Linux Today Blog

May 9, 2008

The Curse of Open Source License Proliferation

By Mark Hinkle

I remember when the big open source debate was whether a piece of software was really open source, meaning it was released under an OSI-approved license.

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Posted by bproffitt at 9:35 AM | Comments (0)

May 5, 2008

Black Duck's Excellent Acquisition--A Community

By Mark Hinkle

I met Black Duck CEO, Doug Levin back in October 2003 at the Enterprise Linux Forum in Washington D.C. I instantly liked him. He was just starting Black Duck Software and as a ex-Microsoftie talking about IP assurance I wasn't convinced about the bright future of his business. However, I enjoyed meeting Doug and wished him the best of luck and went on my way.

It wasn't long before Doug's venture received funding and support from Red Hat who also invested in the business, a telling sign. Black Duck has grown to be a leading global provider of products and services for accelerating software development through the managed use of open source and third-party code.

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Posted by bproffitt at 7:48 AM | Comments (0)

May 2, 2008

Silicon Dust HD HomeRun and MythTV

By Mark Hinkle

I have been tinkering with brew your own home DVRs for years with limited success. I have gone through various incarnations MythTV, Mac OS running proprietary software, even a painful weekend with MIcrosoft Media Center.

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Posted by bproffitt at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)

May 1, 2008

ZaReason--Ubuntu Laptops and PCs

By Mark Hinkle

At LinuxFestNW this weekend I ran into a company, Zareason, that sells computers with Ubuntu pre-installed. Not just desktops but laptops that have camera's, wi-fi, and support for power management of modern laptops.

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Posted by bproffitt at 2:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 30, 2008

Deflectors Say There's Something There, Sensors Say There Isn't

Did you ever get the nagging feeling you've missed something important as you go through your daily routine?

I'm having that feeling right now, and it may not bode well for Linux.

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Posted by bproffitt at 10:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 25, 2008

Bill Gates' Disdain for Open Source Even in Retirement

By Mark Hinkle

Bill Gates steps down as the Chairman of Microsoft on July 1st to transition to full time philanthropic efforts with the Gates Foundation. However, I wonder how effective Bill will be other than writing checks. You see Bill's never played well with others.

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Posted by bproffitt at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)

April 23, 2008

"Green" Open Source Technologies for Earth Day

By Mark Hinkle

Yesterday was Earth Day (visit the open source Drupal-powered website for details from the Earth Day Network). In September 1969, at a conference in Seattle, Washington, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment. Senator Nelson first proposed the nationwide environmental protest to thrust the environment onto the national agenda. This would be the first Earth Day. Now the event is celebrated twice a year at different times depending on what hemisphere you are on.

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Posted by bproffitt at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2008

Why Open Source Software Developers are Good Marketers

By Mark Hinkle

I have been trying to digest two unrelated stories from last week. The first was the report by the Standish Group on the $60 Billion dollars open source is purported to be costing the proprietary software industry. The second was Steve Reubel's, "The Web 2.0 World is Skunk Drunk on Its Own Kool-Aid." As I looked introspectively into these stories I wondered how relevant they were. I came to a realization that while the one of the most commonly espoused virtues of open source is more eyeballs generating better code that perhaps one of the least mentioned strengths is their marketing ability. Bear with me as try to explain why.

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Posted by bproffitt at 9:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 21, 2008

Did Canonical Just Get Punked by Red Hat and Novell?

I watched with my usual fascination as the news cycle built to a shrill crescendo last week when both Novell and Red Hat each made a point of announcing that they were not planning to put a lot of effort into developing a desktop for the consumer model.

One media outlet after another propagated the story theme: "Red Hat drops plans for consumer desktop development" Of course by the second or third wave this story, like the game of Telephone, has morphed into: "Red Hat Abandons Desktop! Aieee!" Which industry pundits immediately jumped on and used as "proof" for their long-waning arguments: "See? Even Red Hat sez that Linux on the desktop is no work-y. Told ya so!"

Curiously, very little attention was paid to Ron Hovespian's comments on Novell's similar plans, made before Red Hat's. If I were Novell, I would take this as a bad sign. Not only did the mainstream media not pick up on Novell's news, but even most of the hard-line Linux blogosphere wrote them off with nary so much as a "meh" And if you can't get those folks mad, you must be doing something wrong! :)

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Posted by bproffitt at 9:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 17, 2008

Paravirtualization Dead? I Didn't Know It Was Sick

A friend of mine sent me this link to an entry on Avi Kivity's blog, where the KVM maintainer and Linux kernel developer states (somewhat equivocally) that "paravirtualization is dead."

It's a brief entry, fairly matter of fact. Too bad I could hardly understand a word of it. Neither could my friend. It was one of those things you know is significant, if only you could grasp the meaning.

A couple of e-mails later to settle on a time, and I was on the phone to Qumranet, where Kivity works, in Israel so I could find out what the heck he was talking about.

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Posted by bproffitt at 10:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)