While I was Unpacking...the Penguin marched on
Well while we've been moving the family to Austin -- driving across country, flying back across country, packing boxes, unpacking boxes, looking for local doctors, finding dry cleaners, dealing with the stomach virus (all 5 of us in succession, like dominoes) etc. -- the GNU/Linux world has churned on.
Here are a few of the interesting events that have taken place while Ive been distracted:
- Cold water has been liberally sprinkled on Oracle's Linux efforts. First IBM voiced some hesitations and then analysts more directly questioned the viability of Oracle's strategy. Hey Oracle we feel your pain. Sun tried to do this exact same thing a few years ago and failed. We then saw the light and have gone with named brands ever since.
- The Cathedral and the bizarre dude dissed Fedora and found solace in Ubuntu -- Linconspiracy theories abounded.
- Speaking of Ubuntu, Spike Source agreed to certify Ubuntu stacks next quarter
- Speaking of Spike Source, it along with 9 other founding members created the Open Solutions Alliance (OSA) to drive interoperability standards above the OS.
- They dont call it "IdeaStorm" for nothing. When Dell asked its customers what they wanted they were deluged by over 110,000 requests for GNU/Linux on Dell systems. Their first dazed response was to say they would certify but not install. Now they're looking a bit deeper into the subject with a survey that launched yesterday.
- And last but not least, Sun announced that it has become a patron of the Free Software Foundation. This was a logical next step after I presented on the same bill as Richard Stallman in Hawaii. OK, the real event that helped bring the two sides together, whom in the past havent always seen eye to eye, is the freeing of the Java platform under the GPL. I personally look forward to working closely with them going forward and maybe more trips to Hawaii.
Pau for now...
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