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Netstat -vat by Sean Michael Kerner (bio)

A command line view of IT

February 8, 2010, 9:40 AM

Google Turns on IPv6 for YouTube. Does It Matter?

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From the 'Coming IPv4 Apocalypse' files:

I've written my fair share of stories about how IPv4 address space is nearly exhausted and why IPv6 is necessary. At this point there is less than two years worth of IPv4 address space left.

Yet despite that looming IPv4 Armageddon, many (if not most) of the major sites that everday users enjoy have not been available over a native IPv6 connection. Late Friday, Google changed that a bit by opening up YouTube for IPv6.

While I personally think it's great that YouTube is now available for native IPv6 connections, it raises more questions than it answers.

For one, why now? Google has had search on IPv6 for nearly two years, why did it take until now to put up YouTube on IPv6?  Does that mean that IPv6 users to date weren't worthy of Google's YouTube goodness?
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Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 9:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

February 5, 2010, 9:30 AM

Canonical Ubuntu Linux Names Matt Asay as New COO

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From the 'Congrats!' files:

There are few people that follow the Linux and open source market that have not heard of Matt Asay.  I first met Asay at an Open Source event in Toronto nearly six years ago when he was working for Novell. He then moved on to work for Alfresco and now he's the new COO of Ubuntu Linux vendor Canonical.

Asay is going to fill the open spot left by outgoing COO Jane Silber who is now becoming the CEO replacing founder Mark Shuttleworth.

Aside from his 'day' job, many of us follow Asay on Twitter and even more go to the Open Source Business Conference which he founded. To say he's a leader and open source evangelist would be an understatement in the extreme.

With Asay in the COO spot, Canonical now has an influential Linux luminary to help drive their operational - and likely marketing efforts as well.

I'm not surprised to see Asay move to Canonical, I've seen plenty of his thoughtful posts on CNET (where he has a popular blog) about Canonical and its founder Shuttleworth.

Will this change the competitive landscape for Linux?

Not really - this is just another 'feather in the cap' for Ubuntu. Red Hat and Novell don't need to run for the hills and in fact having an outspoken community advocate like Asay in a top Linux exec role could help the whole industry. A rising tide lifts all boats right?

Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 9:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

February 4, 2010, 9:58 AM

Jonathan Schwartz Tweets His Way Out of Sun/Oracle

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From the 'Interesting Ways to Use Twitter' files:

Jonathan Schwartz  the one-time leader of the now extinct Sun Microsystems was a trailblazer with his blog in the early days. And on his way out of Sun, it wasn't his blog that blazed his trail - it was Twitter.

In a late night message (or early this AM ET) Schwartz Tweeted his way out of a job.
"Today's my last day at Sun. I'll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more," Schwartz wrote.
If anyone needs proof of the efficacy of Twitter as a messaging medium that has surpassed blogging (in some ways at least) - there it is.

Short, succinct and 140 character or less, a man that led a multi-national, multi-billion dollar company exits stage left.

No one should be surprised that he's not moving on to Oracle which now owns Sun. Oracle is a different culture and one in which Schwartz who has been - rightly or wrongly - maligned as being partially responsible for Sun's decline, wasn't going to be a fit.

As to where he ends up now - I suspect that we haven't heard the last of him. I also suspect that finding out what he does next will just be a simple matter of following him - on Twitter of course.

Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 9:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

February 3, 2010, 3:59 PM

Apache 1.3 Hits End of Life at 42 (Don't Panic!)

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From the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to Webservers' files:

As of today the Apache 1.3 HTTP Server is at its official End of Life with its 1.3.42 release, eight years after its successor Apache 2 debuted.

That's along time for a 'legacy' tech isn't it? Well yeah, but Apache 1.3 isn't just any legacy tech, it's the tech that at one point was the most widely deployed server version on Earth and was also likely the mostly widely deployed and popular open source project of its time.

The Apache 1.3.42 release provides a few bug fixes and one security fix for a mod_proxy integer overflow security issue.
"This release is intended as the final release of version 1.3 of the Apache HTTP Server, which has reached end of life status," Apache wrote in its release announcement. "There will be no more full releases of Apache HTTP Server 1.3. However, critical security updates may be made available."
Aha! A lifeline! You see great open source technology never actually dies - it becomes more dependent on a dwindling community of people willing to contribute to its ongoing maintenance.
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Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 3:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

February 1, 2010, 9:42 AM

Firefox Mobile Is Out But Only For Maemo

 fennec.jpg From the 'Where's Fennec?' Files:

Developing a browser for mobile devices is no easy task, just ask the good people at Mozilla. Late last week, Mozilla released Firefox Mobile 1.0, but don't run to your Apple, Android or Blackberry AppStore just yet it is only available for the Nokia N900 and its Linux-based Maemo platform.

Firefox Mobile began it's life as a project called Fennec in 2008. Fennec itself was born out of the ashes of a previous failed Mozilla mobile effort called Minimo. What's different this time around is one key item as far as I'm concerned - Weave.

Mozilla Weave which just hit its own 1.0 release last week is part of Firefox Mobile 1.0 enabling users to sync their mobile and desktop browsing - that's cool. Unfortunately though the Maemo is not a massively popular platform like Blackberry, Apple iPhone or Nokia's Symbian.

Firefox developers have been at work on a Windows Mobile port and there is likely an Android release coming soon as well. What Firefox Mobile represents is a choice that smartphone users have never had before.

The challenges facing Firefox developers still remain immense as WebKit based browsers like Safari and Chrome (and a new Blackberry browser in the wings) dominate the landscape today. The 1.0 release for Maemo represent the first key step in facing that challenge.

Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 9:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

February 1, 2010, 9:38 AM

Google Chrome 5 Debuts For Devs

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From the 'Fastest Browser to version 10 Wins!' files:

What up with Google's numbering scheme for Chrome?

The browser is just over a year old and Chrome version 4 was just release last month as a stable product. Instead have a 4.5 version, Chrome is now pushing ahead with version 5 which became available to developers late Friday. Well some developers at least.

Officially the new Chrome dev-channel release is numbered Chrome 5.0.307.1 and it was first made available to Windows and Mac users (no Linux release in tandem this time).

As to what's new in Chrome 5 that merits this new number, that's not an easy question to answer. Google's release notes are very sparse on the release and even though I'm running it myself now on a Windows test box (while waiting for my Linux version), there are few user-visible changes.

As always there are bug fixes for stability including a key one for the Mac version for a browser crash when deleting cookies. The big key item that Chrome 5 does have is the beginning of a new content privacy UI.

No it's not something that in my opinion, any other modern browser would say warrants a new number for a browser, but hey I don't walk the halls of the Googleplex so perhaps there is a good reason. Maybe Google is trying to release Chrome 9 before Microsoft releases IE 9? At this rate it'll be no contest.

Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 9:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

January 29, 2010, 1:19 PM

Mozilla Weave 1.0 now generally available - sync away!

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From the 'Staying in Sync' files:

For the last two years, Mozilla has been working on a project called 'Weave' that enables users to sync their browser activities. Now at along last, Weave has hit version 1.0.

Weave is a Firefox add-on and unlike the bookmark sync that Chrome 4.0 users now enjoy, it's not directly part of a default Firefox download - though I personally expect that it will be - eventually.

I've been a Weave user over the last two years and really what has changed is the fact that Weave now actually works, and works really well. Frankly I could not do my job without Weave today.

Synchronizing bookmarks is one thing, but with  Weave you can also sync open tabs as well which is a very useful feature. Say you're on a work desktop and then go home. How do you remember what you had open at work? (assuming you really want to work at home). With Weave that's not a challenge at all.

The real key will be for mobile users, as mobile versions of Firefox start to proliferate. With Weave users will be able to move from desktop to mobile and back again in their browsing.

Originally the Weave plan was to develop a Mozilla Services back-end. With Weave 1.0 a basic level of that services back-end is now in place. It will be interesting to see how it evolves for Weave 2.0 and how Mozilla developers will (or won't) integrate Weave with Firefox Lorentz.

Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 1:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

January 29, 2010, 11:50 AM

Wikimedia Gets New CTO

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From the 'Knitting' files:

The Wikimedia Foundation, the people behind Wikipedia have a new CTO. Danese Cooper, who is well known in open source circles from the time at Sun and at Intel will take the CTO job starting in February.

Cooper is also a  Board member at the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and has a keen understanding of open source licenses. The first time I ever saw Cooper speak was at a Linuxworld San Francisco event in 200 where she was on a panel talking about open source licensing.

It was the strangest panel I have ever seen in my whole career as a tech journalist.

Then CEO of SugarCRM John Roberts who was also on the panel hurled a few questions at Cooper about how the OSI operates and gets to choose what is and isn't open source. While Cooper responded articulated and succinctly, she never actually looked over at Roberts or the audience. The whole time she was sitting on the panel she was -- knitting. (Don't get me wrong I have nothing against knitting - it's just not something i had seen before on a panel - or since).
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Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

January 28, 2010, 4:27 PM

Zend Framework 1.10 Joins PHP to Windows Azure

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From the 'PHP on Windows' files:

Zend - one of the lead commercial sponsors behind PHP - and Microsoft have had an ongoing relationship over the last few years to make PHP a first class citizen on Windows Servers.

Now Microsoft is help PHP to take the next step, into the cloud.

Today Zend Framework 1.10 was released including support for Microsoft Windows Azure cloud services. Zend Framework is a PHP framework for application development and deployment that already has benefited from contributions from IBM, Google and others.

The new Zend_Service_WindowsAzure component was actually contributed by Microsoft to the open source Zend Framework project. It enables to PHP developers to call Windows Azure APIs from within PHP applications. 
"The ubiquity, simplicity and flexibility of PHP make it ideal for building cloud applications. Native Windows Azure support in Zend Framework 1.10 brings the power of Windows Azure to a substantial community of Zend Framework users,"said Zeev Suraski, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Zend in a statement.
Is this a  good thing for open source?

Sure it is. Azure is just another deployment option and with the new Zend Framework capabilities PHP developers now have yet another choice.

It's also great to see open source contributions from Microsoft like this one. Microsoft's goal is to make it's platforms the ones that developers - any developers PHP or otherwise - want to deploy on. By making this open source code donation they're making a good step forward in their goal, at least for PHP developers.

Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 4:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

January 27, 2010, 9:36 AM

Is Ubuntu Cheating Mozilla with Yahoo Search Deal?

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From the 'I Don't Like This' files:

Mozilla makes a good chunk of its revenues from a search deal with Google. So for all of you reading this blog on a Firefox web browser, Mozilla staffers that worked on this, were in part paid (indirectly) from that deal.

If you happen to be running Firefox on Ubuntu, that's going to change.

You see, Canonical the lead sponsor behind Ubuntu has struck it's own search deal with Yahoo. So Canonical will make money from Yahoo searches (really Microsoft now with Bing powering Yahoo search) to help fund their efforts.

The way I see it, that leaves the good people at Mozilla out of the money loop and I don't think that's fair. Sure it's open source and everyone contributes and then pulls back out of it and that's the way it works, but do Linux users really want a Microsoft powered default search engine for Firefox?? I don't think so.

So why is Canonical pulling this (boneheaded) move?
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Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 9:36 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0) | Share

January 27, 2010, 9:14 AM

Oracle Owns Sun - What's Next for Open Source, Java?

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From the 'Finally' files:

The long wait for Sun employees and customers is over as Oracle today officially announced that it has finally completed the acquisition of Sun. (My colleagues at InternetNews.com will be covering the full-day event at Oracle, so be sure to check that out).

With the acquisition now will come word on the fate of Solaris, Java and Sun's other open source efforts.  With Java in particular, over the last six months I've spoke with many Java stakeholders and there is a general trend in their opinions.

Java MUST remain open and Oracle must make the Java Community Process (JCP) more open than it was under Sun.

The JCP has kinda/sorta been an open process to date, but Sun has always held the master card.
(more) |

Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 9:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

January 26, 2010, 9:31 AM

Learn Linux for Free

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From the 'So What Else is New?' files:

The Linux Foundation (the people that employ Linus Torvalds) today announced new free training sessions for Linux. The sessions that they've listed as free at this point are on some basic topics like Linux performance tuning and troubleshooting.

Then there are a few more developer focused topics like how to contribute to Linux and how to use Git.  No this isn't quite Linux for dummies, but hey it's free.

Considering the current economy, free is always a good thing right?

Then again, Linux education, at a basic level has always been free -- that's how I learned. Any Linux user - and i don't care which distro you use - has a built in learning mechanism that no other OS can match. It's called the 'man' command and though it's not perfect, it's a decent start.

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Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 9:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

January 25, 2010, 10:47 AM

Red Hat launches opensource.com with Drupal

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From the 'Where is the OSI?' files:

Red Hat has just launched a new portal at opensource.com - for information and articles about open source. The site uses the Drupal open source content management system and it looks like Red Hat has been working on the site since at least October.

With opensource.com, Red Hat is following in the footsteps of the Linux Foundation with Linux.com which launched in 2009. Frankly I'm not sure that it's a good idea.

Red Hat has been a leading voice in open source since its creation and leverages open source for both technology and marketing purposes. With this new portal, Red Hat has yet another medium to push their message, which is good for them.

But it's not a broad open source as an industry message is it? It's more of a Red Hat as a leader message.

If you're looking for open source as a movement and as a licensing approach, you need to look no further than opensource.org which is run by the Open Source Initiative -- the people that actually define what is and isn't open source. Red Hat has always had strong representation on the OSI.

The current president of the OSI,Michael Tiemann is also Vice President of Open Source Affairs at Red Hat -- so there is a direct connection.

I don't know what direction opensource.com will take, but let's hope that it evolves to become more than just a marketing mouthpiece.

Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 10:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Share

January 19, 2010, 4:33 PM

ReactOS Hits a Fork In The Road

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From the 'If At First You Don't Succeed' files:

I've been writing about the ReactOS for at least five years (the project itself is more than 10 years old). It's an effort to try and replicate a Windows operating system in open source.

Originally it was all about getting a WindowsNT implementation -- which they never quite achieved -- then it morphed to support Windows Server 2003. Again not quite ever really achieving a fully usable status. So instead of keeping up the same old/same old approach that to date hasn't quite achieved all of its goals - ReactOS is now set to take a different path.
"ReactOS has been around for about 11 years, and it's been growing each year since then," ReactOS developer Aleksey Bragin wrote in a mailing list posting. "Time goes by, new versions of Windows operating systems are being  released. ReactOS usability still has not reached any significant value."
So what ReactOS will now start to do, is to leverage the work that the WINE project has been doing on the win32 system. It's an idea that makes a whole lot of sense, seeing as WINE has been working at replicating win32 for years (with some success, just look at CodeWeaver's CrossOver apps) while ReactOS has been focused on win32 as part of a larger open source windows implementation.
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Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 4:33 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0) | Share

January 15, 2010, 11:47 AM

When Will Mozilla Lightning Strike?

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From the 'Firefox's Cousins' files:

Regular readers of my blog know that I'm not a fan of the Mozilla Thunderbird email project lately - I personally think that the effort has been mismanaged. A related project that I've long been interested in is the Mozilla Calendar efforts which includes the Sunbird standalone calendar and the Lighting plug-in (for Thunderbird).

Unfortunately, much like the delayed releases of Thunderbird, Lightning and Sunbird have also suffered. Having a calendar component as part of an email client is a key component for those that seek an open source alternative to Microsoft Outlook.

Even though Thunderbird 3 has been out for over a month, the Lightning calendar plug-in - that likely should have been out at the same time - wasn't. As it turns out Lighting 1.0 Beta 1, the first update to Lightning in 16 months just came out this week.

The delayed Lightning has caused some concern, so much so that Mozilla developers put out a statement this AM to allay concerns.
"There seems to be some doubt in our community regarding the status of the recent Lightning 1.0 beta1 release in our release hierarchy," Mozilla developer Simon Paquet blogged. "So let me unequivocally state for the entire Calendar developers team We (the Calendar developers) consider Lightning 1.0 beta to be the best Lightning release, that has been released to the public so far."

(more) |

Posted by Sean Michael Kerner at 11:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Share

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