Another One Bites the (GNU GPL) Dust

Univention is not a company I'd heard of before; apparently,

Univention GmbH offers a range of Linux-based products and services. Our core competencies are integration of Linux and Windows (on the server and on the client side), directory services, Linux on the desktop, and thin-client technology.

And now it has decided to take its product open source, using the GNU GPL. Heise Online has a better explanation of what is going on:

Both the installation program and, more importantly, the LDAP-based UCS management system are affected; the latter makes it easy to install Linux systems even in far-reaching environments, providing management down to identity and infrastructure. It offers defined interfaces and has, among other things, connectors for an Active Directory, which enables smooth integration in Windows networks.

The Heise report also has this interesting nugget:

The firm stated that this step was only taken after all of its key customers had been consulted. The customers are still willing to pay for the professional maintenance of the code -- for reasons of product liability among other things -- and for support.

My Bardolatry Out in the Open

I'm not really sure what this Open Shakespeare project is trying to achieve that hasn't already been done. No matter: if it's the Bard, put me down for half a dozen.

On second thoughts, scrub that. Since it's meant to be a triumphant demonstration of the virtues of openness as well as whatever else it is, you'd better put me down for a couple of dozen - just to be on the safe side: you just can't have too much of this stuff.

The Dark Side of Eclipse

Eclipse has finished last as far as quality of features are concerned in a survey of developers conducted by Evans Data Corp, and reported by The Register. Looks like there's some work to do here, chaps.

Are Coders Beginning to Get the Message?

The Reg has a good summary of the European Commission's initial findings from its public consultation on Europe's patent system. For me, the most interesting statistic to emerge is that 24% of those who replied came from the open source and software developers community. This says to me that people there are beginning to get the message that they must become involved if they want to change things. Maybe there's hope after all.

Blake Ross On Microsoft's Great Culpability

There's a fine interview with Blake Ross, one of the prime movers behind Firefox, from Seattle PI. Mostly it's just sensible stuff - which augurs well for Ross's start-up, whatever it is - but it contains one insight about the consequences of Microsoft's persistent non-development of Internet Explorer that bears quoting:

The truth is I think Microsoft is very directly responsible for spyware and adware and the pop-up ads in general that proliferated across the Web after they abandoned their product. I mean, this is the world's most-used software application ever ... and I just think it's irresponsible for a company to abandon it simply because they can't find a financial incentive to continue development on it.

(Via Slashdot.)

A Phlock of Photobuckets

The Flock browser is an interesting idea - a re-imagining of the Firefox engine for a Web 2.0 world. Of course, if you don't like that world, you won't like Flock, since it lives and breathes blogs and photo-sharing. It's the latter fact that makes it particularly suitable for customisations, such as this one from Photobucket (but shouldn't they have re-named it Phlock?).

I have never used Photobucket (I believe it's one of those young people's sites), but I'm glad to see Flock getting some deals. Innovation is always welcome, and it would be good to see Flock establish itself as an alternative to the vanilla Firefox. (Via TechCrunch.)

Wine is Not the Only Fruit

Many people have heared about Wine - which describes itself as follows:

Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X and Unix.

Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available.

Less well-known, though is FreeDOS, which does something similar for MS-DOS. This project has been going for ages (there's a good history here), and now it seems almost done. Quite whether the world needs an MS-DOS clone is another matter, but it's good to see it reaching fruition.

Fine Microsoft? Fine: But It's Pointless

According to The New York Times, the EU is about to thump Microsoft to the tune of a couple of million a day. I say: quite right, too. As I've written before, Microsoft just keeps playing the same old games of delay, dilatoriness and deceit. It deserves a severe corporate smacking.

But I have to add: fining Microsoft at this level will not make one jot of difference - it can't even feel a million dollars. Make it a billion a day, and maybe then it will notice.

As a result, it will not change its behaviour - which consists of taking the regulation game to the wire - nor will it change the marketplace. The only thing that will do that is if the EU - and other governments - back open source seriously to provide a counter-balance to Microsoft's otherwise unbridled power.

Plugging Away at ODF Plug-ins

According to this article, there are plenty of people beavering away on plug-ins for Microsoft Office to allow users to open and save files in the ODF format. But the interesting bit is this comment from Gary Edwards, one of the top people in the ODF world:

other developers, such as Gary Edwards, head of the OpenDocument Foundation, said he demonstrated his plug-ins to officials last week.

"They've been incredibly systematic, throwing hard stuff at us," he said, noting that his plug-in enables Microsoft Office to open a 16,000-row spreadsheet saved in the ODF format in 31 seconds. Opening the spreadsheet in Excel takes 43 seconds, he said.

Despite Microsoft's concerns that the rise of ODF could prove problematic for Office in the marketplace, Edwards said Microsoft was very helpful with his development efforts. Microsoft has "the best third-party developer model," he said. "They gave us what we needed, and it works beautifully."

Hm: I wonder what Microsoft are up to here? Could it be that they are resigned to ODF compatibility becoming a common requirement, and therefore accept the need to support it?

My Old Dutch

From the fine people that brought us Rembrandt van Rijn and Joost van den Vondel, now some sensible thoughts on the iniquitous EU directive proposing the criminalisation of all violations of intellectual monopolies - copyright, patents, trademarks, the lot. As the article linked to explains, this would entail an expansion of police activities in this area and a major shift of power towards big business.

Of Blogs and Bears

Things are getting seriously dotcom dotty in the world of blogs, with silly money flowing rather too easily into blogs whose long-term potential is not clear. Good, then, to see that arch-cynic Nick "Old Nick" Denton take the opportunity to play the contrarian, cutting staff and putting some blogs up for sale.

Tuning in to the University Channel

Open courseware is an exciting application of openness in the educational context, that is about distributing courseware. The University Channel is an extension of this, in that it provides a selection of video and audio recordings of lectures that are freely available under a CC licence. (Via Creative Commons blog.)

NeoOffice Lets Mac Users Choose the Red Pill

One of the great strengths of open source is its ability to offer cross-platform solutions. As a result, users can switch between Windows and GNU/Linux, or Macintosh and GNU/Linux (as seems to be happening increasingly).

This makes NeoOffice, a port of OpenOffice.org to the Macintosh platform, a key part of the free office suite's strength and appeal. It's good, then, to see NeoOffice 2.0 on its way. (Via LXer and MacDailyNews.)

Carnival of the Bioinformaticians

A little while back I wrote about the blog-form of carnivals. At the time, Pedro Beltrão said he was about to start a new one, devoted to bioinformatics, and here it is, Bio::Blogs, with its very own Web sit. I really must write something for the next one.

The Economics of Security

In his lastest Wired column, Bruce S. is writing about a subject particularly dear to my heart: the economics of security. He was lucky enough to go up to the fifth Workshop on the Economics of Information Security at Cambridge: I had hoped to go, but a sudden influx of work prevented me.

My own interest in this area was sparked by a talk that Ross Anderson, now a professor at Cambridge, gave down in London. I vaguely knew Ross at university, when both of us had rather more hair than we do now. Since this was 30 years ago, it's not suprising that he didn't remember me when I introduced myself at the London talk, pointing out that the last time I had seen him was in Whewell's Court: he stared at me as if I was completely bonkers. Ah well.

Schneier gives a good summary of what this whole area is about, and why it is so important:

We generally think of computer security as a problem of technology, but often systems fail because of misplaced economic incentives: The people who could protect a system are not the ones who suffer the costs of failure.

When you start looking, economic considerations are everywhere in computer security. Hospitals' medical-records systems provide comprehensive billing-management features for the administrators who specify them, but are not so good at protecting patients' privacy. Automated teller machines suffered from fraud in countries like the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, where poor regulation left banks without sufficient incentive to secure their systems, and allowed them to pass the cost of fraud along to their customers. And one reason the internet is insecure is that liability for attacks is so diffuse.

Read the whole column, and then, if you are feeling strong, try Ross's seminal essay on the subject: "Why Information Security Is Hard -- An Economic Perspective".

Will RFID Go Phut?

Many people have expressed concerns about the privacy implications of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. But until now, RFID proponents have tended to ignore these issues, claiming that benefits outweigh the risks. However, now that the US Government seems to be worried too, the RFID community may find selling those benefits rather harder. (Via Openspectrum.info.)

Eclipse Advances by Backing Up

Eclipse began life as a Java development platform at IBM that was meant to, er, eclipse Sun's NetBeans tools. Today, it is turning into a kind of total development environment for everything. The latest proof of this is Aperi, an open source project for managing storage devices and the networks on which they reside.

Update: The Reg has some good detailed analysis here.

The Monster Arrives

Bruce - the other Bruce - says: "We've warned you for a decade". More precisely:

Now the monster has finally arrived: attacks against Open Source developers by patent holders, big and small. One is a lawsuit against Red Hat for the use of the principle of Object Relational Mapping used in Hibernate, a popular component of enterprise Java applications everywhere. The other attack is on an individual Open Source developer for his model railroad software.

Bruce has been known to annoy people both within and without the open source community, but there's no doubting his credentials. Read the rest of his article for the full details of what's happening and what the larger threats are.

Haugland on ODF and Tube Tops

With postings like this, how can Microsoft Office ever hope to prevail?

SCOing, SCOing, SCOne

IANAL, but it seems to me that this judgement, lovingly typed in by Pamela Jones at Groklaw, is a pretty serious blow to SCO's case against IBM. And it wasn't looking very healthy before.

The real killer seems to me to be the following passage, brilliant and witty at the same time:

SCO’s arguments are akin to SCO telling IBM sorry we are not going to tell you what you did wrong because you already know. SCO received substantial code from IBM pursuant to the court’s orders as mentioned supra. Further, SCO brought this action against IBM and under the Federal Rules, and the court’s orders, SCO was required to disclose in detail what it feels IBM misappropriated. Given the amount of code that SCO has received in discovery the court finds it inexcusable that SCO is in essence still not placing all the details on the table. Certainly if an individual was stopped and accused of shoplifting after walking out of Neiman Marcus they would expect to be eventually told what they allegedly stole. It would be absurd for an officer to tell the accused that “you know what you stole I’m not telling.” Or, to simply hand the accused individual a catalog of Neiman Marcus’ entire inventory and say “its in there somewhere, you figure it out.”

Hard to believe that people were seriously talking about the SCO lawsuit as the end of Openness As We Know It.

UK Gets Open Access Brownie Points

Stevan Harnad, the OA Archivangelist himself, has given the UK a Bravo! for the Research Council UK's decision to let individual funding councils decide for themselves whether or not to mandate OA self-archiving. As he says:

Although we had rather hoped for a more concerted consensus from Research Councils UK (RCUK), nevertheless, with three out of the eight councils mandating Open Access Self-Archiving, one strongly encouraging it, and four not yet decided, that is still enough to restore the UK's commanding lead in worldwide OA Policy today.

(Via Open Access News.)

Pootling Away

As I've pointed out before, one of free software's great strengths is that it can serve smaller markets that proprietary systems can't be bothered with. So it's good to find that there is some free software specifically designed to help with the process of translating the wordy bits of programs into new languages.

The overall project is known by the dull moniker of translate.sourceforge.net, but is redeemed by the splendidly-named Pootle portal to facilitate the process. More about Pootle and related projects at Wordforge can be found here.

LiMux Läuft

The City of Munich's decision to migrate to free software was one of the banner victories of the open source world. For this reason, a lot of people - no names, no packdrill, Steve - have a vested interest in seeing it fail, preferably dramatically.

And certainly, things have not gone entirely smoothly for the LiMux project: for example, there was the business about European software patents that slowed things down. But things are still moving: as the deputy Lady Mayor of Munich put it: "LiMux läuft" - LiMux is running (in all senses).

Now, there's more sniping, this time in the Senate administration of Berlin (a little inter-city rivalry, or something more?). Anyway, Munich is resolute in its defence of the project, and Heise Online has a good summary of the current state of play there.

Checking Out Google Checkout

I've not used Google Checkout, launched today, in anger yet, but I've no reason to think that it won't do what it says on the tin. There are, however, a couple of things that strike me.

The first is pretty obvious: by adding this facility to let signed-up Googlers - people who probably already use Gmail and Google a lot - pay by using this system, the company is going to know even more about what you are doing, potentially at least.

Even if the company never joins the dots together, we've already seen that the US Government wants to get its mitts on all that yummy data for its own nefarious purposes. Similarly, lawyers are bound to try to gain access to all kinds of incriminating evidence this cross-linked data will provide.

Secondly, and less obviously, perhaps, is he fact that Google is entering even further into Microsoft territory here. As the press release puts it:

Google Checkout helps merchants streamline the checkout process and also works with Google's advertising program, AdWords, so merchants can attract more customers and increase sales. The Google Checkout icon on AdWords advertisements makes it easier for shoppers to find Google Checkout stores when they search. Once shoppers buy with Google Checkout, AdWords advertisers can also process all or a portion of their sales for free. For every $1 merchants spend on AdWords, they can process $10 in sales through Google Checkout at no charge.

In other words, Google is using the power that it has gained through the success of AdWords to help cross-promote the acceptance of Google Checkout. When Microsoft does this kind of thing, the world squawks: perhaps it's time to do the same with Google.

Update: Om Malik has some interesting thoughts on what this all means.

Use, Re-use and Abuse

A PLoS blog post provides some examples of the Creative Commons' Attribution Licence being used in anger. The idea here, of course, is that you are free to re-use material licensed in this way - if you give proper attribution. The blog lists a few examples of saints who do - and one sinner who doesn't.

Naming and shaming is an important way to police this kind of (ab)use, and should be a routine part of the way the Attribution Licence is used.