Software Free

Nice to see Bob Sutor has made the complete switch to Linux for laptop use at work. I remember the day I wiped out my Windows partition on my laptop - it was memorable. I then went an entire year booting Windows in VMWare only about 3-5 times.

It’s great to see the transition starting to happen everywhere. Even if some of the transitions are to Mac, it’s greater choice.

This is all going to be even easier as technologies like Firefox, OpenOffice/ODF and open standards start to permeate the set of options available to users.

A colleague sent me a link to this analyst paper today that takes a look at whether IBM has made good on the Linux promises it made back in 1999. I’m obviously biased, but I’m interested in hearing if anyone has thoughts on this topic.

Here’s the report: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/linux/pdfs/GCG_IBM_and_Linux-9_years_later.pdf

The opening teaser:

WIPO will discuss next week a report on the international patent system. A section of it is mentioning open standards:

(iv) Open Standards

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Source: Digital Majority News

Do you remember that total Jerk Dennis Byron? The chap who thought that Digistan was some sort of terrorist organisation? Well here’s a rather nicely ironic way to shove his ignorant and frankly stupid views in that familiar place where “the sun doesn’t shine”.

Looks like Neelie really gets it these days:

“I know a smart business decision when I see one — choosing open standards is a very smart business decision indeed,” Ms. Kroes told a conference in Brussels. “No citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one.”

Now, if she could just change "open standards" to "open source"....

A reader from Slovakia tells us that his country has just made the right move

On Open Enterprise blog.

This new extension brings PDF import to OpenOffice.org 3.0. Also the extension introduces dual-format PDF-ODF files combining portable presentation and editing capabilities in a single file. Will hybrid PDFs be the next threat to OOXML?

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080531-ooxml-revolt-brewing-three-countries-appeal-iso-approval.html

According to Groklaw, also Denmark has objected:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080531134006167

PJ also discusses what happens next and how the complaints relate to ISO's code of ethics.

Jason Brooks’ title sums it all up succinctly.

Since most Office users would be happy to continue using Microsoft’s old binary formats, and since those for whom open standards are important would probably prefer ODF or PDF formats anyhow, I won’t be surprised if OOXML quietly dies before that future Office iteration ever sees the light of day.

Jonathan Zuck, President of the Association for Competitive Technology, a lobbying association in which Microsoft is an active member, is replying via a letter to the Editor to the recent FFII open letter to MEPs, OpenParliament and Digistan initiatives which demand to have open standards for governmental websites, especially for the video streaming of the European Parliamentary sessions:

Letter To The Editor

We need to work together on live streaming challenge
Published: Friday 23 May 2008
Jonathan Zuck, President, Association for Competitive Technology

Sir,

Regarding 'Parliament under pressure for shunning free software':

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Source: Digital Majority News

Industry has always depended on standards and traditional industries have built their standards as part of a slow, controlled, top-down approach to innovation. Industrial-age standards are often heavily patented, complex, and large. They can be expensive to implement and therefore are implementable only for large established firms.

Anthony Liguori has an excellent blog post up taking a very honest/hard look at Xen and what likely lies ahead (KVM).

I think we can finally admit that we, the Linux community, made a very big mistake with Xen. Xen should have never been included in a Linux distribution. There, I’ve said it. We’ve all been thinking it, have whispered it in closed rooms, and have done our bests to avoid it.

He makes a very valid point that the Xen kernel will never be upstream and therefore it will always be an extra layer. The difference between Xen or other packages around the kernel is that Xen is at the core its own kernel. This is what makes KVM so attractive - you don’t need that extra layer (which creates complexity no matter what).

Quite simply, Xen is not, and will never be, a part of Linux. Therefore, including it in a Linux distribution has only led to massive user confusion about the relationship between Linux and Xen.

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Source: Michael Dolan Dot Com

Good direction for Adobe - I’d like to say there was more, but for now, this is a good direction.

http://www.adobe.com/openscreenproject/

Just notice Cote covered the action: http://www.redmonk.com/cote/2008/05/01/adobes-open-screen-project-a-plan-lower-barriers-to-using-flash-checking-up-on-the-ria-wars/

If you’re in the NYC area, IBM is hosting a great “Next Generation Linux” event at the Hilton on Church St. It should be a great day of speakers discussing where Linux is heading, what makes Linux unique and “special”, and what workloads are great for running Linux. It’s a packed session from 9-12 (breakfast at 8 if you’re an early riser).

You can register here:

https://www-950.ibm.com/events/wwe/grp/grp017.nsf/agenda?openform&seminar=692H5MES&locale=en_US/

Agenda

Time
Description

8:00 am
Registration & Continental Breakfast

9:00 am
Welcome & Introduction

Linux and Innovation