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Blog: Pete LoshinMarch 28, 2008This Can't Be Happening!Here's one reason why Microsoft has such a stranglehold on the OS market: Why Linux will not displace Windows. Sure, it's comment on a long-forgotten thread on a ZDNet blog (Why Linux will not displace Windows). The comment is a stunning illustration of how "common sense" fails to account for those things the individual is incapable of imagining. Consider: You are kidding arent you? The comment goes on, but I can't. You'll have to read it yourself, if you must, to get the rest. And then, there's this: They Criticized Vista. And They Should Know. Not everyone who likes Microsoft is happy with Vista. Go ahead, read the article. It's about Microsoft honchos who got burned with the upgrade. December 21, 2007Least and most useful articles on support.microsoft.com?I suspect that this--How to Remove Linux and Install Windows XP--may be one of the least useful articles on support.microsoft.com; my previous sporadic encounters with installing Windows have never been notable for having trouble destroying everything on the hard drive to make way for Windows. On the other hand, it is about installing Windows XP, not Vista; it turns out Pirates Stealing XP Twice as Much as Vista, Microsoft Doesn't Know How to Feel. Given that, perhaps this--How to go back to Windows XP after you have upgraded a Windows XP-based computer to Windows Vista is the most useful article there. September 6, 2007++Change == SameThe more some things change, the more they stay the same. It's interesting to see how some stories keep popping up, over and over--and then it's even more interesting to see what happens when things turn out different. So, RIP to my favorite resource for Microsoft FUD and unintentional support for open source software, Microsoft's "Get the Facts" website: purportedly a repository of good, un-biased information from third-party researchers about how much better Windows Server is than Linux. The story of the demise (as well as some of the good stuff that made it so juicy) is here at Linux Watch: Microsoft kills off anti-Linux 'Get the Facts' site. I wrote about "Get the Facts" earlier this summer on my Linux Cookbook website ("Microsoft's "Get the Facts" (tm) Campaign, Deconstructed"), and was hoping to make a mini-career of deconstructing all that propaganda. Now, I'll just have to look for the FUD in new places, but the good news is that Microsoft's replacement, windowsserver/compare, looks like it'll be chock full of FUD-goodness. June 4, 2007Windows Pricing: Economics of Competing Against FreeIt's fun to keep track of how much Windows costs these days when Microsoft must compete both with pirates, who sell Windows cheap and send nothing to Redmond, as well as with non-Windows open source software who likewise pay nothing to Redmond. What does Vista cost? List price on Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate is $399.95; Amazon.com has it for $339.99. But it's cheaper if you buy a system with Windows pre-installed. While Dell doesn't make it easy to compare on their website, according to this report on Ars Technica, the "Microsoft tax" for Dell systems--how much more you pay for the same hardware with Vista pre-installed--is about $50. Of course, that's for Home Premium or Business version of Vista, both of which list for about $200 or so if you buy a shrinkwrapped box at retail. Then, there's Microsoft's own effort to get something from developing nations: Microsoft offers $3 Windows package for poor nations. Three bucks for a stripped-down version of Windows and Office, if you're in the right (or wrong) part of the world. That's a deal, but it's also the going rate for pirated versions of Windows and Office in places like Lagos, Nigeria. According to this (which you probably can't reach, since a flood of hits shut it down) the Google-cached version is here, Nobody Knows Linux. What it says, basically, is that OS prices in Lagos depend on how many discs the OS fits on. Since Vista fits on one disc and Linux takes up four discs, Linux costs more than Vista. So, Microsoft retains its monopoly through the efforts of the pirates: if consumers can't afford to pay the full freight for Windows, Microsoft may not like it that people are buying pirated versions, but they'll take it over the alternative of having people buy open source software instead. May 25, 2007Microsoft and PoliticsHere's a little tidbit about how Microsoft "operates" that you may have missed. Just in case you thought Microsoft happily acquiesces to states' demands for open standards, read this for an interesting depiction of how Microsoft's "men in black" respond to states' legislative mandates for software that supports open standards. May 22, 2007Microsoft's Patents, Linux and Business as UsualIt's been over a week since the news hit about Microsoft's patent war on FOSS (Wired story) and despite all the uproar, furor and general panic, life goes on in the open source world. For proof, just check out the share prices of Red Hat, Microsoft, Novell and Oracle for the past couple of weeks. The markets are full of clever and well-informed people who spend their lives figuring out what is good and what is bad for the companies they invest in, and they have decided that this whole patent thing is basically nothing to worry about--business as usual. For some perspective, go back to October 25 of last year, the day word broke on Oracle's move to rebrand Red Hat's Enterprise Linux: Red Hat shares lost roughly one third of their value. Sure, a lot of people are upset about the Microsoft patent moves (and I'll have more to say about it going forward), but in the grand scheme of things I don't think software patents are going to be too much of a problem for the people who use--and make--free and open source software. April 30, 2007How's this for total cost of ownership, Microsoft?If you've been following any of the discourse on security, cryptography and the Internet over the past ten or fifteen years, the name Peter Gutmann will definitely ring a bell. So you've to give credence to his recent report, A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection. In particular, consider the Executive Summary: Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called “premium content”, typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost. These issues affect not only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects of the protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever come into contact with Vista, even if it's not used directly with Vista (for example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server). This document analyses the cost involved in Vista's content protection, and the collateral damage that this incurs throughout the computer industry. In other words, Vista is designed to protect "premium content" such as music or movies. Vista's design thus places the corporate goals of maximizing profit ahead of the goal of maximizing user value. Not cool, Microsoft. March 23, 2007Microsoft on Winning Against Linux, The Smart Way!All big companies generate tons of marketing material to help sell their product. Just come to light--and then, just as quickly back in the box--is a website from Microsoft, Winning Against Linux the Smart Way. It was intended to be a resource for "channel partner summit", and now all you can see there is a teensy little message that says "This material is being updated and will be made available to Microsoft partners shortly." Good thing I took a good look at it before it got locked up. According to the material I saw, there are five "Linux personas": distinct "types" of people (in the enterprise, presumably) who are using Linux:
There's a lot more, much of it pretty predictable, about what kinds of questions to ask prospects, how to identify the different personas, and how to deal with those different personas. My first question, was: "Is this really a Microsoft thing and not an elaborate hoax?" I think we got the answer to that from Sublime Media, the outfit who are hosting that message at the original link cited above. Too bad the site went dark so quickly, since it shed some interesting light on Microsoft's Linux strategies. I sure do hope it'll come back sometime, soon, but I'm not holding my breath. February 14, 2007Microsoft Twisting Arms Under the Table over Open Source?Want to read something disturbing? Check this out: Novell-Microsoft pact not about interoperability, says Open Source leader. Don Marti, of LinuxWorld, interviewed Jeremy Allison, co-founder of the Samba project and the guy who quit Novell over their Linux deal with Microsoft. Apparently, Microsoft is asking for, and getting, payments from corporations to use open source software. See below for all the gory details. Continue reading "Microsoft Twisting Arms Under the Table over Open Source?" » January 22, 2007MySQL Windows Binary Release Shenanigans?Everyone just chill out. It's easy to see conspiracies and plots and all that if you look hard enough, but there's nothing to see here. Really. More inside, if you can't resist... Continue reading "MySQL Windows Binary Release Shenanigans?" » December 21, 2006Wondering about patents? Check this outDon't be fooled by the title: Apple's Billion Dollar Patent Bluster isn't *just* about Apple's patents, even if it is at first about that. If you're not clear about the fuss about Microsoft, patents and open source, read this article first and see if your questions aren't answered. Daniel Eran blogs at Roughly Drafted about "technology, Apple, motorcycles and ... San Francisco". But you can't really talk about Apple or technology these days without talking about Microsoft and open source, and Daniel's blog is one that I know I'll be coming back to for pungent and interesting takes on current events. December 19, 2006Linux Equivalents WebsitesI love simple ideas, and The Linux Equivalent Project is delightfully simple: a single-page website that lists Linux alternatves to Windows software, with links to each project's home page. A super resource if you're hesitant about Linux and the availability of critcal software applications. All software cited is end-user software, but I'd love to see the scope expanded to include development, back-end, server, and other kinds of enterprise software, as well as Windows equivalents to Linux programs. And the day after I discovered The Linux Equivalent Project, I ran across The table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in Linux.. The link is to an Englsh translation of a Russian webpage that has been up and running since at least 2003, and that does what it says: lists software function categories from desktop apps to games to servers, developer tools and scientific apps, with lists of approximately equivalent software for Windows and Linux, as well as links to most of them. Bigger and broader coverage, yes, but also a bit messier and with more holes/bugs (and the authors actively solicit feedback to fix those). Finally, check out this Foogazi blog entry, about Alternatives to Windows Programs. It's a little chattier, but another nice little roundup. December 12, 2006Red Hat on Oracle, Microsoft: No ProblemsGo check out this article on Computer Business Review Online: Red Hat dismisses threat posed by Oracle and Microsoft. It's nice to get a balance from the gloom and doom purveyors (like myself, sometimes): Red Hat Inc's executive vice president of worldwide sales, Alex Pinchev, has dismissed the impact that Oracle Corp's entry into the Linux support business could have on Red Hat, insisting Oracle does not really know what it is doing. Snap. As for Novell? See for yourself: Pinchev was even more dismissive of the Novell-Microsoft deal, describing it as a non-event. "People know what it means for a company to partner with Microsoft," he said, suggesting it would not be in the best long term interests of Novell, while also dismissing the suggestion that Microsoft will ever bring a patent infringement suit against an IT user. December 4, 2006Linux, Oracle, Red Hat, Novell and MicrosoftThe open source turbulence generated last month by Oracle and Microsoft's moves on Linux is slowly but surely clearing. I've been looking at the issues in some depth for full-length articles to be published here in the next month or so. But at the moment it's kind of tough to figure out what exactly it all means. Rather than try to figure it all out as it happens, I'm going to be pointing to some of the particulars of the issues here in my blog. As a starter, here are links to some of the key announcements from Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat and Oracle: Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Linux announcement on October 25. Red Hat Unfakeable Linux response to Oracle's entry into the Linux market (with a rebadged version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux). "Microsoft and Novell Announce Broad Collaboration on Windows and Linux Interoperability and Support", the broad outline of Microsoft's deal with Novell, from November 2. We Believe response from Red Hat to the Microsoft/Novell announcement on November 2; here's an FAQ from Microsoft on agreement and a resource page on the deal from Microsoft. Novell's resource page for the Microsoft/Novell collaboration. Here's Novell's Open Letter to the Community dated November 20, in response to Steve Ballmer's comments about the possibility that Linux incorporates Microsoft intellectual property. Microsoft announces that they "agree to disagree" with Novell on November 20, after the first wave of controversy unleashed by Ballmer's statement that Linux users owe Microsoft for intellectually property. November 10, 2006Windows Vista: Deal or No Deal?Here's a nice little essay that's worthwhile not just for pointing out that Vista may not be worth it, but also for reminding us of why we should upgrade (or change) any software package: 4 Reasons Why Windows Vista Is Just Not Worth It. Continue reading "Windows Vista: Deal or No Deal?" » November 8, 2006Oracle, Microsoft, Red Hat and NovellJust in case you're looking for the low-down on what Oracle's announcement of Unbreakable Linux and Red Hat's "We Believe" and Unfakeable Linux responses mean, and how Microsoft and Novell fit in with their news, about Microsoft support for SUSE Linux, check back here in the coming days. I've downloaded Oracle Linux, and will be giving it the once-over in the coming days, while also applying the microscope to the fine print everyone's license agreements. So check back here! And let me know if you have specific questions that need to be answered, so I'll know what I need to find out for you! October 5, 2006What Price Vista? The $5,000 Upgrade!Here's an interesting discussion about the true cost per desktop to upgrade to Microsoft Vista at Slashdot.org. What prompted that? A little article, The Vista budget vacuum, in which James Gaskin estimates in his column in ITworld.com Small Business that the cost of new hardware, software, and servers related to the Vista upgrade may be as high as $5,000 for each and every one of your PCs. James is a great guy, smart and funny and very knowledgeable, and he makes a good point: existing systems won't be usable with Vista, and you'll need to upgrade more than just the OS to make it worthwhile. However, if your company assigns a usable lifetime to end-user PCs for a periodic replacement schedule, you'll have already budgeted for company-wide system replacement over that period--so your costs may be negligable. The bigger worry will be about maintaining interoperability between different Windows versions for the duration of the replacement period. September 19, 2006More Jobs? or More Total Cost of Ownership?A Microsoft-sponsored study by research firm IDC came out last week to boost a claim that rolling out Vista in Europe will drive $40 billion in economic activity and create 100,000 IT jobs in the six European countries that account for roughly two-thirds of all European IT activity. Google Vista Microsoft IDC Study Create Jobs and you'll see a lot of articles (I saw about 270,000 hits) that reference the study, but check my first link if you want a .PDF of the actual report from IDC. It is very interesting to note that much of the study points out ways in which Vista is going to increase costs (while being good for Microsoft-related businesses): more spending on the new hardware, software, support and services related to Vista. Take a look at the bar graphs that show relative amounts spent on Vista itself, hardware and services, and you can see how a major Windows upgrade can create a major new cost center that you've now got to plan for. July 7, 2006Microsoft Supports ODF, FinallyMatt Mondok at Arstechnica reported yesterday that Microsoft is backing ODF, also known as the OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications. Check out the ODF Add-in for Word 2007 project, where it reports that Microsoft is providing "Funding, Architectural & Technical Guidance and Project co-coordination". The current release is 0.1, so this story is just beginning. Good times. April 5, 2006More Free and Open Virtualization NewsIf you haven't read my article, A Virtualization Primer, go read it; if you have, read it again. And then go read these articles about the latest virtualization news. First off, VMware took the next step in turning their standard for virtualization into the industry standard for virtualization. Monday's announcement, VMware Introduces Open Virtual Machine Disk Format Specification , speaks directly to the need for a strong move toward openness. VMware stated "its virtual machine disk format specification for defining and formatting virtual machine environments is now openly available, downloadable and free of charge. This will enable use by all developers, software vendors and projects and includes open licensing compatible with those operating under open source licenses such as the GPL. In addition, VMware is committed to supporting any other open virtual machine disk formats broadly adopted by customers and working toward converging on open standards in this area." It's nice to see a company that "gets it". In other news on Monday, Microsoft showed that they don't quite exactly "get it": Market Bulletin: Microsoft Announces New Price, and Availability of Linux Support, for Virtual Server 2005 R2. The gist of the announcement is that the new price for Virtual Server 2005 R2 is $0.00. In other words, you can download it for free (though the software is still proprietary and still subject to restrictive Microsoft licensing terms). More interesting, though, is news that Microsoft will now officially support nine different Linux distributions! Count 'em: SUSE and Red Hat. That's right, NINE! Five different releases of Red Hat, and four versions of Novell's SUSE Linux. Further muddying the waters is maneuvering by Microsoft and newcomver XenSource to flank VMware. This article in the Register, Microsoft starts supporting, er, Linux spells out how XenSource, in a move that may prove either brilliant or disastrous, is aligning itself with Microsoft by licensing Microsoft's VHD, or Virtual Hard Disk Image Format Specification. Microsoft hasn't offered VHD to VMware, which may have prompted VMware to actually release their own Virtual Machine Disk Format (VMDK), without licensing restrictions. January 24, 2006Peter Quinn SpeaksFormer Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn gave an interview on Groklaw, where he explains some of the details of his resignation as well as some of the circumstances around it. Quinn is no shrinking violet at this point, and if you want to hear/see him in person, he'll be at the fourth annual Southern California Linux Expo, scheduled for the weekend of February 11-12, 2006, at The Radisson Los Angeles Airport. I wouldn't be surprised if he finds himself booked to speak at other industry "do"s over the coming months. December 16, 2005Microsoft Wants More Open Standards?Now that Microsoft has, apparently, lost the battle with Massachusetts over support for Open Document Format (see my previous comments, Open Document Follies), the real battle is just beginning. As Macworld reported this week, Microsoft: One open document standard good, two better. In other words, you can have any open standard you want, as long as one of those standards was designed entirely in house by Microsoft to enhance shareholder value. Microsoft could have participated in the open standards process from the start as an equal contributor through OASIS, and then accepted the results. But now that software buyers like the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are standing up against proprietary formats, Microsoft wants to maintain its grip on the industry by opening up its own formerly proprietary specifications rather than accept a truly open standard. For the playbook, turn back the clock ten years or so, as the Internet and its underlying TCP/IP protocol suite began taking the world by storm. Microsoft had a vested interest in locking their customers into using their proprietary Windows networking protocols, and converting Novell Netware customers to Windows networking. Once it became obvious that an open and interoperable standard like TCP/IP gives huge advantages to enterprises looking to build large heterogenous networks, Microsoft appeared to submit and started shipping their own TCP/IP stack. But Microsoft continues to this day to build in "enhancements" and "extensions" to their network software that work only with Microsoft proprietary products. Why would customers prefer an "open" standard that was designed from the ground up to lock customers into a proprietary solution? December 6, 2005Open Document FolliesThere's been a lot happening on the Massachusetts Open Document Format (ODF) and Microsoft story over the past couple of weeks, so I thought I'd try to do a little roundup of interesting and relevant links here. Nothing conclusive has happened yet, and nothing conclusive is likely to happen any time soon, but there sure is a lot of turbulence around this issue, which is just as it should be.
I'm always open for comments; but I'm also always in favor of open standards. More New Software: Fedora Directory Server 1.0Sure, it's good to know about new software releases, but you don't need to come here for that kind of information. What's nice, for me as blogger, about new software releases is that they give me an opportunity to write a little bit about what the software does and how it is (or isn't) significant in relation to open source enterprise and business intelligence applications. So: here's the announcement of Fedora Directory Server 1.0. What's that? The Fedora Directory Server Project is " a robust, scalable open-source server designed to manage large directories of users and resources", based on Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (technical specification in IETF RFC 3377). What's good and interesting here? For one thing, scalability. The project claims support for "thousands of operations per second, tens of thousands of concurrent users, tens of millions of entries, hundreds of gigabytes of data SSLv3, TLSv1, and SASL for secure authentication and transport." That's pretty good. For another, there's the professionally written documentation. Well, it's actually documentation for Red Hat Directory Server, but that's more or less the same thing as Fedora Directory Server, because the Fedora Project is more or less where Red Hat tries out technology, in an open source way, for their enterprise-worthy commercial releases. So, if you need enterprise calibre open source systems, you can try out Fedora at no cost and, if you need the enterprise calibre support you can move easily to Red Hat. Another thing that's nice about this is that open source directory servers use an open standard, LDAP, that was developed as an open technical standard through the same organization, The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) that developed all the other protocols that run the Internet. And, as usual, it reminds me of how it seems to me that Microsoft has historically approached the implementation of open standards: start out with a competing closed standard instead, and then eventually give in to market pressures and support the open standard by extending and embracing it. Here's a Microsoft technical report on LDAP, Active Directory LDAP Compliance. November 20, 2005Remote Windows System Administration with LinuxCan a Windows sysadmin function from a Linux desktop? According to Simon Gerber, a consultant working in Australia, the answer is "yes". Read Simon's article, Ubuntu On The Business Desktop about using Ubuntu Linux for more. Simon works "as a consultant in a Windows-centric work-place," where he and his co-workers "remotely administer Windows servers. We trouble-shoot Windows clients. We keep spammers out of our Exchange servers. We defrag. We update. We install antivirus programs. We eliminate spyware." Simon doesn't claim Linux is perfect, but he's been happy using it to get his job done. More revealing is that he'd been using Linux at work for over a month and half before his boss realized it. The key to Simon's success is interoperability: Linux supports all the necessary open standards and is sufficiently interoperable with Windows and related proprietary standards, that it is possible to successfully remotely manage Windows servers. I wonder whether there are any Linux system managers who prefer to do their work in Windows? |
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