April 4th, 2008
Backed by Intel, Ubuntu, Google, mobile linux is poised for commercial takeoff in 2008
The momentum behind mobile Linux is accelerating because several communities — and commercial giants — are finally backing it.
Despite earlier efforts from pioneering companies like MontaVista, Lineo and Access, the open source operating system has always taken a back seat to proprietary mobile operating systems such as Nokia-backed Symbian, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, RIM’s Blackberry and Apple’s MacOSX for the iPhone.
I’ve wondered why. Linux seemed to have all the right ingredients for mobile devices: small footprint, lower power consumption, flexibility and extensibility. Still, year after year, it stumbled.
The mood changed in 2007. Linux had firmly established credibility on the server and desktop and mobile Linux was the next frontier. The first phones based on OpenMoko open source Linux hit the streets. Palm switched to Linux. Several mobile Linux organizations — Intel’s Moblin.org, Motorola-led LiMO and Google’s Open Handset Alliance — launched.
Now, the fruits of those labors are coming to market (not all) and in a relatively short amount of time we’ll find out how much of a disruptive effect that Linux will have on the mobile market.
As one CNET writer reported on today, Intel emphasized the success of its Mobile & Internet Linux Project at its developers conference in Shanghai and indicated that Lenovo, Toshiba, Panasonic and LG Electronics will begin shipping Linux based Mobile Internet Devices later this quarter. Intel has backed Linux exclusively as the OS for MIDs based on its new Atom processors. Rising star Canonical has said that Ubuntu will support Intel’s MID and Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has been vocal about the need for Linux backers to cooperate on the mobile front.
And earlier this week, the LiMO Foundation – with Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile, Samsung and Vodafone as founding members — announced availability of its first standard mobile Linux platform, LiMo Platform Release 1. OEMs are preparing to release handsets based upon the platform, such as those demonstrated at the Mobile Congress last month.
Nokia’s acquisition of Trolltech, a LiMO backer, also brings excitement amidst caution. As part of its buyout offer for the open source company in January, Nokia pledged to continue to support open source as part of its “cross platform” strategy for mobile devices.
Perhaps the most notable event this year: the software industry’s sexiest player — Google — announced plans to develop a Linux-based mobile software platform dubbed “Android. At the November launch, Google announced availability of the Android software development kit and the formation of the Open Handset Alliance.
Android is based on the Linux kernel and includes the operating system, middleware, user interface and Firefox based browser. Several vendors showed off early implementations at Mobile World Congress 2008 in February and the first phones based on Android are planned to be ready in the second half of 2008. The work on Android is far from finished, as CNET reports today, but the excitement about it in 2008 rivals only that generated by Apple’s storied iPhone last year.
Other Linux-based mobile groups have made significant progress on plans outlined in 2007.
In July, OpenMoko launched its first smartphone for developers use, the Neo1973, went on sale. But the real test is coming — soon.
The OpenMoko company and open source project, (openmoko.org) which spun off as a separate operation of its Taiwanese parent company, plans to launch its first consumer smartphone based on Linux — called the FreeRunner –this spring. Rumor has it in April. Anyway, the Linux smartphone — which uses the Linux kernel, GNU C library, X Windows and GTK+ toolkit, will feature a 500 Mhz processor, WiFi, motion sensors, 2D/3D graphics rendering capabilities, an oval form-factor and 2.8-inch touchscreen.
Then there’s the Linux Phone Standard Forum, LiPS, which was founded in 2005 by ACCESS, ARM, France Telecom and others. The forum published its first API in June of 2007. In December of 2007, the first LiPS Release 1.0 specification was published as promised. The LIPS specification includes a reference model, telephony, messaging, calendaring and scheduling, presence, the user interface service, address book and voice call enabler APIs.
It will be interesting to see which companies develop services and applications based on LiPS in 2008.
All of these developments undercore the importance of community-driven development and cooperation. It helps to have big names like Google, Intel and Motorola in the mobile Linux game but open source projects need a village to get rolling.
April 4th, 2008
Is open source for Windows worthwhile?
Over at Seeking Alpha, uber-schmoozer Joe Panettieri (left), now running Nine Lives Media, has one of those pieces that makes me go “waah?”
Short version: open source is Microsoft’s secret weapon.
This is not another paeon to Firefox or OpenOffice. Panettieri is talking about Microsoft’s Windows Server business, its true crown jewel, and the effort to make sure open source projects work on it.
Specifically he’s talking about working with Spikesource, whom I wrote about earlier today, in certifying programs to work with Windows Server.
Open source, he says, is how Windows will kill Linux.
That’s the “waah” bit. It’s breathtaking in that, by conflating the operating system competition between Windows and Linux with the business operations battle between Microsoft and open source, he’s both making and missing an important point.
The made point is that Microsoft probably looks at the world in just this way. Both its business model and its business are under threat, so accepting the work of one to win the other is all part of the same war.
The missed point is these are not the same war. Microsoft is competing with Linux in the operating system arena based on features and value, not values. Enterprises can make a rational choice there without making a moral choice.
The choice between open source and closed source is something quite different. Open source is a business model, not a communist plot. But it’s a business model which requires adoption of some key values.
Microsoft could, if it chose, become an open source company, and in some of its recent actions it has chosen to do just that, giving more visibility to some of its code and enabling interoperability with open source projects.
There remains, however, this philosophical difference. Microsoft competes to control customers, and those who’ve bought-into its products are controlled, their barrier to conversion rising every day.
Open source companies can’t act the way Microsoft does. They can’t isolate themselves from the communities they serve. They can’t keep aces in the hole or up their sleeves, because all the cards — the code — in open source is on the table.
This difference exists regardless of how much Microsoft seeks to cooperate with open source projects, and have its software interoperate with them. It abides.
It’s a divide which cannot be bridged. It’s not a business battle which can be won.
April 4th, 2008
SpikeSource offering badges to open source
The Solutions Factory software certification which SpikeSource is now offering through Intel will be extended both to open source companies and open source requirements, the company says.
Intel announced the program, and a $10 million investment in Spikesource, at a developer meeting in Shanghai yesterday. The idea is to give channel partners assurance that software works well on Intel hardware.
Dominic Sartorio, the senior product manager who described the system to me, is also president of the Open Solutions Alliance, and said that group may well create its own program.
“We are flexible enough to customize this for any company,” he said. The “we” in that quote refers to Spikesource.
While the Intel program is focused on making sure software works on its chips, an OSA program might focus on interoperability, security, or other factors.
The Solution Factory system does not just do a one-time certification, Sartorio emphasized, but monitors ongoing changes to requirements so certification can be maintained.
In Intel’s case, companies which choose to join its program will have their software certified through The Solution Factory, based on Intel’s specifications, and then get a “badge,” like the Intel Inside bug, which they can display on their Web sites or in ads. The badge will include Spikesource’s name as the certifying agency.
Other companies, and groups, will also be solicited to create programs, administered by Spikesource using The Solution Factory. Each would have its own requirements, monitored by The Solutions Factory, so in time companies could have a host of badges on their sites.
So, badges? How many steenkin’ badges does an open source program need?
April 3rd, 2008
Early draft of Microsoft XAML now online
An early draft of Microsoft’s XAML specification has been brought online under its “open specification promise.” This fulfills a promise made last week at OSBC.
XAML stands (roughly) for eXtensible Application Markup Language, and enables the creation of object hierarchies for use online.
The Open Specification Promise is the company’s pledge not to sue you for what’s in the documentation, based on claimed patents covering the technology.
Microsoft’s XAML isn’t the only one out there of course. Open source programmers have long had access to MyXaml which went Version 1.0 in 2004. Its sponsor is Ironsuit Software.
Open source programmers are also familiar with United XAML and the Open XUL Alliance, both on Sourceforge.
April 3rd, 2008
The Oracle Tax is progressive
The Fortunate 1000 are far more likely to pay the “Oracle Tax” of a proprietary database than other firms, making this one of the few true progressive taxes in our business system.
(The picture is of Oracle’s headquarters, aka the Ellison Kremlin, the Capitol of LarryWorld.)
Colleen Graham of Gartner Group blames the poor quality of open source tools used to manipulate the databases, not the quality of PostgreSQL or MySQL themselves, for the failure to make inroads.
The tool makers are proprietary, she argues, leading to a chicken-and-egg phenomenon familiar to any Apple Macintosh owner. No market share means no tools, no tools means no market share.
Another way of looking at this, of course, is there is huge opportunity in developing open source database tools. Graham admits the open source database vendors are growing, albeit from a small base. An open source toolmaker can make a living.
But is that really the problem at all?
The enterprise managers I know have long understood that their database is the family jewels. As the prime asset of the company it deserves the best of care. If you’re going to spend big anywhere in your IT universe, that’s where to spend it.
If that’s true, even a database tools version of the Eclipse project might have difficulty gaining traction. The Oracle bill is what tells the CIO his company is big enough, and special enough, to have a database worth the price.
Thus it may prove more difficult to dislodge Oracle from the enterprise market than it has been to dislodge Microsoft. For some, paying a big “tax bill” for a proprietary database is a badge of honor.
Just don’t let Congress know. Or the schoolchildren of San Mateo County.
April 2nd, 2008
Firefox 3 Beta 5 released, RC1 Freezes April 8
As it races to the goal post, Mozilla.org announced that beta 5 of Firefox 3 is available and that the code for release candidate 1 will be frozen on April 8.
Beta 5 offers big improvements over previous release including enhanced stability, performance and web compatibility and user interface enhancements, including changes to the look-and-feel of Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OSX and Linux themes.
The updated beta also offers enhanced integration with Windows, Mac and Linux, including improved Windows icons and native user interface widgets , as well as a more native Mac OSX look and feel with support for OSX widgets, a combined back and forth button and growl notifications support. On the Linux side, Firefox default icons and menus use the native GTK themse.
In personalization capabilities, the Place organizer allows users to view, organize and search all bookmarks, tags and browing history with multiple views and smart folders to store frequent searches, and create restore and backups at will.
In terms of peformance, the enhanced JavaScript engine and profile guided optimizations have yielded significant performance improvements. Mozilla.org claimed that applications such as Google mail and Zoho Office run twice as fats on Firefox 3 beta 5 as compared to Firefox 2 .
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April 2nd, 2008
Google Docs offline illustrates open source maturity
Now that Microsoft Word is a standard, maybe Redmond should worry about making certain it stays a leader.
The rapid delivery of an offline feature to Google Docs illustrates the benefits of standardization and the maturity of online office suites, according to a competitor.
Sridhar Vembu (right), co-founder of AdventNet, which produces Zoho, an online office suite, writes that the offline capability for Google Docs is based on Google Gears, which Zoho used a few months ago to add the same capabilities to its Zoho Writer.
Vembu writes that Zoho originally sought to add the offline capability itself, then switched to Gears once it was announced.
Google made the right decision to open source this technology, so that the entire ecosystem can rally around a common standard for offline functionality. We are proud to be early adopters of this technology. We differentiate Zoho on features & functions that add real value to users, rather than on framework/infrastructure level issues, like which plug-in to use for the offline edition.
Zoho has also sought to differentiate itself by quickly releasing a mobile edition of its software. But rather than focusing on Zoho’s efforts, Vembu wanted to emphasize what Google’s open source decision means to the development process.
“It is sometimes hard to believe that the entire space is just over 2 years old, considering how far things have come. This pace will continue, even intensify, over the next few months.”
The key word in the sentence above, it seems to me, is months. When applications start changing on Internet time, something has most definitely changed.
April 1st, 2008
MuleSource CEO: Mule 2.0 will kick enterprise butt
MuleSource has launched a major upgrade of its open source Enterprise Service Bus software that offers a new Eclipse integrated development environment, easier configuration and stronger Spring integration.
Mule 2.0 Community Edition was made available on April 1. The company’s commercial enterprise edition — based on version 2.0 will ship later this year, said CEO and co-founder Dave Rosenberg. 
In an interview at the recent Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco, where MuleSource is based, Rosenberg said there are more than 3,000 commercial deployments of the open source SOA infrastructure software and that Mule 2.0 will enable even more enterprise penetration.
Mule 2.0, officially launched at MuleCon 2008 now being held, offers a new Eclipse-based IDE that gives customer visual drag-and-drop capabilities as well as XML schema and APIs that simplifies the task of configuring Mule. Version 2.0 also provides enhanced integration of the Spring framework for integrating and configuring Java applications, a faster transformation engine and enhanced web services support through support for Apache CXF.
MuleSource counts Alfresco, Hyperic, SugarCRM, MySQL, Ingres and JasperSoft among its technology partners and Nortel, Nokia, CapGemini, Accenture, HSBC Canada, AOL, Walmart.com, EMC, Intel and Reuters among its customers.
He scoffed at the results of one informal OSBC survey, which ranked ESB as among the least likely proprietary technology categories in which open source will cause a major disruption. The market is led by the likes of Sonic, Iona and Cape Clear.
But he doesn’t buy it. “We’re growing exponentially,” Rosenberg said of Mule, which along with Celtix, are the two top open source ESB offerings.
Perhaps even more significantly, MuleSource is getting ready to release in May a new SOA governance tool code-named “Galaxy” that offers a repository for services, an alternative to UDDI and RSS option for the enterprise, he noted.
April 1st, 2008
Ubuntu’s Shuttleworth blames ISO for OOXML’s win
Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth said the approval of Microsoft’s Office Open XML is a “sad” day for ISO and the computing public.
“I think it de-values the confidence people have in the standards setting process,” Shuttleworth said in an interview just hours after the news was leaked. The International Standards Organization (ISO) did not carry out its responsibility, he claimed.
“It’s sad that the ISO was not willing to admit that its process was failing horribly,” he said, noting that Microsoft intensely lobbied many countries that traditionally have not participated in ISO and stacked technical committees with Microsoft employees, solution providers and resellers sympathetic to OOXML. “When you have a process built on trust and when that trust is abused, [ISO] should halt the process.” 
“[ISO] is an engineering old boys club and these things are boring so you have to have a lot of passion … then suddenly you have an investment of a lot of money and lobbying and you get artificial results,” he said about the vote. “The process is not set up to deal with intensive corporate lobbying and so you end up with something being a standard that’s not clear.”
More than 3000 questions about the specification remain unanswered and OOXML is so enormously complex and ambiguous that it can be implemented in a variety of ways, Shuttleworth contends. That negates the very purpose of a standard, he added.
Office Open XML does not belong alongside ISO standards such as HTML, PDF and ODF, Shuttleworth maintains.
“The things that make for a very good standard are clarity and consensus, and the genuine belief that multiple organizations can implement the standard,” he added, noting that much of OOXML is a compilation of old Office “quirks and inconsistencies “ dumped into an XML format that different Microsoft developers implemented differently for different versions of Word and Excel.“They have a tasty dump of all of that declared as a standard,” Shuttleworth claimed.
Like Red Hat and Novell, Ubuntu’s Debian-based Linux desktop distribution uses the open source, OpenDocument Format compliant OpenOffice office suite that competes against Microsoft Office.
Will Ubuntu implement IS DIS 29500 now that it is a standard?
“We’re not going to invest in trying to implement a standard that is poorly defined,” Shuttleworth said, maintaining that the specification can be altered and added to as Redmond wishes – regardless of its rivals’ product cycles.
“If we get close to implementing it, Microsoft would move the goal post,” he projects. “Microsoft doesn’t think it’s bound by the standard.”
I wouldn’t want the job if people told me to implement it as a standard,” he added
The ISO approval gives Microsoft the ability to promote its OOXML products to governments and customers but no guarantee about future changes. “It puts us into a situation where we have multiple standards for document formats and no clear guidance as to how standards will evolve,” he said.
Microsoft’s argument that the standard is complex because the software is complex is hogwash, Shuttleworth also maintains, because more complex software – such as e-mail and the web– have simple and clear standards all developers can implement: IMAP and HTML.
“Rendering web pagea is rich, very detailed with fonts and different layouts and support for different devices. It’s an amazingly rich content format but we have a standard to drive it that is clean and clear by comparison with Office Open XML,” he added.
In the end though, the same kind of lobbying and politicking that doomed Massachusetts’ effort to establish OpenDocument Format as a standard also tanked the global effort to unite behind ODF, Shuttleworth claimed.
“All the work was done behind closed doors instead of in a public forum,” Shuttleworth lamented. “All of that is very unfortunate and doesn’t actually move the technology or industry ahead. We’ve always had Microsoft with private file formats.”
Shuttleworth does not believe, however, that the ISO win will slow Linux’s advance on the desktop and maintains that OpenOffice suites and ODF applications will gain steam. “It’s always been an uphill battle to use anything that’s not Microsoft Office,” he said. “The battle will be won on the merit. “
April 1st, 2008
Microsoft wasting no time rejoicing in its OOXML win
Like it or not, Microsoft’s OOXML – now known as IS 29500 — has received the proper number of votes to become an ISO standard.
And the Redmond, Washington company is wasting no time rejoicing the turnaround win.
In his blog today, Jason Matusow, a key Microsoft executive responsible for OOXML, pre-announced that ISO will publish a statement stating that DIS 29500 has become IS 29500 and that Microsoft is committing to implementing IS 29500 in its next version of Microsoft Office.
Microsoft corporate also issued an official statement about Office Open XML “appearing” to win approval as an ISO standard. OOXML lost in the first voting round last September.
“After more than 14 months of intensive review, a Joint Technical Committee of the International Standardization Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has concluded its formal process to evaluate Ecma International’s submission of the Draft International Standard (DIS) 29500: Office Open XML (Open XML),” the statement said.
“While the final vote has not yet been announced formally, publicly available information appears to indicate the proposed Open XML standard received extremely broad support,” Microsoft announced.
Microsoft, citing documents available on the Internet, said that 86 percent of all voting national body members support OOXML’s ISO/IEC standardization (above the 75 percent requirements) and that the participating national body members support standardization, also well above the 66.7 percent requirement for this group,” the Microsoft statement said. “Open XML now joins HTML, PDF and ODF as ISO- and IEC-recognized open document format standards.”
Microsoft noted that many ISVs and platform vendors including Apple, Corel, Sun, Novell have developed solutions that use Office Open XML and it is supported in Linux, Windows, Mac OS and the Palm OS.
According to anti-OOXML organization, 75 percent of the participating members approved OOXML while 14 percent voted it down. To win, Microsoft needed at least 66 percent in favor.
Groklaw had little to say on the matter this morning, but posted a report alleging that France had changed its No vote to Abstain because HP helped Microsoft France lobby hard on OOXML’s behalf.
Matusow railed a bit on anti-OOXML forces that have demonized Microsoft’s attempt to win ISO approval for an XML-based document format, saying that the format is the cumulative work of many people from many countries and will integrate changes the ISO committee requested after its meeting in Geneva earlier this year.
“The FUD-throwers will paint a picture of Microsoft taking unilateral action and thus this result. Anyone saying that is either purposely obfuscating the truth or spectacularly ignorant,” Matusow said.
“Microsoft has committed to implementing IS 29500 in its next version of MS Office, and we will document that implementation in accordance with the interoperability principles we announced earlier this year,” he wrote.
“Lobbying” was thrown about in an accusatory manner by both sides, but the pejorative hides what are some truly critical issues. Frankly, I welcome the fact that OSS advocates, private industry, NGOs, academics, and even other government agencies reached out to each other to discuss these issues. The invective that often accompanied some of these activities was unfortunate – but the end result was an overall, relatively deep discussion.”
April 1st, 2008
Microsoft claims victory in ISO struggle over OOXML
Microsoft today sent out a press statement claiming victory for Office Open XML, the Microsoft Office file format it has been trying to make an international standard through the International Standards Organization (ISO).
The e-mail reads in part:
While the final vote has not yet been announced formally, publicly available information shows overwhelming support for Open XML. According
to documents available on the Internet, 86% of all national body members support ISO/IEC standardization, well above the 75% requirement for
formal acceptance under ISO and IEC rules. In addition, 75% of the Participating national body members (known as P-members) support standardization, also well above the required 66.67% requirement for this group.Open XML, IS29500, now joins HTML, PDF and ODF as ISO- and IEC-recognized open document format standards.
That last is important. PDF is a format which is proprietary to Adobe Corp. Microsoft is essentially saying the two decisions are identical.
But they are not, not politically. In order to win ratification for OOXML, Microsoft esssentially corrupted the ISO standards process.
This is worse than the alleged stretching of the Constitution done by the current Administration. Constitutions can be changed, or changed back. Once a standard is ratified, it’s ratified for all time.
And once a method for corruption has been shown to work, it will be used again, by people whose motives are less pure.
My problem here is not with Microsoft. I know for certain that Steve Ballmer is a great and good man. But history shows once a way to power is shown by the good, it will be followed by the bad.
If a Chinese or a Russian or a Brazilian business seeks to impose a royalty-bearing, proprietary standard on users in the future, what can the U.S. say in response?
Nothing.
April 1st, 2008
Mozilla wishes itself a happy 10th birthday
Mozilla turned 10 yesterday. (Illustration from Dave Titus’ t-shirt collection.)
The open source successor to the Netscape browser is now the world’s largest open source project.
Foundation chair Mitchell Baker threw herself a little blog party to celebrate, offering a state of Mozilla post which drew 250 responses at last count. (Our present — she’s now on our blogroll to the right.)
The chief take-away is that the Mozilla Foundation wants to broaden its mandate, from just an open source project to an advocate for users who wish to manage their own Internet experience.
She writes:
The Internet is now interwoven into modern life, and it will certainly grow to be more powerful. There’s no guarantee that it will remain open or enjoyable or safe. There’s no guarantee that individuals will be able to participate in creating or (for the general non-technical consumer) effectively managing their experience. There’s no guarantee that there is an effective voice for individuals benefiting from the increased power of the Internet.
Mozilla can and should fulfill this role. But not as a guarantor. Mozilla is an opportunity for people to make this vision happen. Mozilla is about opportunity and participation. Mozilla is people getting involved, “doing” things, creating the Internet experience we want to live with.
Short version: code shall make you free.
Baker’s view is that Mozilla can assure that the Web remains open, not just in the desktop but in mobile environments. She also sees the project as a new form of global organization, “where local involvement around the globe has increasing project-wide influence.”
It’s an optimistic, even idealistic vision. I like to think of spring as a time when such views are especially welcome. Play ball, y’all.
April 1st, 2008
Gartner report forecasts bad news, good news for open source
The Gartner Group has released a preview of a forthcoming report, The State Of Open Source 2008, that contains both good news and bad news for open source. The report is expected to be released next month.
First, the bad news:
1. “By 2013, a majority of Linux deployments will have no real software total cost of ownership (TCO) advantage over other operating systems. “
Here’s key excerpt from the report that explains that rationale:
“The costs to implement high-performance, mission-critical infrastructure around the OS will create counterbalancing
costs to the savings in the subscription support costs on commodity hardware and associated open-source software.
For example, much of the availability, management and DBMS licensing costs will remain proprietary, licensed software,”
the report states. “In addition, IT architects will confront the same issues of workload management, service levels,
premium support, test and certification that characterize other OS environments. Moreover, version control and incompatibilities
will continue to plague open-source OSs and associated middleware.”
2. “By 2012, software as a service (SaaS) will eclipse open source as the preferred IT cost-cutting method.”
“To an enterprise, embracing software as a service (SaaS) amounts to embracing services in place of software.
Both open source and SaaS are priced by subscription and operate on low profit margins,” the forecast claims.
“Both are an answer to reducing enterprise costs of IT, but the SaaS proposition additionally reduces the requirements
for IT technical skills, while open source tends to increase this requirement.”
Now, the good news:
3. “By 2012, more than 90% of enterprises will use open source in direct or embedded forms,” the report states.
“Most successful vendors will find ways to leverage open source in technical synergy — focusing
their core engineering efforts on true value-added features and functionality above the
commoditized layer of open-source software,” the report states. “These vendors will integrate with open-source
solutions, embed open-source technology as a foundational building block and compete directly
with open source only as a last resort.”
4. “By 2011, open source will dominate software infrastructure for cloud-based providers, according to another of the report’s predictions.
“Only by radically reducing their infrastructure costs can cloud-
based providers offer the pricing models (based on radically lower profit margins) necessary to
disrupt the incumbent packaged software.”
March 31st, 2008
If the birthmark fits, Microsoft will wear it
When Jason Perlow reported on last week’s Microsoft Technology Summit, he sought to compliment the company by giving CEO Steve Ballmer a Gorbachev-like birthmark (right).
But Gorbachev was a Communist. He wasn’t elected. He was the product of a dictatorial society which was rotting from the inside, and his final achievement was to preside over its dissolution.
But if the birthmark fits…
As we approach Wednesday’s announcement on the ISO decision concerning Office Open XML, the format for Microsoft Word, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that the process has been, well, Gorbachevian.
Peter Judge writes that at the recent meeting in Geneva, 17 of the 120 delegates met to judge Microsoft’s standards application were Microsoft employees, while others were employed by Microsoft affiliates.
Rather than actually dealing with 81 final questions about the standard, they were given a “batch approval,” which Brazilian delegate Jomar Silva called “the least ridiculous” way to proceed.
This would be funny if the implications were not so serious. Once this proprietary format is approved as an international standard, the bell can’t be unwrung. And once this Sovietized process succeeds in creating such a standard, a precedent is set.
It has to be said. This may not be the end of an era, but the beginning of one.
When Lenin’s faction was consolidating its power within the early Communist party, he gave it the name Bolshevik, from the Russian meaning greater.
His was, at the time, a minority view, but eventually his opponents accepted the name Menshevik, meaning less, and they were eventually crushed by the revolution.
What Microsoft seems to have achieved before the ISO is nothing less than a Bolshevik revolution, overthrowing what was supposed to be a judicial process, replacing it with a dictatorship of the Ballmertariat.
In the end, the picture with Perlow’s piece was wrong. The baldness is right. But instead of a birthmark, perhaps a beard and a mustache would have been more appropriate.
This was not the end of something, it was the beginning of something. Something far more dangerous to international trade and industry than a software standard.
The standards system has itself been overthrown, replaced by international governanace of the strong man. Fine if he’s our strong man, but what happens when he isn’t?
How I wish this were an April Fool’s joke.
March 31st, 2008
Still no word: ISO to announce results of OOXML vote Wednesday
The International Standards Organization won’t make an official announcement about whether Office Open XML (OOXML) will be a standard until Wednesday — and perhaps for good reason.
Final voting and reporting on the proposal was expected Monday but the ISO said it decided to hold off on an announcement until April 2 “because ISO needs first to inform its worldwide membership of national standards bodies of these results, ” according to a statement issued by ISO spokesman Roger Frost today.
Microsoft gained Yes votes from Finland, South Korea, Norway, Denmark and Ireland but it’s not a done deal yet.
Norway voted “Yes” on OOXML but on Monday the chairman of the Norwegian technical committee responsible for evaluating OOXML cited irregularities in voting and that Norway’s vote should be “No.”
Microsoft, for its part, offered no comment on the results of the vote but issued a statement which alluded to its painful, two-year battle to make OOXML an ISO standard (like the rival OpenDocument Format backed by IBM and Sun) as a “remarkable process.”
“We respect ISO’s desire to first inform its National Body members and all the people who have worked so hard during this process. This has been a remarkable process, involving literally thousands of technical experts, technology consumers, and governments in 87 countries, whose input has helped to improve Ecma’s submitted Open XML standard,” according to the statement, issued after the ISO indicated it would hold off on the announcement until Wednesday. “Out of respect for the standards process, we will not comment before the final results are known.”
One spokeswoman for the company would only say she was “excited to hear the outcome this morning - major disappointment that it won’t be until Wednesday. From what we’ve heard, it’s really close.”
Tempers flared online over a Grokaw report on Saturday about alleged “voting irregularities” in Germany and Croatia and requests for an official investigation into Norway’s changed vote.
Germany, for its part, disputes that claim. The Deutsche Institute for Norming insisted that there were no irregularities in voting and no changed to the Yes vote it previously entered for OOXML.
March 31st, 2008
Novell insists it’s winning the Linux wars
In the third of a series of interviews by Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin, Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian (right) insisted his company is not being hurt by its association with Microsoft.
“Novell grew 200% in the SUSE Linux marketplace year-over-year from an invoicing perspective,” he said. The overall market is growing at 22% according to IDC,” and “we’re taking some market share from our competitors.
“The key to that success has been better Windows co-existance, he insisted. “The realities of a customer’s world is that they’re going to live with both for a long time in our lifetime,” and the Microsoft relationship helps with that.
Hovsepian said Novell has “doubled down” on Mono, the .Net implementation led by Miguel de Icaza which today was renamed Duo in (of all places) Madagascar.
March 31st, 2008
Adobe joins Linux Foundation
The question asked by Bruce Perens’ attempt to re-join the OSI board might also be asked about the Linux Foundation, with news that Adobe is joining it, ostensibly to work on Web 2.0 applications
Is this becoming a vendors’ club?
On the surface the question of whether the Linux Foundation is dominated by vendors may be less important than whether the OSI is dominated by them. But I would argue it’s more important.
Linux is not just a code base. It’s the collective effort of many people, not all of whom work for software vendors, and not all of whom have proprietary advantage in mind.
There are many questions before the Linux community where the very idea of proprietary advantage would destroy the ecosystem — software patents for instance.
If the assumptions of the proprietary world are grafted onto Linux and open source organizations, will users and non-profit coders retain their voice?
We may get an insight into those questions very soon, as Adobe has already signed to be part of the Linux Foundation’s Collaboration Summit, April 8-10 in Austin.
The agenda for that meeting, which was just finalized last week, features keynotes from executives at MySQL and Red Hat, as well as briefings on the kernel and many market sub-sets, and there are no Adobe speakers on the program.
But the drift toward vendor interest may simply be natural, as most of the first day’s panels will be dominated by vendors, and most will likely stick around for the second day’s workgroup sessions, where the real work will be done.
As with all things, what comes out will tell us more than what we see going in.
How concerned should we be about the trend of vendor interest in Linux, and is there anything that can be done to stop it?
Loading …March 31st, 2008
Microsoft’s OOXML gets ISO approval … maybe
Looks like Microsoft’s Office Open XML will be an ISO standard after all. Maybe.
Pundits – even OOXML rivals –predicted on Sunday that the Redmond, Wash. software giant has amassed the required number of votes to pull it over the goal line. Of course, a final vote will not be tallied until Monday … so hold on.
According to Consortium.org, Microsoft got a boost from Norway, Ireland, Czech Republic, Denmark and South Korea, which changed their respective ‘No’ votes to ‘Yes’ votes for Office Open XML, while Finland, which abstained from the last vote, gave OOXML the thumbs up.
Andy Updegrove of Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a technology law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, has compiled the vote count and deemed that OOXML will get ISO approval.
In ODF’s favor, Venezuela changed its vote from “Yes” to “No” while Kenya, which formerly approved of OOXML becoming an ISO standard, opted to abstain.
ODF was approved as an ISO standard on May 1, 2006.
Microsoft began its battle to get ISO approval in early December of 2006. On December 7 of that year, ECMA International approved Office Open XML Formats as an Ecma standard and voted to submit the new standard to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for consideration as an ISO standard.
Although many argued that there ought to be just one document format standard, Microsoft has lobbied the national standards bodies in at least 87 countries for two long years to accept OOXML as an ISO standard. Microsoft maintains that Office dominates on the desktop worldwide and that OOXML is a de facto standard anyway. Microsoft also made some requested changes as of late to the spec that got a few no votes into yes votes.
Whatever the case, big bucks are at stake. An ISO approval would make Microsoft’s Office an acceptable choice among many governments around the world. It will also make it harder for open source desktops, such as ODF, to gain market share.
It’s 4 a.m. EST Monday and still no word from ISO or from Microsoft’s European PR team. I found one Microsoft Office blogger rejoicing — but he’d only read the same reports that are linked here. It should be an interesting day. According to some reports that came in over the weekend, voting irregularities have occurred in Croatia and Germany and ODF backers are calling for a re-vote.
What a drama. The early polling looks good for Microsoft, but don’t hold me to it. Remember the major media outlets prematurely calling Al Gore’s win over GW in 2000? And pundits prematurely announcing McCain’s political death last year?
Some things are just too close to call.
March 30th, 2008
LiMO debuts first mobile Linux platform amid steep competition
The LiMo Foundation is set to announce at CTIA its first Linux reference platform for cell phone carriers and handset manufacturers.
As announced in January, and promised for delivery in March, the foundation will offer up at CTIA its first stab at a standard mobile Linux platform: LiMo Platform Release 1.
It won’t be easy. The platform is far behind entrenched operating systems including Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone and will face off against Google’s “Android” open source operating system being developed by the Open Handset Alliance.
Still, its a step in the right direction and will likely please this class of OEMs — which traditionally have sought out more customizable Linux operating systems but suffered under the weight of having too many separate distributions. By having a single core, and eliminating that fragmentation, manufacturers can get the best of both worlds: a standard Linux mobile core and the ability to customize and design their own user interfaces and functions.
Of course, there are other organizations and companies trying to create standard mobile Linux distributions, ranging from the LiPS Forum, Gnome Mobile & Embedded, the Moblin.org Mobile and Internet Linux project, to Ubuntu Mobile. Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has been pushing for the need for a standard mobile Linux everyone can rally around — his own Ubuntu mobile, of course.
It may be a long shot, but don’t count LiMo out just yet. For one, LiMo has some heavy hitters behind it. Nokia has joined (by acquiring TrollTech) and LG Electronics, Motorola, NEC, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung have released LiMo headsets.
March 30th, 2008
Adobe brings AIR RIA tool to Linux
It’s nice to see Adobe becoming more Linux friendly than ever.
As Novell’s Mono project works on a port of Microsoft’s Silverlight to Linux, Adobe announced that it has made available (in English only) the pre-release alpha version of AIR (Adobe Integrated Run-Time) for Linux on Adobe Labs today. The finished product — AIR for Linux — is expected to ship later this year and will include multipe language support.
AIR is a run-time that allows developers to use familiar web technologies including HTML, Ajax, Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex to build rich Internet applications (RIA) on the Linux desktop without writing additional platform code. AIR currently supports Windows and Macintosh only.
Also on Monday, Adobe announced an update to its pre-release alpha version of Adobe Flex Builder 3 for Linux on its Adobe labs web site.
Adobe maintains that the recent release of Flash Player 9 with Linux support and its forthcoming Flex Builder 3 for Linux and AIR for Linux demonstrated a new openness to the open source operating system and opne source in general. To that end, Adobe announced that it is joining the Linux Foundation.
Paula Rooney is a Boston-based writer who has followed the tech industry for almost two decades. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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