07.28.10
Posted in Google, Novell, Servers at 12:33 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Novell is still schizophrenic about Fog Computing, but it continues to advance this freedom-hostile trend for better or for worse
“Fog Computing” is what we call the hyped-up phenomenon which was rebranded and marketed as “cloud computing” (dressing up a wolf as a sheep). To clarify, what “cloud computing” means is connecting to a bunch of servers somewhere else and usually leaving one’s personal data on them. Sometimes it’s about virtualisation too (for compartmentalisation; Novell is promoting VDI too).
Novell is very hardcore on “Fog Computing” these days. Many posts in Novell’s PR blog (this new one for example) talk about “cloud” and we previously covered the news about the Fog Computing centre in China. That’s one of Novell’s latest accomplishments which it bragged about to generate a lot of press [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. There is also bad press [1, 2].
The strange thing is, when Novell loses a contract due to someone else’s ‘cloud’ (e.g. to Google), then it starts saying negative things about that so-called 'cloud' and those who choose it (former Novell customers). Here is a timely excerpt from a new article:
Top 10 Reasons Cloud Computing Deployments Fail
[...]
Michele Hudnall, solution marketing manager for BSM at Novell, emailed me to emphasize the importance of well-defined SLA’s. According to Hudnall, things you should watch out for are a lack of SLA’s, vague SLA’s and poor overall service management.
Will Novell ever decide whether it loves or hates the ‘cloud’? It sure has many products which it markets as “cloud” something. For instance, just days ago Novell was seemingly promoting Fog Computing for identity and security management:
Also of note: Novell’s Intelligent Workload Management (IWM) strategy includes identity and security management for physical and virtual systems located on-premises or in the cloud, according to Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon.
Another area where Novell follows the Fog Computing trend is inspired by Google’s Wave. Novell calls it Pulse, but it can integrate/interoperate with Wave.
Google offers IE [Internet Explorer] users faster Wave gravy
[...]
Wave has a number of early adopters – including Novell, SAP and Accenture – who’ve likely emphasized the need for better IE support.
Novell sometimes recommends Internet Explorer, but that’s another story.
At any rate, Novell is still preoccupied with proprietary software and Fog Computing (which is somewhat of a subset of proprietary software, depending on the licence). As Mark Pack put it some days ago:
The world however is full of companies which used to be massive, even dominant, but fell from grace. Remember the days when Novell dominated the server market?
Novell’s friends continue to rely on legacy alone, so it won’t last forever. Novell could possibly be part of the World Wide Web revolution, but instead it is losing even to Ubuntu. CentOS is said to be most dominant in Web servers now; Techrights too runs on CentOS. █
“Forty percent of servers run Windows, 60 percent run Linux…”
–Steve Ballmer (September 2008)
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Posted in America, Google, Microsoft, Novell at 11:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Google says that reports about the situation in LA (where Google replaces Microsoft/Novell) are overblown
NOVELL’S main source of revenue is proprietary software and one of those products which Novell sells (and still actively markets these days) is GroupWise, which it brings to many platforms including its own and Apple’s:
GW Mail is a GroupWise email client for the iPhone. With this app you get a much better interface than Novell delivers by default through GroupWise WebAccess. This app gives you some of the enterprise features that you wouldn’t get with simple POP/IMAP – like access to your Frequent Contacts and GroupWise address book.
There is a lot of news at the moment about a Fog Computing battle between Microsoft and Google [1, 2]. A central point of this coverage is Los Angeles, where Google is replacing Microsoft and Novell. A report that we found some days ago in Market Watch gives the impression that something went wrong, so Microsoft boosters in IDG, in The Register, and others in ZDNet [1, 2] repeat the claims about a delay.
The Los Angeles City Council was reportedly told that the costs of keeping employees on that old Novell system while the kinks are worked out could exceed $400,000, but Google says the costs will be closer to about $135,000 and that it will cover them. One of the key issues behind the delay: security concerns by the city’s police department.
More Microsoft-connected press has this to say:
As Washington Technology reported in May, the city awarded Computer Sciences Corp. and Google a $7.25 million contract to build a cloud e-mail system to replace the existing Novell GroupWise service for the city’s municipal agencies using Google’s suite of Web-based productivity tools.
According to TechCrunch, Google says that the Los Angeles Apps delay is overblown, so one might wonder if someone is misreporting in order to advance Microsoft’s (and Novell’s) interests. The City Of Los Angeles is important because of the chain effect.
On Friday, we learned that this delay became a reality, and Google missed its June 30 deadline to deploy Apps to all 34,000 employees. But today, at the launch of Google Apps for Government, a specialized version of the suite to meet government security needs, Google said the situation was in fact overblown.
Los Angeles was foolish to go with Fog Computing, but at least it is leaving Microsoft’s proprietary software in the process. Under more controlled environments, all governments would probably choose an infrastructure they control, which means that Free/libre software is the only viable choice. █
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Posted in Microsoft, Mono, Novell, OpenOffice at 11:16 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Novell staff spots negative feedback about Mono and says “Hey Mono community, help me reply all this nonsense.”
Novell’s Mono employees have often been accused of being bullies. They cannot quite tolerate dissent, so they resort to personal attacks (Novell employees used to comment here anonymously on Mono posts). Based on some recent news we have just caught up with, Novell is still putting Mono on more things and there is further promotion from Microsoft’s MVP Miguel de Icaza [1, 2], whose blog is all about Mono and Microsoft stuff.
According to this blog post from Planet SuSE, Novell still wants to 'own' OpenOffice.org (Go-OO is a start) and this time it increases Mono dependencies in OpenOffice.org:
It was hackweek here again in Novell, I spent an enjoyable ( but also sometimes frustrating ) couple of days trying to extend support for Mono in Openoffice.org. Recently on IRC there was some interest in using C# to write extensions for Openoffice.org where it became clear that only being able to ‘drive’ Openoffice.org from C# is severely limiting. To provide decent custom functionality you need to be able to get called by Openoffice.org, integrate with the Menus and Toolbars etc. Clearly to write an extension you need to be able to be ‘plugged’ in.. There are many many C# developers ( and potential extension developers ) and
we are just ignoring them. I have to admit I always wanted to play with C#/DotNet/Mono and I even proposed a GSOC task to try and faciliate this 
Unfortunately the project didn’t make the cut but fortunately there is Hackweek yay! So, I spent the last couple of days playing around with Mono and C#, first I wrote a new loader for Mono, this allowed me to use recomp to register some services, next I modified unopkg to accept a Mono component bundled in an extension.
Now we come to the interesting part. We have found the following new blog post from Andrés .G Aragoneses, who works for Novell. It’s about an article/post titled “.NET Culture Shock: Why .NET Adoption Lags Among Startups” and here is what Aragoneses has to say:
Especially sad to find that Mono is not mentioned in the article.
Especially super sad to find that Mono is mentioned in the comments, but in a negative way.
Hey Mono community, help me reply all this nonsense.
The first comment says: “Huh? A lot of those comments are actually in favor of Mono – many of the folks really seem to like and even recommend it. So don’t worry. Except for the few Anti-Microsoft zealots that are always around and usually don’t know what they’re screaming around, people are finally realizing the potential and value of Mono.”
The second comment is from Aragoneses, who says: “Winni, those comments were actually left after I posted my blog entry ”
It’s like some kind of a “Mono response team”. Like Visible Technologies…
We still remember how Novell staff publicly daemonised us (Techrights) when we warned about Novell’s participation in MeeGo, inside of which it put a load of Mono [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. █
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Posted in Asia, IBM, Microsoft, Office Suites, OpenDocument at 10:50 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Another Asian country decides to become vendor neutral when it comes to documents which government agencies handle
“Mandatory State use of ODF coming in 2011,” says Rob Weir (IBM) regarding this new article and there are already some blog posts about it (in English). The translation says: “When all of the computers in government agencies completed a migration to Open Source at the end of 2011, the government also plans to migrate all the important documents of the country using open document formats (Open Document Format / ODF).”
Further to Weir's rant about Microsoft's FUD against ODF, The Source had this to say about Microsoft’s strategy:
Lie. Lie Big. And Stick to It.
One of the things Mr. Weir points out is that through a simple Google search, it’s easy to see how a troop of zombie “tech journalists”, bloggers, and astroturfers simply parrot Microsoft talking points – right down to the exact phrasing.
(The audacity of Microsoft complaining that someone else is “restricting choice” is nearly as amusing as when Microsoft complains of “Google’s monopoly status”. )
Separately, one reader of this site claimed that he explained to Google “the problems they were bringing in by hiring Microsofters.”
“[T]here are problems with [Google] not indexing ODF and doing a terribly poor job of it.”
–Anonymous“Also,” he said, “the supply of skilled people is drying up. Not just in IT, but the drought is especially hard in IT.”
This reader confirmed that “there are problems with [Google] not indexing ODF and doing a terribly poor job of it.”
We truly hope that Google — like Indonesia and many other countries — will realise that ODF is here to stay and to thrive (we posted a couple of ODF files this morning). Sooner or later Google will have to accept it fully. Public pressure on Google would help accelerate this. █
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Posted in America, Europe, Novell, Patents at 10:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Patents on software and on life are making headlines again and there is also room for public participation
IP WATCH is telling readers that the USPTO seeks comments on post-Bilski guidelines (direct link [PDF]) and this is important because it may help determine that some software is not patentable in the United States (some software patents die over there due to the Bilski case [1, 2]).
According to this, Novell — like Microsoft — has also some long history as a victim of software patents. To quote:
We’ve all seen high-tech lawsuits that amounted to little. A prime example: The infamous Roger Billings vs. Novell lawsuit, in which Billings claimed Novell violated his patent for client-server computing. Novell ultimately won the case, though Novell customer Bank of America allegedly paid Billings $125,000 to go away.
Over here in Europe, the debate over Monsanto patents carries on. Should Monsanto be allowed to “own” certain life forms?
Monsanto holds a European patent that covers modified soybean DNA sequences that confer herbicide immunity on the plant (so-called “Roundup Ready” soybeans). A “European” patent is in fact a bundle of national patents issued by the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich. (The EPO was established by a treaty, the European Patent Convention, and is not a European Union institution.) The EPO applies a single standard for judging patentability, but enforcement of patents is then delegated to the courts of the individual European countries, and those standards may differ. Monsanto’s European patent is in effect in several countries, including the Netherlands, where Monsanto brought this infringement action.
Need European farmers take it to the streets again? █
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Posted in Europe, Free/Libre Software, FUD, Security at 10:18 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The BCS has moved beyond public policy misrepresentation and is now spreading FUD about “Open Source”
SEVERAL months ago we acquired and assembled yet more proof to show that IEEE serves not the interests of people; rather, it promotes the agenda of large corporations [1, 2], including their monopolies on software. Over the past few months we have also accumulated evidence (especially from Simon Phipps although sometimes backed by Glyn Moody, a fellow Brit) to show that BCS should not necessarily be seen as a friend of the British public [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The latest example of this comes in the form of FUD against Free(dom) software, which is rebutted thusly:
An article published by the BCS was brought to my attention, and it was full of such glaring omissions and implicit attacks on free software that it had to be dealt with. initially written as a comment, it quickly extended way beyond the length of the original article…
i am very confused. the BCS is supposed to be a reputable organisation, yet this article – every paragraph – is complete horse-shit. i thought about saying otherwise, so that the chances of this comment not being censored are reduced, but i cannot think of any other words to choose which express clearly enough what _really_ needs to be said.
Notice that the BCS also goes along with the lie that "commercial" is opposite of "Open Source".
Thanks to Advogato for pointing this out and posting a very detailed rebuttal. For the BCS, this is just the latest among many PR blunders so far this year (for background see the links we gave and scroll down to BCS EGM). If nobody points out these issues, nothing will improve. █
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Posted in News Roundup at 9:48 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Contents
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Desktop
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After two weeks I am still very happy with my purchase. All in all is the HP Envy 14 a good choice for Linux users. Compared to my DELL XPS M2010, the important components all work out of the box or with moderate work. I really can recommend the machine to everyone, even non-Linux users. HP managed to give PC enthusiasts a real Mac alternative.
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Server
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Windows Server 2003 is the server realm equivalent of Windows XP. As is the case with XP, it’s hard to let go. But, what will you choose to replace it? Windows Server 2008 has promise. What about Linux? And, if you choose Linux, which distribution will work best for you? Have you considered a commercial Unix to cure what ails your data center? Whichever one you choose, you’d better hurry. Windows Server 2003, as much as you love it, is beyond Microsoft’s end of life for mainstream support. That date passed you by on July 13, 2010. (Extended support, however, will be available through March 2015.)
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Phones
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It’s called the OpenBTS Project, and pundits are claiming it could reduce user costs to $2/month in the developing world.
OpenBTS is an open-source Unix application that uses the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) to present a GSM air interface (“Um”) to standard GSM handset and uses the Asterisk® software PBX to connect calls.
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Events
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During my absence, Giuseppe and Felix kicked off the Call for Papers for this year’s European OpenSQL Camp, which will again take place in parallel to FrOSCon in St. Augustin (Germany) on August 21st/22nd. We’ve received a number of great submissions, now we would like to ask our community about your favourites!
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Law 9840 prevents candidates who have been convicted of any one of a range of crimes, including electoral fraud, from running for public office. The law passed unanimously through the senate on May 19th, and was ratified by President Luis Inacio da Silva. Last week the law passed a final hurdle when by a vote of six to one the Federal Election Board, which is actually a court composed of judges that has enforceable power, upheld the applicability of the law to October’s elections. Had the law failed to make it past this panel, the act could have been significantly derailed, opening the door to further challenges from opposing parties.
Electoral fraud has persistently dogged Brazilian politics over the years, and public office has become something of a haven for those with criminal records (of which there are many), largely because the Brazilian constitution makes it extremely difficult to prosecute accused officials. Though there are frequent Parliamentary Investigation Commissions convened to look into infractions by officials, Brazilians remain cynical as to their efficacy, since prosecution, or even removal from office, rarely results.
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Security/Aggression
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The riot squad officer who struck Ian
Tomlinson minutes before he died
faces the sack ‘within weeks’ for gross
misconduct, it emerged yesterday.
PC Simon Harwood, a member of
Scotland Yard’s Territorial Support
Group, was yesterday told he will face
a disciplinary hearing over his actions
at the G20 protest in London last year.
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Environment
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Record high water levels are putting the capacity of China’s massive Three Gorges dam to the test after heavy rains across the country, compounding flooding problems that have left more than 1,200 people dead or missing.
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Finance
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Shares on Wall Street wandered early Wednesday after another disappointing economic report.
The Commerce Department’s durable goods orders report for June indicates manufacturing growth is slowing. Orders for goods expected to last at least three years fell 1 percent last month. That was well short of the 1 percent gain that economists had forecast.
Economic reports have generally shown that the recovery is slowing and growth will remain weak.
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You know what happened next. The refund came. The supposed surplus evaporated. The Social Security surplus was spent. Instead of being paid down, the $3.3 trillion national debt ballooned to $9 trillion.
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If Obama fails to alter the political dynamic and finally slay the anti-tax dragon, it’s game over for his economic agenda.
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The paper, by Alan S. Blinder, a Princeton professor and former vice chairman of the Fed, and Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, represents a first stab at comprehensively estimating the effects of the economic policy responses of the last few years.
[...]
Told about the findings, another leading economist was unconvinced.
“I’m very surprised that they find these big impacts,” said John B. Taylor, a Stanford professor and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. “It doesn’t correspond at all to my empirical work.”
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Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights
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The expansion in official snooping on communications records has continued with a record number of requests last year for details of who is talking to whom.
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Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM
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Telstra has been ordered to pay $18.55 million to the Commonwealth for breaching the Trade Practices Act and its carrier licence conditions by locking broadband competitors out of its telephone exchanges.
In the Federal Court in Melbourne this morning Justice John Middleton found against the telecommunications giant, saying it contravened the act and its licence on 27 occasions between July 2006 and April 2008.
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Intellectual Monopolies
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Copyrights
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This week Wikileaks released more than 90,000 government documents related to the war in Afghanistan. When added to the perceived damage caused by its earlier leaking of the ‘Collateral Murder’ video, Wikileaks is now undoubtedly a serious target for U.S. authorities. After becoming The Pirate Bay’s ISP, The Pirate Party now says that if needed, they will supply servers and hosting to Wikileaks.
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Music publishers were once thought of as safe havens for artists. They nurtured songwriters, introduced them to the industry and sought ways to broaden their income with covers and placements. Now, it appears that they want more – a lot more – than a piece of the act’s publishing in exchange for their efforts.
Trisquel GNU/Linux 2.1(Pro) – Instalar Galego
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Posted in Finance, GNU/Linux, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, SCO at 6:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“[Microsoft's] Mr. Emerson and I discussed a variety of investment structures wherein Microsoft would ‘backstop,’ or guarantee in some way, BayStar’s investment…. Microsoft assured me that it would in some way guarantee BayStar’s investment in SCO.”
–Larry Goldfarb, BayStar, key investor in SCO
Summary: Timely remarks about exchange of money and a quick look at who is funding who (and why)
AN HOUR ago we wrote about Groklaw's take on Apple. Pamela Jones still seems to believe that Microsoft is behind Psystar in some way. That’s reasonable to believe and we supported this possibility before. Microsoft could, for example, provide financial support to Psystar through a “satellite” like BayStar. That’s what Microsoft did to support SCO, which according to Groklaw still refuses to pay Novell.
In the latest news from SCO’s slow boat to absolutely nowhere, Novell has filed its opposition to SCO’s motion to stay taxation of costs. SCO filed this exact motion [PDF] in 2008, after it lost the first trial, Novell points out, and Novell opposed that motion too, and the motion was denied [PDF] by this very same court, and here they are with the same type of motion and even using the same stupid case that didn’t work for them the last time.
Given that SCO received money from Microsoft (both directly and indirectly), this ought to teach us a lesson about “money laundering” in one sense of the term. As the mainstream press carries on attacking IBM (we wrote about this episode of the IBM case yesterday), not much is being said about the fact that Microsoft provides financial support for some of those companies (“satellite proxies,” to use IBM’s words) that attack IBM through EU regulators. One confirmed example is T3 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
We also found it worthy to point out that Black Duck, which helps spread fear of the GPL, is now being paid by SAP, which is Microsoft’s European ally that Microsoft almost bought some years ago. █
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