Open Source guru Sam Ramji quits Microsoft

Ramji, who was till date senior director of Platform Strategy of Microsoft, had joined the company about five years ago

BANGALORE, INDIA: Open Source Guru, Sam Ramji, has announced to leave Microsoft to join a cloud computing startup, CodePlex Foundation.

Ramji, who was till date senior director of Platform Strategy of Microsoft, had joined the company about five years ago. In his blog on typepad.com (http://samus.typepad.com/what/2009/09/moving-on-and-the-codeplex-foundation.html), he said, "After 5 great years at Microsoft I am moving on. I'll be joining a cloud computing startup later this month in Silicon Valley. It was a hard decision, as the time I've spent at that company has been both challenging and rewarding."

Explaining the reasons for parting ways, he said that it was all for personal reasons; wife and family. "I have decided to move our family back to California. I decided that I could not do justice to a corporate/worldwide position from afar, and that I could not bear to live away from my family and commute to Seattle five days a week."

Sharing his viewpoint about the open source, he said that, "I was certain that open source was an industry wave that Microsoft would not be able to ignore, and that it was getting closer to an inflection point.

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Why Choose Open Source?

re you thinking of creating a new online store or upgrading an existing one? Chances are you have already considered Open Source Software (OSS) or you already using it. If not then its time to get educated on the benefits of such an approach. This is the first in a series of blog posts on how to develop a comprehensive strategy for incorporating open source into your business. Here are a few benefits of following such a strategy.

Cost

Cost is probably the first reason that jumps to mind when you hear the term "open source." There are no license fees to worry about with OSS and there are typically only minor restrictions on how the software is used (depending on the license.) In many cases, the cost of the license is a pretty compelling reason to use an open source product, especially for companies on a budget.

Support

Most commercial software vendors like to brag about the great support they offer. Support is one of those areas where companies make their money so you should be somewhat skeptical of what they are promising you. Many open source projects have very strong communities associated with them. They are filled with developers (and developer shops) that can help you with custom features, installation, etc. Its true that not all contractors are going to do a good job for you but the same can be said for the paid support staff of a commercial vendor.

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'Open source is more stable and better supported'

The CPM has long supported the free software movement and launched a poll website based on such software. The BJP's L K Advani recently threw his weight behind open source technologies. Jonathan Schwartz , CEO of Sun Microsystems, tells Sujit John that open source indeed is the future:

Is the rate of adoption of open source technologies growing?

It's accelerating rapidly. And with economic pressures mounting, free enterprise software is looking more and more compelling. Open office, our free office productivity suite, is now downloaded 1,00,000 times a day. A year ago, it was half that. Downloads of Glassfish, our open source application server, has also doubled in the last one year, and that of MySQL, the open source database, has increased 30 per cent. This is partly because of our awareness campaigns, but more because of the IT budget cuts, which push you to look for the best free software available to run your business systems.

Where do you see the fastest adoptions?

The fastest adoptions are in places where there's rapid economic expansion, good bandwidth and large student populations. We have seen some of the highest adoptions in India because of the first and third reasons. Universities are major seeding grounds for open source innovations. And when these students join the workforce or start their own companies, they disproportionately tend to select free software. We did a poll of 2,000 university students and found that less than 6 per cent knew Oracle database, but more than 90 per cent knew MySQL.

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Microsoft's secret deals on open source

It's a familiar story. Microsoft does a secret deal with a company over patent licences. Almost no details are provided about which patents, how much money has changed hands, or why, except for one vaguely worded press release that talks about how such secret deals benefit the customer through openness and innovation.

This time, the lucky donor of cash for secrets is Brother, which will now be allowed to use Microsoft patents to make printers. As Microsoft doesn't make printers – indeed, doesn't even make printer drivers – it is an interesting exercise to try and guess what's actually happened. It's fruitless to ask either of the companies – and we did try. In cases like this, as in the best gangster movies, nobody ain't sayin' nothin'.

Patents, you might remember, are designed to encourage innovation by the disclosure of information: when a $1.8bn company pays a $230bn company a secret amount for secret rights to a secret list of patents – something else is going on than the open promotion of innovation and "a healthy and vibrant IT ecosystem."

In this case, as so often, it involves Linux. Brother uses Linux in some of its printers. Microsoft claims that Linux infringes its patents. It won't say in public which ones, and it doesn't attempt to press such claims against companies – such as IBM – who would want to fight back and not care about the cost (Ask SCO how that business with AIX went). It doesn't go after people who have little to lose and plenty to gain by fighting back, such as individual high-profile developers or small open-source teams. And it has never gone to court on this matter.

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Microsoft releases Web Sandbox under open source

Microsoft's technology for securing Web content is being offered under Apache license

Microsoft has made source code for its Live Labs Web Sandbox project for securing Web content through isolation available via open source under the Apache License 2.0, according to a report this week on Microsoft's Port 25 site.

Web Sandbox features technology for mashing up code while maintaining process isolation, quality of service protection, and security. It is intended to address a problem in which Web gadgets, mash up components, advertisements, and other third-party content on Web sites either will run full trust alongside content or are isolated inside of IFrames. This results in many Web applications being intrinsically insecure with unpredictable service quality.

Since announcing the technology preview at Professional Developer Conference 2008 in Los Angeles in October, Microsoft has open-sourced the Web Sandbox framework and is partnering with industry leaders to evolve Web Sandbox into an industry-wide solution, Microsoft said.

Microsoft is looking for developers to experiment with Web Sandbox, even including samples so developers can try to break the Sandbox.

"Since the initial release of Web Sandbox we have received a great deal of feedback from the Web security community. We have also been collaborating with a number of customers, partners, and the standards communities that would like to adopt the technology when it is ready. Our goal is to achieve widespread adoption of Web Sandbox and to help foster interoperability with complementary technologies like script frameworks," Microsoft Live Labs said on its Web Sandbox Web page.

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If not Google, which corporation best champions open source?

was, frankly, surprised to see the results of yesterday’s poll. About two-fifths of you think Google is evil.

Such surveys are inherently noisy, and many ZDNet readers are fierce supporters of Microsoft, but still…Google is fast losing favor as the corporate champion of open source.

So who might replace it?

• IBM, which has more open source projects out there than anyone else?
• Red Hat, which offers the leading Linux distribution?
• Canonical, which is so public in its support of desktop Linux through Ubuntu?
  

The natural reaction to this is to say “Champion? We don’t need non steenkin’ champion.”

Ah, but you do. Every ecosystem needs a planet to live on. Every planetary system needs a Sun. (Could our champion be Sun?)

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IBM Brings Open Source for High Performance Computing

IBM (News - Alert), an information and computing technology company, has announced the launch of the first certified package of open-source software for supercomputers based on Linux developed by the company.

The new package, the IBM HPC Open Software Stack, will enable the linking of cluster servers together, so that a single super-fast system can take shape, which will be more productive and also easily manageable.

As more and more companies have begun relying upon the technology of supercomputing, or high-performance computing (HPC), the sector is going through a very rapid growth.

To achieve the maximum efficiency necessary for high-performance computing, different processor types integrated together to form "hybrid" clusters, so that the processing power of different processors can be combined to get the desired effect.

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Study Paints Open-Source Software as a Security Risk

Open source software is a significant security risk for corporations that use it because in many cases, the open source community fails to adhere to minimal security best practices, according a study released Monday.

The study, carried out by Fortify Software with help from consultant Larry Suto, evaluated 11 open source software packages and each community's response to security issues over the course of about three months. The goal was to find out if the community for each open source software package was responsive to security questions or vulnerability findings, published security guidelines and maintained a secure development process, for example.

Open source application server Tomcat scored the best in the study, titled "Open Source Study -- How Are Open Source Development Communities Embracing Security Best Practices?"

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The Top 75 Open Source Security Apps

About a year ago, we took a look at the growing trend toward open-source security and highlighted 10 of the best apps available. Since then, the area has continued to mature, and now we're back highlighting 75 of the most frequently downloaded open-source security applications.

Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware

1. ClamWin Free Antivirus
   
   This Windows-only app uses the incredibly popular ClamAV engine to detect viruses and spyware. It includes a scanning scheduler, automatic downloads, and a Microsoft Outlook plug-in. However, it does not provide real-time scanning; you'll need to scan your files manually in order to be protected.
   
   Operating System: Windows.
   
   
2. ClamAV
   
   Numerous commercial and open-source products are based on the Clam Antivirus engine. Designed for protecting e-mail gateways, Clam AV offers automatic updates, a command line scanner, and more. Operating System: Unix, Linux, BSD.
   
   
3. Moon Secure Antivirus
   
   Moon Secure is currently based on ClamAV, but the developers are working on an antivirus engine of their own that will enable real-time scanning. Operating System: Windows.
   
   
4. Rootkit Hunter
   
   As you might expect from its name, Rootkit Hunter searches your system for rootkits and other unwanted tools. It does not provide live or scheduled scanning, but the Web site contains instructions for setting up your system to run Rootkit Hunter daily. Operating System: Linux, Unix.
   
   
5. AMaVis
   
   Short for "A Mail Virus Scanner," AMaVis acts as a go between for your anti-virus software and your mail transport agent so that incoming e-mails can be scanned for viruses. The site contains the complete--and very extensive--list of supported applications. Operating System: OS Independent.
   
   
6. ClamMail
   
   ClamMail combines a POP3 e-mail proxy with the ClamAV engine. The result is free antivirus protection for messages accessed via Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, or other POP3 apps. Operating System: Windows.
   

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Oracle says it’s playing by open source community rules

SINGAPORE -- Reiterating its support to the open source community, Oracle Corp. said it has always been playing by the community's rules, not imposing its own standards, an executive told reporters here.

While declining to comment directly on the recent approval of a Microsoft-backed data format by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the company said it would continue supporting the open standards community.

"We have been supporting the ISO. Our involvement in ISO is not about one against the other," said Shane Owenby, senior director of the Linux and Open Source in Oracle Corp. in Asia Pacific.

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Open-source Flash rival "Gnashes" out

A non-profit open source project with high-profile backers has released beta code for an open source Flash media player, with a media server in the wings. Open Media Now's Gnash player runs standalone or as a plugin, and may run better than Flash on constrained devices.

Last week the Gnash development project released the first beta (release 0.8.2) of its GPLv3 SWF (Shockwave Flash) movie player and browser plug-in. The free player is designed for "computer, gaming, embedded, and consumer electronic devices," according to the non-profit Open Media Now Foundation (OMNow) funding the effort. Gnash is likely to use less memory and power than Adobe's Flash.

Originally created as a user interface for a digital stereo set-top box (STB), and based on work done by the GPLFlash project, the Gnash player runs as a browser plugin for Firefox, Mozilla, Konqueror, and NetFront, and is optimized for Firefox 1.0.4 or higher. Gnash is said to run on embedded GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. There is also a standalone player for GNOME- or KDE-based desktops, and ports to Darwin and Windows are said to be in progress. The player supports embedded architectures including MIPS, PowerPC, ARM, and Sparc.

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IBM Open-Source Expert Criticizes Standards Process

Any of the ISO and IEC national bodies can lodge a formal appeal over the next two months, before the Office Open XML standard is published.

Criticism and calls for an investigation have come close on the heels of the formal announcement that Microsoft's Office Open XML file formats had received the necessary number of votes for approval as an ISO/IEC international standard.

In a statement released April 2, the ISO (International Standards Organization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) said 75 percent of the participating Joint Technical Committee members cast positive votes, with just 14 percent of the total national member body votes being negative.

Approval required at least 66.66 percent of the votes cast by national bodies to be positive, and no more than 25 percent of the total number of ISO/IEC national body votes cast to be negative. "These criteria have now been met," the statement said.

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How to Mitigate the Risks Associated with Open Source Code

The use of open source code is on the rise. It provides developers flexibility, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. We have seen, though, that the acquiring companies that are buying assets are not paying close attention to the risks involved. These risks include buying software assets that may include open source code, but may contain limitations on the right to sell or license the software.

In the last decade, use of open source software has risen from the basement of the weekend code warrior to the high-rise of enterprise development strategist. This surge in corporate popularity can be attributed to the cost-effectiveness, efficiency and reliability of open source code. Yet, use of open source code presents risks--especially for a company acquiring technology assets that include open source code.

Does that mean that the risks outweigh the benefits? Probably not. A few years ago, most companies took a conservative approach, attempting to avoid open source code at all costs. Today, that approach is outdated. The market has since developed means of mitigating the risks associated with using open source code.

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Open source increases its share

BUSINESS generated directly from open source software in Australia is worth about $300 million a year, with government a large contributor to the pie, a study shows.

An additional $200 million comes from open source services and related hardware, according to the report's co-author Jeff Waugh.

About 129 companies of different sizes participated in the research, a nationwide census aimed at sizing up companies and contributors in the open source sector.

Mr Waugh described $500 million as a "conservative estimate", and there were about 1500 companies providing open source services.

The study showed that open source companies were not "one-man-band contractors", which was a common misconception, he said.

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