Open-Source Backers March on Washington

Some of the world’s largest technology companies have banded together in a bid to push open-source software on the United States government. They’ve formed a group called Open Source for America, which seeks to make sure that government agencies at least consider open-source software as an option in their buying decisions. The big, rather timely pitch behind this move is that open-source applications can help save the government money.

“The market for open-source software is growing dramatically, but there still needs to be education around understanding how to get the most out of it,” said Roger Burkhardt, the chief executive of Ingres, a maker of an open-source database, who is on the Open Source for America board of advisers. “There are quirks to the government procurement process that need to be addressed.”

Open-source companies often give away their base product and then charge customers for support and other services. This model, according to Mr. Burkhardt, can perplex government bodies used to buying software upfront. In addition, the group hopes to make sure that open-source software receives the necessary federal nods for use in things like drug approvals and high-security computing projects.

Some of the initial members of the organization include Google, Oracle, Red Hat, Advanced Micro Devices, Novell and Canonical. A host of smaller open-source software makers are involved as well.

The board of advisers is more or less a Who’s Who of open-source advocates, including Eben Moglen, a prominent lawyer; Mark Shuttleworth, the chief executive of Canonical; Michael Tiemann, a vice president at Red Hat; and Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation. Read more…

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Red Hat, Oracle, Sun, Others Join to Pitch Open Source to Feds

More than 50 companies, academic institutions, and other organizations, including vendors such as Red Hat and Oracle, are banding together to promote use of open source by the federal government via an organization called Open Source for America.

Officially unveiled on Wednesday at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) in San Jose, Calif., the organization is intended to capitalize on federal efforts to be more transparent and collaborative, organization members said. The federal government already has been using open source software, they recognized, but the new organization wants to further that cause.

[ Also at OSCON, Microsoft released code for Linux drivers | Cut straight to the key news for technology development and IT management with our once-a-day summary of the top tech news. Subscribe to the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. ]

“Most every federal agency does have open source, but essentially it’s a paradigm change,” said Tom Rabon, executive vice president for corporate affairs at Red Hat, a key driving member along with Sun Microsystems in forming the organization.

“This organization came about as a result of a number of companies and academic institutions and organizations that believe that there was a void in Washington in terms of having sort of a unified voice for open source,” Rabon said.

Immediate goals include educating federal decisions makers about and encouraging government agencies to give equal priority to open source software. Initially, the organization will have no employees; its affairs will be handled by a steering committee of organization members. Over time, there may a staff in Washington. Read more…

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The perfect storm - Why now is the time for open source

These are unprecedented times. The global economy is in free fall, with no geographic region or industry unaffected by the scarcity of capital, market volatility, and reduced consumer spending. Dismal economic indicators reflect business conditions that haven’t been seen for decades. And experts are warning that we haven’t yet hit bottom.

At the same time, IT is under more pressure than ever. There is less capital to invest in new systems at the very moment when companies need to leverage technology to innovate - both to contain costs and to hone competitive advantage. IT managers are being told to lay off personnel and reduce operating expenses, yet are expected to continue providing the same support to business users as when fully staffed.

But there’s a bright spot amidst the general gloom. Specifically, the value proposition of low-cost, high-return open source solutions is resonating now more than ever. Although used successfully by leading-edge companies for more than 20 years, some mainstream businesses have remained with their proprietary technology alternatives, either due to vendor lock-in or misconceptions about open source. That is rapidly changing. Today, open source is being increasingly recognized for its ease of use, high performance, and affordability, especially amidst today’s turbulent economic conditions.

Indeed, the high value of open source, coupled with economic and organizational pressure, represents a “perfect storm” for CIOs, giving them the opportunity to deploy high-performing, cost-effective open source solutions to carve costs out of their IT infrastructures. Read more…

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Balancing Linux and Microsoft

For nearly two years, Bruce Perens was a senior strategist for open-source software at Hewlett-Packard ? an evangelist and rabble-rouser on behalf of a computing counterculture that is increasingly moving into the mainstream. Part of the job description, he was told, was to “challenge H.P. management.”

His last day as a Hewlett-Packard employee was 10 days ago. The parting was amicable, Mr. Perens said, but he was fired ? “officially a termination,” he noted. “It came after a long, long warning,” Mr. Perens explained. “The thing that I did that was most hazardous for H.P. is the Microsoft -baiting I tend to do.”

A spokeswoman for Hewlett-Packard declined to comment on Mr. Perens’s departure, citing company policy against making public statements about why individual employees leave.

But, according to Mr. Perens, a handful of forces combined to make his exit from Hewlett-Packard inevitable. After it bought Compaq this year, the combined company became the largest single buyer of Windows for personal computers and data-serving computers, and thus more dependent on Microsoft. A rising threat to Microsoft is GNU Linux, an operating system distributed free and developed using the open-source model in which communities of programmers donate their labor to debug, modify and otherwise improve the code. Read more…

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The Next Leap for Linux

LINUX runs the Google servers that manage billions of searches each day. It also runs the TiVo digital video recorder, the Motorola Razr cellphone and countless other electronic devices.

But why would anyone want to use Linux, an open-source operating system, to run a PC? “For a lot of people,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, “Linux is a political idea — an idea of freedom. They don’t want to be tied to Microsoft or Apple. They want choice. To them it’s a greater cause.”

That’s not the most compelling reason for consumers. There is the price: Linux is free, or nearly so.

Unlike Windows from Microsoft and OS X from Apple, Linux is not owned, updated or controlled by a single company. Thousands of developers around the world work on Linux, making improvements and issuing new versions several times a year. Because the core Linux software is open source, these developers have the right — some would say responsibility — to borrow from one another’s work, constantly looking for enhancements. Read more…

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Controlling, Delegating, Logging and Auditing UNIX Linux Root Actions

In traditional UNIX/Linux networks, any user requiring even the slightest amount of administrative power must be given the root password, which gives them access to the full power of root. As a result, companies running UNIX have been limited in their ability to share administrative power and have been open to risk from the essentially unauditable actions of system administrators. This white paper explores PowerBroker, an application that prevents these abuses from occurring, while still allowing people access to the administrative power that they need. Learn how it allows the full administrative powers of the root and other administrative accounts to be shared selectively among many users and provides a full and indelible audit trail of all actions occurring in important accounts such as root.Read more…

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SAP on Linux: Basics, Migration Tips and How to Get Started

Running SAP on Linux is an increasingly popular option these days. Though SAP has supported Linux for about 10 years, more and more companies are considering making the switch, especially those with aging Unix environments and increased pressure to lower costs and increase operational efficiency. A lower total cost of ownership (TCO) is only one driver, according to Sanjeev Aggarwal, partner with Hurwitz and Associates, a Newton, Mass.-based analyst firm. Organizations should also consider the potential impacts on reliability, scalability, security, performance and infrastructure flexibility. But as with any change, migrating to SAP on Linux must be carefully planned to avoid downtime or other adverse effects.

In this 15-minute Expert Podcast, appropriate for SAP and other IT professionals, listeners will find out more about running SAP on Linux, including:

* Why more organizations are considering running SAP on Linux - and when to consider a migration
* The pros and cons of running SAP on Linux, and impacts on short and long term SAP strategy
* How to propose and plan a migration to running SAP on Linux from other operating systems, such as Unix Read more…

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7 Things Every System Administrator Should Know about OpenSSH

OpenSSH is an open-source implementation of the SSH (Secure SHell) protocols, originally developed in 1995 by Tatu Ylonen. SSH-based tools provide secure client/server connections and are usually designed to replace older remote-access tools like rsh and telnet. Unlike their predecessors, SSH-based tools encrypt their transmissions, making it difficult or impossible for intruders to “sniff” important information, such as passwords, from the data stream. SSH implementations exist for every major platform including Microsoft Windows. This paper will focus on the OpenSSH implementation, which was initially developed as part of the OpenBSD project and is installed by default on most modern BSD and Linux-based operating systems, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora. The goal of this paper is to provide a brief introduction to several techniques for getting the most out of this powerful tool.

Source: http://www.bitpipe.com/detail/RES/1228934769_761.html?psrc=RLT

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Security Solutions for UNIX/Linux Audits

As UNIX/Linux systems become more prevalent in organizations, the need to secure them becomes more urgent. This is especially true since compliance mandates, as interpreted by the courts, become more stringent. A security or compliance audit can be a valuable ally in identifying the vulnerabilities of your UNIX/Linux systems. But since US firms must on average meet three compliance regulations, many would prefer to secure their UNIX/Linux systems prior to the audit.

Read this whitepaper to learn a valuable solution to centralized access control that also controls costs. The Symark PowerBroker architecture provides for centralized policy processing and logging that allow highly efficient configuration and maintenance, even in a group of heterogeneous machine types.

Source: http://www.bitpipe.com/detail/RES/1234832588_747.html?psrc=RLT

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Troubleshooting Made Easy In Linux

Every operating system portrays itself as powerful, able to leap tall buildings and applications in single strides, able to weather the storms of prolonged heavy usage, resilient to weathering, and so much more!

One of the necessary evils, albeit less often spoken of, in case we jinx something, is the topic of troubleshooting. What could possibly go wrong? Doesn’t everyone believe in fair play, honorable intentions, and being openly honest and straightforward in all things virtual?

Where does one start when the operating system does not start, the application does not load or run correctly, the network hangs or a network service does not listen or perform? A common practice is to reload the machine, either from the installation media and then patch it, or from some standardized image. Either way, the problem has only been gotten around, not solved.

What if you want to solve the problem itself? What if you need to solve the problem to move ahead? Linux is noted for being rock solid, stable, and easy to manage but not as user friendly.

There is an ‘art’ form known as troubleshooting. The idea of troubleshooting problems when they occur, whether with the system bootup or setup, networking or network services, or applications in memory, is a daunting task for anyone. The clues are probably there somewhere, depending on experience. Finding the clues and working backwards from them is the intriguing part to the sleuth in anyone interested!

Source: http://www.bitpipe.com/detail/RES/1243442464_618.html?psrc=RLT

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