Donnerstag April 07, 2005

"Inside the OpenSolaris Community Advisory Board"
"In this audio interview, which is available as both an MP3 download and as a podcast that you can have downloaded to your system and/or MP3 player automatically (see ZDNet's podcasts: How to tune in), I talked with Phipps, Teer and Fielding about the CAB's near term goals for the community."
The full article can be found here.
( Apr 07 2005, 11:47:08 PM CEST ) Permalink

"Insider Hints at GPL Changes"
"Version 3.0 of the General Public License (GPL) may be years away, but one insider says proposed changes to it could impact companies like Amazon, Yahoo and Google."
The full article can be found here.
( Apr 07 2005, 11:43:30 PM CEST ) Permalink

"Should IE Stay or Should IE Go?"
"The risk of a browser-based attack against an enterprise network is significant. From a risk management point of view, it is definitely a good idea to look at browser alternatives to Internet Explorer purely based on the sheer number of clients running it. But the environment might not let you remove it because your shop might have built up access to necessary internal resources using Microsoft's technology based on Internet Explorer.

One possible solution would be to mandate the use of Firefox for external access and reserve Internet Explorer for inside-the-enterprise use. Policy-enforcement tools can help implement this sort of a mandate."

The full article can be found here.
( Apr 07 2005, 08:18:57 PM CEST ) Permalink

"Interview: Sudhir Gandotra on what India's open source community needs"
"Louis Suarez-Potts of OpenOffice.org, speaking on a panel at the recently concluded Linux Asia 2005 event, suggested ways to increase the number of Linux desktops."
The full article can be found here.
( Apr 07 2005, 05:14:37 PM CEST ) Permalink

"Sun VP Tom Goguen Discusses Evolution of OpenSolaris"
"It's a rising tide that floats all boats. We look at it as an opportunity for people to learn from and continue to evolve whatever project open-source projects are involved in. This is just another contribution to the community of communities that is open source."
The full article can be found here.
( Apr 07 2005, 05:13:04 PM CEST ) Permalink

"IBM calls for IP generosity"
""A big part of your power is to have your people work with the communities and donate some of your intellectual property to those communities so they can get better. Then you build proprietary offerings on top of the open source platform," he said. "Those proprietary offerings at some point will lose their value as proprietary offerings. Then there probably will be more value donating it to an open source community, and on and on and on."

The executive isn't alone in his views. On Tuesday, Sun president Jonathan Schwartz described what he called the "participation age" based on open source software and its ability to draw new programmers and new economies into the computing realm.

And Novell, which bought its way into the open source realm with the acquisitions of Ximian and SuSE Linux, also believes in a hybrid approach. Novell executives have described open source software as a rising water level; proprietary software above that level can be sold for a time before eventually being swamped."

The full article can be found here.
( Apr 07 2005, 03:02:28 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

"Yahoo updates spyware toolbar for Firefox"
"Yahoo on Tuesday night plans to unveil an updated toolbar for the Mozilla Foundation's open-source Firefox browser that offers the company's Anti-Spy adware and spyware removal software for computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system."
The full article can be found here.
( Apr 07 2005, 02:46:43 PM CEST ) Permalink

Just switch! - Managing Hundreds of StarOffice Users
Today I want to talk about how administrators can deal with hundreds of StarOffice users in a network environment. Administrators don't have the time to walk from PC to PC in order to change the user configurations for all users or just one department. Therefore, StarOffice comes with the so-called Sun Java Desktop System Configuration Manager.

The name of the tool might be a bit confusing, but a brief explanation of the history will make everything clear. The tool started its life as the StarOffice Configuration Manager in StarOffice 7. Later when Sun introduced the Sun Java Desktop System, the tool was extended to also support Mozilla, Evolution and GNOME in addition to StarOffice. Since the tool can handle more than StarOffice today, it evolved into the Sun Java Desktop System Configuration Manager.

The LDAP-based tool can be accessed via the browser from any workstation in the network. In my case everything including the server software is installed on my workstation, and thus I access localhost. After logging in with the administrator password and selecting the StarOffice component, the following screen appears:



On the left side of the screen one can select the department or individual user, and on the right side one can make the modifications to the settings.

One example of what one can do with the tool is the management of the StarOffice security configuration. Configurations can be changed for all users at once, groups/departments or individuals. The following screenshot shows the security settings in StarOffice 8 before we change them via the Sun Java Desktop System Configuration Manager:



Within the Configuration Manager the settings for the file-save password and the included personal information can be changed like shown here:



After a few seconds the settings have changed for all the affected StarOffice users ...



... and in the file save dialog the password option is selected per default.



Similarly the Configuration Manager allows to set document template paths, macro settings, etc.
( Apr 07 2005, 02:12:02 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

"Open-source group to corral licenses"
Interesting third party quote regarding CDDL:
"Sam Greenblatt, a senior vice president at Computer Associates, agrees there's a license proliferation problem, though he disagrees with Fink's approach to reducing the number. In a speech at the conference, he said CA would be willing to scrap its own open-source license if the right replacement can be found. Sun Microsystems' Community Development and Distribution License is a step in the right direction, he added. "Sun's CDDL is a great starting point in stopping proliferation," Greenblatt said. "
The full article can be found here.
( Apr 07 2005, 10:13:56 AM CEST ) Permalink

"Attachmate announces support for Solaris 10"
One more Solaris 10 ISV:
"Attachmate Corporation, a 20-year veteran of connecting users with critical enterprise applications and data, announces that Attachmate Synapta solutions are verified to support the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS)."
The full article can be found here.
( Apr 07 2005, 10:08:51 AM CEST ) Permalink