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Novell open sources a major Linux security program and shows the world that it “gets it”. I’m not a Novell fan boy but, they have shown time and time again that they are serious about the spirit of Open Source. I don’t follow the earnings of the company but I hope these small moves don’t hurt them before they start helping. The investor needs to know that moves like these are good for Novell in the long run.

What about the app? I’ve read good things. It looks like it fills the same space that SELinux does. That’s going to be interesting to see where that goes. The truth is, I don’t know much about it at this time because it was just Open Sourced. Given a few months, we will all know just how cool this is - or isn’t

Good news from Google Talk. It looks like they are opening up their IM servers to talk with *any* and *all* Jabber servers. This is the coolest news in IM history. With any luck it will bring down the closed networks as people jump on the open IM bandwagon.

In a nut shell…

Google Talk network supports open interoperability with hundreds of other communications service providers through a process known as federation. This means that a user on one service can communicate with users on another service without needing to sign up for, or sign in with, each service.

Google shows it understands the power of Open standards and networks. Keep up the good work.

Sounds like there is going to be a new Utah Asterisk Users Group. I’ll no doubt get involved. Asterisk is a killer app for Open Source.

Everyone is gong crazy about this… mono in fc5.

Wow, I think it’s great! Long live MONO!

This is so stupid, I don’t even know where to start.

Microsoft Corp.’s Linux and open-source lab on the Redmond, Wash., campus has been running some interesting tests of late, one of which looked at how well the latest Windows client software runs on legacy hardware in comparison to its Linux competitors.

Sticking in a CD and hitting “Enter” (as suggested below) is interesting? Wow, it must be a slow time of year for the FUDsters.

“Microsoft challenges Linux’s legacy claims”!? What are those claims? Who made them? Let’s be specific… O.K. we give. We’ll let Microsoft’s guy tell us what “Linux’s” claims are. From the article:

“Quite simply, I wanted to examine this factually, using real customer scenarios to test this hypothesis: Can Linux run on older hardware than Windows? In many developing countries and public institutions, such as a local library, they typically don’t have deep technical staff, so they need to use software without lots of modification and customization. This is why our testing focused on installing modern distributions of Linux and modern versions of Windows ‘out of the box’—simply putting the CD-ROM in and installing—on the legacy PC hardware in our lab,” Hilf said.

Asked why he believed there is such a pervasive belief that Linux can run on older hardware, Hilf said the technical capability to modify Linux, to strip it down to run with a minimal set of services and software so that it can run on all sorts of hardware devices, has generated that larger assumption that any type of Linux distribution can run on all sorts of hardware devices.

It looks like the question is “Can Linux run on older hardware than Windows?” If that is the question, then of course we know the answer. Yes, it can. However, a full install of Linux will not run *better* and it may run *worse* then Windows. But really, is that what people are claiming? Is there really a “larger assumption that any type of Linux distribution can run on all sorts of hardware devices”? No, there isn’t. It’s total garbage from the MS camp. It’s a straw man and they know it.

The real claim Linux system admins make is, that Linux can make better use of older hardware. What we are saying is, Linux can take a relatively old box and make a great router or DNS, DHCP, POP, IMAP, SMTP, HTTP, LDAP, SMB, NTPD, NFS, etc… server. The same box running Windows would likely make a crumby workstation at best - it lacks the same “capability” that makes Linux shine.

The guy doing the talking here knows that this is really what is being “claimed.” No more, no less. They have no real comeback so they frame the discussion by taking about the “larger assumption” and making “lots of modification and customization.” I’m sure Mr. Hilf is an intelligent guy but I will have to disagree with him that a minimal install (the kind that you would do with old hardware) constitutes “lots of modification and customization.” It’s hard to look into these things when your job to produce FUD gets in the way. Too bad.

The most ridiculous part is that a company like Microsoft feels the need to do “studies” like these to keep the eyes of its customers from wandering and “effectively put to rest the myth that Linux can run on anything.”

Oh brother, get a life.

Very few commercial software products are appealing enough to me to actually spend money on. Even fewer companies selling that software are decent enough for me to trust. VMware does *not* have problems with either of these. They have way cool products and they contribute back to the Open Source community (good karma there).

After “test driving” VMware Workstation for 30 days, I laid down the cash for a fully licensed copy. It will make working with Microsoft Windows way more convenient and almost bearable. I expect this to also help with my work on OpenClue.org.