PlexNex

LINUX: Enterprise Engagement, the Missing Link

Free Sofware developers -- in their daily focus -- are commited to making the software GOOD. Free Software companies -- according to their own moral imparative -- are commited to making the software USEFUL.

That the two objectives don't wholly overlap is a source of frisson between Free Software individuals and the Free Software's corporate sponsors. Maybe this is healthy in itself, or an opportunity waiting to be leveraged.

Perhpas it's time for the Free Software community as a whole to think about the role and value that Free Software companies bring to the ecosystem.

In a BBC News thought-piece, Bill Gates recently made a revealing comment ...

"Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs."

This is a veiled criticism of Free Software. He's talking about his software business -- where he often conflates software technology assembly with the organization of people in his business dedicated to solving customers' problems and making alternatives look unattractive.

The quote is difficult to fault as a business statement, since they have proven adept at doing the whole package. But it doesn't account for the superior code produced by both isolated and collaborative work across the Free Software ecosystem.

Mr Gates visualizes the Free Software developer -- the Hobbyist, for whom his distain is on record -- as an anti-social being (see in section, "Non-Assertion of Patents Pledge," the definition of " Non-Compensated Individual Hobbyist Developer"), having long hair, bad breath and working alone in a garret. He can't be entirely wrong because he was a software hobbyist, himself, back in the 1970s -- closely fitting that description.

Free Software doesn't actually suffer from a lack of collaboration on the code. It suffers in the market-place -- that bazaar of products -- from an almost comprehensive lack of collaboration with business.

A few years ago, I thought it was an embarrassment that the bellwether GNU/Linux company, Red Hat, had only passed the $100-million total revenue mark. Given the size of the enterprise and consumer software markets, that number was just ... well, embarrassing.

Just this week, we read with a mixture of amusement, glee and ennui that Novell, having got its reporting methods checked off by the SEC, reported 4th Quarter revenue from Open Platform Solutions (which includes Linux) at $23 million, up 69% versus the year-ago quarter.

Even though Novell's Linux invoicings (something different than accounting revenues) were up 108% in the period, suggesting an annualized Linux billing-rate well beyond $100 million, it is fairly depressing that the company with the very best enterprise GNU/Linux desktop, plus some good identity, messaging and deployment/management products makes as much money in one Quarter as Microsoft makes in a few minutes.

Evidently, GNU/Linux's enterprise penetration today is so minimal that it is hard sometimes to see why Microsoft bothers to oppose it. (Or is it attributable to the monopoly's effectiveness in opposition?) This means that GNU/Linux does not have a depth or breadth of conversations under weigh with corporate IT departments -- the innovative, feedback kind of conversations that Mr Gates rightly prizes.

How is this going to change if not slowly? Progress seems glacial today in light of the Free Software community's apparent and general disinterest in business and willingness to abuse sincere, if controversial, efforts to compete. The small amount of business in the commercial Free Software space makes it hard to attract bright people. The space seems incompatible with innovation. (I'm not convinced it's merely due to monopoly conditions.)

Experience working and solving enterprise customers' problems breeds experience. Solutions as well as sales, deployment & integration knowledge improve in a cumulative way.

I wrote last year in the Financial Times about the more prominent GNU/Linux migration case studies in Europe: the Gendarmes, Munich and PSA Peugeot Citroen. PSA is a Novell customer and the migration of 40% of that car company's desktops to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is a pivotal case for Novell and for the GNU/Linux desktop in general.

Christophe Therry, Novell general manager for France, explained: "Peugeot was impressed with the translucent 3D desktop, with the user-interface functionality and was looking for a way to facilitate the path through the user-adoption curve."

Peugeot is a Lotus Notes and SAP house; these enterprise applications must integrate seamlessly. Peugeot and Novell convinced IBM to port Lotus Notes to Linux (which IBM had no prior intention of doing), and this was accomplished for Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 in just two months. (IBM and Novell are now cross-marketing Notes 8 on Novell's SLED 10 Linux desktop.) Novell was able to feed back Peugeot's requirements into SLED 10, for which Mr Therry credits Peugeot's culture.

Working together they improved SLED 10's wireless security making it possible, for example, for a laptop's connection to move from one domain server to another while maintaining security.

They improved Linux's ability to integrate securely in a Windows environment; and added coding improvements to the Firefox browser on Linux which make it possible for the internal websites to conform to the exotic requirements of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser when such pages are viewed on any platform.

Some Free Software developers -- perhaps those operating from their garrets -- may ask, "Why do we need to commercialize Linux? It's fine as it is. It solves all my problems!" It's a fair question, for which we need a fair answer. Even Linus Torvalds has commented about virtualization, for example, 'I don't care ... I'm just not that interested in it.' We are glad they are so focused on the problems that are important to them; it has made the software GOOD.

Yet PSA Peugeot Citroen represents the kind of enterprise engagement that is not only healthy for GNU/Linux but essential to making it USEFUL. Through the engagement, key customer-recommended features get added or adjusted within the software, and the collaboration with the end user helps Novell address problems of integration or of interoperability that are outside the GNU/Linux code-base (and therefore not typically identified as problems). Thanks to the quality and the efficiency of developer collaboration around the GNU/Linux code, the inside work on GNU/Linux is so advanced today that it is largely these outside problems which present the more significant obstacles to adoption.

Mr Gates is right about software innovation, but he's the wrong person to say it. Enterprise engagement by commercial Free Software companies is critical if GNU/Linux is to be useful as well as good. And we need more of it.

NYSE | Euronext: Bullish on Linux

Why does this heavy transaction-throughput, high-uptime, fault-tolerant customer prefer Linux (even over Solaris)?

"What we want is to be able to take advantage of technology advances when they happen," Rubinow said. "We're trying to be as independent of any technologies as we can be."

This is what I call "Zero Procurement"; it's about the customer deploying Free Software on his own schedule, and even taking on some of the cost of testing, configuration and integration.

The kinds of software problems IT vendors can usefully solve tend to be generic (universal or commodity problems). Whereas the kinds of software problems the heavy-compute buy-side can solve for themselves tend to differentiate their business.

Hardware is a different story.

Microsoft Modus Gets Smoked in Nigeria

Microsoft bribery gets reversed in Nigeria ...

ComputerWorldUK | "Linux wins Nigerian school desktops back from Microsoft" | Jeremy Kirk for the IDG News Service (9 Nov 2007)

Bunch o' criminals!

FT: "Putting Linux on Desktops"

"Did IT work: Putting Linux on desktops" | Sam Hiser | Financial Times (7 Nov 2007)

Update in today's FT print edition of the three prominent Linux migrations in Europe...

• The Gendarmerie
• City of Munich
• PSA Peugeot Citroën

Flight to the GPL(v3)

It's an astute assessment by Pieter at FFII, in the aftermath of Neelie Kroes' capitulation to Microsoft ...

So, Microsoft has decided to bleed the GPL economy dry by:

1. Fragmenting the Linux economy by making patent deals with Linux vendors - TurboLinux, Xandros, and of course, Novell.
2. Starting a proxy-troll patent attack on Red Hat, the leading Linux distributor (it has also attacked Novell but that is probably so that it can ride to Novell's defense). Red Hat refused to make a deal, now it will pay the price.
3. Splitting the open source community away from the free software community, by re-branding itself as an "open source" firm.
4. Announcing that it wants to buy open source firms. Money is the greatest divider ever.
5. Bringing open source projects into its franchise, where they will get protection from Microsoft's patents, in return for using Microsoft's open source licenses.

It's a desperate scheme, because it's guaranteed to backfire in the worst possible way, and surely Microsoft cannot be naive enough to think it'll work.

Here is how Microsoft's plan to kill the GPLv3 is going to backfire.

1. It's going to bring large numbers of people into the "no software patents" camp. Up to now, it's not been clear to most people just how damaging the EPO's practice of allowing software patents has been. The FFII has been saying for a while, "software patents trump anti-trust" but few have understood, until now.
2. It's going to end the license wars. Microsoft have set the stage for a mass migration to, not away from, the GPLv3. Why? Because open source projects that get too close to the beast will shrivel and die like grapes on hot coals.
3. It's going to focus the wrath of an entire community against Microsoft. For the last decade or so, Redmond have not really messed with the FOSS world and the FOSS world has mostly ignored Redmond, apart from a lot of taunting and name-calling. Now, that has changed.

The future of open source and free software will look like this: first, Microsoft will pump money into its franchiseware economy and get very little back. Second, IBM will do the same with its own franchiseware economy (the Apache Foundation) and get a lot more back, because IBM actually understand how this works. Last, all remaining projects will move to the GPL, with a few exceptions. And it's that economy, the one based on formal copyleft licenses, and backed by increasing determination to litigate and defend against litigation, that will prevail.

Microsoft's American Proxy Patent War Continues

A made-up thing, a company called "IP Innovation LLC", is suing Red Hat & Novell for something which sounds like the virtual desktop implementation in Linux (which I personally treasure as a productivity godsend -- and which is enabled by Linux's true multi-threading, multi-tasking might...Windows can't implement virtual desktop because, underneath, Windows code is a complex tangle of spaghetti lacking in Linux's Unix-provenance as a real OS).

PJ & Company astutely make the connection that behind "IP Innovation LLC" is a group called Acacia which is staffed by senior Microsoft agents, including Jonathan Taub, a Microsoft Hero & Key Achiever.

The Microsoft Cross-Marketing & Interoperability Pact with Novell says that Microsoft and Novell pledge not to sue each other or each other's customers for ostensible patent infringements. "IP Innovation LLC" is a shadow Microsoft hitsquad. Therefore, Novell is aware now that Microsoft is in breach of their deal.

The drama continues and Linux keeps getting more important and easier to implement -- outside the USA.

CIOs -- this has become too transparent. Aren't you fed up yet?

ceteris parabis, this patent trolling by Microsoft is immoral, unethical and hypocritical. It will surely cause Asians, Europeans, Oceanians, Antarcticans, Africans & S. Americans to laugh at the self-defeating innovation-constipation in North America.

Shuttleworth & Co. on OpenSeason

Ashlee Vance hosts a fun & informative chat with Mark Shuttleworth on OpenSeason. Also attending: Matt Asay & Dave Rosenberg.

Audio (MP3) over an hour. Run in the background while you waste time on Facebook.

Linux's New Plateau

Larry Magid writes a complete piece on Linux in The New York Times.

In particular, the picture -- bright & beautiful above the fold of the regular Thursday Circuits section -- tells of Linux's new place of prominence, despite its still small share of the market.

MP3 phone interview with Larry (5:52).

Package Management, or Bust

Read Ian Murdock's brief, "How package management changed everything" and understand why Vista sucks.

Ian is bringing key open source principles to Sun to help Solaris become real. Excellent hire. I do hope he's getting paid; he'll save the franchise.

What to Do in NYC in a Snow Storm

Tomorrow (Wed, Feb 14, 2007) 4:00 - 5:00p on the Linux Desktop track at the Linuxworld Open Solutions Summit (Mariott Marquis, 1535 Broadway at Times Square), Don Marti will host a panel with myself, Ian Murdock & Jeremy White.

We'll probably be talking about the current state of Desktop Linux, where it is, where it isn't and what's still holding it back. Don will have some really good questions, so I'm as eager as anyone to find out where we are at.

For attendees of the conference I'd like to provide a few suggestions about things to do when you're in New York. There's supposed to be a few inches of snow, so my suggestion is bring your goloshes, Wellies or what have you and plan to walk through the slush if you leave your hotel -- since traffic will be unmerciful.

If weather is milder than expected (more than likely), Plan B would be to find a cozy bar restaraunt and hunker down. (It's been in the high-20s, Farenheit, this week, and should not get much over the mid-30s with the snow, not a lot colder.)

If you're feeling adventurous, there are two events here in town that I would recommend unreservedly: a broadway show that's way better than most, and a portrait exhibition that's unbelievable.

GREAT ENTERTAINMENT IN NEW YORK

Go see Company...

Ethel Barrymore Theatre
243 W. 47th St. (between Broadway & Eighth Ave.)
(212) 239-6200

Ben Brantley's review in The New York Times...

This visually severe, aurally lush reinvention of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's era-defining musical of marriage and its discontents from 1970 is the chicest-looking production on Broadway.

What we noticed is the musical talent on stage. Remarkable! Let me just say also that Raul Esperanza is excellent (he was great as Caracticus Potts in the (Albert) Broccoli's Broadway production (i.e., James Bond) of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, too).

Expect ticket prices of $45 to $85, and a superb value at that. Box office walk-ups should be no problem.

For background, DA Pennebaker (Monterrey Pop, Bob Dylan's Don't Look Back) filmed a documentary in 1970 after the original Company got its good reviews of the making of the Company original cast recording. It is a typically Cinema Verite' Pennebaker treatment of an 18-hour recording marathon which ends in a cliff-hanger as the stars, Elaine Stritch and Dean Jones, hit the wall in their climactic numbers -- with Sondheim featured as the anxious mid-wife to his own baby.

Company: Original Cast Album

Get this!

Alternatively, get yourselves to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fifth Ave & 85th St., the large edifice on the left) for...

"Glitter and Doom: German Portraits of the 1920's"

The title is an understatement. This is the work of Otto Dix, Max Beckman, George Grosz and other painters of the Weimar Republic period between the wars (I and II) when Germany was thrown into social, political & economic chaos after the overthrow of the monarchy at the end of World War I (1919).

Otto Dix, "To Beauty" (1922)

Otto Dix, "Skat Players" (1920)

For me these portraits throw all of the 20th Century into clear focus and answer the question, among others, where did Adolf Hitler really come from.

You'll get in here for something like $12 and the food is good, too, at the Met.