Eps. 20 - Initial thoughts on Groundwork and Zenoss

Running Time: 36:55

News

Does using Open Source make you a pirate?

Pre-Built Virtual Machines

3) Our initial impressions of the Zenoss and Groundwork products

4) Conclusion

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Is support from companies like Skype an issue for Corporate America?

I ran into this article on consected.com where the author who is mostly irritated with the folks at Skype for their anemic support of their Linux client.  If you look at the comments several people make great counter points about the fact that the only thing really missing in the Linux client is the updated user interface changes.  So the real question to me while reading it was or should really be does this type of support really hurt Linux adoption in the corporate world?

My opinion is that it really doesn't.  The problem with the theory is that companies stay on the latest version of software they use.  The reality is that I have rarely been in a corporate environment that was using completely current software that was less than one version behind or a year old.  This is most often caused by the fact that their is effort by the IT department to make sure all the software you put together actually works together.  The bigger the company the larger the diversity you need to use.  The reality is that everyone just wants their laptops to work.  They really don't care if it's the latest and greatest.  Business users have a job to do.  All to often IT teams forget that.  Either they want to use the latest version becuase of a cool new feature or they just know the next patch for Windows will fix all the issues of the current version.  When you don't take the users into account you miss the little things.  For instance that the accounting groups key software may not work with the latest version Windows until the company builds the patch.  So in the end Linux isn't being adopted for the desktop is becuase the staff at most companies are not ready to support it not that it's not ready to be supported.

This was what we thought.  What do you think of the thesis or my comments?  Let us know in the comments or on Twitter.

Where will Open Solaris go from here?

So Oracle has started reconfiguring the new merged company.  From several articles we have seen some things will be dropped and other are still holding on.  One of the things that seems to be missing in the discussions so far is Open Solaris.  Given Mr. Ellison's history is not to let his products into the open source world.  So while leaving Java and mysql are clearly going to stay open, Open Solaris keeps getting missed.  So why does a linux blog care about Open Solaris?  Basicly becuase it allows people to look at and gain insight into how the much older Solaris OS works.  Also Unbreakable Linux is Oracles Linux so whether they are going to drop Linux in favor Open Solaris.  Oracle has to this point stayed commited to Linux as this article points out.

So What do you think they should do?  What should they releasse?  Is there anything else they should opensource?

Meego how about you?

In case you missed it Intel and Nokia have combined their Open Source(think Linux but not really) operating systems into a new OS called Meego.  Do you wonder what that means?  Here is a link to InternetNews.com that makes an attempt to answer the question.  The why of this quesiton is pretty simple.  Intel doesn't want Google to be the Microsoft of the mobile phone OS world.  They lost control of the path of DOS and it's why they keep having to make Backwards compatible chips to the original x86 line.  For Nokia it's just what they need to start making inroads into the US Smart Phone Market.  So while it seems to be a strange partnership, the long term goal for both companies is aligned and has to be making sure that neither Apple or Google controls the Smart Phone Market.  Will this new OS be able to overtake the current power houses?  Only time will tell.

Pre-Built Virutal Machines will Let you JumpStart your next project...

Are you thinking about using Joomla, Tomcat, or a traditional LAMP Stack?  Do you need it up litterally Tommorrow so you can start developing a solution?  Don't worry there are solutions out there to get you up and running a base configuration before in less time that it will take you to read this article.  This link to itworld.com has a great article about two solutions providers.  Getting servers up can't be any easier with the solutions provided by both Jumpbox and Turnkey Linux.  Our experience so far has been that these pre-built servers proved an awesome jump start and save hours and days of reading documentation about how to set up the software.  Very often the control panels that these two companies include can help even teams of people with minimal Linux Skills to get systems up and running.  All of these machines should run in VMWare, Virutal Box, Parrallels and any other technolgy that supports the virtual disk/system standards.  In our upcoming article about Zenworks and Groundwork wouldn't have been possible if I would have installed the systems from scratch.  The use of their Virutal Machines let me get the system up and running in about an hour each.  I didn't need to setup MySQL, Apache, or anything else just download it and started it up on my VMWare server host.  So the next time you are planning a project check out these great companies and the solutions they offer before you spend to much time trying to figure stuff out before you know you have choosen the right software.