07.19.08

Do-No-Evil Saturday - Part I: OpenSUSE Still a Subject of Discussion

Posted in GNU/Linux, Novell, Opensuse, SLES/SLED, Ubuntu, HP, Virtualization, Mandriva at 7:41 am by Roy Schestowitz

Following the release of OpenSUSE 11.0, quite a few people decided to explore the distribution. Novell has begun studying OpenSUSE 11.0 users. It’s doing it at the moment using a survey that was launched last week. In addition, the OpenSUSE community pays its respect to Bryen Yunashko and Frank Sundermeyer, both of whom seem like veterans.

Listed below are articles and blog posts that shed some light on opinions and assessments of the latest distribution and its surrounding system.

Read the rest of this entry »

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07.04.08

Off Topic: Mandriva 2008.1 Recommendation

Posted in GNU/Linux, KDE, Mandriva, Turbolinux at 1:13 pm by Roy Schestowitz

Verdict: Excellent Distribution (Mandriva 2008.1 with KDE 3.5.x.)

At one stage in the past, this Web site gave Mandriva a hard time, but only due to cautiousness, due to doubt. We’ll return to this in a moment and present other concerns at the end.

In practice, Mandriva turns out to be a wonderful GNU/Linux distribution that makes computing a totally CLI-free nirvana. The developers should be proud.

Background

Having received a new computer a few days ago, I tried a variety of distributions on it (both 32- and 64-bit). The maturity of GNU/Linux was demonstrated by the fact that, in all cases, everything worked right ‘out of the box’.

I don’t consider myself qualified to write a comprehensive review, which would also require time and dedication. But in any event, this is just a note to say thank you for the Mandriva team, which put together a wonderful product.

Time will tell if it will stay this way, at least in the sense that a lifetime of a distribution and it success cannot be measured based on just a few days of regular use. I used Mandrake on two of my PCs before, but never used Mandriva. The loss was mine.

The Positives

Package management: super (so far, so good)

KDE integration with Mandriva’s tools and branding: good

Hardware support: based on a single test, all is great

Installer: better than (or on par with) any of the others that I tried

The Negatives

None so far. I just don’t fancy the default wallpaper, but that’s easy to take care of.

The Possible Snag

There is still a level of caution when it comes Mandriva because of Manbo (Turbolinux has an intellectual monopoly deal with Microsoft and it swaps code/RPMs with Mandriva). This should not be an issue, according to Alan W. and others in Mandriva, including the CEO. We also asked the FSF about it.

Time will tell, but I don’t want to end up like I did with SUSE. I used it at home and at work for years prior to the Microsoft/Novell deal. It goes back to S.u.S.E. days.

The Beranger Take

Mandriva dreads Beranger, a renowned Linux guru who comments constructively without much mercy. In my correspondence with Beranger, who is intimately familiar with this distribution, some interesting points came up. We share them here for completeness:

“I hope you meant “KDE3″, not KDE4,” he wrote. “Mandriva has different set of bugs twice a year. Was it “Mandriva 2008″ or “Mandriva 2008.1 (Spring)”? Try the other one and you’ll see different bugs out of the box!”

Regarding support, he shared: “All Mandriva Linux editions are supported for twelve months (desktop packages) or eighteen months (core packages) for official updates from the product release date. The Mandriva Product Lifetime Policy describes the supported life for Mandriva software products.”

“But they can barely fix the bugs for the current release,” he argued.

“Mandriva 2009 will have KDE 4.1, and they’ll only have KDE 3.5.9 in “contrib”. That means it’ll be less supported, specifically “contrib” gets NO security fixes!!! So this (2008 Spring) is the last Mandriva with KDE3, in real terms.”

About “contrib”: “These updates are not tested, signed or supported by the Mandriva security team; they are built and issued by the maintainers of the ‘contrib’ packages. We do not guarantee that all maintainers will issue security or bugfix updates, but we provide this media for those maintainers who choose to do so.”

“All in all, Mandriva 2008.1 has been a wonderful GNU/Linux distribution so far.”“They had a Mandriva Corporate Desktop 3.0 (KDE-only),” he told me, “and they claimed to have issued a Mandriva Corporate Desktop 4.0 (KDE-only too), but they’re now both unavailable from the online store!!! Actually, MCD4 was never available in the store!!!”

He concluded with: “Too bad, Mandriva can’t afford to maintain a Desktop distro that would have been supported for years… and it was a KDE3 distro!”

The debate here seems to revolve a lot around updates, which is probably not a huge concern anyway. In Free software, upgrades rarely involve much trouble, or even a payment. So, that last bit is a rant to be taken with a grain of salt but not to be ignored. All in all, Mandriva 2008.1 has been a wonderful GNU/Linux distribution so far. Consider giving it a try. █

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06.22.08

The Reasons Why OpenSUSE is Still Just Playing Catch-up

Posted in GNU/Linux, Novell, Opensuse, KDE, Mandriva at 4:58 am by Roy Schestowitz

Necessity, luxury, or none of the above?

OpenSUSE is not the best one can get. For advanced users, as consistently argued in some press, OpenSUSE may be a decent choice, but for those who are new to GNU/Linux (not platform-agnostic either), OpenSUSE is just another option. The connection with Novell does not help.

As we argued yesterday, many people write about their fresh installations, which they have not had much time to evaluate. Here are some of the writeups that shine light on the weakness of this latest release.

Here is one who agrees that prior experience may be needed.

The time now is 6:00pm… and I’m tired… and guilty… because I haven’t done much of my ACTUAL work. But still, this was fun, and openSUSE looks good, looks really good. But like I said above, the distro is not for the faint-hearted or pure beginners. I have installed openSUSE earlier, and that experience helped (because openSUSE is not like other distros). I’m still a newbie or a noob, though, and so, I have struggled where others might fly through. Still, I think the distro looks/feels solid and I can’t wait to actually start working with it… tomorrow!

Kevin Dupuy, one who belongs to the OpenSUSE Project, expresses some displeasure as well.

I don’t see the value add for PackageKit vs. our own updater. Unless this is all about being as close to possible to GNOME upstream, in which case I don’t think that’s a case for which we need to be degrading user experiance. It is a desktop enviroment, we are supposed to be free to change it in whichever way we would like to make it better, and more openSUSE-ish. And although I’m reserving full judgement on openSUSE 11.0 GNOME until I get the full edition and live with it for a few days, I’m unfortunately not that impressed with it as of yet.

There are some more such examples. Bill Beebe, who has been writing about SUSE for a long time, has a few difficulties too, but some are not SUSE’s fault.

I’ll probably break down and purchase a copy of Mandriva. I haven’t purchased a boxed distribution since openSUSE 10.2. I want the comfort of the complete distribution with all the necessary codecs on DVD when I overwrite Ubuntu on europa.

Lastly, there’s some criticism of YaST, not having adopted Qt4 yet.

Frustratingly for a nitpicky user like me, not all the applications bundled with OpenSUSE 11.0 KDE4 have been ported to KDE4 yet- so they stand out like a sore thumb. Some essential applications- like Konqueror- have been ported, but others- like YaST- have not. They still work but it’s not as visually pleasing as it would be if it were all KDE4.

The other nags appear to be related to a ‘development phase’ KDE4, but that will hopefully get sorted out soon. It’s not an OpenSUSE issue. █

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03.03.08

Microsoft Sends Its Friend ‘Analyst’ Michael Silver to Bat for OOXML?

Posted in Microsoft, Deception, Open XML, Mandriva at 1:13 am by Roy Schestowitz

Assault of the mouthpieces

“Analysts sell out - that’s their business model… But they are very concerned that they never look like they are selling out, so that makes them very prickly to work with.”

–Microsoft, internal document

We last showed this only [cred 2627 one week ago]. The following new example will be joining many other examples [1, 2, 3, 4] and compelling proof that exposes a large-scale phenomenon called “shill analysts”, or abbreviated “shillnalysts”.

Noooxml.org talks about Michael Silver, but it does not seem to realise who this guy is. It speaks about the bias:

Businessweek (Jennifer L Schenker) quoted Gartner analyst Michael Silver last week who puts OOXML in a wider commercial perspective…

“appear more open”. This is how Gartner views the credibility of the new openness….

Look how optimistic Gartner’s Silver is…

We have covered this so many time before (see citations above), but to focus on Michael Silver for a moment, consider these:

NY Times bans Microsoft analysts from Microsoft stories

Just days after banning Enderle from discussing Microsoft because he has Microsoft as a client, the Times quoted Gartner analyst Michael Silver and AMR Research analyst Jim Murphy in a story about Microsoft’s Windows and Office software.

If the paper would prefer not to quote an analyst who has experience with a client, it did a poor job. Silver is Gartner’s vice president in charge of client computing. Microsoft happens to do lots of business with Gartner and also happens to have a client-software monopoly. We’re guessing that Silver knows Microsoft’s products well and has direct involvement with the company.

And, sure enough, he appears a number of times on Microsoft’s own site and thousands of times in stories about Microsoft. Jim Murphy - wait for it - covers Microsoft too and is even more prolific than Silver.

[…]

Part of the problem stems from the reticence of companies such as IDC and Gartner to reveal their clients. That should make everyone nervous, but it doesn’t. So called objective technology publications keep publishing material bought by vendors without telling you this. They’re also too lazy or scared to ignore the likes of Gartner and IDC until the firms change their disclosure rules.

Also see this more recent one:

Buy Vista or die

[…]

Gartner research vice president Michael Silver said that outfits have delayed their Vista migrations to the point of stupidity and now some are considering late 2008 or even 2009, while others mull skipping the OS completely.

The following older article gives you an idea of the scale of this plague.

Research firms make their living by offering expert advice to business and technology people about the best ways to invest their IT dollars. It can be invaluable insight, but only if that analysis comes with no strings attached. And on that, there’s no guarantee.

Forrester, Gartner, IDC, and others insist their output is squeaky clean, yet they also rake in millions providing services to the very same companies they monitor, heavyweights like Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle. Which leads to a question that continues to dog the research firms: How much influence do technology vendors have over their work?

BusinessWeek should be ashamed of itself for approaching and accepting a comment from a Microsoft friend, without any disclosure at all. It should not have approached this person in the first place. This is an example where Microsoft controls publications by proxy — so to speak — rather than controlling them directly. There is another such article from IDC, which was published a few days ago to slam Linux. But that’s a separate story. █

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02.06.08

The Mandriva and Turbolinux Deal Revisited

Posted in Microsoft, GNU/Linux, Intellectual Property, Patents, Mandriva, Turbolinux at 8:34 pm by Roy Schestowitz

Result from inquiries

In the middle of January, Mandriva and Turbolinux announced that they would collaborate. The negotiations between the two companies carried on for some time and communication was apparently hindered by the fact that Turbolinux sold out (to Microsoft) just a few months ago.

The two companies finally reached an arrangement that is claimed to have resolved the Microsoft issue. In other words, Mandriva should not be affected by Turbolinux’s deal with Microsoft. There were a few who begged to differ or had some doubts though.

“Mandriva is very certain that there are no issues.”Our thoughts and writings in the past were based on conversations in forums like Groklaw and a response from Mandriva’s community leader. An interview that LinuxToday had with Mandriva’s CEO was another.

Brian from LinuxToday, as well as Pamela Jones from Groklaw, challenged and addressed the fact that Turbolinux gains visibility of Microsoft source code. Pamela must be thinking about SCO-like allegations. Again, as you are aware, Turbolinux signed a patent deal with Microsoft and it now gets access to Microsoft’s so-called IP (not just a case of software patents in this case because there are copyrights also).

People out there are divided when it comes to interpretation of the future effect on Mandriva. I personally do not believe there is any trouble associated with the Mandriva deal, but Pamela Jones and Brian from LinuxToday remain a little suspicious. Meanwhile, this question disappeared into the darkness (it’s old news), but definite answers are not quite out there. Mandriva is very certain that there are no issues. Microsoft’s take on this would be interesting (watch the LinuxToday interview). █

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01.20.08

Don’t Let Journalists Make You Afraid of Mandriva, JVC

Posted in Microsoft, Windows, GNU/Linux, FUD, Patents, Patent Covenant, Mandriva, Turbolinux at 2:18 am by Roy Schestowitz

“We do NOT want to ship the ’standard’ with Windows because we want to make the native APIs more attractive. We want to evolve the standard APIs rapidly, and not have ISVs [independent software vendors] spending time on something that is cross-platform. “

–Chairman Bill Gates (CEO at the time)

The previous post covered some of the latest news about software patents. More on this fiasco can be found here. We said we would return to the possible issues with the Mandriva-Turbolinux collaboration (Manbo), if there are any at all (we never suggested this. but Groklaw did).

Here is what Mandriva’s CEO had to say in response to those who are worried.

Our recent announcement concerning the creation of a joint lab with Turbolinux has generated some controversy. Even PJ, from Groklaw, a site we like very much at Mandriva, showed some concerns and signaled her intention to stop using our Distro.

He alleviates many of the doubts, which is reassuring. It gives a cozy feeling, but be sure to see Brian Proffitt’s skepticism, as well. He actually corresponded with Mandriva’s CEO.

I wrote back: “I’m trying to understand how logistically this will work. Is there some sort of ‘clean room’ in place to keep Mandriva developers from seeing any Turbolinux code that might fall under the alleged Microsoft patents or any code that Microsoft may have directly contributed to Turbolinux?”

“The 10 or so engineers working in Manbo Labs have no access to any of the Turbo technology that is not is the lab scope. And everything in that scope is GPL,” Banchilon replied.

Not content with explaining it just to me, Banchilon reiterated these technical aspects, with more detail, on the Mandriva blog today. Specifically, he indicated what the scope of Manbo Labs would be:

• The scope of work is about 100 low-level RPMs, all in GPL
• Product will be available for public release under GPL
• Development is public, made on our Cooker environment and associates the community

Is that enough to assuage the fears of the community? Hopefully so. I think the two companies need to help each other technically and it sounds as if Mandriva is taking care not to get involved in Microsoft’s shenanigans.

It’s a matter to trust. Mandriva has not compromised their values before, and I think that’s earned them the benefit of the doubt.

The Mandriva situation came about at roughly the same time as the JVC-Microsoft patent deal. They were announced almost simultaneously. Sadly enough, some other sources are still spreading doubt and create unnecessary drama. Microsoft’s Bink, for example, writes about Microsoft’s average of 250 patents per month:

However, the company [Microsoft] also begun a broad intellectual property licensing push several years ago, under which it licenses technology to many companies big and small. The company has signed a slew of patent cross licensing deals since then, the most recent being Tuesday’s deal with Japan’s JVC.

Trolling through filings can offer a glimpse of where a company is headed, but as with Apple’s closely watched patent filings, seeing something in a patent application is far from a guarantee of what will eventually ship.

What was more annoying is shrewdly-crafted disinformation/FUD from InformationWeek’s Paul McDougal, which resulted in headlines like this one: Microsoft profits from Linux again, easier than improving Windows Vista

While that may be true, the above statement is made in reference to the JVC deal, despite the fact that there is no evidence of Linux being involved. Over the line? Well, we looked at JVC before. Judge for yourselves and do not rely on fear mongers. █

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01.17.08

Pamela Jones: It’s Goodbye to Mandriva (Updatedx2)

Posted in Microsoft, GNU/Linux, Patents, Mandriva, Turbolinux at 12:44 am by Roy Schestowitz

[Important (18/01/07): as the comments at the bottom indicate, Microsoft is in no way involved in this deal, so Pamela’s assumptions were incorrect.]

Mandriva promised not to sign a patent deal, but according to PJ of Groklaw, the Mandriva-Turbolinux collaboration is bad news indeed.

[PJ: I guess this is goodbye then, for me, as far as Mandriva goes. I’ve used it for years and really loved it, and I thank them for helping me get to use Linux. But TurboLinux signed a patent deal with Microsoft, joined Ecma to help out with MSOOXML, participates in the Interoperability Vendor Alliance, uses Windows Media and made Live Search the default. So you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know what all that means. Since Mandriva and Turbolinux are sharing code now, I don’t trust the code so it’s a fond farewell from me.]

Is it possible that this isn’t anything like reviving a United Linux and more of a quiet way to enter an agreement which involves patents (remember that Turobolinux got started only with a Microsoft technical collaboration)? If so, what does it say about Dell joining the Novell/Microsoft deal — whatever that means?

About yesterday’s cross-licensing deal, there’s no mention of Linux, but Groklaw seems to confirm the fears over Microsoft’s plan with patents, as explained just a couple of hours ago.

[PJ: This has nothing to do with the GPL, but I wanted to show you what I believe will replace patent infringement lawsuits if the patent reforms currently being considered pass. Stuff like this, where one side sits on the other and then they do a deal where one side pays but both get access to each other’s patents to induce acceptance. I think you can extrapolate as to what it would mean for the GPL. What big companies probably hope it means is they win.

Put simply, lawsuits are replaced by ‘Linux tax’. By changing laws (legalising software patents), proprietary software companies strive to marginalise Free software. █

Update: Another source begs to disagree.

However, this joint lab does not mean that we share the agreement with Microsoft, Mandriva still tries to stay as free and open as possible, as Anne explained on the cooker ML.

Hopefully, the latter is absolutely correct.

Update #2: Another good article sheds light on the (non-)issues:

The delay in the announcement is particularly interesting, especially for the fact that last October was also the month that Microsoft and TurboLinux entered into a collaboration agreement, complete with the ever-dubious patent agreements.

Seeing as Mandriva had refused to enter such an agreement with Microsoft, it may have wanted the dust to settle on the Microsoft/TurboLinux deal before going public on the partnership. This was probably worsened by the fact that it was in open conflict with Microsoft over a deal with the Nigerian government. Mandriva accused the Redmondians of hijacking the deal, but eventually won the contract.

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01.16.08

Updates on Turbolinux and Linspire (Mandriva Deal and CNR Status Report)

Posted in Boycott Novell, Microsoft, GNU/Linux, Deals, Ubuntu, Linspire, Mandriva, Turbolinux, Scalix at 10:00 am by Roy Schestowitz

Novell’s little sisters still making baby steps

Mandriva has already made it very clear that it would not sign a patent deal with Microsoft. It is curious to find though that Mandriva has just joined forces with Turbolinux, which had sold out and showed off its loveaffrair with Microsoft a couple of months ago.

The deal has no troublesome bits contained in the press release. It is a purely technical collaboration that has nothing at all to do with Microsoft technologies, so unlike Scalix, there should be no effect by association.

Turbolinux Noriko Otake, otake@turbolinux.co.jp or International Business Division, +81-3-5766-1142 ib@turbolinux.co.jp or Mandriva Vanessa Wall, +33-(0)1-40-41-97-29 vwall@mandriva.com Mandriva and Turbolinux announce a partnership by creating a lab named: Manbo-Labs. This Lab is the result of an agreement between Mandriva and Turbolinux to share resources and technology to release a common base system on each
of the Linux distributions.

Also in the news, the ‘bread and butter’ of Linspire, namely CNR, has progress to report.

Since the launch of CNR.com beta last month, over 20,000 new CNR users
have downloaded and installed the beta CNR Client. In addition, over
250,000 software programs, packages and libraries were downloaded and
installed at an 89.9% successful installation rate.

This seems like slow progress. The success of Linspire is still pretty much hinged on its ability to distinguish itself or even getting others dependent on its software. CNR is the company’s only real asset. As we were told by someone who knows the company pretty well, it is unlikely that Linspire will survive. Kevin Carmony made a horrible mistake before leaving the company, more latterly hopping on some dating Web site business while boasting and marketing himself as a “Linux CEO”. He seems to be flipping jobs nowadays, not only distros (he tried to become part of Ubuntu). █

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