Finally started playing a bit more with OpenDS this weekend and I have to say I'm pretty proud to be part of this project. If you haven't checked it out you should and it is quite simple - I mean, I'm using it :-)

One of the things I wanted to do was to show you how easy it is to download and get running. A few months ago the team added a QuickSetup capability, which uses Java WebStart. If you've installed a Java Runtime Environment (JRE), which is required if you want to use OpenDS, then you already have Java Webstart. The cool thing is how fast you will have OpenDS downloaded and running on your machine. I'm not kidding. Not counting the time it will take you to read the screens, if you aren't familiar with it, it could take as little as a couple minutes (maybe less, I didn't get my stop watch out).

Check it out by clicking QuickSetup above and be brave and start the install right now.

Here is what I saw and did when I clicked it.

• After Java Webstart started processing the QuickSetup.jnlp I saw "Java(tm) Loading..." and then I saw the OpenDS splash page followed quickly by the Welcome screen.
• I clicked "Next".
• On the Server Settings page I changed the first part of the default path to "C:\" (but that's just me). I also changed the default port to 389. Then I entered the password for "cn=directory manager" (this is like the root user for openDS).
• Then I clicked "Next" again.
• On the Data Options page I selected "Import Automatically-Generated Example Data" and asked for 10,000 entries.
• Then I clicked "Next" again.
• On the Review page I just clicked "Finish"

When this completes you will have OpenDS running on your machine. Told you. Fast and easy.

I'll show you how to use Thunderbird's Address Book to see info in OpenDS in my next entry, but it is just as easy.

I'm really interested in what makes an OSS community attractive to the masses. At Sun we talk a lot about the fact that developers don't buy things they join things - like OSS communities. What are they looking for? What things are key? I'm not much of a developer these days, but I do participate in OSS communities and what attracts me is products that work and products that evolve (i.e. gain real new functionality that I want and can use so my life gets easier). That's why I love using Firefox, Thunderbird, MySQL and even Blogger.

We were talking to the Redmonk boys (James Governor, Stephen O'Grady and Michael Cote - these guys are good by the way) recently and some of the keys we got from them (my words, not theirs) included:

• Embrace contribution as much and in as many ways as possible
• Make it available, don't make it perfect
• Look for ways to enable cross community communication/involvement
• Focus on lifecycle, management and integration
• Plug into the volume opportunity
• Keep it simple

So what is it about the community/communities you participate in that makes it worthy of your time and energy? Let me know.

You gotta love the internet and blogging. While following this article by Ashlee Vance from the Register sharing how JBoss CEO Marc Fleury called Redhat an open source pretender that "doesn't create JACK". Ashlee points out that this has been attempted to be erased from memory, but alas, the internet makes the elephant look like a piker when it comes to memory management :-). You can try to remove foot from mouth, but there will always be plenty of people that will make sure everyone knows that's where it was. Pretty funny.

One comment Fleury made (courtesy of internet caching) that I took offense at was

SUN is always a bit hypocritical when talking about open source, just like IBM is. These companies embrace open source where and when it enables them to compete against MSFT but when it comes to their own beef (do you see IBM open sourcing DB2/Websphere?) they show their true colors, and trust me it isn't pretty.

...

So to me both SUN and RH are open source "wannabees", or as one of my developers put "open source girly men".