11.16.07
Posted in GNU/Linux, Identity Management, Marketing, Microsoft, Novell at 11:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Here is the report from a mixed environment involving Novell and Microsoft.
The council consolidated its Microsoft and Novell server environment using Res Wisdom software, in an attempt to get a uniform build across the organisation.
Novell has some business happening which still involves no Linux products, but accounts for much of its revenue — for now.
LogLogic and Novell Partner to Meet Customer Governance and Compliance Needs
Companies to Jointly Market LogLogic’s Log Management Product and Novell’s Identity and Security Solutions
It is always curious to find Novell listed among the likes of Microsoft and CompTIA, which is a Microsoft lobbying arm.
Founding members of the ITCC include leading IT corporations HP, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, and Sun; the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) and the Linux Professional Institute (LPI); test development and delivery providers Pearson VUE and Prometric; and education provider Kaplan.
DoubleCheck does some business Novell also.
With the seamless integration of Identity Manager and Sentinel 6 from Novell, plus the automated financial controls test library from Greenlight Technologies, into the DoubleCheck™ GRC&T Enterprise Solution, DoubleCheck™ can address both the IT and Financial audit and testing needs of the Enterprise for any company in any industry. In addition, the benefits of the DoubleCheck™ / Novell® IT-GRC&T Solution can be maximized by utilizing the professional consulting and implementation services offered by GR Consulting.
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Posted in Identity Management, Novell, Vista, Windows at 11:01 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Novell’s identity management business received a little lift.
Demonstrating its commitment to helping enterprise customers address critical compliance needs, Novell is expanding its identity management solution with a Roles Based Provisioning Module. Stringent privacy policies and continually changing government regulations are driving forces for enterprises to utilize role management as part of their identity infrastructure.
Someone is apparently having regrets about excluding them.
Some of you may wonder why I didn’t include Novell in this list. Had I been writing this post straight after the Sun announcement it would have been. But not long after the announcement I came across this post from an identity management group blog at Novell, which discusses how the company has been building its own role management capabilities, focused on role provisioning, exploiting its directory heritage (discussed in more detail in our assessment here) and partnership with Eurekify for role discovery and analysis. The post’s author claims no knowledge of acquisition talks. Then lo and behold, and far be it from me to suggest that Sun’s announcement had anything to do with the timing, the next day Novell announced its new Roles Based Provisioning Module.
Of course, a Eurekify acquisition by Novell could still be on the cards, despite the blogger’s ignorance of any such discussions, but it seems to me based on Novell’s stated strategy that the Israeli company is more likely to end up in the arms of CA or IBM.
Novell’s SecureLogin has just had support for Windows Vista added.
Novell today announced enhancements to its single sign-on solution, including support for Windows Vista, improved authentication capabilities, easier administration and expanded applications support.
More support comes for Novell’s GroupWise.
Privacy Networks, the email solutions company, today announced they have made their industry leading PrivacyVault solution available for Novell GroupWise.
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Posted in Audio/Video, Novell, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu at 10:42 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Tuxmachines (Susan Linton) has this new comparison between the latest version of OpenSUSE and the latest version of Ubuntu Linux.
So really the big basic difference is that Ubuntu is a simplified cookie cutter distribution designed to not overwhelm the new user with choice. openSUSE on the other hand is the polar opposite offering choices for every aspect of Linux computing. openSUSE is very scalable and it can be as easy or advanced as one needs. You could install openSUSE on a dozen machines and none be the same if that was your wish, whereas install Ubuntu on a dozen machines and it would be exactly alike except some might not be able to connect to the internet.
As stated at the beginning, there really isn’t much of a comparison between these two distros as they are so vastly different in target audience, capabilities, and philosophies. If you are a brand new Linux user perhaps you should get your feet wet with Ubuntu as openSUSE might seem a bit overwhelming. After a coupla weeks and you begin to feel claustrophobic, then branch out to try openSUSE. If you have any Linux or advanced Windows experience, then you might prefer the functionality found in openSUSE.
Over at OpenSUSE’s news subsite, the audiocast which discusses asterisk gets a quick mention.
In the second part Reinhard Max describes Asterick, an open source telephony engine and tool kit, where to find packages for openSUSE and its usage within Novell.
Funny misspelling of “Asterisk” in both sites (the referrer and the original).
As for the last item, it isn’t entirely clear what version of SUSE is used, but a business in the UK will have it preinstalled
Shuttle Inc., the market leader in the Mini-PC sector and manufacturer of Multi-Form-Factor solutions, is now also selling its Mini-PCs with the Linux Operating System in the UK.
Update: there are some more related news items which were forgotten. Namely:
OpenSUSE gets its board set up independently from Novell.
Novell has recently decided to start setting openSUSE free from direct Novell oversight by setting up the first openSUSE board of directors.
Groklaw’s interpretative tale says more about it:
That should come in handy for Novell, should there ever actually be any patent infringement attack from Microsoft, because you now have a clear demarcation line.
Novell’s work on an open source ATI/AMD driver continues. It helps the community of Linux users as a whole.
Yesterday we received word from Novell’s Matthias Hopf that the 2D portion of the RadeonHD driver will not be stable by the end of the year. After publishing that news article, we heard some new details from Luc Verhaegen, who is also part of Novell’s X driver development team.
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Intellectual Monopoly, Interview, Kyocera Mita, Microsoft, Novell, Patent Covenant, Patents at 10:21 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The new interview with Bill Hilf, whom we do not consider trustworthy, says quite a bit about Microsoft’s tactics and its future plans. Don’t listen only to what Microsoft tells you, but ask yourself what it is not telling you. The same goes for Novell and the rest of the Microsoft apologists.
From the interview:
The real value of open source from Microsoft is understanding how community developed software can happen on our platform and help grow our business as well as the open source community, which is how we started off on this whole path of launching things like Port25 and CodePlex, and which is why I submitted the licenses to the OSI.
Here is what Groklaw says: “See? I told you. They are trying to get the community to divide up into Red Hat and the GPL and Novell and others who will help them compete against Red Hat. Very nice. Not. Why would anyone help them?”
That is precisely what we have argued all along. Novell is dividing the community along with Microsoft. It is not Web sites such as this which lead to division. Microsoft had all of this planned and Novell took a lot of money to be part of Microsoft’s game. Even smaller companies, as we have seen a few days ago, are lending a hand to Microsoft’s claims that it owns part of Linux (intellectual property). Keep an eye on Google's Android because Microsoft has some plans.
The question, of course, is why Kyocera Mita would need a patent from Microsoft to enhance products built on embedded Linux. Is it adding proprietary Microsoft technology on top of embedded Linux?
Could be…
Or is this a case of Kyocera Mita accepting a claim by Microsoft that embedded Linux is among the 235 open source technologies Microsoft insists it owns.
Microsoft had a key idea. It’s the idea that if you fool, terrorise and even bribe enough companies, then market perceptions can be changed and rules be rewritten to benefit Microsoft. The least one can do is prevent Microsoft from rewriting the laws by shunning those who assist Microsoft.
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Posted in Boycott Novell at 10:07 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
GPLv3: not only because 3 > 2
You can just about visualise a nice linear curve going through the pace of growth chart of GPLv3, as seen in Palamida’s latest report.
Our LGPL v3 count has increased by 1 project, bringing the current count to 95 LGPL v3 projects. The GPL v2 or later list has also passed a large milestone of 6000 GPL v2 or later projects. Over the last week, 76 new GPL v2 or later projects have been added, bringing the count to 6034 GPL v2 or later projects.
It looks like GPLv3 is a force to be reckoned with. Sun seems to be happy with it and the same goes for other large companies.
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Posted in Google, Intellectual Monopoly, Patents at 10:01 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
TrollTracker has some new interesting bits about Acacia, the patent troll that attacks Linux (and has roots in Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]).
Reader Anthony Sabatini of New York writes to tell me that the auto-text patent asserted by Acacia subsidiary AutoText in Cleveland might be invalid in light of the Control Data Corp CDC6600 console system developed two decades earlier.
[...]
Finally, IP Innovation and Technology Licensing Corp. — in other words, ACACIA — filed a lawsuit in Marshall against Google, accusing Google’s search engine and Google Earth of infringing two patents. This is the same Acacia sub that sued Red Hat and Novell over Linux, with the same lawyers – Johnny Ward and Eric Albritton. But these are different patents. The patents asserted against Google are 5,276,785 and 5,675,819, which Acacia got from Xerox. Nice going, Xerox.
You see? So, companies inherit the patents of companies that actually have products and then absorb the bad image on their behalf. They can also do their fights, by proxy. Haven’t we all learned that from SCO?
In other patent news, Vonage gets another round of confrontation.
A federal appeals court on Thursday turned down a request by Vonage Holdings to reconsider a lower court verdict that it infringed two patents held by Verizon Communications.
One of the readers found some very interesting bits to add:
One is an example of patent licensing abuse.
Qualcomm Wednesday won one of its many battles with Nokia over patents and related licensing fees
[...].
A cross-licensing agreement expired in April, and Nokia has halted payments to cover its use of Qualcomm’s technology for high-speed
mobile data
Here is an ultra trivial patent.
A system and method for printing a customized combination newsletter and product label for used in dispensing prescribed pharmaceutical products
The patent system never produced so much innovation.
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Posted in Microsoft, Novell, SCO, Site News at 5:25 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Most readers are probably not aware of my activities in other places, which include GNU/Linux advocacy and exposing Microsoft’s frauds in a very responsible way (always with decent references). I’ve just been informed by a reader that a site of mine had been blacklisted after persistent slander. I wrote about it in my blog.
For reference, also see the following:
SCO Tried to Gag Groklaw in 2004
So SCO tried to gag Groklaw beginning in 2004. It moved on to false insinuations to journalists, ugly innuendo during a conference about me and Groklaw, having friendly journalists with PIs try to dig up dirt on me, a massive astroturfing campaign all over the internet, and then finally to intimidation with their recent motion. Well, I’m gagging, all right, but not in a good way, and certainly not in the way SCO hoped.
I will respond like this, seriously for a moment. This is America. I am an American citizen. I was born here, born to certain rights as my birthright. I’m allowed to cover this litigation without being harassed and intimidated or threatened or gagged. I’m allowed to present facts that disprove SCO’s public allegations. I am allowed to write what I believe is the truth, and I’m to present research about the allegations.
Someone ought to get to the bottom of this. BoycottNovell.com was also accused (falsely of course) of launching DDOS attacks. How about Rob Enderle’s recent attempt to attribute death threats to Groklaw? Companies and their proxies know no boundaries (Rob Enderle works with Microsoft as his client).
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Posted in Database, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Oracle, Red Hat, SUN, Ubuntu, UNIX, Windows at 4:32 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The most pressure is on Red Hat
Oracle’s deep involvement with GNU/Linux is usually met with skepticism. On the one hand, Larry Ellison helps Linux gain credibility and his software company deploys Linux in a large number of top-tier companies. It’s also a tool for him to fight one of his main opponents (Microsoft) without depending on that opponent’s software (Windows).
The recent developments at Oracle are beyond the scope of this site, but Matt Aslett has a bit of analysis which is worth quoting.
The only problem for Oracle is that a win for Linux introduces a new third party that stands between its software and its customers. The clear solution to that is for Oracle to acquire a Linux distribution. Maybe one day it will, although I think the company is very aware that an Oracle-owned code base would diminish the value that customers see in Linux. An Oracle-supported code base is slightly different conceptually, while the result – Oracle owning the customer relationship – is the same .
You could question why Oracle is paying so much attention to Linux given that its revenue from Unbreakable is tiny in comparison to the other areas of its business but that, in my view, misses the point. It isn’t really important for Oracle to make money from Unbreakable Linux (or Oracle VM), what is important is that it strengthens Oracle’s relationship with its customers and keeps competitors out.
”Oracle and Novell are in danger of losing business to Microsoft, but in their fight against Microsoft they simply try to gain exclusive control over Linux.“There is another good analysis (criticism) from Matt Asay, but again, it’s not really the point worth making. What is curious about Oracle’s relationship with Linux is that it can sometimes be characterized as hoarding. Larry Ellison just wants more control. It would be wise to keep an eye on Oracle while it makes its Linux products Oracle-only (yes, it’s true). There are shades of Novell here, but Novell contributes more to Linux than Oracle does (it can be summed up as just a few packages and kernel patches).
In essence, one could argue that Oracle is the Novell of the database world (as opposed to networking). Oracle and Novell are in danger of losing business to Microsoft, but in their fight against Microsoft they simply try to gain exclusive control over Linux.
The one company that has the most to lose is probably Red Hat, although it is growing quickly and gives Microsoft plenty to worry about. While Sun Microsystems and Red Hat make peace (on Java), Microsoft strives to pressure Red Hat using patent deals. It’s a case of a peacemaker and an aggressor.
Red Hat is likely to face more pressure in years to come. Pressure will come from:
- Sun Microsystem, which has just gotten Dell preinstalling Solaris
- Larry Ellison’s ego, greed, and paranoia
- The anti-Red Hat Novell/Microsoft alliance
- Ubuntu, which has just scored a win (preinstalls on Dell servers)
- CentOS and other lesser known clones such as Startcom
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