Open-Xchange is using Yahoo's acquisition of rival Zimbra last year as an invitation to tackle the U.S. market with its open-source server software for e-mail, calendars, and other collaboration tools.
"Now is the time. The vacuum has been created, and we feel the suction," said Rafael Laguna de la Vera, who took over as chief executive in January. "Yahoo is not a software company...Now, with Microsoft (trying to acquire Yahoo), I think it's over for Zimbra."
Those are bold words for a CEO of an unprofitable company with 2007 revenue of $2.5 million that has struggled for years to penetrate the crowded "collaboration" software market. But Laguna also shared other plans to elevate Open-Xchange's profile:
• On Thursday, Open-Xchange plans to announce a broader release of its software as open-source under the General Public License (GPL). Coming will be installation and administration tools that previously were proprietary.
• Two other non-open-source components, a connector that lets Microsoft Outlook connect to an Open-Xchange server and the Ajax-based user interface for the Web-based access to the server product, will eventually become open-source, too, within a year or two, Laguna said.
• The company plans to join the Eclipse Foundation during the first half of 2008 to take advantage of the OSGI (which formerly stood for Open Services Gateway Initiative) tools to integrate software components. "We will be dual-license the server code under the Eclipse Public License," Laguna said.
• Laguna plans to hire U.S. programmers and other staff to augment the company's current staff of 40. "Marketing, management, global sales, user interface usability--all will be here," he said.
• Open-Xchange might raise a new round of funding to hasten these expansion efforts.
• The company's current main sales approach is to sign partnerships with Internet hosting companies that can offer the software as an add-on subscription service to those registering Internet domains. Its biggest partner to date, 1&1 Internet, plans to extend its partnership to the United States within the first half of 2008, Laguna said.
The company, originally called Netline Internet Service and based in Olpe, Germany, made its way to market chiefly through a partnership with Suse Linux. It's been trying for years to stand on its own, in particular after Suse was acquired by Novell, whose GroupWise product competes.
Because of the strength of open-source rival Zimbra and its willingness to sell at low prices, though, Open-Xchange chose to concentrate its efforts in Europe, Laguna said. "You pick your battles," he said.
The overseas ambition resembles those made by Suse, where Laguna worked until its acquisition by Novell. Suse wasn't terribly successful, but Laguna thinks things will be different: Suse was thwarted by Red Hat in the Linux market, but Laguna believes Open-Xchange now can take on Zimbra.
He's not the only Suse veteran at Open-Xchange with experience trying to perform this sort of conquest. Suse's former chief, Richard Seibt, is on Open-Xchange's board, and its chief technology officer is Juergen Geck, who held that post at Suse.
Novell has hired Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier to be community manager of its OpenSuse Linux project, the company said Monday.
OpenSuse is a free Linux version Novell uses to test out new features it puts into its supported product,
On his blog, Brockmeier said he wants to use his position to attract Windows users to Linux. "I'm...going to be focusing my attention on getting the word out about OpenSuse to more potential users, and trying to bring in more new users to OpenSuse Linux. And by 'new users,' I don't mean people switching from another Linux distro--if someone is using another distro and is happy with Linux, that's great. I want to reach the masses of Windows users who are looking for a better computing platform, and find ways to address their needs with Linux."
Brockmeier also said he wants to emulate what Max Spevack has done in helping to make Red Hat's Fedora project more independent from Red Hat.
(Spevack has just left his role as Fedora project leader, with Paul Frields taking over in January.)
Novell has endowed its OpenSuse Build Service with the ability to produce software for its main rival, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and a clone called CentOS, the company said Thursday.
The build system was originally established so programmers could make sure their software works on new versions of Novell's Suse Linux products. The build system already worked with two other Linux distributions, Debian and Ubuntu.
Why the largesse from Novell?
My guess is that the company hopes to tow more open-source developers into its orbit, but there are altruistic motives as well: "By adding support to build packages for CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the OpenSuse Build Service makes it even easier to build packages across multiple Linux distributions, thus further enabling innovative ideas to spread quickly throughout the free and open source software community," said Michael Loeffler, Novell's OpenSuse product manager, in a statement.
Two years after acquiring the company that developed the AppArmor security software for Linux, Novell has laid off team members behind the project, CNET News.com has learned.
AppArmor's founder and leader, Crispin Cowan, joined Novell in 2005 when it acquired his company, Immunix, which developed the software. But he and four others from the project lost their Novell jobs in Portland, Ore., on September 28, Cowan confirmed.
However, he plans to continue AppArmor development. He and two other laid-off AppArmor programmers, Steve Beattie and Dominic Reynolds, launched an AppArmor consulting company on Wednesday called Mercenary Linux.
"I have lots of reputation capital. I can get another job. But I care about AppArmor as a project and I want it succeed," Cowan said in an interview Thursday. However, the change was a surprise: "I'm stunned. I was getting bonuses and raises and awards up until the time I was laid off."
AppArmor, which Novell said will still be hosted on its Web site, is software that grants software only the privileges and access it needs, an approach that reduces the powers a remote attacker can get from a compromised computer. Although leading Linux seller Red Hat is backing an earlier rival technology called SELinux, Canonical is building AppArmor into its next version of Ubuntu, Gutsy Gibbon, and Mandriva has included AppArmor in its new Mandriva Linux 2008.
Novell spokesman Bruce Lowry wouldn't comment on specifics of the layoff, but said job cuts are "part of our ongoing restructuring efforts we've been talking throughout the year." Part of that effort involves "improving our product development process."
Novell will continue updating AppArmor and using and it in its Suse Linux Enterprise Server software, but the development mechanism has changed since Novell released AppArmor as open-source software in 2006. Some companies outsource programming work to India, but with active open-source software projects, there's even lower-cost options.
"An open-source AppArmor community has developed. We'll continue to partner with this community," though the company will continue to develop aspects of AppArmor, Lowry said.
Cowan was concerned that resources need to be focused directly on the project.
"Novell wants the community to pick up maintenance and development of AppArmor. But tossing it in the wind and hoping is not good enough assurance for me, so now it's my business to go find sponsors who are willing to pay for AppArmor development," Cowan said.
Mercenary Linux will write security profiles for software, though that's not a difficult task, as well as translate the software to new hardware, help to embed it in particular devices, and, potentially, revamp it for use on different operating systems, Cowan said.
But chiefly he expects Mercenary Linux to get by on smaller projects. "It's much easier to sell a small chunk of AppArmor development to somebody who needs something specific than it is to sell the whole concept," he said. "If somebody loves us and one day wants to acquire Mercenary, that's great."
Novell released OpenSuse 10.3 Thursday, its latest free version of the open-source operating system.
Fancy 3D effects include windows that flame out when closed.
(Credit: Novell)For those who need a refresher, OpenSuse is the faster-moving but mostly unsupported version of Linux from Novell and various outside contributors. It competes most directly with Linux versions such as Canonical's Ubuntu and Red Hat's Fedora. Novell has tried for years to pit it against Windows as well, even as it cooperates with Microsoft in a legally thorny partnership. Novell's supported product, Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server, is sold in the form of an annual support subscription.
Like most versions of Linux, OpenSuse has a choice of graphical interfaces. Version 10.3 includes new versions of the two most widely used, GNOME 2.20 and KDE 3.5.7, along with some elements of the forthcoming KDE 4.
Novell has been an eager adopter of fancy interface graphics, and 10.3 includes the Compiz and Compiz Fusion infrastructure for 3D effects such as desktop workspaces that map to the faces of a cube, or slightly blurred background windows, or windows that burst into flames upon closing. For those who want to head the other direction, version 4.4.1 of the minimalist graphics interface XFCE is an option.
You can either download OpenSuse for free or buy a $60 two-DVD set with a manual 90 days of installation help.
There are some notable new features, according to Novell and OpenSuse News:
• Version 2.6.22 of the Linux kernel.
• Xen 3.1 and VirtualBox 1.5 virtualization software, handy for running Windows software but a complicated technology. Also included is virtual machine configuration support in the Yast management tool and an experimental version of the KVM virtualization software.
• A one-click install option to more easily add OpenSuse packages stored online.
• A new set of installation discs. Instead of coming on 5 CDs, OpenSuse comes on just one--one for KDE and a different for GNOME--with extras downloadable. Alternatively, the whole kit and caboodle is on a DVD.
• Easier installation support for proprietary audio and video "codecs" needed to decode files. When the Amarok or Banshee media players encounter an MP3 file for the first time, a dialog box will appear presenting the option to download the MP3 codec.
Markus Rex is leaving Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server project for the time being to take over as chief technology officer of the Linux Foundation.
At the foundation, Rex replaces Ian Murdock, the Debian Linux founder whom Sun Microsystems hired to be chief operating system officer in March. Rex will take Murdock's role not only as CTO of the foundation, but also as chairman of the Linux Standard Base (LSB), a years-old but so still incomplete effort to make it easier for software companies to ensure compatibility with various incarnations of the open-source operating system.
"I need a full-time CTO over here. (Murdock) is a busy guy at Sun. The intent was always to replace Ian as CTO," said foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin. In addition to overseeing the LSB, Rex will handle technical duties such as leading the foundation's interactions with programmers and a program that lets developers sign nondisclosure agreements so they can write software support for unreleased hardware
The foundation was formed last year through the merger of two other organizations trying to oversee some elements of Linux, the Free Standards Group and the Open Source Developer Labs.
Rex joined then-independent German Linux seller Suse in 1999 and stayed with the company through
Zemlin, not surprisingly, bridled when I asked if the LSB has been chiefly of "academic" rather than practical interest. It's true that the allies working on the standards effort have put many years' work into winning support from those who sell or distribute Linux and writing software that makes it easier to test for compliance to the standard.
But he and Rex did acknowledge that software companies by and large still certify not to LSB, but to specific products such as SLES or Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
"Now that we've got LSB permanently anchored in all the operating systems, we need to get application vendors to adopt it and encourage application vendors to use LSB as their basis," Rex said. "For that, we have some work to do. We have to broaden the scope."
Even for those such as Adobe Systems who don't certify to LSB, though, they often use LSB as a stepping stone in the certification process, Zemlin added. And, he added, Rex is the "perfect guy" to build relationships with software companies and encourage them to use the LSB's testing tools.
Update: In an e-mail, Murdock said he's stepping down as LSB chairman now that there's a new Linux Foundation CTO. "Markus Rex is eminently qualified to lead this important effort forward, and I look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role," he said.
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