c0t0d0s0.org

Although a little bit advertising, the blog entry of Jignesh Shah points to an interesting fact: You can easily spend hundred times the server price for the database license. The business case to use a proprietary database should be a really good one. There are still companies out there, who use databases like DB2 or Oracle for all data because they did it so for the last 10 years. Opensource RDBMS like Postgres or Mysql may have not all functions of an Oracle, but you should ask yourself: Is this advantage really big enough to justify 40.000$ or 15.000$ per core? In my humble opinion this price tag justifies a dual database strategy.

Jonathan in an article about patents and open source:

Net result? Our contributions, from Java to OpenOffice to Gnome and Mozilla, now account for in excess of 25% of all lines of code within your average Linux distribution

Or to overstate slightly: There is more Sun in Linux than Linus

Microsoft states, that Linux violates 235 of their patents. I assume, that this number is greatly exaggerated. But: Even when your enemy has 235 bullets, one is sufficient to kill you. And the interesting question is: Can you dodge 235 bullets? Interesting times ahead.

There even seems to be a raging cold war regarding this topic. Roger Parlof of Fortune wirtes in Microsoft takes on the free world:

So if Microsoft ever sued Linux distributor Red Hat for patent infringement, for instance, OIN might sue Microsoft in retaliation, trying to enjoin distribution of Windows. It's a cold war, and what keeps the peace is the threat of mutually assured destruction: patent Armageddon - an unending series of suits and countersuits that would hobble the industry and its customers.

An additional note to the FLOSS study of the european community: The contribution mentioned in the statistic is the contribution to the linux distribution Debian 3.1. So it´s not only Java that wasn´t counted, Opensolaris is out of the scope of the statistics too: 7.5 million source lines of code and our crown jewels. Anybody else so commited to opensource ?

Paul Murphy again, this time in Linux: no longer a winner?:

But what's scary for Linux is this: the applications and GNU components we think of as Linux don't depend on the Linux kernel - meaning that the only barriers to mass migration by Linux developers to Solaris or the BSDs are psychological.

The article perfectly describes my experience of the last year or so:

• An increasing number of customers recognize that Linux alone is not a answer, it´s a technological answser. A possible answer, but maybe not the best one
Linux is at first a social phenomenon. The influences of the "big business" are capable to rip off this special face. Linux positioned itself as an alternative to commercial unixes. It was a reaction to the closed world of unix.
• Where is really the difference of a commercialized open source linux and a commercial open source unix? A long long time one of the unique selling point of Linux was "We are the good ones!" But now, not really a difference.
• The psychological barrier is at first the fear of an obsolescence of knowledge.

And to make the usual bold statement to the end: Linux was an attempt for an standardized unix environment, and it will fail out of the same reasons like all attempts at the end. And it will have the same long life as all other unixes. But the nimbus to be one and only answer to all problems that the press gave Linux is gone.

Interesting objections from Paul Murphy to the topic "Who owns Solaris" . It answers the question, why it´s sensible to spend money for developing Solaris although it´s open-sourced now:

Sun's continuing investment in Solaris is about building short term volume by providing long term value.

Devon O´Dell hat einen grossen Schritt in Richtung der Portierung von Dtrace auf Freebsd vollzogen. Wundert mich nicht, das diese Meldung ausgerechnet auf dem FreeBSD-Lager kommt. Bei Linux wird sich wahrscheinlich noch ueber das passende Framework gestritten

The Register schreibt recht wohlwollend ueber die Freigabe von Opensolaris am gestrigen Tage, und konstatiert :

The length of time needed for Sun to roll out a substantial chunk of Solaris under CDDL proves that large companies just can't turn on a dime - no matter how much they'd like to. At the same time, it proves companies can turn. Sun needs a lift right now and OpenSolaris could well fuel part of a larger morale and revenue boost.

John Clingan schreibt in Zusammenhang mit Opensolaris, ueber den beruehmten Effekt, das Sun ein Mittel gegen Krebs, das Ozonloch stopfen und heraufinden kann, wer JFK wirklich umgebracht hat, wir aber trotzdem nur Schlaege einstecken wuerden: Hurry up, so we can wait and see.
In Australien gibt es jetzt eine Ausgabe einer Computerzeitschrift mit Solaris 10. Dies wuerde ich mich auch fuer Deutschland wuenschen. Die zwanzigste Iteration von Linux auf der c´t ist dann doch recht langweilig.
Wo wir dabei sind: Ich bastele gerade an einer Loesung, einen meiner Rootserver auf Solaris 10 umzustellen, ohne an die Maschine zu koennen. Solaris 10 als Installationsangebot waere fuer mich ein Grund, sofort zu diesem Anbieter zu wechseln. Ich stelle auch gerne einen Datentraeger zur Verfuegung ...