open

Microsoft: Please let us tax you, Red Hat! Please? Pretty please?!?

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from [Steve Ballmer-ustus] that all the world should be taxed.

Some capitulated but some, like Red Hat, continue to resist, as eWeek notes. The sad thing is how foolishly consistent Microsoft is on this patent thing. And confused as to what open source means.

Here are just three points that Microsoft is making clear, which are completely wrong (on a number of different levels):

Microsoft wants to suggest that all open source infringes its patents, but this is like saying all proprietary software does, too, just because a few companies might. Bob Muglia, SVP of Server and Tools at Microsoft, says:

… Read more

In the trenches with...Kevin Henrikson of Zimbra

We next go "In the Trenches" with Kevin Henrikson of Zimbra. Zimbra wasn't the first to build a slick email system with a strong AJAX feel, but it has clearly taken the lead among its peers. The backbone of that position is its engineering team, with Kevin at the heart of the organization.

As it turns out, regardless of all the "sex appeal" that Zimbra has in the market (and it has plenty), Kevin's comments reveal that it's community feedback that makes the company tick. Community feedback and an active engineering team that solicits and acts on that feedback, often in real-time. This is the heart of a successful open source business, and Kevin shows us how it's done.

Name, company, title, and what you actually do

Kevin Henrikson, director of Engineering, Zimbra. I currently manage our client engineering team which develops the Zimbra Advanced Client (AJAX based) and Standard Client (JSP/HTML based), the latter being Zimbra's answer to accessibility (screen readers), low-bandwidth, and older PCs. Along with John Holder, I am also responsible for Zimbra's open source community touch points (forums, wiki, blog, etc). I've also had a chance to speak at several conferences on many related topics including AJAX optimization, AJAX offline, and building large scale messaging systems.… Read more

Maybe it will be true if all proprietary vendors hold hands and wish it so

I stumbled across this article in the International Herald Tribune today and was shocked by how off such an otherwise reputable publication could be. The general tone of the article was that open source is struggling to grow. I'm not sure how 100 percent year-over-year growth for the prominent commercial open-source start-ups connotes "struggling," but....

On one hand, open-source developers are continuing to struggle to find ways to make money from open-source software, most of which is given away.

But the only way to do so is to work closely with their biggest rivals--proprietary software makers like International Business Machines, Microsoft, SAP, Cisco and Oracle--which also have an interest in limiting erosion to their own sales.

Since when? We have a host of open-source companies jockeying to be first out the IPO gate after MySQL. We have revenues that our proprietary cousins would salivate for at a similar stage in corporate existence (and it just keeps getting easier to sell open source).… Read more

Open source in government: leadership needed

This morning I read the excellent research paper " Open-Source Collaboration in the Public Sector: The Need for Leadership and Value," and thought this part was particularly interesting:

The most important finding in this research, confirming a major theme in the literature, is that leadership and value are critical to the success of open-source collaborations in the public sector. Collaborations with a strong leadership structure, and more importantly a single leader who is persistent, passionate and willing to spend a great deal of time maintaining and improving the organization are much more likely to succeed. Value is also a … Read more

Independence - from your vendor - Day

Today is Independence Day here in the United States - a day of reflection and fireworks. It's the day that everyone here but I broke free of Britain to "live free or die." (I still work for a UK-based company, so I'm John Powell's indentured servant. :-) In 10 days, we'll also celebrate France's Bastille Day (when the cry of "Liberte! Egalite! Fraternite!" echoed beyond La Belle France, shown in this wonderful Delacroix painting.)

So it seems appropriate to reflect on how open source provides basic freedoms to IT departments and developers worldwide. I experienced this firsthand this morning on conference call with my team and a partner company, both in Europe. (No, they didn't seem to care that it was a US holiday.) A call that would have taken days or months to determine licensing rights to our software took...10 minutes. Frankly, had Alfresco not undergone some licensing changes in the past the call never even would have happened.

Open source licensing enables companies to collaborate without involving attorneys, business development teams, etc. You grok the license, you take the code, you abide by the license. That's it. Highly efficient.

And free. Free as in freedom. Freedom that makes a big difference to end customers and to partners alike.… Read more

In the trenches with...Gary Whizin of MySQL

First off, I'm changing the title of the series to "In the trenches with..." because I'm finding that the best people are often not keen to sing praises to themselves (i.e., "Unsung heroes"). At any rate, while these people are, in fact, the heroes of open source, the series is designed to glean their expertise and provide a "trenches" view of commercial open source.

Hence, a new name.

Nowhere is super-capable humility in more abundance than MySQL. I love that company. I've yet to meet anyone there that I wouldn't enjoy sitting next to on a long plane ride. Mostly because they're somewhat quiet, and I hate talking to people on planes. But... :-)

I asked Zack Urlocker to suggest an "unsung hero" at MySQL and he suggested I chat with Gary Whizin, senior director of Engineering. (He suggested a few others, as well, which I hope will find their way to this series, as well.) Gary chafed a bit (he was insistent that his team, and not he, does all of the real work), but we eventually wrangled this response out of him:

Name, company, title, and what you actually do

Gary Whizin. Officially, I'm Senior Director of Engineering for the MySQL Enterprise Tools group. In reality, I run projects and manage a team like a baseball manager: I help figure out who works on which tasks; I help define our milestones and ensure we're on time; but then I try to let everyone have as much fun as possible because life is short and that's the best way to win anyway. I also ask oodles of "dumb manager" questions to make sure we're being as smart as possible, have the right priorities and are talking to each other.

Then I try to stay out of the way and admire everyone's work.… Read more

Open source @ BMC: Will Hurley speaks

I've been talking the last few days with Oracle, Novell, and SAIC about how open source figures into their product plans and, in SAIC's case, how open source affects the company's services strategy. Each of these companies has obvious things to gain (and perhaps to lose) from open source.

Today I wanted to talk with a company that has not traditionally been known for its open source work. BMC Software. I have been talking with the open source group at BMC for over a year, but I rarely heard much open source noise emerging from the company. That is, until BMC hired Will Hurley from Qlusters, and then suddenly I heard a lot more.

I caught up with Will late last week to find out what open source secrets BMC has been hiding from the world. As it turns out, open source is alive and well at BMC, and growing. Funny that: I've yet to talk with a company for whom open source doesn't figure prominently in its strategic direction. Maybe there's a trend here...?

Will writes...… Read more

The Open Source CEO: Harold Goldberg, Zend Technologies (Part 21)

For today's 21st installment in the Open Source CEO Series, I decided to talk with the head of Zend Technologies, Harold Goldberg. PHP adoption has exploded - how does a company build a business around that adoption? In fact, today Zend also announced the availability of Zend Framework 1.0, with a vibrant development and documentation community surrounding it.

Harold joined Zend with an enviable pedigree in enterprise software. As I've said before, that can be a blessing and a curse. In Harold's case, it seems to have been a blessing. Let's hear why.

Name, position, and company of executive Harold Goldberg, CEO, Zend Technologies.… Read more

Open source investments up in Q2, notes CBR's Matthew Aslett

Matthew Aslett has the latest numbers on open source investments in Q2 2007. The bottom line? Up 33% (over the same quarter last year) to roughly $100 million. Not too shabby.

Matthew: It would be ideal if you could also report the running tally of total open source investments. We're over $2 billion now....