News

This section contains news drawn from various sources that may be of interest to anyone wishing to migrate to Open Source. The editor's choice of stories is all his own and coverage is not intended to be comprehensive.

More diligent scouring of the newswires can be found at the following:

The Register

Linux Weekly News

Linux Today

Slashdot news and discussion site

According to Sterling Ball, the owner of the business:

"I know I saved $80,000 right away by going to open source, and each time something like (Windows) XP comes along, I save even more money because I don't have to buy new equipment to run the software. One of the great things is that we're able to run a poor man's thin client by using old computers we weren't using before because it couldn't handle Windows 2000. They work fine with the software we have now.

[.. viruses and support costs .. ] What about the cost of dealing with a virus? We don't have 'em. How about when we do have a problem, you don't have to send some guy to a corner of the building to find out what's going on--he never leaves his desk, because everything's server-based. There's no doubt that what I'm doing is cheaper to operate. The analyst guys can say whatever they want. "

Merrill Lynch's new plans for its information infrastructure call for running much of its Linux applications not on their own physical machines but in virtual machines running on high-end servers. Such a scheme simplifies management and allows for rapid deployment of new Linux "servers" by activating a copy of a stored pre-configured image in as little as 2 minutes 14 seconds.

"We are not trying to promote Linux," Snodgrass said. "We are just trying to reduce the cost of ownership."

"President A P J Abdul Kalam on Wednesday urged Indian IT professionals to develop and specialise in open source code software rather than use proprietary solutions based on systems such as Microsoft Windows.

Kalam expressed this view after taking a tour of the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), at the Software Technology Park, Hinjewadi Pune, which was dedicated to the nation on Wednesday.

He said that he saw the extensive use of MS Windows at the institute and felt that India needs to look for software solutions based on open source codes.

This is important for security reasons and also because of the costs involved in purchasing proprietary software. Open source code operating systems such as Linux do not carry any licensing fees and offers higher operational security."

Open Source Software has long been considered a major strategic opportunity for developing nations since the barriers to entry are much lower. What is unusual is to see such a high-level politician recognising it and urging it as a form of policy.

"Linux zealots all over Munich have strapped on their lederhosen and knocked back a few liters of beer after the open source operating system beat out Microsoft's Windows for a major city contract.

Munich will dump 14,000 PCs running Windows and install Linux instead in what is one of the biggest moves away from Redmond to date. The importance of the deal prompted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to make a last minute pitch and reportedly to undercut an offer from IBM and SuSE."

"Mit diesem richtungsweisenden Grundsatzbeschluss sichert sich München nicht nur als erste deutsche Großstadt eine größere Herstellerunabhängigkeit ihrer IT-Infrastruktur, sondern setzt auch ein klares Zeichen für mehr Wettbewerb im Software-Markt."

"But now that the Linux OS is rapidly maturing and companies are looking to shrink IT budgets, the choice is not so easy. Almost everything enterprises once found unique to Microsoft they can now find somewhere else -- without some of the baggage that comes with Microsoft purchases, like ongoing security concerns and mystifying licensing practices. Enterprises finally have a real choice, and that spells big problems for Microsoft.

[...]

The real threat to Microsoft from Linux is not only that Linux will take away existing Windows business, but that it will overtake Microsoft in product areas where Microsoft is trying to grow its market share. Such a situation currently exists in the market for enterprise servers that run corporate data centers. Companies moving to Intel-based platforms from the dominant IBM and Sun platforms now have a choice between Windows and Linux, and vendors from both camps are vying for this migration business."

Hardly to anyone's suprise apart from his own (apparently) it all worked. You can read the article in its glory or get the gist of it from this:

"Having moved to an open-source package was much easier than I had initially expected. With a complete rewrite of the back-end TNL.net code, I was able to clean things up and make sure that the site was optimized to support the traffic it's been getting to date and still have some room to breathe in terms of supporting more traffic. I have already seen some dividend in my joining the open-source community, as some of the code implemented by other people served as a blueprint for the new TNL.net. All and all, count me on the list of people who have made the switch from Windows to Linux. I don't think I will look back any time soon."

"ROUND ROCK, Texas and REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., May 7, 2003 - Dell and Oracle Corp. today announced that Orange has deployed a standards-based computing platform, powered by Intel-based processors, to support up-to-the-minute multimedia and SMS services to mobile phone customers in the United Kingdom.

The platform consists of four Dell PowerEdge(tm) servers running an Oracle9i Database with Real Application Clusters and Red Hat Linux Advanced Server using Intel(r) Xeon(tm) processors MP. It is the result of close work between Dell, Intel and Oracle, and it has enabled Orange to significantly increase overall service and performance while reducing total cost of ownership."

"Assimilation Technologies, the Norfolk, Va.-based software division of All-American, is creating the application and other Linux-based software for internal use and to market to moving companies in response to changes in the IT marketplace, said Dave Pekol, a general partner at Assimilation.

All-American, which is the largest moving agent under the Mayflower Transit LLC banner, settled on Linux last year as it sought cheaper alternatives to rising licensing costs for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 2000 server operating system, Pekol said. The company was also worried about security issues with Windows NT and 2000. "Windows NT servers are constantly being hacked, so we were very concerned about customer data," Pekol said."

"In terms of the major database companies, you could argue that Oracle was relatively slow to jump onto the Linux bandwagon, or you might argue that IBM was fast off the mark.

It probably happened that way because IBM was getting anxious about platforms. The world had gradually moved to Unix or Windows NT and the reference platform for Unix was Sun's Solaris, not IBM's AIX. When Linux started to become popular, IBM was quick to see an advantage. No vendor owned Linux and IBM could use it to sell its hardware and make it a prime platform for its software."

Is it just me or should analysts actually know stuff as opposed to having opinions? It can't be that hard for an analyst to dig around and find out what made IBM back Linux so extensively .. so 5/10 for effort on this one. Suggestion that MySQL may one day be a competitor to Oracle is, er, interesting to say the least, but where it works well it works well. I'm glad to see that my bank keeps my account details on something more enterprise-scale though.

"LARRY ELLISON, the boss of Oracle, the world's second-largest software firm, likes to make bold claims. Last week he was at it again, attacking his old foe, Microsoft, the world's biggest software company. Microsoft, he declared, risked being “wiped off the face of the earth” by Linux, the free, open-source operating system developed by Linus Torvalds, a Finnish programmer, and a team of enthusiasts. As always, Mr Ellison's prediction should be taken with a handful of salt. But it contains a germ of truth, because the rise of Linux is changing the dynamics of the computer business. Some of the industry's titans benefit from its advance, while others lose."

Regrettably the story doesn't carry a byline, but our intrepid reporters can divulge an exclusive: the doyenne of columnists Polly Filler has been moonlighting.

"What's the payoff? It makes for better software. "If we find a bug or a problem, we're interested in fixing that problem. We're also interested in not fixing it again in the next version," explains Robert M. Lefkowitz, director of open-source strategy at Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York."

It may seem obvious but it takes time for large outfits to realise what the Open Source community has been saying for a long time - sometimes it's quicker to fix the bugs yourself than wait for proprietary vendors to respond. Who would have thought even just a couple of years ago that Merril Lynch would ever have a "Director of Open Source Strategy"?

"Called Purchase & Pay, the Linux-based system is used by civil servants in the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) for the purchase of printed forms and stationery. The government hopea to extend the role of the system to facilitate the payment of invoices resulting from orders to be added over the coming months.

IBM, who supplied the server hardware for the system, also acted as 'prime contractor' for Belmin, the SME supplier responsible for the implementation of EROS software, based on IBM's Informix U2 product, on a Linux platform. Cable & Wireless is providing the network infrastructure."

UK Government's relationship with OSS has been patchy, with lukewarm guidance issued so far to date and several high-profile embarrassments when Government websites failed to meet their own guidelines on standards compliance. There were red faces all round and allegedly high-level bloodletting when the flagship Government Gateway turned out to be accessible only by on proprietary browser. This example of an Open Source deployment is an encouraging sign that not all may be lost.

"Web server prices are tumbling as software companies battle for business from small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

In response to growing pressure from Linux vendors, Microsoft is setting a low price for its Web Edition of Windows Server 2003, which ships next month."

"Linux has proved its efficiency and workability, and Housing plans to start transferring core systems to it as soon as it receives management approval. That is likely to happen any day.

"We found when we did hit technical problems [such as incompatible device drivers], we could solve them ourselves." This was in contrast to HP-UX and Windows problems, some of which have never been solved."

" The research shows a dramatic increase in business confidence in the use of Linux and it is clear that the business market for Linux has matured significantly. This represents a significant change in directors’ evaluation since the first OFE perception survey a year ago.

A massive 42% indicated greater confidence in the use of OSS, against a background of increased concern over Total Cost of Ownership. Not surprisingly against this concern, use of OSS has emerged as the second highest strategy for containing costs (behind only that of reviewing internal processes)

...

The research is supported by the DTI and the release of its findings coincides with the publication by the Institute of Directors of a special supplement in its Director magazine"

"It was three years ago that IBM started a revolution in its decades-old mainframe business, when it released a version of Linux that ran on the mainframe.

Now, there are signals of another seismic shift: a growing trend towards selling mainframes that run Linux and the z/VM virtual machine software, without IBM's traditional z/OS mainframe operating system."

"OpenOffice.org 1.1 and StarOffice 6.1 include support for a variety of new data formats, including the increasingly ubiquitous Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), Macromedia Flash, DocBook, several PDA Office file formats, flat XML and XHTML; and support for over 10 new languages.

Other features seem to be lifted straight from the Microsoft Office playbook, including a new macro recorder. And both suites will offer full compatibility with all of the native data formats supported by Microsoft Office 2003, Sun says, though those features aren't complete in the current beta releases."

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