device OS and runtime) versus the applications that sit on top of the underlying software. I tend to believe that the applications and the usability of these applications drive the majority of the user experience. The applications, their usability and the mobile device form factor are the key purchase drivers. Android doesn't address any of these three items directly. Sure, Android will allow Samsumg to create a cool mashup with Google Maps and YahooMail. But this application wouldn't be contributed to the OHA community, so, for example, Motorala would have to invest in building something similar. Nokia would have to do the same, except Nokia would build it on their own OS and runtime platform. Hence, there is minimal competitive differentiation between the applications built by one OHA vendor and any other vendor.

Last, but not least, ISVs could target several handsets by supporting the Android platform. But would any ISV walk away from Nokia's dominant market share? Methinks the answer is no. At the end of the day, if applications are going to be available for Nokia and Android (and other platforms like Apple's and RIM's), is Android really a threat to Nokia?

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 12, 2008 07:03 AM

February 12, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Interview with Nokia's Olli Toivanen

I managed to score an email interview with Olli Toivainen, Nokia's director of product management and one of the key guys behind the N Series of Linux-based Internet Tablets. Although I couldn't get him to spill the beans on future products, he does provide a good perspective on the development and success of the Nokia N810.

Q: How is the Nokia N810 doing in the market? Has it met your expectations?
Olli: We're pleased with the results to date. Demand has been to the point that we're selling everything we can make, which is both good and bad. But it certainly has met our expectations. It's also fun to see both of the maemo based "second generation devices" on this list: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/pc/ref=sv_pc_1/103-6244252-0643040

Q: Who is buying it? Is it individual consumers, IT departments, road warriors?
Olli: It appears there is a lot of interest in miniature computer technology; both with a tech-savvy audience as well as with internet users and those interested in what I call personal media. According to our studies the profiles of buyers vary quite a bit, as well as the motivations to buy. The majority of buyers are between 25-35.

We market the Internet Tablet concept to high-tech early adopters; this audience plays a vital role in creating the technology. My personal view is also that this is one of the most interesting electronics and computer concepts out there; and the high level of interest among tech lovers seems to confirm that others share this view as well.

Q: What made you decide to use an open source platform instead of Symbian or some other OS?
Olli: Our goal was to miniaturize some of the traditional uses of a full size PC - but also speed up innovation to converge new applications to a handset-sized device. For this goal, GNOME/Linux technology (on ARM) fits very well -- both from a developer standpoint, as well as from a technological performance perspective. S60 is an extremely good technology for the type of products that we use it for, and as such, it has a strong position within the telecom industry.

Q: From the outside, it looks like the N series has been a bit of a skunkworks project inside of Nokia. What was it like on the inside?
Olli: I am proud of the work we have done within the Nseries team. It has established itself as the leader in technologically advanced mobile devices, and these devices have become an important part of Nokia's product portfolio. Our studies show that N series buyers really use the full range of features of the devices, which is fantastic. It validates the concept of convergence.

Internally, we have a real cool spirit of innovation. When it comes to Linux, it is no exception - the Internet Tablet allows us a lot of room to play and build new things together with companies and developers who are interested in Linux. Innovating at large company is relatively easy as long as it's sponsored at management level - and in our case it certainly is so.

Q: Nokia has now ported MySQL to the S60. Do you think we could see a full database app development platform on Nokia's smartphones and internet devices?
Olli: I can't comment on future plans of individual products. But I can say that databases are a natural part of any system product, which our maemo Linux based OS is, of course.

Q: The most obvious question people have when considering the N810 is "where's the cell phone?" Any thoughts or plans in this area?
Olli: We have said publicly that we will support Sprint's Wimax rollout with a maemo based
product. When it comes to the timing of other individual new features like a phone app, I can't comment on those. With the N810 we have developed the handset purely with Internet and related use cases in mind.

Ok, while Olli didn't really give up a lot about future plans, I tried! My personal view is that the Nokia N810 is just about the coolest Internet device out there. Given that the GSMA conference is taking place this week in Barcelona, maybe we'll have some additional news from Nokia.

Let me know what you think of this interview or whether I should stick to interviews with rockers like Fall Out Boy and Paul Stanley instead.

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 12, 2008 05:37 AM

February 11, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Open source barometer II

Alfresco will tomorrow publish the second annual installment of their open source barometer report; basically an in-depth survey of their 35,000 users. That's not to say this is representative of the entire universe of open source users, but it is a good bellweather indicator of what's going on in IT shops that use open source applications. Ian Howells, the man behind the report, is the only PhD I know in Marketing, and he's got the statistical chops to back up his findings.

I was able to get early access to a draft and it contains some interesting nuggets:
- Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux are both growing at more than 20% per year
- Windows is used for 40% of Alfresco evaluations, but only 26% of the deployments (and mostly on XP rather than Vista)
- MySQL is used by 60% of Alfresco deployments, with Oracle and SQL Server at around 14% each
- Tomcat is the most widely deployed app server at around 70%

There's more detail in the full report which should be available on Alfresco's site tomorrow.

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 11, 2008 07:52 AM

February 08, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Cobra, A new OSS language for .Net

I read about a .Net-based open source language project named Cobra. What is Cobra? Chuck Esterbrook, the creator of Cobra, gave this presentation at Lang.net. According to Chuck, the Cobra language takes the best of several languages and puts them in one place:

MOTIVATION: Productivity boosters are scattered across languages - Clean syntax (Python, Ruby) - Run-time performance (C#, C++) - Static and dynamic typing (Objective-C, VB) - Contracts (Eiffel, Spec#) - Nil tracking (Spec#, iihtdioa.C#) - Not mutually exclusive!

Cobra runs on .Net and Mono.

Call me old fashioned, but considering Chuck's plan to open source the compiler (under the MIT license), why’d he go down the .Net path? So I asked him:

1. Why did you decide to build Cobra on top of .Net?

I made two attempts in private to build Cobra as a standalone language and gave up after a few months in each case. The amount of work involved, which includes the creation of a standard library, is daunting and time consuming.
.Net was a multi-language design from the start including CodeDom support and multiple languages from Microsoft's own people. When I saw how much leverage the Boo project was getting out of it, I decided to try again.

See also: http://cobra-language.com/docs/acknowledgements/

Now I'm excited about further developments like Silverlight and Pex. Interoperability and leverage is a good thing!

2. Do you think that OSS religious types will be anti-Cobra because it's implemented on .Net?

I hope not. I do a lot of the development on Novell Mono, which is OSS. Cobra itself will be OSS this month. And there is a growing number of OSS projects that run on .Net and Mono.

3. Any info on usage?

Just that I was in stealth mode until my presentation at Lang.net in January. My focus right now is "release early, release often".

4. Anything else you want to mention?

Cobra is self-hosted meaning that the compiler is implemented in Cobra. That was very important to me so that for the hours I spend maintaining the language, I'm using it. It also means I have to pay attention to performance. And of course, it's the ultimate test case after I make a change (both last and biggest).

Good luck, Chuck!

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 8, 2008 09:49 PM

February 08, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Pacific rubbish dump twice the size of America

This is frightening story from London's Daily Mail....

A rubbish dump twice the size of the United States has been discovered floating in the Pacific Ocean.
The vast expanse of debris, made up of plastic junk including footballs, kayaks, Lego blocks and carrier bags, is kept together by swirling underwater currents.

It stretches from 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.

And here's another link on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

How did we get into this mess? More importantly how do we fix it?

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 8, 2008 07:38 AM

February 08, 2008 | Comments: (0)

I was wrong about IP assurance

I've asked a few times why IP assurance is a customer concern. But I'm not a lawyer, or one in training. Lucky for you, Luis Villa (a lawyer in training and OSS guy) jumped in to correct me.

"...make what appears to be the same error: comparing IP to “environmental rules or workplace safety regulations”. There is a critical difference, of course: if the EPA or comes after Microsoft, and I use Microsoft products, I can’t be sued. If a patent holder comes after Microsoft, and I use Microsoft products, I can be sued, since patent law allows penalties both for manufacture and use of infringing products. (Joe Shaw correctly cites the relevant law here.) That’s fundamentally different from most other forms of law, where customers typically aren’t liable for the sins of the vendor. "

I stand corrected on the law. Customers should act accordingly until vendors act in the interest of their customers on the IP Assurance front.

I don't agree with the law and question the efficacy of such a law in the software landscape. But I do not want to propagate the misconception that IP is just a vendor concern from a legal standpoint.

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 8, 2008 06:06 AM

February 07, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Sun's utopia?

Cote is at Sun's analyst event and has two posts that caught my attention.

Cote writes:

"Sun’s story is the same and more eloquent than ever: telcos will accept open-think finally, emerging markets will leap-frog over using closed, hegemonic technology for their IT build-up preferring open, flexible nirvanas, and the tried and true cash-pipe of 1st world enterprise data-centers will see that the combo of Solaris & those perfect looking aluminum-cased boxes are what running data-centers deserve to be like.
....

The Sun faithful believe this utopia-bet so much so that they bristle at calling it such. To the Sun faithful, they’re betting on inevitability, the march of time. They’re no doubt practicing the phrase “I told you so” in the shower every morning.

That is the Sun ethos in a nutshell."

Do you think Sun's utopia bet is going to pay off? (Obviously I have my views, but I just found out my new neighbor is VP of Canadian Software Sales so I'll hold my tongue.)

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 7, 2008 09:38 PM

February 07, 2008 | Comments: (0)

"Fake Steve Jobs" (Dan Lyons) at SugarCRM conference

SugarCRM has their developer conference going on this week in San Jose. Things started with a blast of electric guitar followed by CEO John Roberts' keynote presentation that reviewed the founding of the company, their strategic bet on open source and plans for the future.

Next up was Fake Steve Jobs --actually Dan Lyons from Forbes. I think Dan is one of the most insightful business writers in tech. He was one of the first business writers to cover open source (though some may argue he doesn't really grok it; he was snowed by SCO on at least a few occasions.) Nonetheless, Dan's been following the industry for years and can distinguish between minor ebbs and flows and what turns out to be major seismic shifts like Linux and what Forbe's calls "the Cheap Revolution".

Dan saw what was going on with open source software companies like SugarCRM, MySQL, Zimbra and others starting to disrupt the old guard. Perhaps recognizing that there was a similar disruption taking place in traditional print media, Dan decided to start experimenting in blogging and eventually came up with the Fake Steve Jobs (FSJ) blog. Of course, initially no one knew it was Dan writing this. He was finally outted last summer by NY Times columnist Brad Stone as he was finalizing the publication of his satirical novel "Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs".

And perhaps with another parallel to the software industry, Lyons' blog has gone legit and is now sponsored by Forbes. It's still completely irreverent and skewers Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and open source others with regularity. You can dismiss FSJ as sophomoric humor, but you'd miss out on the fact that much of his analysis is thought provoking. I don't agree with everything Lyons writes, but I his observations are pretty sharp. FSJ's analysis of Microsoft's offer to acquire Yahoo as a "three legged race" is outstanding. And his send up of Apple's shutdown of ThinkSecret was inspired. (He's got Fake Steve Jobs negotiating a possible shut down of his blog with Apple lawyers and it's all blogged in real time --brilliant!)

So as expected, Dan pretty much slagged off most of the tech industry in his presentation. (One of my SugarCRM buddies referred to it as "equal opportunity bashing.") No one was spared. He ripped into Larry Ellison ("trying to break Wilt Chamberlin's record"), Marc Bennioff ("a very modest individual"), Ray Ozzie ("the Ted Bundy of user interface design"). Perhaps more importantly, he talked about how open source is moving beyond the realm of the crusade to become more mainstream.

In print at Forbes and as FSJ, it's pretty easy to figure out where Dan is serious, where's he's being flippant and where he's using satire to make a point. That wasn't so easy to discern in his presentation and so it felt off-kilter at times; sort of like standup comedy without alcohol. I managed to record a few clips of the presentation on YouTube.

I have a tremendous respect for Dan as a writer. I've written my share of tech satire over the years and it's tough to do week after week. I hope Dan can keep it up. Both at FSJ and at Forbes.

Update:
And here's Paul Krill's report from the SugarCRM Conference including coverage of Jonathan Schwartz's keynote.

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 7, 2008 07:05 AM

February 06, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Open source video games, anyone?

Jimmy Atkinson emailed to point us towards his "Top 25 Linux Games for 2008" list.

I'm not a big video game fan, and we hardly ever cover gaming on this blog. But alas, I decided to head on over.

I'm glad that I did! Seeing #3 on the list, "FreeCiv" brought me back to my first all-nighter at the hands of a video game. I remember playing Civilization for ~12 hrs straight without getting up for food or a bio break. Good times.

Many of the games on Jimmy's list are free and run on Linux, Windows and some on Mac. The majority are OSS.

Check out the list and let the rest of us know if you have a favorite on the list.

PS: Does anyone know how these OSS video games are impacting the overall video game market?

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 6, 2008 02:32 PM

February 05, 2008 | Comments: (0)

United charges for second bag

In what is clearly a sign of a business that doesn't understand its customers, United Airlines has decided to start charging domestic customers $25 for checking a second bag. This is in addition to the fact that you have to pay for meals, curbside check-in, making changes to reservations and redeeming frequent flyer awards. If United could figure out how to charge for using the restroom on flights I'm sure they'd do that too.

I'm a Premier Exec on United so while I won't be charged for checking a second bag (which honestly, I think it's pretty rare that I check one bag, let alone two) I'm sure we'll see more people trying to cram more carry on luggage into the already crowded overhead compartments.

I think United deserves some sort of award here for coming up with a program that is sure to anger their best customers. And guess what, your share price fell 5% today. Good job, guys!

Posted by Zack Urlocker on February 5, 2008 07:30 AM

February 04, 2008 | Comments: (0)

An update on SpringSource

I had a great conversation with Rod Johnson, CEO of SpringSource last week. As readers of TSS will know, news of SpringSource acquiring Covalent caused much buzz amongst notary middleware personalities.

Rod explained that acquiring Covalent provides SpringSource with contributors on several Apache projects including Apache Tomcat. Why is Tomcat important? Well, more than a third of Spring users run SpringSource products on Tomcat. Tomcat use is also relatively high for paying customers of SpringSource support. The Covalent deal helps SpringSource offer customers a joint Tomcat and Spring support offering from one vendor. Rod states:

"Having committers on the project allows SpringSource to offer credible support for Tomcat and ensure that the project continues to innovate."

Rod spoke about the 3x increase in staff working on the growing number of SpringSource products as a result of VC funding in the summer and growing revenues.

On the revenue front, apparently SpringSource's revenue is much higher in their lifecycle vs. other OSS companies that Benchmark has invested in. While a majority of SpringSource revenue comes from professional services today, Rod and team want SpringSource Subscriptions to become the company's major revenue driver. The Covalent acquisition helps on this front. So to does SpringSource's intention of delivering higher-value monitoring, administration and management offerings as part of the SpringSource Subscription. While these products will only be available to paying customers, Rod proclaimed:

"Spring is never going to be crippleware"

Additionally, SpringSource is planning to offer specialized bundles of the Spring Portfolio pre-configured for leading application servers (WAS, WLS, JBoss, Tomcat, etc) as part of for-fee SpringSource Subscription.

On a side note, anyone reading Rod's blog recently will notice something that I'm sure the JBoss team has. Rod is very positive about Tomcat and, to a degree, questions whether Tomcat could displace JBoss in a non-insignificant portion of JBoss deployments. While SpringSource intends to support leading app servers including JBoss, it appears that coopetition is coming to a Tomcat/Spring/JBoss user near you!

Rod wants to build a strong middleware product business. The longer that SpringSource can remain independent, grow revenues and its product penetration, the larger the payout is likely to be when someone comes knocking.

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on February 4, 2008 08:59 PM

February 04, 2008 | Comments: (0)

{Open Source} Heroes Happen Here

Start today and order your own Hero Hack Pack � which includes Getting Started with Open Source, Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 Trial. Each pack is a chance to win a free pass to OSCON 2008.

{Open Source} Heroes Happen Here

Technology White Papers

InfoWorld Technology Marketplace

» Technology White Papers Library

Technology White Papers by Topic

Technology White Papers E-mail Alert