Canonical serious about business, Asay hired as COO

If people thought Canonical was nothing more than that fun company with the cute and easy-to-use desktop version of Linux that was the pet project of its benevolent dictator, Mark Shuttleworth, then today they heard that needle sliding on a record sound. Stop.

In December, Canonical announced that Shuttleworth was stepping down from his role as CEO and COO Jane Silber was moving up, but no hint was given as to who would be filling her shoes. Today, the company sent out a press release announcing that the role would be filled by long-time open source business strategist, Matt Asay.

Some of us feel quite a familiarity with Asay; we’ve been following his CNET blog, The Open Road (and linked to it prolifically when breaking open source news hits). He also is a regular speaker at open source events — I recently saw him at the inaugural LinuxCon in late September 2009.

Asay leaves his position as VP of Business Development for Alfresco, a Maidenhead, United Kingdom-based open source content management software company. Prior to that, Asay was one of the founding members of Novell’s Linux Business Office in 2002 and was an early influencer and participant in the company’s shift to open source. In 2003, he founded the Open Source Business Conference, and he has served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Thomas Weisel Venture Partners, focusing on open source investment opportunities.

Before Novell, Asay was General Manager at Lineo, an embedded Linux software startup, where he ran Lineo’s Residential Gateway business. He is an emeritus board member of the Open Source Initiative (OSI).

Convinced of his cred?

Asay blogged about the move today, sharing his feelings and providing a skeleton outline of his focus and motivation for the move and what he’ll be tackling at Canonical.

My guess is that the Ubuntu community is cheering on this move — bringing onboard an open source ambassador who also understands the business side is a strong move for the company that has been gaining momentum in Linux distribution market-share. But as a blogger, Asay is not without his critics, and I anticipate seeing a couple of public displays of distaste for the selection. What do you think?

Canonical has a couple of key releases coming up, including the April launch of Lucid Lynx (10.04) that might serve as the first test of Silber and Asay’s leadership. It will be interesting to watch.

And a shout-out to Brian Proffitt, who said in his blog what I didn’t have the guts to say to the folks at Canonical: Please, for the sake of open source bloggers collective egos, keep the man busy!

Linux on mobile: Does Windows really have a chance?

Jim Zemlin, President of the Linux Foundation, came out swinging in a blog post about Microsoft’s Robbie Bach’s prediction that Linux on mobile will lose.

Bach’s premise is that the multiple variants of Linux on mobile devices is bad for customers because of the lack of consistency. But Zemlin argues that the ecosystem of support around Linux on mobile is key to its success.

Linux as the underlying platform of such mobile offerings as Android, Moblin and many more is growing exponentially, and precisely because it affords this choice. Palm, Motorola and others have jumped ship from Windows Mobile to Linux-based offerings in recent years. LG is now using Android on 50% of its handsets. According to Gartner Group, Windows Mobile’s market share fell to 7.9 percent in the third quarter of 2009 down from 11.1 percent the same quarter of last year.

Beyond the technology, Zemlin said that the Windows model is a business problem in the mobile device market, pointing out the per-device licensing fees and overwhelming branding emphasis reduce device manufacturer flexibility and increase cost.

To me, it appears that Linux on mobile is here to stay. The individuality offered by the various Linux flavors, and the creativity of the open source community behind them will continue to make Linux offerings more interesting and useful for consumers and device manufacturers.

Linux Foundation launches Jobs Board

The Linux Foundation and the JobThread Network have found that demand for Linux-related jobs has grown 80% since 2005. To help connect employers with skilled workers, the Linux Foundation has launched the Linux Jobs Board on Linux.com.

“Linux’ increasing use across industries is building high demand for Linux jobs despite national unemployment stats,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation. “By providing a Jobs Board feature on the popular community site, we can bring together employers, recruiters and job seekers to lay the intellectual foundation for tomorrow’s IT industry.”

Job seekers can include their LinkedIn details on their Linux.com profile, including their resume. They can also subscribe to the Jobs Board RSS feed, receive alerts by email and follow opportunities about Linux-related jobs on Twitter.

Linux inside at CES 2010

This blog post was contributed by Paul Ferrill.

Walking the floors at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) with a surface look at the products won’t tell the true story of the impact of Linux. While there might be a few occasional mentions of Linux, for the most part the real story is what’s behind those e-Book readers, MP3 players and pretty much anything with the word “smart” in the name. Embedded Linux has staked its claim as the go-to choice for a wide array of electronic devices.

e-Book readers, Wi-Fi HDTV, and smart phones rely on Linux
This year’s CES saw an explosion of e-Book readers of all shapes and sizes. Only one of the offerings uses Windows Embedded (Plastic Logic Que) while the majority use some embedded Linux variant. Two offerings, the Spring Design Alex and Entourage eDGe, use Google’s Android. Wind River and MontaVista are the two leading vendors of embedded Linux and associated tools. Each counts at least one e-Book manufacturer as a customer.

The latest trends in HDTV and Blu-ray players include features like Wi-Fi connectivity, YouTube playback over wired or wireless Ethernet and remote control over Wi-Fi using an iPhone. Much of this new functionality has embedded Linux behind it. This includes everything from the networking code to connect with YouTube and stream Flash-based video to the on-screen display. The big win here for hardware manufacturers is the ability to leverage existing development tools and code to reduce their time to market.

In the smart cell phone market the lead story is Google’s Nexus Android-based handset. Android runs on top of the Linux kernel and represents a serious challenge to Apple’s iPhone. Google announced this week their own handset developed by HTC that would be sold directly to the public. Other vendors with Android-based devices include Dell, LG and Motorola.

Lenovo brings hot laptop and netbook offerings with Linux inside
On the computing front, Lenovo showed two innovative laptop/netbook offerings with Linux in the spec sheet. The Skylight (image right) is a sleek, curvy, under 2 lb. netbook with a Linux variant as the OS underneath. The core Linux comes from Thunder Software Technology headquartered in Beijing China. Lenovo did the user interface work themselves using the Clutter toolkit for the 3D effects and Google Gadgets. Lenovo also plans to offer a software development kit (SDK) for building custom applications on top of the Skylight OS.

The Skylight is targeted at mobile users looking for an easy way to keep up with e-mail, Facebook and Twitter, or to watch a movie in full HD it packs a Snapdragon processor, 10-hour battery life, 3G connectivity and your choice of color. Flash 10 will be supported out of the box for viewing the latest YouTube content. Lenovo envisions the Skylight appealing to the student crowd with their highly mobile and connected lifestyle. The Skylight will be available in Q1 of 2010 through direct sales and, potentially, at a subsidized price through a cell carrier.
Continued »

Google launches Chrome for Linux (beta), and further reaches into your privacy

Sometimes we like to discuss some of our “pet issues” in these blogs. One of my own is Google’s steady growth and run at world domination.

On December 8, 2009, Google announced that its Chrome browser for Linux has gone beta. Despite criticism about Google’s true “open source” nature, the company claims that more than 50 open source developers have contributed to Chromium. In addition to the Linux and Mac beta versions, Google announced that over 300 extensions had been made available for the Windows and Linux versions of Chrome.

This follows on the heels of last week’s announcement that Google is launching Google Public DNS (domain name service), purportedly to improve efficiency in Web browsing.

“The goal of Google Public DNS is to benefit users worldwide while also helping the tens of thousands of DNS resolvers improve their services, ultimately making the web faster for everyone,” said Prem Ramaswami, Google Public DNS Product Manager.

This grabbed the attention of OpenDNS, and David Ulevitch responded to the announcement on the OpenDNS blog.

“To think that Google’s DNS service is for the benefit of the Internet would be naïve,” said Ulevitch. “They know there is value in controlling more of your Internet experience and I would expect them to explore that fully.”

OpenDNS provides an enterprise service that is advertised as a DNS resolution and security product. Despite its name, OpenDNS is not open source software.

Google’s Public DNS is thus far free, with the company gleaning information about your Web browsing patterns being the trade-off. OpenDNS offers a free basic version with some advertising on unresolved domain names.

With a Google’s reach across the spectrum of IT, we should all be aware that this could mean that everything we do online is being watched. As I read this week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt commented that “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

Novell and Microsoft pact reaches third year mark

This post was contributed to by Pam Derringer, News Writer

On the third anniversary of the 2006 Microsoft-Novell pact, Novell is touting 475 customers who have bought SUSE Linux Enterprise certificates from Microsoft under the settlement. Under the controversial agreement, Novell agreed to give Microsoft either a percentage of all its Linux revenue through 2011 or a minimum of $40 million. Microsoft, in turn, bought $240 million in SUSE certificates that it could then resell to customers with mixed environments who wanted to buy new Windows servers and purchase Linux machines. In addition, Microsoft gave Novell another $108 million as a “balancing payment” in connection with the patent part of the deal.

This joint marketing initiative worked so well in the first two years that Microsoft committed to buying up to an additional $100 million in SUSE certificates in the summer of 2008. To date, Microsoft has only actually purchased an additional $25 million. In fact, SUSE certificate sales boomed so much in 2007 that they were cited as a major factor in SUSE’s three-point market share gain that year vs. Red Hat.

A look at the numbers after three years
While interoperability was the stated goal of the partnership, financial factors were the key motivator for both companies.

“While technical interoperability was the announced basis for the Microsoft relationship, Novell did the deal because it needed to jump start its Linux subscription sales,” said Bill Claybrook, founder of New River Marketing Research, a firm specializing in Linux. “In November 2006, Novell was on the tail end of four or five consecutive quarters of flat SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription sales. At the same time, Red Hat was reporting year over year increases in revenue and subscription sales of 30% - 40%, and Red Hat was already way ahead of Novell in subscriptions sold and in revenue from subscriptions.”
Continued »

Zend Server now available through Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network

While most of Zend Technologies’ products have been available to Linux users for some time, they haven’t been as easily available to Oracle Unbreakable Linux users until now. Today, Zend announced a partnership with Oracle for an integrated and optimized Linux and PHP solution. This includes extending access to Zend Server for Oracle customers via the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN), helping to speed installation for their PHP-based Web applications. Zend Server now also includes out-of-the-box enterprise-grade connectivity to Oracle’s database.

On October 20, 2009, Zend released a beta version of Zend Server 5.0, which includes a new feature, dubbed “Code Tracer.”

For the first time, PHP developers and administrators can quickly pinpoint the root cause of a problem in production by viewing a “digital documentary” of the execution of their application – similar to a black box flight recorder in an airplane – and avoid the time-consuming task of recreating the problem.

Can Ubuntu Linux become a Windows killer?

There have been a number of articles written recently talking about Windows 7 being a Linux killer.

• Windows 7 as “Linux killer”? How times have changed!
• Windows 7: Microsoft’s Linux killer?
• Windows 7 The Linux killer and Ubuntu Going Mainstream

Linux was thought to be a player in the netbook business, but a Spring 2009 NPD Group study shows that Windows has a 90% share of the netbook OS market. It seems silly to be talking about any Windows desktop operating system as a Linux killer. There are so few Linux client operating systems deployed compared to Windows that this discussion is off target, especially because it appears that Windows 7 is an improvement over Windows Vista.

Today, about 25 or 26 paid Windows client operating systems are shipped for each paid Linux client shipped, according to IDC. Paid Windows client operating systems have more than 90% market share while Mac and Linux make up most of the remaining share. The market share lead that Windows has over Linux is not expected to change much for the foreseeable future.

There are about 30 times as many paid Windows client operating systems in use as there are paid Linux client operating systems deployed. And there are about 13 times as many non-paid Windows client operating systems in use as there are non-paid Linux clients.
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Servers in space: The future of data centers?

I have to say, I was immediately intrigued when I read the description of Server Sky. I had heard of floating water-based data centers, far north geothermal powered data centers, and an array of containerized and inventive data center options that all are focused on cheap energy, and greener concept. But until the October 22, 2009, meeting of the Eugene, Oregon IT Pro Forum, I had not thought of data centers in space (which, even while typing it, I think needs a series of exclamation points). But Keith Lofstrom has. Now, before the Star Wars fans start imagining a massive death-star-like space station filled with servers and astronauts/system admins, stop, you’re going to be disappointed.

I descended into the basement of the Eugene City Brewery (where else would IT geeks meet?), ordered my pint of Rogue Chocolate Stout and joined a smattering of local IT pros who had gathered to have a good brew and talk geek with their peers. It was in this darkened room, with large brew kettles visible through the glass windows behind the projector screen that I was introduced to Lofstrom’s vision of a data center in space.

Location is important in this story – the location of the data center, location of the presentation, and the location of the engineer. Lofstrom lives in Portland, Oregon, a city that has the slogan “It’s not easy being green,” within in a state that has put considerable effort behind attracting green industry. His silvery white hair is neatly pulled back into a low stub ponytail, perfect for fitting under his bicycle helmet as he commutes around the city. His attire is casual, with little frameless glasses that, along with the hair combined to evoke historic images of Benjamin Franklin. It’s clear he’s a thinker, a dreamer even, and he’s passionate about this idea.

Loftstrom explained that it all began when he heard a presentation about data center energy use, and the fact that as we all watch more videos, post more photos, and use the internet, the demand for energy from data centers will only increase. Much has been written about this problem and possible solutions so I won’t bore you with details. But to illustrate, Lofstrom shared the August 9, 2009, Dilbert comic:

Pretty gloomy, but the facts behind this image can be motivational to an engineer like Lofstrom.
He passed around a small device with a flash drive and a couple Ethernet ports that he uses as a firewall for his computer system. This device, he explained, inspired him to think about small physical computing devices that could be solar powered, and Server Sky was born. We all looked at the eight-and-a-half by eleven sheet of paper that he had prepared. On it was a diagram of the Server-sat.

Then Lofstrom explained that the diagram we saw was to scale.

Immediately, audience members had questions. Lofstrom explained that he would get to most of them through the course of the presentation. Incidentally, the presentation was given via a presentation software application he had developed that he hoped to get some more collaboration on because, he said, “If nothing else comes from this, I’d like to get this presentation software improved and kill PowerPoint.”

Lofstrom spent the next hour plus going over orbital physics, Moore’s Law, Newton, light pressure, satellite technology, space junk, and biology. He’s really been doing a lot of thinking on this, but admits he wants and needs more minds focused on it. With a background in open source software, Lofstrom is hoping to keep the project open to contribution from others for as long as possible, “before the investors come in and lock everything up.”

If you’re interested in finding out more information, you can view a recorded video of his presentation from Linux Fest Northwest 2009.

LinuxCon: From desktop discussion to community involvement

LinuxCon 2009 wrapped up on Wednesday evening with an Intel-sponsored party at McCormick and Schmick’s in Portland, Ore. This was the final, and flashiest of three evening events that occurred during the course of the event. Monday night featured “Bowling for Penguins” at Grand Central Bowling, a fundraiser for Defenders of Wildlife that raised $3,000. Tuesday night featured a Linux Fund hosted dance party sponsored by SourceForge and iXsystems, and in possibly the most hero-worship twist (or is it twisted hero-worship?) of the conference, live streaming of Linus Torvalds playing billiards was broadcast via Linux Pro Magazine.

All agreed that these events were good fun. The VooDoo Doughnuts and local wine/beer/vodka/sake tasting was also a smash hit for those attending. For those unable to attend, the livestreaming of keynotes offered by Linux Pro Magazine was appreciated. The recorded kernel panel discussion is now available for on-demand viewing.

Nonprofits using Linux to stay competitive
Beyond the kernel roundtable, the most popular keynote was given by the vice president of information services at Sesame Workshop, Noah Broadwater. If you’re unfamiliar with hearing about Sesame Workshop in tech circles, think Elmo. The group won an Emmy for New Approaches in the Children’s Daytime television category for their associated websites, Web casts and interactivity. Broadwater explained how his organization reuses older Solaris boxes as a testing environment and open source software in the development itself. Using this approach, the nonprofit’s Emmy-winning website came in under budget at less than $3 million. The Sesame Workshop holds onto their new development advances for a two-year period and then contributes them back to the community, in an effort to protect their work from big-budget competitors.

The future of Linux on the desktop
One of the broad themes that was touched on at the conference was Linux on the desktop. Multiple speakers discussed the topic, giving predictions for its success and advice to the larger community about how this might be realized. IBM’s vice president of open source and Linux, Bob Sutor talked about the options - the desktop goes away as people begin to expand their use of mobile devices or the Linux desktop could eventually gain parity with Windows and Mac. Perhaps, as Windows declines in popularity with each more complex release, we could see a rise in Linux desktop popularity. Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier, openSUSE community manager talked about the lack of marketing and suggested that shipping Linux pre-installed on more laptops would be one way to make it accessible to more users. Then there was the entire Moblin track at the conference, presenting the “future” of Linux on the desktop. Finally, Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of the most popular Linux desktop flavor, Ubuntu, spoke at the conference. He advocated having a shared cadence and coordination between projects and distributions, as well as improving quality and design.

“We definitely shouldn’t give up the desktop,” Shuttleworth said. “This is one of the most exciting years for the desktop in living memory.”

More on Shuttleworth’s talk can be read in an article by Sean Michael Kerner at internetnews.com: Shuttleworth: Don’t give up on the desktop.

Diversity in the Linux community
Another broad theme was that of diversity in the Linux community. Carla Schroder wrote on Monday afternoon that the Linux “community” didn’t look very diverse. And the topic of the involvement of women in the community was brought up more than once. Starting with Linux Foundation President Jim Zemlin’s keynote in which he pointed out that there is a 100:1 ratio between men and women in the Linux community. But the incident that got the most attention was Shuttleworth’s gaffe during his keynote. ( Full disclosure: I was not present at the time of Shuttleworth’s presentation, and therefore cannot speak to the specific wording or context, but others were.) His statement of women not understanding Linux was enough to get a quickly drafted letter from “Geek Feminism” blog author, Kirrily Robert.

Community sharing
I can’t begin to cover all the things that went on at the inaugural LinuxCon. Most agreed it was a good time and well done. For some other perspectives, here are some other attendees opinions and blogs following the show. I will update it or you can add new links to blogs in the comments below.

Practicality shines at LinuxCon 2009 by Phil Odence, Black Duck Software

LinuxCon Review: It’s all about community by Dawn Foster, Fast Wonder Consulting

LinuxCon Audio Diary 1 and LinuxCon Audio Diary 2 by Dan Lynch of Linux Outlaws