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In recent announcements both Red Hat and Novell made it pretty clear that their foray onto the desktop would be delayed quite a bit longer. What they do not know is that they just left the door wide open for Ubuntu to conquer the desktop and the server space.
Well, we know now where both Red Hat and Novell stand as far as desktop Linux is concerned. Novell feels that it will be five more years before the desktop is a viable space for Linux. And Red Hat just doesn't seem to find any relevance in the desktop at this time. Now it's not that these two technology companies can't make decisions that they feel are in keeping with their mission or core business objectives; it's the cold hard fact that their absence from any active desktop initiative will spell problems down the road. Like him or not, Mark Shuttleworth is one shrewd businessman. Of course, you do not sell your company for $500 million and not have at least a modicum of business savvy. Over the last few years Shuttleworth has been incrementally putting the pieces of a global infrastructure/empire in place. The developers, the support services, and the whole Ubuntu ecosystem. With every release Shuttleworth eliminates barrier after barrier to Linux on the desktop. The excuses of “no driver support” or “hard-to-configure X server” are things of the past. Even restricted drivers are a click away. While Novell and Red Hat seem content, at the moment, to remain in the enterprise space, Canonical is “attacking” both desktop and server niches and this could spell trouble—big trouble—for Red Hat and Novell down the road. Here's why. The time is ripe for a Linux distribution to come to the fore and champion Linux on the desktop. I think we all can agree that, like it or not, Ubuntu has assumed this role. Now, as Ubuntu gets to be more popular on the desktop, a standard will emerge using Ubuntu as a metric. We already see other vendors such as Dell offering Ubuntu on the desktop. Add to this a server push that is scheduled to begin next month and you have a potential one-two combination that is hard to beat. By becoming a de facto standard on the desktop, Ubuntu can assert its role as a server OS much more easily. After all, it only makes sense that you use a desktop/server combo from the same company for best performance, right? And with Canonical recently announcing that major vendors such as HP, Dell, Sun, and IBM certifying their hardware to run Ubuntu server, it's easy to see how Canonical could easily offer end-to-end solutions with the developer and support infrastructure to back it up. By remaining on the sidelines where the desktop is concerned, Red Hat and Novell may have just passed up an opportunity of a lifetime. And by the time they realize what they've done, it may be too late. Ubuntu will have become entrenched as an end-to-end solution in every sector of industry. It should be interesting as the whole scenario plays out, but if I were a betting man, I would be looking hard at Canonical and putting my chips on their end of the table. Original link: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/... From the 'you gotta read the fine print' files:
I track Ubuntu development reasonably closely, which is why I was surprised to see a release this AM titled," Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition Released." After all, according to the publicly available info I had on Friday, the release was set for an April 24th release. Perhaps I was mistaken? Nope, that not the case. Ubuntu in my honest opinion has just put up a slightly misleading headline for its press release. After you get pulled in by the headline -- (with the 'released' in it) - if you actually read the very first sentence of the release it states: LONDON, April 21, 2008 Canonical Ltd. announced the upcoming availability of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition for free download on Thursday 24 April. In related news, Canonical also announced the simultaneous release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition. Aha! So it is a Thursday release! So if you see the press release (or some unfortunate mis-informed press story on it) and think that you can get the full GA version of Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 today...cool your heels for a few days until Thursday. There is however a release candidate that you can get today, but with a full version out in a few days, it's likely a smarter move just to wait. Certainly Ubuntu isn't the only software vendor to pre-announce availability of software. However to state in a headline that something is released - when it's not - is not something that I think is a good thing. Original link: http://blog.internetnews.com/ske... Apr 22nd, 11:33 UTC
Rack-Soft launched today the latest version of the backup solution for Parallels Plesk servers. April 22, 2008 - Rack-Soft launched today the latest version of the backup solution for Parallels Plesk. 4PSA Total Backup 2 is a Parallels Plesk add-on that automates the server backup processes and maximizes hosting server availability. This release of the popular 4PSA backup solution comes with new features and design enhancements oriented to improve usability, flexibility, and server performance during the backup job. 4PSA Total Backup handles the entire backup lifecycle: backup, storage, alerting, restore. The software is also able to encrypt backups, a very important feature targeted to customers that save backups on third party infrastructures. To minimize transfer times and backup overhead, 4PSA Total Backup saves only differences occurred from the last backup. Enhancements introduced by the new version include improved backup cycle storage that allows keeping locally and remotely multiple backup cycles, selective restore, the possibility to cap archives storage bandwidth, and compressed file transfers. "Hosting providers have quite special backup and disaster recovery requirements. The backup operation should not affect production services, should optimize disk space, minimize bandwidth consumption, and guarantee information security. 4PSA Total Backup has been available for almost five years, saving thousands of Plesk server administrators from disaster. In the new version we simply incorporate the experience accumulated during these years", said Bogdan Carstoiu, Rack-Soft's General Manager. 4PSA Total Backup 2 is a Unix/Linux software add-on for Parallels Plesk, the industry leading hosting control panel. Licensing prices start from 69 USD and include 12 months of maintenance and technical support. About Rack-Soft Rack-Soft is a specialized developer and integrator of server and Data Center software that supports major operating systems and platforms. The company delivers solutions that help service providers and enterprises control their infrastructure, automate processes, and improve communications. The company's explosive success is based on excellence, innovation, and customer oriented processes. The core of Rack-Soft's business philosophy is based on an ISO 9001 certified quality management system certified by TUV CERT. Original link: http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/... Zenoss Closes Record Quarter with Over 100 Enterprise Customers, Opens New Development Center in Austin Texas Apr 22nd, 11:31 UTC
Open Source Vendor Establishes Presence in Systems Management Hotbed Austin,TX & Annapolis,MD - April 21, 2008 -- Zenoss Inc., a leading provider of open source network and systems management software, propelled by explosive customer growth has expanded their operations to Austin, Texas through the addition of a new software development center. The Austin development team collectively comprises over fifty years of experience bringing enterprise-class systems management software to market. The Zenoss Austin office will be located in the same building where management software innovator Tivoli was started and since acquired by IBM. Austin was chosen for its wealth of talent and access to expertise in a market segment estimated by Gartner Research to grow to $18.1 billion dollars by 2012. "Over the years Austin has built up an IT management talent pool that's showing its muscle once again as evidenced by Zenoss' new Austin office and Solarwinds' filing for an IPO," noted Austin-based IT analyst Michael Coté of RedMonk. "The developers, architects, management, and marketers here have spent years building up the skills required to grow and maintain IT management companies. Because IT management solutions address unique and challenging problems for the companies that use them, it can be difficult to find personnel with the specialized skills to develop, scale and support them. Luckily, Austin has managed to hold onto the talented people that can deliver on those needs to the benefit of numerous IT management companies, big and small, new and old." Zenoss' need for expansion is fueled by the rapid growth of its commercial customer base which grew to over 100 in the quarter, including over 25 public companies and three in the Fortune 100. Recent customers include Disney, Georgia Tech, CleverSafe, Montavista and Instinet, among others. Beyond commercial success, the company has grown its open source community to over 30,000 members and 3,500 active deployments. In March, the company released Zenoss for Service Providers, a solution designed to meet the unique needs of xSPs. Initial service providers using Zenoss include OmniPresence, OpSource and SugarCRM. "Following a banner year in 2007, we opened 2008 by adding 32 new enterprise customers, our most successful quarter ever," stated Zenoss CEO Bill Karpovich, "Not only have we increased the number of customers, but bookings have increased by 90% over the prior quarter. We believe that the market's appetite for affordable yet powerful management products like Zenoss Enterprise will only continue to grow." For more information about Zenoss please visit www.zenoss.com. About Zenoss, Inc. Zenoss Inc. delivers open source IT management solutions to organizations across the globe. Flagship product Zenoss Core is a complete network monitoring and systems management platform that discovers networked IT resources, monitors them for performance and availability, and tracks changes through a configuration management database (CMDB). One of the ten most active projects on SourceForge.Net, Zenoss software was downloaded over 350,000 times in 2007. Recent product accolades include Network World's Clear Choice Award, Enterprise Open Source Magazine Readers' Choice Award, and a nomination for Best Technical Design in the SourceForge 2007 Community Choice Awards. Zenoss' customers include some of the world's largest corporations as well as Federal and State government agencies. Zenoss, Inc. is privately held and headquartered in Annapolis, MD. Download Zenoss Core free here. Original link: http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/... |
The convergence of open source with managed services and software as a service (SaaS) continues. The latest example: Red Hat, arguably the world’s best-known open source company, has created two staff positions to serve hosting partners. Plus, Red Hat is evaluating a strategy to work more closely with managed service providers, MSPmentor has learned. Here’s the scoop.
In recent months, Red Hat has received a growing number of inquiries from hosting and managed services partners, according to Mark Enzweiler, vice president of channel sales at Red Hat. Attune to the trend, Enzweiler created a new management position at Red Hat last year, in order to better serve hosting partners. Now, a second position focused on hosting partners is in the works, and Red Hat is also taking a close look at the managed services landscape. The company expects to speak more extensively — and will introduce some managed services partners — during the Red Hat Summit, scheduled for June 18-20 in Boston, according to Enzweiler. Partner Momentum Red Hat’s commitment to MSPs and solutions providers should not be underestimated. During the company’s fiscal 2007, Red Hat doubled its business through traditional channels like VARs and integrators, according to Enzweiler. Moreover, Red Hat now has roughly 50 Advanced Business Partners, up from about 21 in March 2007, he adds. Still, there’s more room for improvement. Roughly 54 percent of Red Hat’s revenue now comes from partners. However, true channel-centric companies such as Cisco Systems generate more than 90 percent of revenue from partners. Red Hat recently reorganized internally in order to apply more resources to partner-driven sales, Enzweiler notes. Working more closely with MSPs could be a potential win-win for Red Hat and its partners. Although Windows Server remains very popular as a default platform for managed services and hosted applications, there’s no denying Linux’s momentum in those areas as well. Most hosting providers now provide a mix of Linux- and Windows-based network operation centers (NOCs). Plus, virtualization technologies have allowed customers to more easily mix and match Windows and Linux in server environments. Meanwhile, open source-based applications — such as SugarCRM — are equally popular on Windows and Linux, and they are increasingly deployed in a SaaS model, SugarCRM CEO Jonathan Roberts has noted to MSPmentor. Also, a growing number of technology companies — such as Calyptix Security and Untangle — leverage open source in their managed services solutions. Watch for Red Hat to work much more closely with MSPs, with sample engagements potentially to be announced at the June summit in Boston. Original link: http://www.mspmentor.net/2008/04... Apr 22nd, 11:34 UTC
Bespoke GNU/Linux distribution specialist 64 Studio Ltd. announces today that its Debian customisation platform has been extended to support Ubuntu sources. This means that the company can now produce, maintain and support one-off distributions which retain package compatibility with official Ubuntu releases. Isle of Wight, UK, 22nd April, 2008 Rather than forks, 64 Studio's bespoke distributions can be updated in parallel with Ubuntu's half yearly release cycle, or against Long Term Support releases, including the forthcoming Ubuntu Hardy Heron LTS. The GNU GPL and other free software licences give commercial users the right to remake GNU/Linux distributions as they choose, and so adoption in specialised products continues to grow rapidly. However, building and maintaining these one-off software distributions in-house requires developer time and resources, which might be better spent improving core applications. 64 Studio offers OEMs and system integrators an automated platform which takes the labour out of distribution maintenance and back-porting. The company also offers day to day developer and end user support for the custom distributions it produces, including documentation services. Customer applications and branding are integrated into both daily install image builds and fully managed APT servers, allowing users to keep their systems up to date easily. Builds can be optimised for 64-bit x86 CPUs, low energy consumption 32-bit hardware, or legacy systems. Developed over the last three years, the 64 Studio platform has already been deployed in commercial products from Lionstracs (Italy), Harrison Consoles (USA) and Trinity Audio Group (USA). The free download 64 Studio distribution has also been thoroughly road-tested by thousands of users around the world. All source code is provided, so customers have a free choice over which parts of the work to do in-house. In the case of Lionstracs and Trinity Audio Group, distribution development is fully hosted and managed by 64 Studio, while Harrison Consoles chose to build its own products using the 64 Studio distribution as a base. Ronald Stewart of Trinity Audio Group commented: "Contracting 64 Studio's services and expertise was one of the smartest decisions I have made for my company." The 64 Studio customisation service is not just for manufacturers; it can also help a consultancy provide a tailor-made distribution for its clients. Stripping a distribution down to just the packages that are required and pre-configuring them, or adding applications to the install image that the parent distribution does not ship, greatly simplifies system administration. It also allows the consultant or system integrator to manage when and how updates are made, rather than being forced to follow the release schedule of the parent distribution. Earlier in 2008, 64 Studio began offering consultancy services directly to customers, and has already deployed a custom GNU/Linux distribution derived from Ubuntu on workstations and servers at Italian industrial company Mac Impianti. More details of 64 Studio's commercial projects are available at http://www.64studio.com/oem_products Press contacts 64 Studio Ltd. director Daniel James and lead developer Free Ekanayaka are available for interview by email or phone. Please contact daniel at 64studio dot com for any enquiries. Screenshots of the 64 Studio download distribution are available at http://www.64studio.com/screenshots Small print Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Ubuntu and Canonical are registered trademarks of Canonical Ltd. Debian is a registered trademark of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. Original link: http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/... Apr 22nd, 11:33 UTC
AXIGEN and Stimulus Software to jointly provide a solution with both email messaging and archiving functionalities. Houston, USA, and Bucharest, Romania, April 21st, 2008 - AXIGEN (http://www.axigen.com), the professional messaging solution vendor, and Stimulus Software (http://www.mailarchiva.com), vendor of the MailArchiva email archiving system, announced today the closure of a partnership aimed at integrating email messaging and archiving functionalities. Through this strategic technology integration, the two companies aim to pro-actively address the issues arising for businesses of all sizes that work towards complying with IT Governance standards and concepts. The joint AXIGEN Mail Server - MailArchiva solution will provide all functionalities of a complete email messaging and archiving solution. It features reliability and security in both messaging and archiving activities, quick access to information based on advanced search criteria, a smart storage system preventing overhead and compliance with highly debated international standards such as the Sarbanes Oxley act (SOX), Gramm-Leach Bliley act (GLBA) and the Freedom of Information act (FOIA). "We at Stimulus Software are proud to associate ourselves with AXIGEN. The AXIGEN Mail Server is a natural fit with MailArchiva. Recent email archiving legislation has made it a necessity for companies to archive their emails for up to seven years. Our customers are now in a strong position to comply with these mandates and enjoy the benefits of using a highly sophisticated messaging platform in combination with a state-of-the-art email archiving system," stated Jamie Band, CEO Stimulus Software, developer of MailArchiva. "We are very happy to be able to offer more complex messaging solutions through our technological partnership with Stimulus Software. We are confident that both AXIGEN Mail Server and MailArchiva customers will benefit from this alliance, as complying with local legislation and standards governing both messaging and archiving translates into increased credibility as a business partner," said Oana Bornaz, AXIGEN CEO. With a carrier class technology and outstanding support, AXIGEN is becoming the messaging solution of choice for a growing number of service providers worldwide. Winner of the ServerWatch 2007 Product Excellence Award for the Communications Server category, the AXIGEN Mail Server currently runs on several Linux and BSD distributions, on Solaris, on PowerPC and SPARC architectures. About AXIGEN Established in 2001, Gecad Technologies SA, member of the GECAD Group, is the vendor of AXIGEN, a messaging solution for professionals that ensures an efficient and secure worldwide communication environment and business growth for both service providers and companies of all sizes. Currently, AXIGEN is distributed internationally by over 140 partners from 80 countries and manages email traffic for more than 10,000 companies with 6 million end-users. Our team of seasoned professionals, with 15 years of experience in messaging and IT security delivers cutting-edge products, by developing an innovative carrier-class technology based on proprietary architectures such as AXIGEN GrowSecureTM, AXIGEN SmartProcessingTM and AXIGEN UltraStorageTM. For more information, please visit: www.axigen.com About Stimulus Software Stimulus Software is a privately held company. We are the world wide distributors of MailArchiva, a high quality email archiving software product for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Our goal is to deliver an innovative, cost-effective and reliable email archiving solution that satisfies the needs of our customers. Our flagship product, MailArchiva, is used by over 5000 companies world-wide, and growing. MailArchiva is sold both directly and through our world-wide reseller channel. For more details, visit: www.mailarchiva.com Original link: http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/... Apr 22nd, 11:29 UTC
ATHENS, OH--April 21, 2008--LibLime, the leader in open-source solutions for libraries, announced today that Daniel Sweeney has joined LibLime as Senior Business Analyst. Daniel Sweeney comes to LibLime from Ex Libris (formerly Endeavor) where he spent the last 9 years in project management and business analyst roles. Previously, Dan worked as a librarian in academic libraries for five years. He has an MLS from State University of New York at Buffalo and an MS in Computer Science from DePaul University. "I became a librarian because I believe that libraries form communities. Similarly, open-source software forms communities," says Dan. "It makes sense for libraries to be involved in building open-source solutions to provide services to their patrons. The open-source model can bring transparency and innovation to library systems and software." Dan explains: "I came to LibLime because I think LibLime is committed to providing quality software and service to customers." "As an analyst, Dan has experience defining specifications for all the modules of large library management systems, as well as products like electronic resource management systems and link resolvers," says LibLime's CEO Joshua Ferraro. "He's highly qualified for the large development projects we have on the horizon for academic libraries such as WALDO (Westchester Academic Library Directors Organization) and public libraries like Howard County Library (Maryland)." About LibLime As the leader in open-source solutions for libraries, LibLime offers a refreshing alternative to expensive proprietary software. Rather than sell software licenses for static, hard-to-customize software products, LibLime promotes the benefits of open source, enabling libraries to make choices about how best to provide their communities and staff with better technology services. LibLime enables libraries to use open-source software to its full potential by providing outstanding commercial support services - hosting, migration assistance, staff training, support, software maintenance, and development--solutions tailored to each customer's needs. Original link: http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/... |
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