OpenSource Global

Open Source Workflow Engines in Java

2007-01-31T02:12:00.001-08:00

Open Source Workflow Engines in Java

The Open For Business Project: Workflow Engine Guide
The Open for Business Workflow Engine is based on the WfMC and OMG spec. it is a member of the Services Framework, and is tightly integrated with the Entity Engine. It uses the entities found in entitymodel_workflow.XML for definition information and entitymode_workeffort for runtime storage. All changes to a process or activity are persisted real-time. Therefore, the engine does not run in a thread, it is simply a group of APIs and common objects which handle the flow. When a change to the workflow is made, the engine then processes that change. When finished, the engine returns. Hence, if the application does crash, or the system reboots, the workflow will continue right where it left off upon restart.

Open Source Graphical XPDL Java Workflow Editor
Enhydra JaWE (Java Workflow Editor) is the first open source graphical Java workflow process editor fully according to WfMC specifications supporting XPDL as its native file format. It can be used to edit view every XPDL file which conforms to WfMC XPDL specifications, does NOT use any proprietary XPDL extensions and is available in English, German, French and Serbian language already. But we are still searching for volunteers for even more translations. Feel free to contribute. Advanced features like the consistency validation and guided property editor dialogs for all XPDL objects make it really easy to create valid XPDL files. The representation of workflow participants as "swimlanes" in the editor graphics gives a comprehensive overview of process responsibilities. In combination with Enhydra Shark, the Java XPDL Open Source Workflow Engine you get a complete workflow solution for embedded or standalone usage .

Open Source Workflow engine
WfMOpen is a J2EE based implementation of a workflow facility (workflow engine) as proposed by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) and the Object Management Group (OMG). The workflow component is based on a set of JAVA interfaces that define an API for a workflow management facility. The basic "omgcore" interfaces follow OMG's Workflow Management Facility Specification, V1.2 very closely, while making some modifications to adapt the CORBA service to the established design practices for a Java API. Workflows are specified using WfMC's XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) with some extensions.

Weblog: Open source workflow
In this blog we share our discoveries in our search for open source workflow management tools. For tools that we find interesting, we download the code, try to execute the engine, or even get our reference process model working. From documentation, I gather that wfmOpen's XPDL implementation is quite complete, and the type of changes mentioned in the changelog suggest that wfmOpen is used heavily in production environments. From the forums I gather that the wfmOpen folks are very much into commercial support for their engine, but at least that means that they're making money out of it, and that they feel the pain when the thing doesn't work.

The Open Source Business Engine
The Open Source Business engine is a flexible, modular, standards-compliant Open Source Java workflow engine. It is fully J2EE compliant, and supports several J2EE application servers, operating systems and databases. It faithfully implements Workflow Management Coalition Open Standards (WfMC), to which it offers a variety of extensions and enhancements. OBE is equally suited to embedded or standalone deployment.
OBE supports automated, manual and mixed workflow processes, and has extensible work item allocation and activity completion algorithms. Activities are automated through an extensible system of Tool Agents, which enable the invocation of external logic defined in Java classes, EJBs, native executables, scripts in arbitrary scripting languages, Web Services, and so on. Human interactions are managed through work items, which can be purely manual or can provide the means to invoke the appropriate software tools. OBE provides a worklist API and worklist clients to manage work items.

A flexible workflow management system
The most innovative aspect of OpenFlow is its flexibility. Unlike others WfMS, OpenFlow can easily handle all the exceptional situations that usually stress workflow-based applications. Moreover, from the analysis of the exceptional situations encountered, it is possible to dynamically modify workflows in order to increase efficiency and make the conceptual flow closer to the real one. OpenFlow offers complete support to deal with exceptional situations that could occur in workflows; it offers various tools for the administrator to bring back the system in a coherent state.
Every exceptional case can be traced, isolated and properly processed, so that it can be re-inserted in the flow. Thus, it is no more necessary to forecast every possible situation while modelling the process: the system will remain always coherent, always up and running.

JBoss adds open source BPM engine to its offerings
JBoss Inc. announced today it has added a business process workflow engine to its array of open source offerings. Known for its popular application server, JBoss said it has acquired the open source Java Business Process Management project (jBPM) and hired its founder and lead developer, Belgian Tom Baeyens. JBoss vice president of strategy and development Bob Bickel said jBPM has been downloaded 30,000 times and will be available from JBoss as a free download under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL). The LGPL is amenable to businesses because it requires the user to release only the changes made to the open source code, unlike the GPL which requires release of the entire code stack to the development community.

Open Source Workflow
Open Source Workflow is fairly different from most other workflow systems available, both commercially and in the open source world. What makes OSWorkflow different is that it is extremely flexible. This can be hard to grasp at first, however. For example, OSWorkflow does not mandate a graphical tool for developing workflows, and the recommended approach is to write the xml workflow descriptors 'by hand'. It is up to the application developer to provide this sort of integration, as well as any integration with existing code and databases. These may seem like problems to someone who is looking for a quick "plug-and-play" workflow solution, but we've found that such a solution never provides enough flexibility to properly fulfill all requirements in a full-blown application.

Workflow, BPM and BPEL made practical
JBoss jBPM enables the creation of business processes that coordinate between people, applications and services. Designed for the mass market as well as supporting enterprise scale applications, jBPM bring process automation to a much wider set of business problems ranging from embedded workflow to enterprise business process orchestration and BPM. JBoss jBPM is a platform for multiple process languages supporting workflow, BPM, and process orchestration. Today, JBoss jBPM supports two process languages: 1. jPDL is a process language to implement BPM and workflow in Java. jPDL combines human task management with workflow process constructs that can be built in Java applications. 2. BPEL provides process orchestration which is the abililty to combine web services into a process execution flow.

The Open For Business Project: Workflow Engine Guide
The Open for Business Workflow Engine is based on the WfMC and OMG specifications. The Workflow Engine is a member of the Services Framework, and is tightly integrated with the Entity Engine. It uses the entities found in entitymodel-workflow.XML for definition information and entitymode-workeffort for runtime storage. All changes to a process or activity are persisted real-time. Therefore, the engine does not run in a thread, it is simply a group of APIs and common objects which handle the flow. When a change to the workflow is made, the engine then processes that change. When finished, the engine returns. Hence, if the application does crash, or the system reboots, the workflow will continue right where it left off upon restart. The Workflow Engine is not designed for processing flow of a web site. This is a common misconception. Web site flow is controlled by the Control Servlet. Workflow is the processing of manual and automatic activities to fulfill a specific goal.

Bossa is a workflow engine written in Java
Bossa is a workflow engine written in Java. The engine is very fast and lightweight, without sacrificing functionality. Its main strengths are the very expressive Petri net based notation it uses to define workflows and the powerful resource selection mechanisms it provides. Also, it is free software licensed under the GNU GPL. Bossa does not require a RDBMS and is very simple to use and to integrate with java applications. Actually, it was designed to be embedded. Therefore, Bossa is organized as a library to be used by server side applications (especially web oriented ones) that need workflow services. The characteristic that makes Bossa at the same time simple and powerful is the clear separation between workflow logic and application logic. We believe that the application's workflow logic should be abstracted in the same way that RDBMSs abstract the application's data storage and retrieval concerns.

J2EE Cooperative Workflow System
Bonita is a workflow system featuring innovative features like activities that can start in anticipation awareness infrastructure allowing user notification of any events occurring during the execution in a given process , or automatic activation of user's code according to a defined activity life cycle. Traditional workflow features like dynamic user/roles resolution, activity performer and sequential execution are also included in Bonita to support both cooperative and administrative workflow processes. Bonita is a fully conformant J2EE application, taking advantage of the power and robustness of the J2EE platform. The BONITA API is accessible either thru EJBs or Web Services calls. Processes are created using a graphical definition tool, by using the Project interface API or by means of a XPDL file definition. A process is defined as a set of activities and an associated execution model. The enactment engine takes care of scheduling the activities according to the defined execution model.

OpenWFE is open source workflow engine
OpenWFE is an open source workflow engine. It is implemented in Java, and is available under the BSD license. OpenWFE not only features a workflow engine, but also a full fledged Business Process Management Suite. OpenWFE contains these features and many more:
* a worklist component for storing workitems (tasks) for participants
* an APRE component, allowing you to implement automated agents into your work flows
* Droflo, our web-based flow designer
* and a well-documented REST interface and several libraries to access it, with more on the way.

Jakarta Turbine Web Application Framework
Turbine is a servlet based framework that allows experienced Java developers to quickly build web applications. Turbine allows you to use personalize the web sites and to use user logins to restrict access to parts of your application. Turbine is a matured and well established framework that is used as the base of many other projects (like e.g. the excellent Jetspeed 1 Portals framework. Turbine is an excellent choice for developing applications that make use of a services-oriented architecture. Some of the functionality provided with Turbine includes a security management system, a scheduling service, XML-defined form validation server, and an XML-RPC service for web services. It is a simple task to create new services particular to your application.

Open source bexee-BPEL Execution engine
Bexee stands for BPEL Execution Engine and is an open source implementation of the BPEL standard. The bexee project has been initiated in the scope of a diploma project at the Berne University of Applied Sciences, School of Engineering and Information Technology The goal of the Web Services effort is to achieve universal interoperability between applications by using Web standards. Web Services use a loosely coupled integration model to allow flexible integration of heterogeneous systems in a variety of domains including business-to-consumer, business-to-business and enterprise application integration. Systems integration requires more than the ability to conduct simple interactions by using standard protocols. The full potential of Web Services as an integration platform will be achieved only when applications and business processes are able to integrate their complex interactions by using a standard process integration model .

Open Source Business Model

2007-01-31T02:11:00.001-08:00

Open Source Business Model

What is the open source business model
It is often confusing to people to learn that an open source company may give its products away for free or for a minimal cost. While it is true that an open source business may not make money directly from its products, it is untrue that open source companies do not generate stable and scalable revenue streams. In actuality, in the 21st century web technology market, it is the open source company that has the greatest long-term strategic advantage. This is demonstrated by companies such as LINUX, Apache, and Netscape, a host of web-specific technologies such as Java, Perl, TCL, and a host of web-specific technology companies such as Send mail. The open source business model relies on shifting the commercial value away from the actual products and generating revenue from the 'Product Halo,' or ancillary services like systems integration, support, tutorials and documentation.
Open Source as a Business Approach
The purpose of this section of the website is to describe, in general terms, how open source business models work so as to provide a starting point for discussion of what would be involved in translating the open source approach from the software to the biotechnology context. I envisage two kinds of audience for my attempts to determine the viability of open source biotechnology as a business model. The first is made up of companies that release, sell and/or support biotechnology research tools commercially. In this category there are two subcategories: startups and established firms. Startups may be a tougher crowd because they are only likely to get one stab at getting established and may prefer what they see as the safer option of adopting the familiar IP-rent approach. On the other hand, established firms have more to lose by converting to a new approach.
The Open Source Business Model
In a recent column, she considered open source software as a business model, and found much to recommend it. For the sake of this discussion, the terms Open Source Model and Free Software Model which in theory are synonymous, will be used differently: Open source has come to mean a larger set of software and software producers which do not adhere to all the qualities of a free software company, but perhaps some or most of them. The term open source has also gained currency since, as Sol puts it free software tended to scare off some people, especially investors and large clients, and open source did better in boardroom discussions. Her argument centers around the contention that the open source software development process produces applications which equal or best applications produced in closed environments. The major reasons why are given below.
An open source business model
Following is a series of notes on an open source business model that I think could unleash community driven software development. Today, workable open source business models that involve community driven software development are rare. The two models you typically encounter are:
* You start and lead an open source project, and sell services around it; but I hardly see how this model can work, since you end up financing the R&D of your competitors.
* You contribute to an already existing and widely supported open source project, and sell services around it; making this model a bit more workable .
A Business Model For Open Source
Tomorrow I’m heading out to San Diego to speak at the Linux Desktop Summit. I’ll be talking about Breaking the Barriers to the Acceptance of the Linux Desktop and I wanted to share some thoughts about the Open Source market .An important part of the Open Source market is the underlying operating system, generally Linux, which is developed by a volunteer community, with the assistance and cooperation of a number of for-profit companies (hardware, software, and services) that have a vested interest in the success and continuing refinement of Linux. It is a popular myth to think of these volunteers as entirely unpaid and Linux as free, but, in fact this explanation seems less true over time.
Open-Source As A Business Model?
Open-source, as an approach to create software as a commodity, new ways of doing journalism, news reporting and even video production may seem a little too cutting edge to many, but indeed these new experimental ways of working collaboratively and from the roots, show great promise as each day passes. That's why open-source as a business model may soon become more attractive to many, especially those who prioritize meaning and the greater good above a fatter wallet. Today, Slash dot opened its email-based news digest with an emblematic short introduction to a possible open-source approach in running a business company. While very simple and undetailed on many aspects, the post is representative of a growing trend toward open-source, P2P, collaboration and grassroots cooperation that sees no slowdown.
Open source business models come to the fore
A few years ago, releasing once-secret source code to the public would have been a highly unusual first move for a company with a newly acquired software product line. But that's exactly what Integrated Computer Solutions is announcing this week with the Project.net project management software it bought on 1 January. And it's a move that today is downright ordinary. Open source software has become not only increasingly mainstream, but it's also often a way for a company to gain advantage over a proprietary rival with a close guard over its software's underlying instructions. Integrated Computer Solutions announced its open source move in conjunction with the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco this week. The conference has become a focus for a new wave of open source companies with products that often run at a higher level than earlier open source successes such as Linux or Apache.
Open Source Business Model in OATH
It's a business model that seems to work for Safehaus, an organization now collaborating with OATH (Initiative for Open AuTHentication) on technologies for authenticating cell phone subscribers, among other things. For its part, OATH was formed by vendors who perceived a void in standards around authentication based on strong encryption, said David Berman, OATH's membership chair, during an interview with LinuxPlanet. The static password has been a weak link. We need to drive down the costs of strong authentication," according to Berman, who is also director of partner marketing for VeriSign Security Services.
The Open Source Business Model
In the financial sense, I mean. Sometimes, a large corporation will offer a project funding. Or perhaps they will hire the primary developer and allow him to continue working on the project, as Microsoft has done with Iron Python. Most open source authors that I know of aren’t writing their software for the money they hope to make with it. They work on it because they love it and would do it even if there is no hope of gaining funding of any sort. They work on their projects in their spare moments before and after the job that pays the bills and when they aren’t enjoying time spent with their families. Sometimes, a project gains a large enough of a user base that the project’s author is able to offer his services around the project on a paid basis. Recently, Kevin Dangoor, the creator of Turbo Gears, announced that he would be offering consulting services around Turbo Gears, primarily development of Turbo Gears features, coaching, and training.
Enterprise Open Source Business Model
Enterprise Open Source is the business model of eZ systems, meaning that we do business in the realm of freedom and responsibility. While our products are Open Source licensed, eZ systems is still a company with a professionally hired crew. Thus, just like any other company, we deliver if you pay us and we need to make money to pay our crew and bills. Since 1999, eZ systems has been creating Open Source software and serves its customers. During that time, we have first of all experienced the benefits of Open Source when it comes to efficient product development and distribution. We acknowledge that our software would not have been as good as it is today without the help of an active community and the Open Source development model.
Matra Datavision: towards an open source business model
On December 1999, Matra Datavision announced the adoption of an open source strategy for its CASCADE geometric modeling libraries with publication of their source code on the Internet, as the Open CASCADE product, distributed under a LGPL-like licence. Before that announcement, CASCADE had been marketed using a traditional, proprietary model, with an installed base of about 130 active customers, using 250 development licences and 1,500 run-time licences worldwide. From a technical point of view, Open CASCADE is a set of components for the development of technical and scientific modeling applications ranging from CAD/CAM/CAE to metrology and measuring machines, biomedical software, 3D geological mapping, optical simulation, product design and styling. When Matra Datavision decide that Open CASCADE was to be distributed under an open source licence, they gave developers free access to the source code of many 3D geometry data structures including hundreds of modeling algorithms.

Open Source Application Server(2)

2007-01-31T02:09:00.000-08:00

Open Source Application Server

New Open-Source Application Server
A new open source application server is available for download from WSO2 Inc., a little known but highly regarded Sri Lankan firm of open source developers. It's Tungsten 1.0 application server is designed to handle Ajax and other scripting based applications more efficiently. The WSO2 stands for Web Services Oxygenation, perhaps an alchemist's way of saying it's time to activate a new generation of Web applications. Nevertheless, WSO2 is bringing a fresh set of concepts and standards to the notion of an application server, software that gives a Web site its ability to scale across many users. Application servers available today, such as IBM Web Sphere, BEA Systems WebLogic, and Red Hat's JBoss, are written in Java and geared to run Java applications. WSO2's Tungsten 1.0 comes in both Java and C versions, with the latter offering some advantages when it comes to dealing with Web technologies.
Open-source application server enters the fray
Enterprise computing has increasingly embraced open-source Web servers, operating systems, tools, and browsers -- so the arrival of an open-source application server should come as little surprise. Lutris Technologies, a consultancy in Santa Cruz, Calif., will announce April 19 that its free, open-source Java/Extensible Markup Language (XML) application server, Enhydra, is gathering momentum both in deployment and via the efforts of developers contributing to its evolution. The privately held company, which oversees Enhydra's development in the open-source milieu, claims Enhydra is the only open-source XML compiler and server available. Lutris hopes to do to the application server space what Apache has done for the Web server arena and Linux has done for platforms: commoditize the baseline functionality at little or no cost to users while leveraging the benefits of open-source development progress and testing to advance the product.
WS02 Debuts Tungsten, Open Source Application Server
WSO2, a new start-up creating open source platforms for Web services, launched its premier product, Tungsten, and announced that the company has received an investment from Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of Intel Corporation. Founded by technology pioneers, the WSO2 team is comprised of individuals instrumental in establishing Web services and SOAP standards, and longtime contributors to the Apache open source project. The middleware market today is dominated by expensive, complex products that will be rapidly commodities by less expensive, technically superior open source alternatives that have been created specifically for today’s Web services environments, said Sanjiva Weerawarana, CEO of WSO2. “WSO2 has developed an open, modern architecture that delivers the cleanest standards support.
Red Hat Delivers Open Source Application Server
The world's leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise, today announced the availability of Red Hat Application Server. Red Hat is delivering this new solution in response to customer demand for a commercially supported, lightweight and lower cost application server. With this announcement, Red Hat is reinforcing its strategy to work with partners and open source developers to create quality enterprise options for customers building Open Source Architectures. Customers have been asking for an open source application server that is fully interoperable with existing J2EE vendors, so that they can leverage open source where possible while protecting legacy investments, said Paul Cormier, Executive Vice President of Engineering at Red Hat. "The open source web and Java communities are flourishing and expanding with organizations such as Apache, Object Web and Eclipse driving the innovation. The application server was a natural next step for open source.
Open source application server and integration tools
At its JavaOne conference today, Sun Microsystems Inc. unveiled new open source initiatives designed to keep itself and Java relevant in the emerging service-oriented architecture era. Amidst a 10th birthday for Java featuring a ragtime band and a ukelele-wielding mascot, Sun threw its weight behind open software development by releasing code for the popular Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9.0 and Java System Enterprise Server Bus, which is based on the Java Business Integration (JBI) specification (JSR 208), plus new SOA tools.
Sun CEO Scott McNealy stressed that Sun doesn't make money by selling Java as a language, but rather by coming up with commercial uses for Java. In the SOA space he made no bones about Java and Microsoft's .NET platform being in a foot race.
Red Hat Packages Up Open Source Application Server
While operating systems may no longer be the absolute control points that they used to be in the server market, they are still a decent foundation on which to build a business. But a foundation is not a house, and that is why the commercial Linux distributors have focused on selling services and support and moving up the software stack to peddle all kinds of middleware. Red Hat threw its hat in the middleware ring last week as it announced an integrated open source application server to sell with its Enterprise Linux 3 platform. Commercial application servers from IBM, BEA Systems, or Oracle are not really a single program, but an amalgam of many different programs that do a lot of different work to link back end systems to front end Web clients. The same holds true with the new Red Hat Application Server, which was announced at the Linux World trade show in San Francisco last week. As you might expect, the Red Hat Application Server is based on open source software and is only supported on Red Hat's own Linux server variants.
Open Source XML Application Server
Planet 7 Technologies of Redmond, WA has released a beta version of its XML Application Server (XAS) under the Open Source licence. The XML Application Server is written in Java and requires a Java Virtual Machine. The XML Application Server allows XML documents to be shared and modified in real-time by multiple users whose interactions with the document become part of the document. It is intended for interactive, collaborative applications, especially where monitoring user activity in real-time is important. XML.com contacted Chris Jones, the CEO of Planet 7 Technologies who along with business partner, Drew Batchelor, is the author of the upcoming Open Source Linux Web Programming . Here's what Jones told XML.com about using the XML Application Server. The first step is to make an XML representation of your web site. The resultant XML document may have nodes representing each page, and perhaps even the content within them. This document is published to XAS ready for client access.
Open Source application server for Linux
The WebSphere Application Server Community Edition (WAS CE) is a lightweight J2EE application server built on Apache Geronimo, the open source application server project of the Apache Software Foundation. WAS CE is the follow-on product for Glue code SE that the Glue code company always envisioned. Find out what this new Community Edition app server, which is 90% Apache Geronimo, means to the open source Apache Geronimo development community. WebSphere Application Server Community Edition (quite a mouthful; let's just say WAS CE) is based on the Apache Geronimo M5 (milestone 5) driver, which the project delivered in October. Geronimo M5 was the first official J2EE-certified driver from the project. This IBM product redistributes the Apache Geronimo code base in an easy-to-install-and
-go configuration -- along with professional documentation -- to make sure that the early developer experience is a positive one.
Open Source J2EE Application Server
The Apache Software Foundation announced the release of Apache Geronimo Version 1.1, an open source J2EE application server from the Apache Geronimo project. This release continues the evolution of the Apache Geronimo server, adding new features and capabilities to a fully compliant J2EE container suitable for everything from development to enterprise deployments. Along with many new features Apache Geronimo Version 1.1 introduces several structural changes designed to improve scalability, portability and overall organization. An easy-to-
use configuration and management console provides access to the new innovative plug-in architecture, allowing advanced control over the rich modularity of the Apache Geronimo server as well as simplifying day-to-day operational management tasks.
Open Source Grid Application Server
ActiveGrid Inc, a commercial open source software company, announced the early-access release of the company's next-generation enterprise application platform. The Active Grid Application Builder and Grid Application Server are now available for download under the popular open source Apache Software License 2.0. Built on the proven LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl) software stack, the ActiveGrid platform is designed to scale business applications across horizontal Grids of commodity computers -- accelerating composite application development, reducing cost, and enabling customization at runtime .

Open Source Antivirus

2007-01-31T02:08:00.001-08:00

Open Source Antivirus

Developing Open Source AntiVirus Engines
According to its Web site, the OpenAntivirus Project is “a platform for people seriously interested in antivirus research, network security and computer security to communicate with each other, to develop solutions for various security problems, and to develop new security technologies.” Among these technologies are Scanner Daemon, Virus Hammer and Pattern Finder, which are “a first implementation of a GPLed virus scanner written in Java.” This article will take a look at the OpenAntivirus AV engine, assess its progress so far, and offer some suggestions of how the developers can continue to develop it. While some of the commentary in the following sections may be fairly critical, the purpose of this paper is not to flame the OpenAV project or its developers but, on the contrary, to salute their efforts. Hopefully, this article and the comments herein will make a significant contribution to the development of a viable, working open source antivirus product.
Open Source Anti-Virus for the Whole Network
Until recently, there was not a strong open source presence in the anti-virus realm. Now, however, there is more than one project in this arena, and the ClamAV project in particular is proving its ability to provide software scanning in a way that's adaptable and effective. In the spirit of the Unix philosophy, Doug McIlroy said, "Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together." ClamAV demonstrates just how effective this model continues to be. The ClamAV engine simply filters any input given and outputs a basic summary stating whether a virus was detected. This simplicity makes it appropriate for scanning content on a local file system, network file system, Web proxy, mail gateway, or whatever.
ClamAV antivirus Open source
ClamAV For Windows is a completely free and open source anti-virus software package. ClamAV is an open source antivirus solution for UNIX/Linux operating systems. It features a command line interface for scanning files, updating the virus definitions, and a daemon for faster scanning needed on high performance systems. ClamAV is a security software that protect your PC against virues. Unlike most antivirus products, ClamAV requires no yearly subscription fee, and is completely free with source code to anyone who wishes to use it. Because ClamAV is released under the GPL v2 license, you must follow all license requirements if you modify the ClamAV source code, or use it in your own projects. The SOSDG has taken the latest ClamAV from the CVS tree, compiled it against the current stable Cygwin DLLs, which provide a full UNIX/Linux compatibility layer for Windows operating systems.
Open Source Not Ready for Anti-Virus
Anti-virus software is definitely a challenge for the open-source model, and while there is at least one active program, there's no good evidence of how well it works. The anti-virus business is an interesting one. On the one hand, it's amazingly competitive on a worldwide basis, even if Symantec dominates the U.S. consumer market; there are a lot of companies in this business. But it's also a disappointing business technologically. The companies are not out to solve a problem as much as to acquire an annuity stream in the form of subscriptions for signature updates. So where does the free software movement fit in all this? For their own purposes, viruses and the other things a signature-based scanner would find are a comparatively minor problem. If you're a Linux or BSD user, there aren't many viruses that can attack you. But there are plenty of file and mail servers running on Linux that service Windows users.
Clam AntiVirus: Open source vs. the bad guys
Protecting against viruses has become an inherent part of using a computer, thanks to the pervasiveness of email, a favorite delivery platform for malicious code. Open source software, in the form of Clam AntiVirus, can help you detect these rogue programs before they hit your inbox, whether you run Linux or Windows. In fact, you can install ClamAV on a wide range of operating systems, either through pre-compiled binaries or by a source code build. This flexibility gives ClamAV a distinct advantage over competing products in the virus detection arena, which often ignore users with older or non-mainstream operating environments. If you detect a malicious executable within your network, you may submit your suspicious file to the ClamAV database for the benefit of the whole community, a process which accelerates the response and detection time for newly spreading viruses. Because the users pitch in, ClamAV doesn't have to charge for subscription updates, as most commercial vendors do.
Open-source antivirus tech may get commercial
To plug a hole in its intrusion-prevention product, eEye Digital Security may adopt the Clam AntiVirus project and improve the open-source software. eEye's Blink intrusion-prevention product includes system- and application-level firewalls and protects computers against phishing, spyware and exploitation of known vulnerabilities. "Antivirus is the only missing piece," Ross Brown, eEye's chief operating officer, said in an interview with CNET News.com. Blink is used by about 250 organizations worldwide, including the U.S. Army and the Department of Homeland Security, according to Brown. Some want the product to include antivirus support, so eEye is considering its options, including adopting the Clam AntiVirus project.
Forum Systems to Support Open Source Clam Antivirus
Forum Systems announced its support for Clam Antivirus, a leading Open Source antivirus toolkit. Forum XWall Web Services Firewall now integrates and extends the Clam Antivirus scanning engine to prevent the propagation of virus, worms, Trojans and other malicious software that finds its way into XML and SOAP documents, the emerging standards for business communications. Clam AntiVirus is an open source content scanning engine that is widely adopted for its high performance virus database and comprehensive malware signature database. The new Open Source-based module is available at no extra fee to Forum XWall customers. Recent industry examples with financial companies such as CardSystems Solutions, ChoicePoint, Bank of America and Wachovia point to lost, misplaced or stolen data that could potentially affect millions of customers. A virus embedded in XML messages and documents is another avenue by which malicious users are able to corrupt workflows, steal data and stall enterprise productivity.
Anti-Virus Vendors Disagree on Open Source
Days after anti-virus software provider McAfee issued a special report on the dangers of the open source method when it comes to combating malware, competitor Trend Micro is stumping for the other side of the argument, pointing out that it's the "openness" of open source that makes malware easier to find - and find quickly. Trend Micro's CTO is cited here for the proposition that security loopholes are fixed faster and malware is combated more efficiently because open source developers address security issues as they happen rather than waiting for the next patch cycle to come around, as is common in proprietary software companies. An SMB usually has fewer dollars to spend and less pull with vendors than a large enterprise, which could result in less than optimal anti-malware. Clam AntiVirus, profiled here, is an open source alternative developed for UNIX systems that is gaining respect in the enterprise arena.
Forum Systems to Support Open Source Clam Antivirus
Forum Systems, the leader in Web services security for threat protection and trust management, announced today its support for Clam Antivirus (http://www.clamav.net/), the leading Open Source antivirus toolkit. Forum XWall Web Services Firewall now integrates and extends the Clam Antivirus scanning engine to prevent the propagation of virus, worms, Trojans and other malicious software that finds its way into XML and SOAP documents, the emerging standards for business communications. Clam AntiVirus is an open source content scanning engine that is widely adopted for its high performance virus database and comprehensive malware signature database. The new Open Source-based module is available at no extra fee to Forum XWall customers. Recent industry examples with financial companies such as CardSystems Solutions, ChoicePoint, Bank of America and Wachovia point to lost, misplaced or stolen data that could potentially affect millions of customers. A virus embedded in XML messages and documents is another avenue by which malicious users are able to corrupt workflows, steal data and stall enterprise productivity.

Open Source Accounting

2007-01-31T02:06:00.000-08:00

Open Source Accounting

Turbocase open source Accounting software
TurboCASH .7 is an open source accounting package that is free for everyone to download and distribute under the terms of the General Public Licence (GPL). It is one of the world's first fully-featured open source accounts packages for small business. Turbo CASH is much more than a simple 'home finances' or small business bookkeeping system . Small business accounting software providers typically release a low-end product for £100 that excludes such basic features as stock control. TurboCASH includes most functions a business will ever need: debtors, creditors, general ledger, full stock control, VAT accounting, invoicing, bank reconciliation, trial balance, balance sheet and income statements, full reporting and analysis, as well as mutli-company and multi-user capabilities.
Pros and Cons of Open Source Accounting Software
Open source applications are an important part of the computer landscape and need a proper evaluation when making computer decisions. While open source licensing has no cost, open source computing is not “free.” The focus of this article is to consider whether open source is a viable platform for accounting applications. There are lots of applications built on an open source platform, such as the operating system from Linux and the Internet browsers from Firefox and Mozilla. Typically, open source software starts with a small company developing the foundation application code. Other software developing companies, individuals and small groups test and determine the code’s usefulness and whether they have any interest in enhancing the code. This public participation creates the opportunity for a major collaboration among the original developers and a wide range of other developers. Some believe that open source is the domain of the geek who does nothing but play with code. With easy access to an open source application, the techie can wreak havoc and make error-filled changes. However, this does not happen.
Open Source Accounting and Inventory Program Launched
A web based, open source accounting and inventory program called NOLA has been released. It appears that this program is fully web based, so it should be especially useful if you need remote access to accounting and inventory systems, or if you are working in a mixed platform environment. According to the press release: Noguska has long been a leader in the graphic arts niche market, installing it's various accounting, estimating, and management packages for businesses around the globe. The release of it's Web Based NOLA accounting software under the GPL promises to bring Noguska's software engineering expertise to the business accounting software market.
Open Source Accounting Software in Business
In the world today there are new businesses that are opening. Many of these new businesses are small and need help with the financial and accounting concerns of the business but do not have a lot of money to spend on elaborate software. Luckily, there is Open Source Software which provides these companies with free downloadable programs that will help run the business and provide up-to-date information. Open Source Software gives new business owners a chance to succeed with no cost. With the advancements in communications and technology, more and more people are opening small businesses and successfully operating them from their home. Accounting in large and small businesses is an important part of running a successful business. Today, there are many software programs that are designed to aid in the accounting portion of business. The problem with these programs is that they are very expensive and small businesses do not have the funds to purchase the expensive programs.
The business of sharing - accounting for open source
The benefits of free, open source software are great, and managed well can add great value to a business. Existing accounting best practices offer guidance on how best to account for the benefits of these, alongside the broad spectrum of other software in use today. Make sure you see the full value of your IT investment . Free" or open source software could be compared to a potluck dinner- you bring something nice to share, and you are free to choose from whatever you like. Take some of this, skip that. How well you eat depends as much on your own preferences as on the culinary skills of the other guests. And nobody checks to see if you really did bring something; it’s just expected, not enforced. Open source technology allows you to build a system up at your own pace for your own needs. Because source code is shared openly, you can freely use the useful innovations made by other companies or individuals from your original ideas. Through this process, a company can build value from inside and outside its operations.
Open Source Accounting Solutions
At first glance, you might think accounting systems are the main type of software that keep you using Windows systems. QuickBooks, Peachtree, Microsoft Money, and Quicken all run on Windows, and not directly in Linux. These programs have certainly captured the market for financial software for small businesses. Slightly larger businesses opt for expensive enterprise accounting systems such as Great Plains, MAS 90, and Lawson. These programs require extensive customization to make them work for a particular business. A few open source systems have emerged to provide compelling alternatives to proprietary accounting software. These systems are beginning to surpass the proprietary offerings in terms of features, customizability, and flexibility.

Open Source Project Management

2007-01-31T02:05:00.001-08:00

Open Source Project Management tool
dotProject is a volunteer supported Project Management application. There is no "company" behind this project, it is managed, maintained, developed and supported by a volunteer group and by the users themselves. The software is free to anyone who would like to download it. Day to day support is provided free by volunteers. If you would like to see the system in operation - use the Demo link in the modules list to the left top of the site. If you would like to download the package use the downloads link on the top right. Please be aware that the CVS snapshot is guaranteed to be UNSTABLE and should not be used on a production site or if you are not willing to have to do some work at the code level. If you are looking for support, to ask a question or to check to see if issues have been raised by others - use the support link at the top right to access our support forums.
An Open-Source Based Project Management System
This web page is about the technical details of project-open and its developer community. This page is designed for software developers, administrators and users with certain technical background. project-open is a very complete online platform and already contains today many of the feature that are currently announced by many large international companies. We can provide these features thanks to the open-source nature of ]project-open[ that allows us to tap into thousands of many years of development time from other open-source projects such as OpenACS, AOLServer, PostgreSQL, CygWin, CVS, Postfix, Linux, Pound, Inno Setup, etc. project-open is an open-source based project management system. Functionality include internet collaboration and e-Rooms, discussion forums, Internet file storage, customer management (CRM), timesheet management, management accounting with profit & loss per project, basic human resources management (HR), provider & freelance database, search engine, reporting, translation workflow and many more.
Open source or low-cost project management
We're looking for an open source or low-cost Web-based project management tool. The most important feature we need is a decent calendaring system that will work with users from distributed groups that don't share an e-mail platform. We would like the kind of functionality Outlook provides for calendars and tasks in an Exchange environment, but without requiring that everyone use Outlook and Exchange. There are several free and low-cost project management and collaboration groupware tools, ranging from full-featured project management portals to simple task trackers, or software tool kits that interchange information and data files between open formats and Microsoft Project.
Open Source Website Content Management System
OpenCms helps to create and manage complex websites easily without knowledge of html. An integrated WYSIWYG editor with a user interface similar to well known office applications helps the user creating the contents, while a sophisticated template engine enforces a site-wide corporate layout. As true Open Source software, OpenCms is completely free of licensing costs. OpenCms is based on Java and XML technology. Therefore it fits perfectly into almost any existing modern IT infrastructure. OpenCms runs in a "full open source" environment (e.g. Linux, Apache, Tomcat, MySQL) as well as on commercial components .
Free source project management
Project management and engineering is a largely neglected aspect of free source development. Monty R. Manley addressed this issue in a recent article on linuxprogramming.com, but I have reservations about his particular recommendations. Nevertheless, it's an issue we need to tackle. Manley's article is very thought-provoking, and prodded me to give some thought to issues that have been at the back of my mind for a while. As a free source project lead myself (for gimp-print), I've had to face a lot of these issues. In my professional career, I've frequently been both a developer and release engineer, and I've developed some insights from this experience.
Open-Source Project Management Software
Open-source based project management software announces the release of Version 3.0 of project-consulting . The new version runs with the free PostgreSQL database on both Linux and Windows, allowing SMEs to take advantage of Internet technology at zero license cost. The open-source based project-consulting project management solution has been designed for the specific needs of small and medium companies. Working with project-consulting allows you to perform your projects more cost-efficiently which leads to competitive advantages. The open-source idea is just beginning to gain momentum in the market for project management software and will ultimately revolutionize the market. We want to give our customers the chance to take advantage of these developments as soon as possible.
The paradox of open source project management
Leaders from three separate but related - and incredibly successful -- free/open source projects agree: If you want the project to move to the next level, let go and let the community take over. We asked Larry Wall, creator of Perl; Brian Behlendorf, the Apache Project leader; and Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, for their thoughts on why this happens and how they and their projects have fared as a result. All of these projects are tied in some way to the great enabler: the Internet. They share synergy with it. All have contributed to the growth of the Internet, and the Internet has provided the medium that has allowed them to thrive. If the Internet is one extended machine network, Perl is the baling wire that has held it together. The Apache Server has come out of nowhere to dominate the Internet statistically. And Linux is probably the best-loved kernel of all time, whose popularity continues to surge.

Open Source Installer

2007-01-31T02:04:00.001-08:00

Open Source Installer

Open source installer tool
NSIS (Null soft Scriptable Install System) is a professional open source system to create Windows installers. It is designed to be as small and flexible as possible and is therefore very suitable for internet distribution. Being a user's first experience with your product, a stable and reliable installer is an important component of successful software. With NSIS you can create such installers that are capable of doing everything that is needed to setup your software. NSIS is script-based and allows you to create the logic to handle even the most complex installation tasks. Many plug-ins and scripts are already available: you can create web installers, communicate with Windows and other software components, install or update shared components.
Open Source Java Tool Installer
MyJavaPack is a platform independent installer of Java developer goodies. This distribution contains valuable, up to date, Open Source software. The software breakdown is: dev tools (e.g. Ant, Eclipse), frameworks (e.g. Hibernate, Spring, Struts, Velocity), servers (e.g. JBoss, Tomcat, HSQL, MySQL), and admin tools (e.g. MySQL Administrator, Webmin). MyJavaPack Home is open source software trying to fill basically the same niche. It does installation of lots of Java development tools and a few common open source tools that aren't just for Java (e.g. MySQL). It doesn't have as many different tools it can install nor does it offer to install example projects which use subsets of the other tools to confirm that installed everything correctly or to give you a quick starting point for your own work.
Litestep Open Source Installer
Download the beta from the downloads section and save it to a place where you can easaly find it, like your desktop. Use it in every way you can think of, then report back on what didn't work. But don't just run it once. Try it as many times as possible, with different options every time. The more senarios you can try, the better. This site provides free project hosting for the LiteStep community. Project hosting and software development tools are available to anyone with a project idea that is somehow related to LiteStep. From here you may browse the active projects or start your own.
Quake3 Open Source - Installer on several Platforms
Quake 3 source code has been released under GPL by id Software .The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. You can apply it to your programs, too. When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
Sugar Open Source Installation Guide
The contents of this document are subject to the Sugar Public License and the SugarCRM Community License Agreement You may not use this document except in compliance with the License that you choose. Software and documents distributed under the License are distributed on an “AS IS” basis, without Warranty of any kind , either express or implied. All SugarCRM logos in this document are registeredtrademarks of SugarCRM Inc. See the SugarCRM trademark policies at www.sugarcrm.com/trademark for more information on how SugarCRM trademarks can be used.
Open source, multiplatform installer and builder
InstallJammer is a multiplatform GUI installer designed to be completely cross-platform and function on Windows and most all versions of UNIX with eventual support for Mac OS X. It features a very powerful install builder with support for multiple themes and a high level of configurability for installers. Installers are built as single executable files for easy distribution over the web and handle installing everything you need for your application in a simple, cross-platform way. The InstallJammer Team is pleased to announce the release of InstallJammer 1.0.2. This release fixes some minor bugs that have been reported since the 1.0.1 release.

Developer Open Source Library

2007-01-31T01:59:00.000-08:00

Introduction of moo.fox
moo.fx is a super lightweight, ultratiny, megasmall JavaScript effects library, written with prototype.js. It's easy to use, fast, cross-browser, standards compliant, provides controls to modify Height, Width, and Opacity with builtin checks that won't let a user break the effect with multiple crazy clicks. It's also optimized to make you write the lesser code possible. moo.fx has been successfully tested with: Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. It should work in most of the gecko browsers too. Only Height and Width will work in Opera, since that browser does not support opacity. moo.fx is not a replacement for script.aculo.us or other effects libraries. It's just a little alternative for people (like me) that do not need more than just simple, basic effects.
Rico an open source JavaScript
Ajax is the term that describes a set of web development techniques for creating interactive web applications. One of the key ingredients is the JavaScript object XmlHttpRequest. Rico provides a very simple interface for registering Ajax request handlers as well as HTML elements or JavaScript objects as Ajax response objects. Multiple elements and/or objects may be updated as the result of one Ajax request. Desktop applications have long used drag and drop in their interfaces to simplify user interaction. Rico provides one of the simplest interfaces for enabling your web application to support drag and drop. Just register any HTML element or JavaScript object as a draggable and any other HTML element or JavaScript object as a drop zone and Rico handles the rest.
Swat is an open-source web application
Swat is a new project and has not yet had a release 1.0, but most of the toolkit is already in place and available in our Subversion repository. Announcements will be made on the mailing list. We've long been the beneficiaries of open-source software at silver orange, building many of our websites and web applications on top of an open-source stack (PHP, Apache, Linux, PostgreSQL, etc.). We have also known for a while now that the next platform project we worked on would be released under and open-source license. That time has come with the release of the Swat Web Application Toolkit. Swat is an open-source web application toolkit built with PHP5. It is primarily developed and maintained by silver orange, but participation and contributions are welcome.
Color combo
Welcome to ColorCombos.com. This site was built to help web developers quickly select and test color combinations. The heart of the site is the Combo Tester, which allows web developers to see how different color combinations work together on the screen. If you are looking for Color Combination ideas, check out the Combo Library.
Open Source script.aculo.us
The Web is changing. The 30-year-old terminal-like technology it was originally is gradually giving way to new ways of doing things. The power of AJAX allows for rich user interaction without the trouble that has bugged traditional web applications. Building upon the wonderful Prototype JavaScript library, script.aculo.us provides you with some great additional ingredients to mix in. Web applications don't have to stay behind the current graphical trends in ultra-rich-desktop-applications. And they don't have to resort to fancy plug-ins that break usability and accessibility. Browsers and standards have reached a stage where advanced animations are finally possible to do with JavaScript.
Dynamic Drive CSS Library
Welcome to Dynamic Drive's new CSS library Here you'll find original, practical CSS codes and examples such as CSS menus to give your site a visual boast. Here are the rules for the contest:
* Submit an original CSS example, whether it's a CSS menu, image effect, or skeleton CSS layout etc. Originality is defined as code that may be inspired by techniques found on the web but ultimately put together by yourself. Any images used must be 100% original.
* Your code must be 100% CSS based. No JavaScript allowed.
* Submissions are judged on the basis of practicality, coding style, and originality. For this first contest, I (ddadmin) will be the sole judge.
* The top 3 submissions will each receive an award. By submitting your code you understand and grant Dynamic Drive the right to include it in our library regardless.
PEAR - PHP Extension and Application Repository
PEAR is a framework and distribution system for reusable PHP components. More information about PEAR can be found in the online manual and the FAQ. If you are a first time user, you might be especially interested in the manual chapter "About PEAR". PEAR provides the above mentioned PHP components in the form of so called "Packages". If you would like to download PEAR packages, you can browse the complete list here. Alternatively you can search for packages by some keywords using the search box above. Apart from simply downloading a package, PEAR also provides a command-line interface that can be used to automatically install packages. The manual describes this procedure in detail. In case you need support for PEAR in general or a package in special, we have compiled a list of the available support resources.
A library of DHTML and AJAX Scripts
In this DHTML menu script, the submenu slides to left or to the right. The menu is based on an unordered list. This is based on the menu below. The difference is that this one support multiple colors and that it also give you the option to choose between changing saturation(color intensity) or brightness onmouseover. I have separated them into two scripts because the one below is a little bit easier to configure. So if you only need one color, use the menu below, otherwise use this one.
dojo the JavaScript toolkit
The latest release of Dojo improves the already ground-breaking 0.3.x line with over a hundred improvements. All versions of 0.3.x include:
* Less boilerplate when writing widgets
* A new lightweight animation system that makes using and building animations dead simple
* Tested, high-performance local storage engine
* Cross-domain Ajax support and cross-domain package loading
* The ability to bundle CSS as well as HTML in profile builds
* Better performance
Yahoo User Interface Library
The Yahoo User Interface (YUI) Library is a set of utilities and controls, written in JavaScript, for building richly interactive web applications using techniques such as DOM scripting, DHTML and AJAX. The YUI Library also includes several core CSS resources. All components in the YUI Library have been released as open source under a BSD license and are free for all uses. Download the entire library, its documentation and examples from Sourceforge.The library's developers blog at the YUI Blog and the YUI Library community exchanges ideas at ydn-javaScript on Yahoo Groups.

Open Source JavaScript

2007-01-31T01:58:00.000-08:00

Open Source JavaScript

The JavaScript Source
This script reads a series of alphanumeric characters, and calculates how many unique ways those characters can be rearranged. If desired, it will display all of the combinations. These scripts all relate to time and dates. Some of them display only the month, others the entire year. Some highlight the current day or tell you when you entered the page. Other scripts display the current date or time according to the user's time zone, or another time zone some other place in the world. The source code is available for all the scripts.
What is JavaScript
JavaScript is the Netscape-developed object scripting language used in millions of web pages and server applications worldwide. Netscape's JavaScript is a superset of the ECMA-262 Edition 3 (ECMAScript) standard scripting language, with only mild differences from the published standard. Contrary to popular misconception, JavaScript is not "Interpretive Java". In a nutshell, JavaScript is a dynamic scripting language supporting prototype based object construction. The basic syntax is intentionally similar to both Java and C++ to reduce the number of new concepts required to learn the language. Language constructs, such as if statements, for and while loops, and switch and try .catch blocks function the same as in these languages .
A Smooth Open Source JavaScript IDE
Aptana is a free JavaScript-focused development environment (IDE) for building dynamic web applications. The first public beta of the open source framework was released on July 14 by a small web development startup of the same name.Aptana includes a number of features that make it a quality tool for web development. It has full "code assist" for JavaScript funtions, as well as any included JavaScript code. Additionally it outlines the code structure of JS, HTML and CSS, and provides error notifications and code validation for all three languages. Finally, Aptana is customizable and its functionality can be extended with the inclusion of external JavaScript.
An Open source Javascript library
Ajax is the term that describes a set of web development techniques for creating interactive web applications. One of the key ingredients is the JavaScript object XmlHttpRequest. Rico provides a very simple interface for registering Ajax request handlers as well as HTML elements or JavaScript objects as Ajax response objects. Multiple elements and/or objects may be updated as the result of one Ajax request. Desktop applications have long used drag and drop in their interfaces to simplify user interaction. Rico provides one of the simplest interfaces for enabling your web application to support drag and drop. Just register any HTML element or JavaScript object as a draggable and any other HTML element or JavaScript object as a drop zone and Rico handles the rest.
The WebKit Open Source JavaScript Project
This is the project page for WebKit's JavaScript implementation. JavaScript is the primary programming language used on web pages. Originally named Live Script and now also known as ECMAScript, it's a safe, dynamic language that's arguably one of the most well-known programming languages in the world. There's a JavaScript standard, created by ECMA. WebKit's JavaScript engine, JavaScriptCore, based on KJS, is a framework separate from WebCore and WebKit, and is used on Mac OS X for applications other than web page JavaScript.
WebKit Open Source Tools Add JavaScript Debugger
The WebKit application framework for the Mac now includes a JavaScript debugger, named Drosera. Drosera, named after the largest genera of bug eating plants, lets you attach and debug JavaScript for any WebKit application-not just the Safari browser, which is based on WebKit, as per the company. One of the unique things about Drosera is that over 90% of it is written in HTML and JavaScript. Similar approach was used in the WebKit's existing development application, named Web Inspector. The development team stated this technique is a testament of what you can do with web technologies today and the rapid development that WebKit allows.

Open Source DRM

2007-01-31T01:57:00.001-08:00

Open Source DRM

SideSpace releases open source DRM solution
SideSpace Solutions released Media-S, an open-source DRM solution. Media-S is format-independent, though the first release only supports the Ogg Vorbis open-source audio codec. As recently as last year, one would have thought that "open source" and "digital rights management" were oxymoronic. The World Wide Web consortium, for example, has taken the view that DRM is antithetical to open software. It just goes to show that for all the talk about the commercial world embracing open-source software, the reality is that the commercial and open-source worlds are converging toward each other. Recall that "open source" used to be known as "free software" and have Marxist overtones.
Reasons to Love Open-Source DRM
The title of this column is strange. Aside from the fact that most savvy music listeners hate DRM, the very idea of using open-source software to enforce digital rights management runs counter to everything commonly assumed about the technology: that it needs to be secret, obscure, proprietary. But open-source DRM is exactly what Sun Microsystems has proposed, with its DReaM initiative. Its goal is to promulgate an open-source architecture for digital rights management that would cut across devices, regardless of the manufacturer, and assign rights to individuals rather than gadgets.
Sun pushes open-source DRM scheme
Sun Microsystems stepped into the fractious arena of digital copyright protection this week with plans for an open-source, royalty-free digital rights management (DRM) standard. The Open Media Commons initiative aims to address concerns that a growing number of incompatible download schemes might frustrate consumers and hold back growth in the download market. To get the ball rolling, Sun is releasing its code from its Project DReaM (DRM/everywhere available) program under the open-source Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). It's inviting other firms to join the initiative which involves the development of a device independent DRM standard - called DRM Opera - and user-based licensing.
Royalty-Free Open Source DRM
Sun Microsystems is jumping into digital rights management (define) with the launch of an open source version not dependent on devices. Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's president and COO, announced the launch of the Open Media Commons' DRM/everywhere (DReaM) project in order to kick off the Progress & Freedom Foundation's annual summit in Aspen, Colo.The intent of the project is to create a DRM standard that's royalty-free and interoperable with other DRM technologies, similar to Sun's work with the Liberty Alliance, an open community for the federated identity industry. The DRM technology created will be licensed under a Creative Commons-based license, according to a statement by the Progress & Freedom Foundation.
Extended Open Source DRM
Mutable Media has released version 2 of its OpenIPMP, a Digital Rights Management program based on open standards. The goal of the Open Source project is to provide an interoperable and easily portable solution for the management of rights to digital media on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and embedded systems. Unlike proprietary DRM solutions, OpenIPMP v2 fulfills the guidelines of the Open Mobile Alliance's (OMA) DRM 2.0 published in April, the ISMA developed by the Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) for encryption and DRM transmission in MPEG-4 streams and playbacks, and MPEG IPMP (Intellectual Property Management and Protection) for MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. The open DRM system that can be downloaded under the Mozilla Public License (MPL 1.1) not only includes SDKs for the integration of DRM in MPEG encoders/decoders, but also a J2EE server for license management; it also serves as a sample implementation of the complete MPEG4IP MPEG-4 suite.
Open source DRM software project
An open source DRM (digital rights management) software project that supports embedded Linux has achieved its second major release. OpenIPMP v2 adds support for additional open DRM standards, along with structural and development improvements aimed at making the software easier to port, build, and integrate. The OpenIPMP project aims to provide open standards-based DRM software that can be easily ported to any platform, including embedded RTOSes, POSIX OSes such as Linux and BSD, 32-bit Windows OSes, and Mac OS X. Along with an SDK (software development kit) for adding DRM to media encoders and players, OpenIPMP includes a J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) server application for rights management and license issuing.
Open source DRM?
A couple of weeks ago, Sun Microsystems released specifications and source code for DReaM, an open-source, "royalty-free digital rights management standard" designed to operate on any certified device, licensing rights to the user rather than to any particular piece of hardware. DReaM (Digital Rights Management - everywhere availble) is the centerpiece of Sun's Open Media Commons initiative, announced late last summer as an alternative to Microsoft, Apple and other content protection systems. Sun is talking about a sea change on the scale of the switch from the barter system to paper money. Like money, this standardized DRM system would have to be acknowledged universally, and its rules would have to be easily converted to other systems.
Open-Source DRM Specs
Sun Microsystems Inc. will publish open-source technical drafts for conditional access specifications (CAS) and digital rights management (DRM) within the next 10 days, the company said Friday. The open-source project is under Sun's Open Media Commons (OMS) initiative to license content to individuals rather than machines, such as cellular phones, MP3 players, PCs and set-top boxes. The specifications need more work before they can ship, but there are many startups that would have shipped them a long time ago," said Tom Jacobs, director of research at Sun Labs, and project lead for Open Media Commons. "We think it will take between 12 and 18 months to complete, but in reality we will have specs in which independent companies can either modify existing products or build new ones before the end of the year.

Open Source ISO

2007-01-31T01:53:00.000-08:00

Open Document Format Gets ISO Approval
The Open Document Format has been approved as an international standard by the International Standards Organization, a move that supporters say will serve as a springboard for the adoption and use of ODF around the world. The ODF allows the retrieval of information and the exchange of documents without regard to the application or platform in which the document was created. The format is supported by Corel, IBM, Novell, Opera Software, Oracle, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems. Microsoft, which is pushing its OpenXML document format as an alternative to ODF, plans to seek ISO approval for OpenXML as well. Jason Matusow, director of standards affairs for Microsoft, in Redmond, Wash., reiterated Microsoft's commitment to supporting interoperability between OpenXML and ODF documents, saying the "richness of competitive choices in the market is good for our customers and for the industry as a whole.
Open Office XML May Satisfy ISO
A letter to Sun Microsystems' COO Jonathan Schwartz by the European Commission (EC) this week may set the stage for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to adopt the Open Office XML format (also known as OO.o XML) as an ISO standard. If it does, the stamp of approval would mark the largest ever validation of Sun's work on the desktop. The ISO has yet to chime in on the XML specification, which allows documents from different vendors to interoperate. An ISO representative was not immediately available for comment. Tim Bray, Sun director of Web Technologies and co-author of the XML standard, said in his Weblog that the EC entertained members of both the Open Office and Microsoft teams to illustrate how well their XML-based office document formats could work.
ISO backs Open Document Format
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has approved the open source Open Document Format (ODF) as an international data format standard. The ODF Alliance, a cross-section of industry associations, academic institutions and suppliers, had been lobbying for the decision. The ODF Alliance has more than 150 members worldwide and was created to resolve the potential problem of proprietary software limiting the ability of governments to access, retrieve and use records and documents in the future. The ODF is designed to make it easier for organisations to access and retrieve electronic government and business documents. It is seen as a possible way to prevent users from being locked into suppliers’ proprietary file formats. Approval of the ODF by the ISO marks an important milestone in the effort to help governments solve the very real problem of finding a better way to preserve, access and control their documents now and in the future,” said Marino Marcich, executive director of the ODF Alliance.
ISO Ratifies Open Document Format
This week, the International Standards Organization ratified the Open Document Format, an XML-based API to desktop office applications that has emerged to rival Microsoft Office’s proprietary file formats. The ODF format was also at the heart of a recent well-publicized controversy over whether the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should require ODF in future desktop software procurements. In the wake of his decision, then-CIO Peter Quinn, was criticized but ultimately cleared of unrelated accusations that his office misappropriated funds. Quinn subsequently resigned, but his ODF decision remained in force. Microsoft has responded to the emergence of ODF with OfficeXML, a published XML-based format available for free that it claims is in effect, open. Currently, ODF is supported by Sun's Star Office and its open source cousin, Open Office. Not surprisingly, that's where work on the ODF format started. It was subsequently submitted to Oasis, which ratified it as a standard in May 2005. This week was the ISO’s turn to follow up.
ISO approves ODF as international standard
The International Organization for Standards (ISO) this week gave formal approval to the Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF), paving the way for office suites based on ODF to be more broadly adopted, proponents said Wednesday. The move comes as Microsoft Corp.'s rival standard for its own Office productivity suite, OpenXML, awaits the same approval by the ISO. The ISO is an international consortium that works with the United Nations to maintain and approve international technology standards. ODF is a standard for office documents overseen by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and supported by Microsoft rivals IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc., among other companies. They want to see ODF adopted internationally as the standard for office documents and software that creates and manages these documents, such as Microsoft's popular Office suite and rivals such as Sun's Star Office.
ISO Approves Open-Source Document Standard
The International Standards Organization (ISO) has approved the Open Document Format (ODF), giving a boost to firms and organizations opposing Microsoft's proprietary office software. Voting on the OASIS-supported format was closed earlier in the week. Given the ongoing unhappiness in Europe with Microsoft over what the EU regards as unacceptable bundling and other practices, this may be particularly significant, especially when taken with the desire of many European and other purchasers to use open source products whenever possible," said Andrew Updegrove, a partner in the Boston law firm of Gesmer Updegrove. Offerings such as OpenOffice and Koffice therefore should receive a boost in appeal and usage, as well as for-sale versions, such as Sun's StarOffice and IBM's Internet-based offering.Updegrove is a supporter of ODF. He made his comments on his blog. Also hailing the ISO vote was Marino Marcich, executive director of the ODF Alliance, who predicted the vote will serve as "a springboard" for adoption of ODF globally.
OpenForum Europe Welcomes Announcement from ISO
OpenForum Europe strongly welcomes the news that ISO has formally voted for Open Document format (ODF) to be recognized as an international standard. The decision confirms ODF as a key component for the future in the public and private sector. ODF is vitally important in ensuring that valuable data is not lost from organisations due to incompatibility with different systems. Nowhere is this more visible than the public sector and national government, which are responsible for maintaining the nation’s inheritance for future citizens. OFE calls upon every European National Government to act now to formally adopt ODF as the recognized open standard for data formats and to take practical action to implement this. OFE has in the past been critical of Europe in lagging behind the rest of the world in adoption of ODF, for example the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and will be seeking assurance from the European Commission on the steps it will now be taking to provide leadership to Member States.
ISO approves open document format
The major international standards body has endorsed the first nonproprietary technology for archiving government records. At the same time, one state government is hinting that it may soften its mandate to adopt such technologies. Yesterday, The International Organization for Standardization announced it has granted international standard status to the Open Document Format (ODF), an open, Extensible Markup Language-based suite of applications for text, presentations, spreadsheets and other office documents. Simultaneously, Massachusetts, the state government that had been leading the shift from proprietary software, such as Microsoft Office, to open-source formats, is apparently easing its mandate that all agencies replace Microsoft Office with open document formats by 2007. Massachusetts is exploring technologies, such as plug-ins, to ease the transition from Microsoft Office to open document formats. In addition, state officials have said that the forthcoming Microsoft Office Open XML product could be acceptable under the mandate.
Open Source ODF approved as an ISO standard
The Open Document Format for productivity applications was last night approved as an official ISO standard, reducing the potential for the format being undermined by 'open standards' FUD. Andy Updegrove has the scoop and notes that "software that implements the standard will now become more attractive to those European and other government purchasers for whom global adoption by ISO/IEC is either desirable, or required". The ISO standard approval is also unquestionable. While there was the potential for those with a vested interest in defeating ODF to suggest that its approval by Oasis did not fit the criteria (see "Why is Microsoft offering a new standard, rather than simply supporting the file format for the Open Office product?") for an 'open standard', ISO is a different kettle of fish.
OpenDocument alliance 'optimistic' about ISO certification
The recently formed OpenDocument Format Alliance has expressed its confidence that the file format will be approved by International Organisation for Standardization next month. The Alliance, to promote the use of the OpenDocument standard in governments, said on Tuesday that it has been lobbying various organisations to ensure that the standard achieves ISO certification. The ODF Alliance is now actively supporting adoption of the Open Document Format as a worldwide standard of the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) and the International Electro technical Commission (IEC)," the group said in a statement. "The ODF Alliance and its members have contacted various national voting entities recommending approval and are optimistic of a positive outcome.
Open Office XML Format Will Probably Become an ISO Standard
Because of the way ongoing works I need fairly short headlines, which is a pity, because for this piece I wanted to use The European Commission Makes Extremely Smart Moves Concerning Open XML-Based Office Document Formats and Browbeats Vendors Deftly; As a Result the Open Office XML Format Will Probably Become an ISO Standard. This story started for me back in March when an OpenOffice team and a Microsoft team were invited to present to the European Commission on the relative merits of their XML-based office document formats. You can read about the arguments here and what the EC’s response was here and if you care about these things and haven’t already, you probably should.
Thoughts on Open XML in ISO
As we move forward with the standardization of the Office Open XML formats, it's interesting to look at the motivations that brought us to this point, but also to think about what is still to come. We've wanted to provide folks with easier ways to work with our formats for years now, mainly because it significantly increases the value of Office documents when they are fully documented. An open format can integrate with business processes; databases; and workflows in a much simpler and more powerful way (for more on why we made the move to open formats, read here and here). That's why we've worked so hard over the past 3 or 4 releases to invest in other formats like RTF, HTML, and XML. These new Open XML formats which will be the default format for Office 2007 (as well as work in Office 2000, XP and 2003) are the result of all that work. If you've read my blog at all you know that it's been a serious evolution and a lot of work, and I'm really excited about the potential.
ISO and IEC approve OpenDocument OASIS standard
The OpenDocument Format OASIS standard that enables users of varying office suites to exchange documents freely with one another has just been approved for release as an ISO and IEC International Standard. OpenDocument, submitted by OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), was balloted as an International Standard in ISO/IEC's Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology. The standard has been given the designation, ISO/IEC 26300. Most of today’s electronic office documents have been created by a few commercial software programmes and more often than not each one has its own format. In order to process a document, users need the same programme (and corresponding versions) or a filter that allows the document to be opened and modified. OpenDocument Format does away with this need.
ISO welcomes Open Document Format
The International Standards Organisation (ISO) has approved the Open Document Format (ODF) - a decision welcomed by those supporting open standards, including the EU. The ODF was approved as a standard by ballot, with no negative votes and a handful of abstentions and now merely faces a few formalities before it is officially christened ISO/IEC 26300. Microsoft, too, is rushing to have its formats accepted as an international standard, fast-tracking its Open XML specifications used with its Office 12 suite through the ECMA approval system, which will subsequently escalate to the ISO offices. The battle ground has been marked out by a new awareness in governments that settling for proprietary standards leaves them bound to those vendors, renders documents issued under such formats accessible only by using software licensed from a vendor and risks those same documents becoming unusable should the format become obsolete.
ISO approves Open Document Format as standard
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) this week accepted the Open Document Format (ODF) as an international standard for saving and exchanging digital office documents, according to a group supporting ODF's use. Best-known for its ISO 9000 family of quality certifications, ISO's 6-month voting process on whether to grant special ISO 26300 status to ODF ended May 1 with "sweeping approval from ISO members, according to Marino Marcich, executive director of the Washington, DC-based Open Document Format Alliance. This is a really powerful signal that ODF has arrived, and improves the prospect of it being incorporated into a range of products, said Marcich, head of the three-month old group. The ODF Alliance, an offshoot of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), counts more than 150 companies and organisations as members.

Open Source Database Articles

2007-01-31T01:51:00.000-08:00

Open Source Databases

The Open Source Database Benchmark
Featuring ports to DataBlitz and Oracle, as well as a preliminary Perl implementation, this is the best iteration of OSDB yet! This version of OSDB can
* Skip tests that are inappropriate for the database engine, with the --restrict switch
* Run under MPI, for true cluster and multiprocessor benchmarks New results have been posted in the expected/ directory, suggesting useful ways of invoking OSDB. Barring results to the contrary in the next couple of weeks, this will soon be the new "stable" version of OSDB.
Open Source Databases: A brief look
This month I take a brief look at Open Source Database Management Systems. I do not aim to find the 'best' one, or perform an in-depth feature-by-feature analysis, but rather a introduce you to the variety of solutions out there. I am presuming readers of my columns by now already have an understanding of what Open Source is, and why one would use it. If not, see the resources at the end of the article. So which are the Open Source databases? Most readers have probably heard of MySQL. Its byline is The World's most popular Open Source database after all. Unlike most of the others listed here, Berkeley DB is not a full DBMS, complete with graphical reporting tools and the like. It does not even contain a query-processing layer. Instead, it is a lightweight embedded relational storage engine, meant for applications that do not require a separate DBMS installation. Users of MySQL have the option to use the Berkeley DB storage engine
Open-source databases gaining favor
The open-source database MySQL grew rapidly in popularity over the last year, according to results from a survey released Monday by research company Evans Data. Usage of MySQL for developing applications rose 30 percent over the past year, while usage of Microsoft's SQL Server and Access databases increased 6 percent, according to the survey of 550 developers conducted last month. Overall Microsoft's products continue to dominate the database development market. But open-source software's price and its ability to integrate with other software mesh well with the priorities of application developers, said Evans Data analyst Joe McKendrick. Programmers often select a single database for both application development and deployment.
Open-Source Database Technologies Flourish at LinuxWorld
Microsoft can snipe all it wants at the TCO and security of open source, but a flood of database-, BI- and data-center-related news coming out of LinuxWorld means one thing: Linux has drilled so far down into overall IT frameworks that it's simply another option on the short list.
Commercialization of open source is one trend evident at LinuxWorld Conference & Expo and it's being reflected big-time in database-centric offerings. We're seeing the notion that open-source products have a very, very viable business model and have established themselves as credible players," said Steve O'Grady, an analyst at RedMonk. While they don't play in exactly the same markets and don't compete feature-to-feature with proprietary [solutions], there's a sizable market that's not interested in all the bells and whistles included with proprietary vendors.
Open-Source Databases Hike Enterprise Appeal
The creators of the open-source databases MySQL and PostgreSQL are trying to push them further into the enterprise with new features aimed at better support for transactions, database recovery and replication. MySQL AB's MySQL 4.0, expected to be released as a stable version by year's end, provides the InnoDB transaction storage engine that includes row-level locking. Coming in Version 4.1 early next year will be the ability to handle stored procedures and triggers. MySQL 5.0, due late next year, will add more advanced management tools and replication as well as speed improvements, said Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL, in Uppsala, Sweden. Separately, developers of PostgreSQL, which has transactional capabilities, are working to add support for distributed databases. That support as well as new replication capabilities are likely to be available in the next year or two, according to Thomas Lockhart, a member of the Postgre SQL steering committee and a director at Postgre- SQL Inc., one of many companies providing the PostgreSQL database.
Open Source databases rounded up and rodeod
you could be forgiven for not knowing about the storm of activity in the database market this season. You would have to have read several dozen articles, press releases, and have followed the right bloggers to track all the strategic acquisitions, new releases, and defensive posturing And even so you might still be wondering what it all means. But help is here in the form of a guide to open source database companies and what they've been up to. You may first wonder what's so interesting about open source databases. Isn't all the open source fun and action happening with Linux and Apache? Hardly! After many years of hard work and little attention, these open source databases are starting to have a noticeable impact on the largest database companies. Company activity in the database sector is really heating up.
SQL Server 2005 leaves open source databases
Sean McCown isn�t afraid of controversy. He assured me of that when I interviewed him last week in preparation for this column. So when the InfoWorld contributing editor referred to DBAs (database administrators) who favor open source databases as �tree huggers� who don�t want to pay for commercial software, I can only assume he knew what he was in for. SQL Server�s prime competitor, Oracle, has held an edge among the largest enterprises, which demand bulletproof disaster recovery and zero downtime. With this release, Microsoft has caught up. Along with major changes to the code itself, McCown points out, the new SQL Server brings one other advantage to the party: .Net.
.Net gives SQL Server a huge piece of new functionality,� McCown says. �Oracle has Java, which extends its functionality by providing direct access to system and network resources.� .Net performs the same function for SQL Server, effectively closing that loop on Oracle. �The open source guys can�t even begin to touch that,� he adds.
Open source databases are ripe for acquisition
The courtship of open source database vendor MySQL by Oracle, as well as MySQL's rejection of those advances, is only the beginning of another interesting year for databases. Analysts predict that the $300 million open source database market is going to continue to grow rapidly. Forrester Research Inc.'s analyst Noel Yuhanna projects that mission-critical deployments of open source databases will increase by 20% this year. It is that growth that Yuhanna believes will drive the OSS database market from $300 million now to the $1 billion mark by 2008. Most importantly, analysts say, this segment is being taken seriously by proprietary database vendors attracted to making open source technology part of their own product offerings. Oracle Corp. is only one of the Big Three database vendors that is contemplating big buys in open source database space, industry analysts say. Microsoft and IBM have sizeable war chests with which to buy market share, and vendors like EnterpriseDB, MySQL and Ingres Corp. could provide it. Whether they follow Oracle's lead or invest in other ventures remains to be
seen.
The database the open source community
A week or so ago I was chatting with a friend about a meeting I had scheduled for the following morning. I said I'd be speaking with a guy whose company markets a commercial database product built around open source software. A cynic, my friend was half serious. And yet, when I met with Andy Astor the next morning, he didn't seem like a parasite. I believe that open source software changes everything about enterprise applications," Astor says. "It is as fundamental a shift in enterprise applications as the Internet was or as XML was. It is at that level of importance. Exactly how it pans out, nobody knows, and exactly what the business models are, nobody knows. EnterpriseDB approach represents something of a middle ground. At the heart of the EnterpriseDB product is PostgreSQL, a mature open source database. Astor's company provides support, but it also adds something extra: an engine that lets PostgreSQL understand Oracle's (Profile, Products, Articles) PL/SQL dialect of the SQL language.
Open-source databases find their place in the enterprise
The sales pitch for EnterpriseDB (EDB) is pretty simple: it's an enterprise-class relational database management system (RDBMS) based on twenty years of open-source development, compatible with Oracle - and costing a fraction of the price of a commercial system. EDB is based on the BSD-licensed database PostgreSQL, widely considered the most advanced open-source DBMS around, with the addition of commercial features such as Oracle compatibility and enterprise-level support. If the business model sounds familiar, that's because it's the same idea with which Linux distributors and companies such as MySQL have already found success. It was just a matter of time before PostgreSQL got the same treatment, say industry observers. Regardless of EDB's eventual success or failure, the staggering prices of commercial DBMS and the existence of high-quality open source databases mean the opportunity is there, analysts say.
Java. net: An Open Source Database Benchmark
PolePosition is an open source Java framework for benchmarking databases. The impetus behind PolePosition came from the observation that developers evaluating candidate databases for future applications often resorted to constructing ad hoc benchmarks rather than using "canned" benchmark tests (or relying on vendor-provided data). This is entirely understandable; to properly evaluate a database for a specific project, you would want to exercise that database in ways that correspond to the application's use of it. Put another way, if the target application will use the database in read-only fashion, you'll have little interest in a benchmark that runs the database through write operations. PolePosition was designed with just such people in mind. Using the metaphor of a series of automobile race courses ("Circuits"), PolePosition provides a structure that simplifies the three primary tasks that a database benchmark developer might face: building the tests, adding database drivers, and reporting results.
Analysis: Open source databases
Many enterprise software users and vendors have made significant commitments to open source technologies. Projects such as the Linux operating system, Apache Web server, and the Perl programming language, have proven themselves as viable alternatives to equivalent commercial offerings. But what about the tools used to hold core information assets? Are open source databases ready for the enterprise?
Until recently, databases have been a relative unknown amongst open source software. However, the increasing adoption of open source database technology by well-known multinational organisations has led to more enterprise recognition and hence consideration. There are many open source databases with different features of which MySQL and PostgreSQL are the best known.
Open source database firm gets webMethods infusion
The ex-webMethods crew at PostgreSQL database start-up EnterpriseDB has added to their numbers with a fresh board appointment. Web
Methods board member Jack Lewis has been elected to the EnterpriseDB board to bring 35-years' experience in legal and business development to the young company. Lewis joins webMethods founder and former chief executive Phillip Merrick on the EnterpriseDB board, along with former webMethods vice president Andy Astor who is EnterpriseDB founder and CEO. In a statement, Merrick called Lewis a "great strategist and insightful industry observer." Lewis' experience spans business development, from start-up to IPO and beyond, while Lewis also runs a law practice where he advises technology and e-commerce clients about technology protection, licensing, raising capital and M&A.
MySQL Leads In Open Source Databases
MySQL continues to have the largest mind share in the industry, and with the release of version 5 last year, it has narrowed its functional gap with Ingres and PostgreSQL, projects that offer the most comprehensive database features. With MySQL becoming more aggressive in churning out new releases, unless Ingres focuses on innovation, MySQL could potentially overtake Ingres to claim the top spot in the feature and functionality race. MySQL has broad support for transactional applications and embedded databases, especially for in-memory databases, but it lags in data warehousing, lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) integration, and programmability features.
Open source databases - a sword that cuts both ways
The first thing to decide is the areas in which open source is to be deployed. Does this only apply to Linux and network servers or does it extend to application servers, databases and development environments? In each case, you also need to decide which open source products you are going to endorse from a strategic perspective. If we take the open source database market as an example, we have MySQL, PostgreSQL (both generically and from Pervasive), Ingres, Firebird, Max DB, Cloudscape, the putative Sun DB (possibly), HSQLDB and a bunch of others. Now, some of these are niche products but, even so, there are too many of them. Not all of the companies involved will be able to make enough money out of these products to stay in business. That means that at some point in the future the market will consolidate and a number of these products will disappear. This may not matter too much if the products are not that important to you, but it certainly does if they are strategic.

IBM Open Source

2007-01-31T01:48:00.000-08:00

IBM Open Source

Open source: IBM's deadly weapon
Once a purveyor of closed and proprietary solutions, the company has recast itself as flag bearer of all things open and interoperable. Seeing the company's peace, love and penguin ads for Linux are indeed worthy of an eye-rubbing double take. IBM officials speak fondly of an attitude adjustment that has changed Big Blue into a much more customer-focused company. They describe an altruistic metamorphosis that benefits end users who will settle for nothing less than interoperability and support of open standards. Linux does three things for IBM. First, Linux presents IBM with an opportunity to offer buyers a reliable, scalable, and relatively secure Intel-based alternative to the server versions of Microsoft's Windows. While IBM itself doesn't offer a Linux distribution (SuSE and Red Hat do that), it no doubt sees Linux' potential to reduce the company's dependency on Microsoft for sales of Intel-based servers. Second, Linux turns a high-end Intel-based server such as what IBM introduced at CeBit into a low-cost alternative to Sun's low-end servers.
IBM Gives 500 Patents to Open-Source Developers
IBM is giving individuals, groups, communities and companies working on open-source software free and unfettered access to innovations covered by 500 of its software patents, the Armonk. The only condition attached is that the open-source software for which the patented innovations are used must meet the Open Source Initiative definition of open-source software, now and in the future. The patents included in the pledge cover a range of software innovation, including important interoperability features of operating systems and databases, as well as internet, user interface and language processing technologies. For example, several patents cover dynamic linking processes for operating systems, while another deals with file-export protocols. A list of all the pledged patents can be viewed here (PDF).
IBM: Open Source is More Than Just Linux
Scott Handy says there's more to open standards and open source than just Linux. Handy, who is the vice president of worldwide Linux business strategy at IBM, delivered a keynote on the second day of Linux World Canada. In his remarks, he struck a similar tone as Novell's David Patrick did yesterday, noting how via numerous mechanisms being "open" is a force for innovation. He also discussed the common misconception that Linux is free (as in comes without cost). According to stats cited by Handy, the Linux server market in the last quarter reported its fifth consecutive quarter of revenues of over $1 billion. When I first began working in Linux, I was worried about the 2.2 kernel vs. the 2.4 kernel and now I worried about what can we do with Linux .
IBM's Open Source Muse
IBM is donating some of its IT management wisdom to the Apache Software Foundation. But there's more to it than just goodwill. You could say that Apache is Big Blue's open source muse, or at least one of them. The wisdom, in this case, is actually WSDM (Web Services for Distributed Management, pronounced "wisdom"), which could become a standard for management interfaces of servers, routers, switches and other IT hardware and software. Essentially what WSDM does is give you a Web Services mechanism for interfacing with your manageability capabilities of whatever your hardware or software is," said Ric Telford, VP of autonomic computing at IBM. IBM's help also includes pre-built code for all the WSDM-defined capabilities called "Helper classes." Better code portability that enables the WSDM implementations to run on different Web Services runtimes is also part of IBM's contribution.
IBM's Open-Source Lovefest
Big Blue" may also earn the nickname "Big Linux Supporter" as IBM continues to embrace open-source efforts to hike its market share and challenge competitors, including Microsoft. The company "plans to announce today that it will contribute some of its speech-recognition software to two open-source software groups," the New York Times reported. "The move is a tactical step . to accelerate the development of speech applications and to outmaneuver rivals, especially Microsoft, in a market that is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years with increased use in customer-service call centers, cars and elsewhere. To do this, IBM is again using the strategy of placing some of its proprietary software in open-source projects, making it available for other programmers to improve."
IBM behind open source attacks
IBM Corp. has been quietly stage-managing the open source community's response to The SCO Group Inc.'s $3 billion lawsuit over Big Blue's contributions to the Linux source code, SCO's Chief Executive Officer Darl McBride said in an interview at his company's SCO Forum user conference in Las Vegas this week. We have absolute direct knowledge of this. If you go behind the scenes, the attacks that we get that don't have IBM's name on them, underneath the covers, are sponsored by IBM," McBride said. Responding to criticism that his company is trying its case against IBM in the press, McBride said that SCO has simply been responding to attacks and standing up for its rights when attacked. However, SCO's public relations (PR) department has had a busy few months. McBride proudly dumped two phone-book-sized binders of press clippings on the stage during his SCO Forum keynote on Monday as proof that his company had become more relevant in the high technology industry.
IBM's developerWorks Open Source website development
IBM's site developerWorks posted its first article in a series, called, Using open source software to design, develop, and deploy a collaborative Web site. The series adopts a fake organization as a client for whom to develop a collaborative website using only open source software. The goal of the series is to give developers some guidance in developing similar solutions. Of note in the first article is an interesting and comprehensive discussion of content management systems and the selection process they used to decide which framework to ultimately implement for their project. Because we needed to make this Web site design easy for ourselves and anyone adopting the solution, the ease of installing the framework and the time it would take to figure out how to use it was a key factor.
Open source Lab Join IBM
In its ongoing efforts to improve the examination of software patents and resolve continued concerns over their quality, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has partnered with IBM, Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and the open-source community to try and achieve this goal. Among the proposals is the idea of establishing a searchable database containing an index of open-source computer code. This database should make it easier for software code developers and patent examiners to locate relevant prior art. Generally speaking, open-source software includes source code that is made available to the public under a "public license," such that the source code can be read, modified, and redistributed by users, subject to certain conditions.
Novell and Red Hat Join IBM Open Source
Novell and Red Hat have been elevated to IBM's Strategic Alliance program -- IBM's highest tier partner status, according to a recent IBM announcement. The move will make it simpler for clients to acquire open standards-based Linux hardware, software, and services through integrated and streamlined sales, distribution and services channels. Inclusion in the program opens significant new channels and access to IBM innovation centers to Novell and Red Hat, including those in emerging countries like Brazil, Russia, India, China and Korea, IBM says, "to drive more open source deals in those booming markets. Other results of the move include new subscription models combining IBM offerings with Novell and Red Hat solutions; support by Novell and Red Hat of IBM's open platforms including the Java-based Apache Geronimo web server and Apache Derby database; and continued support of the Eclipse development platform.
IBM donates Rational IP to Open Source
IBM wants to contribute software development blueprints to the open source community to help developers make fewer coding flaws. It reckons better practices for software development will flow from its donation of a subset of the IBM Rational Unified Process (RUP), a software process platform. RUP is a collection of methods and best practices for promoting quality and efficiency throughout software development projects. IBM's donation also brings a foundation architecture and web-based tools for the sharing of software development best practices. IBM is proposing the contribution to the Eclipse Foundation, an open source community that provides a free, Java-based platform for software development. Eclipse was formed with a software donation by IBM in 2001 and is now an independent foundation with more than 100 member companies from across the software industry.
IBM Makes Ajax Play for Open Source Collaboration
IBM (NYSE: IBM) Latest News about IBM announced plans this week to contribute what it calls "key intellectual assets" to the open source Latest News about open source community, in an effort to help companies and software TechNet Security Center: Tools & Guidance to Defend Your Network developers adopt and share best practices for Ajax software development. With its software contributions the firm aims to foster an industry collaboration and adoption of Ajax, a technology that improves Web application responsiveness, and do so at a lower cost point and with less complexity. The technology contributions will extend the code already available in the Dojo Toolkit, which will enable internationalization of applications as well as make them fully accessible to persons with disabilities through a variety of assistive technologies, including DHTML and Accessible widgets.
IBM: Open source and open standards technical briefing
IBM DeveloperWorks held a technical meeting at their Bedfont Lakes office in London. I was sent an invitation and-due to the fact it sounded interesting, was free, and they were supplying lunch-I decided to tag along. The briefing was started by Kate Fairbrother from IBM Software Marketing. She gave as a welcome, some health and safety information for the day, and an apology for the main speakers having not arrived yet. However, Kevin Czap and Randy Powell soon arrived, who both currently reside in Texas, USA. They had also just arrived in the UK from Milan, Italy, the previous day. Because of that, they were unfamiliar with the London transport system; and so were a little late and disheveled.
IBM open source gang missing key players
IBM unveiled plans at Storage Networking World (SNW) to form an open source community to develop standards-based storage management middleware, something users have demanded for a long time. The group is working under the project name, Aperi, derived from the Latin word for "to open". The partners so far include Brocade Communication Systems Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Computer Associates International Inc., Engenio Information Technologies, Fujitsu Ltd., McData Corp., Network Appliance Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. Missing from this list are EMC Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), Hitachi Data Systems Inc. (HDS) and Symantec Corp./Veritas Software Corp. It's a good move -- it's the way the industry has to go, my only concern is that there are still going to be different groups, some participating in this one, some in groups elsewhere, and others not participating at all," said Dick Spohrer, a consultant with Maxsult, an IT integrator in Germany.
IBM urges Sun to make Java open source
IBM's vice president of emerging technology, IBM offered to work with Sun to create a project that would shepherd development of Java through an open-source development model. If implemented, portions of Sun's most valuable software asset--Java--would be freely available, and contributors ranging from volunteer programmers to large corporations would submit changes to the Java software. Sun's strong commitment to open-source Java would speed the development of a first-class and compatible open-source Java implementation to the benefit of our customers and our industry, Smith wrote to Rob Gingell, a Sun vice president. "We are firmly convinced the open-source community would rally around this effort.
IBM, strongest proponents of open source policy
IBM is one of the strongest proponents of open standards and has a long history of working with the open source community. We believe open source promotes innovation and quality code," Stacey A. Phillips, Country Manager, Communications IBM Indonesia . In Indonesia, she said, IBM has been actively working with Open Source and Linux community to nurture and help it thrive. In fact, IBM has been a strong supporter of "Indonesia Go Open Source" since it was launched in 2004. She made this statement to clarify earlier news report that a number of US information technology companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle have criticized Indonesia's open source application policy.
IBM: Open source, SOA born of same roots
Open source and the service-orientated architecture were born of the same frustrations that IT users face with closely-knit software, says a top IBMer. By making source codes publicly available and highly flexible, the open-source software model ensures developers can build software and systems that interoperate seamlessly. This objective is similar to what a service-oriented architecture (SOA) aims to fulfill, said Jason Weisser, vice president of asset and integration technologies at IBM Software Group. One of the creators of Microsoft's .Net SOA framework, Weisser has been managing IBM's SOA technology since 2002. With Web services as the underpinning technology, SOA is an IT infrastructure model designed to enhance interoperability between disparate systems. It allows specific functions of backend systems to be decoupled and used independently, or alongside tools from other systems to perform computing tasks.
IBM Extends Open Source Virtualisation Solutions
Building upon the company's commitment to providing clients open solutions based on Linux and virtualisation technologies, IBM today announced its extensive portfolio of middleware and systems platforms will support Novell�s new SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 offerings. The new SUSE Linux Enterprise offerings incorporate the open source Xen virtualisation software to help businesses increase server utilisation and lower management costs. IBM will support Xen technology as part of the Virtualisation Engine portfolio on the company�s Intel and Opteron processor based server and blade systems. Additionally, IBM has plans to support SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 from Novell across its entire hardware and software portfolio and provide services support. Xen is an open source virtualisation software that allows multiple operating systems to run concurrently on the same physical server, allowing customers to consolidate their current workloads onto a single server.
IBM Open Source Lab Wiki
The purpose of this wiki is to provide an external resource for students and faculty using the IBM Open Source Linux Lab inside and outside of UMass Amherst to share information and collaborate on projects. In order to help in the editing you must first setup an account by going to User Preferences. After that, inform someone within the Admin Group, so that they can add you to the Edit Group with the ability contribute and modify content. This Summer we've been involved in the upgrade of the computer teaching lab in Machmer W-13 (formerly managed by MISER). IBM donated new desktop computers, a server, and two IBM co-ops to help administer the lab and to teach interested faculty over the next year in some of its software. The College of Social and Behavioral Science has donated space for the lab, and the research group SADRI in the Sociology department is providing lab support.
IBM open source Java proposal puzzles Sun official
IBM�s proposal to have the Java programming language offered under an open source format is puzzling a Sun official, who stressed Tuesday that the current licensing program ensures compatibility for the language. While IBM has maintained that Sun has too much control of Java under the Java Community Process, Java creator Sun remains steadfast in believing Sun is on the right track. Sun�s Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president for software, questioned IBM�s efforts during a Sun �Chalk Talk� session with the media in San Francisco, during which he also outlined Sun�s plans to boost its installed base of software worldwide. IBM last week in an open letter suggested Sun make Java available under an open source format. But Schwartz said Java places compatibility as the most important imperative. He cited the open source platform Linux as an example of a technology that has �forked� into different implementations, albeit only one that is important.
Sun Warms Up To IBM Open-Source Database
Sun Microsystems has always been dismissive of IBM's open-source initiatives. But finding itself in need of a database to add to its Java Enterprise System software lineup, Sun has swallowed its pride and said it will adopt an open-source database with IBM roots. Sun last week said it will offer Derby, a lightweight Java relational database, to Java developers to embed in applications so they can capture data and keep it readily accessible without relying on an outside database. Key parts of the Java Enterprise System, such as Directory Server and Identity Manager, would benefit from an embedded database. Sun will get Derby from the Apache Software Foundation, but it's based on the Cloudscape database, which IBM donated to the foundation for open-source use. IBM acquired Cloudscape in 2001 when it bought Informix Software.
IBM Open Source Firmware Download for PowerPC
IBM developerWorks has posted an open source Slimline Open Firmware (SLOF) download intended to aid the development of operating systems and virtualization layers for PowerPC-based machines. One thing that's kind of neat about it is that it is under a pretty liberal BSD-like
license- something I have not often seen IBM do. If I am not much mistaken (and please correct me if I am), this license makes it compatible with both GPL'd and BSD'd projects, among others.
IBM pushes Dojo open source Ajax toolkit
IBM has donated the intellectual property of a set of technologies to the open source community in an effort to increase the adoption of Ajax technologies. Big Blue plans to work with the Dojo open source JavaScript toolkit, expanding the application with support for building multi-language applications. IBM will also help the application to meet the forthcoming Dynamic Web Content Accessibility specification being developed within the World Wide Web Consortium. The Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) technique allows developers to create interactive web applications. A static web page exchanges data only when a user clicks on a link or button. Java applications transmit data behind the scenes, making for more responsive and user-friendly online applications. Popular examples of Java applications include Goggle's Gmail and the Flickr online photo-sharing application.

Palm Open Source

2007-01-31T01:47:00.001-08:00

Palm Open Source

Open source software for Palm OS
Currency does exactly what its name says: it converts one currency to another. The utility supports no less than 170 currencies, which should cover you in most countries. Most currency conversion utilities act as a calculator: you enter an amount, choose the desired currency, then press the convert button. Currency uses another, more efficient technique, where the main windows already contain a user-defined list of currencies. You simply enter an amount next to the currency field you want, and the utility converts it into other currencies on the fly. The currency exchange rates for the utility are stored in a separate database that is updated daily. To get the most up-to-date exchange rates, download the cupdate.pdb file from the software's Web site. Better yet, the utility comes with its own conduit, which fetches the updated currency exchange rates every time you synchronise your Palm device.
Open Source Business Models and Palm Development
It’s great to see Falch.net, a Palm developer tools company, use a simple open source business model to such beneficial effect. Not only is their product by far the best tool for developing PalmOS applications, they’ve drawn a perfect line between supporting and giving back to the open source community, and creating a revenue opportunity that will drive their business. They deserve support and acknowledgement. The company’s flagship product, Developer Studio for PalmOS, is a Windows IDE that sits on top of PRC-Tools, a gcc-based compiler for PalmOS applications, and PilRC, a PalmOS resource generator. Both PRC-Tools and PilRC are GPL‘d. Falch.net employs a full-time programmer to maintain PRC-Tools. On top of these packages, Falch.net has built all the things at which open source tends to fail: double-click able installers, professional user interfaces, visual forms designers, and so on.
Interest in Open Source Palm OS clone
A while back it became clear to me that Palm OS was dying. There weren't any Palm OS 6 devices on the market despite the OS being available for a while and Palm Source was floundering around without any real coherent strategy to fix the problem. The imminent death of Palm OS became all the more certain when Access announced ALP. Being a fan of PalmOS and not being terribly fond of Unix-like systems, several months ago I started work on a Palm OS clone with the intention of releasing it as an open source project.
Palm handed open-source browser
The Vagabond browser relies, like DPWeb, on a CGI gateway that speeds up Web page downloads. But its open-source license allows users to run their own gateway, eliminating the risk of the gateway provider going out of business. The DPWeb software didn't work without a connection to Digital Paths' servers. The browser's features include support for color screens, HTML, WAP, i-mode, cookies, SSL, bookmarks, an advanced toolbar and history, and auto-fill of Web addresses. Designed for wireless Palms such as the Palm VII, VIIx or 705, it will work with any Palm handheld that has a recent version of the operating system and the Web Clipping libraries installed. The world of wireless Web browsing is still in its infancy, limited by small screen sizes and slow wireless connection speeds. Palm has been criticized for shipping its wireless devices without an HTML browser, relying instead on its pared-down "Web clipping" approach.
pssh: SSH 2 for Palm OS 5
Pssh is a free, open-source SSH 2 client for Palm OS 5. Features
* SSH 2 protocol using 3DES or AES-128 ciphers
* Fast authentication and encryption using ARM-native code
* Support for public-key authentication and host key verification
* High quality VT100/VT220/xterm terminal emulator
* Up to 80 x 53 character display on 320x320 screen
* Support for large screens with virtual Graffiti areas
Palm's Open Secrets Exposed
Palm enthusiasts are second only to Apple enthusiasts in the energy they devote to speculation about what products are coming next. It's no surprise, really. Palm isn't quite as secretive as Apple when it comes to giving information about future product releases, but they do a pretty good job keeping their plans under wraps. That leaves the field wide open to all kinds of theories, based on past history, the occasional word that drops from an executive's lips, or fuzzy images "leaked" by Photoshop mavens. But if rumors and press release exegetics aren't your bag, you can learn a lot about what to expect from Palm in the coming years from a more authoritative source: Palm's own web site. The trick is to look carefully at the job postings, which often describe new product development in surprising detail. Let's take a walk through some recent job descriptions and see what we can learn.

Open Source Java Directory

2007-01-31T01:27:00.000-08:00

Title	Description	License
ActiveMQ	ActiveMQ is a fast open source JMS 1.	The Apache Software License
Activity Manager	Activity Manager is a project management tool that is simple to use, lightweight, and very efficient and customizable.	BSD License (BSD)
Anthill Build Management Server	Automates the build and release process of software development.	Mozilla Public License (MPL)
AntiChess	AntiChess is an anti chess game written in Java.	MIT/X Consortium License
ANTLR	Powerful lexer, parser, tree parser, tree transformation toolkit.	Public Domain
Apache Derby	Apache Derby is an open-source, embeddable, small footprint, SQL compliant, fully transactional, secure relational database management system implemented entirely in Java.	The Apache Software License
Apache Geronimo	Certified J2EE 1.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta : OJB	Object persistence layer for Java.
Apache Jakarta: Alexandria	Alexandria is a CVS/Javadoc/Source code/Documentation management system meant for use within Open Source projects.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Ant	Apache Ant is a Java based build tool.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Avalon	Avalon is component-oriented programming project consisting of: Framework, the core framework for COP; Excalibur, common utilities written as components; Phoenix, a server framework; Cornerstone, blocks for use in a Phoenix server; and, Logkit, logging facilities.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: BCEL	The Byte Code Engineering Library (formerly known as JavaClass) is intended to give users a convenient possibility to analyze, create, and manipulate (binary) Java class files (those ending with .class).	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Cactus	Cactus is a simple test framework for unit testing server-side java code (Servlets, EJBs, Tag Libs, Filters, ...).	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Commons	Repository for small scale, reusable, code components that are useful in multiple Jakarta subprojects.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: ECS	The Element Construction Set (ECS) is a Java API for generating elements for various markup languages it directly supports HTML 4.0 and XML, but can easily be extended to create tags for any markup language.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: James	The Java Apache Mail Enterprise Server (a.k.a. Apache James) is a 100% pure Java server, designed to be a complete and portable enterprise mail engine solution based on currently available open protocols (SMTP, POP3, NTTP).	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Jetspeed	Jetspeed is an Open Source implementation of an Enterprise Information Portal, using Java and XML.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: JMeter	Apache JMeter is a 100% pure Java desktop application designed to load test functional behavior and measure performance.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Log4j	With log4j it is possible to enable logging at runtime without modifying the application binary.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Lucene	Jakarta Lucene is a high-performance, full-featured text search engine written entirely in Java.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: ORO	The Jakarta-ORO Java classes are a set of text-processing Java classes that provide Perl5 compatible regular expressions, AWK-like regular expressions, glob expressions, and utility classes for performing substitutions, splits, filtering filenames, etc.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: POI/POI Serialization Project	The POI project aims to provide both the framework for porting and actual ports of file formats based on Microsoft's OLE 2 Compound Document Format (tm) to pure Java (tm).	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Regexp	Regexp is a 100% Pure Java Regular Expression package that was graciously donated to the Apache Software Foundation by Jonathan Locke.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Slide	The Slide project main module is a Content Management and Integration System, which can be seen as a low-level content management framework.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Struts	The Struts project provides an open source framework useful in building web applications with Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages (JSP) technology.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Taglibs	The Jakarta Taglibs project provides an open-source repository for JSP custom taglibs and Web Publishing tool extensions which support JSP custom taglibs.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Tomcat	Tomcat is the servlet container that is used in the official Reference Implementation for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Turbine	Turbine is a servlet based framework that allows experienced Java developers to quickly build secure web applications.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Velocity	The Velocity Template Engine lets you render data from within applications and servlets.	The Apache Software License
Apache Jakarta: Watchdog	Watchdog, the validation tests for the Servlet and JavaServer Pages specifications, is currently available.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML-RPC	Apache XML-RPC is a Java implementation of XML-RPC, a popular protocol that uses XML over HTTP to implement remote procedure calls.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML: AXIS	Apache AXIS alpha 3 is out, with JAX-RPC support.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML: AxKit	Apache AxKit is an XML Application Server for Apache.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML: Batik	Batik is a Java technology based toolkit for applications that want to use images in the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format for various purposes, such as viewing, generation or manipulation.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML: Cocoon	Apache Cocoon is an XML publishing framework that raises the usage of XML and XSLT technologies for server applications to a new level.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML: Crimson	Crimson is a Java XML parser which supports XML 1.0 via the following APIs: Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) 1.1 minus the javax.xml.transform package, Xalan, SAX, and DOM.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML: FOP	FOP is the world's first print formatter driven by XSL formatting objects and the world's first output independent formatter.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML: Security	The Apache XML Security Software 0.0.1 supports the XML-Signature Syntax and Processing recommendation.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML: SOAP	Apache SOAP ("Simple Object Access Protocol") is an implementation of the SOAP submission to W3C.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML: Xalan	Xalan is an XSLT processor for transforming XML documents into HTML, text, or other XML document types.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML: Xang	Apache Xang lets you quickly build data-driven, cross-platform Web applications that integrate disparate data sources.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML: Xerces	Xerces2 is the next generation of high performance, fully compliant XML parsers in the Apache Xerces family.	The Apache Software License
Apache XML: Xindice	Xindice is a native XML database.	The Apache Software License
Apollo	Apollo is an open-source developer test skeleton toolkit for Java Web Start/JNLP.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Arch4J	Arch4J is an open source Java architecture framework that provides an infrastructure of services to support enterprise development.
ArgoUML	Pure Java open source UML tool with emphasis on usability.	BSD License (BSD)
ashkelon	an online reference tool for java api documentation.	A BSD-ish license
ASM	ASM is a Java bytecode manipulation framework.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Bodington VLE	Bodington is a free open source Virtual Learning Environment/Learning Management System in use at Universities and Colleges worldwide.	The Apache Software License
c2h: cetacean-to-human	Open source Java distributed application for researching Cetacean acoustic communication.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
cache4j	cache4j is a cache for Java objects with a simple API and fast implementation.	BSD License (BSD)
Castor	Castor is an open source data binding framework for Java[tm].	A BSD-ish license
Cayenne O/R Framework	Cayenne is an OpenSource Java Object-Relational framework.	A BSD-ish license
CCAPI	CCAPI is a financial application library for Java.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Checkstyle	Checkstyle is a development tool to help programmers write Java code that adheres to a coding standard.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Claros In Touch	A full featured webmail(bundled with smtp-server independent spam protection), addressbook, notebook, and calendar application.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
ColoradoFTP - The Open Source FTP Server	ColoradoFTP is the open source Java FTP server.
Compaq's Web Language	Compaq's Web Language is a scripting language for automating tasks on the World-Wide Web.
Compiere ERP/CRM Business Solution	Comprehensive ERP/CRM solution for small-medium enterprises (SME) in the global marketplace covering all areas from customer management, supply chain and accounting.	Mozilla Public License (MPL)
CSVObjects	A Java library and extensible framework for mapping, parsing and unmarshalling CSV file contents into Plain Old Java Objects.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Dao-zero: implement your DAO intefaces	DaoZero is a small Java Spring bean class that can be used to reduce source of persistence tier which bases on Spring's iBatis support.	The Apache Software License
DataVision	DataVision is a database reporting tool similar to Crystal Reports.	The Apache Software License
db4o for Java	db4o (database for objects) is an open source object database for Java.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Dinamica - RADical J2EE framework	Powerful and very easy to use framework for J2EE web development.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
DualRpc easy bidirectional RPC for GUI client to server	DualRpc is a clean and simple Java framework for making RPC calls between client and server.	BSD License (BSD)
Echo	Echo is a framework for building web applications that provide a rich-client-like user experience.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Eclipse	Eclipse is a kind of universal tool platform - an open extensible IDE for anything and nothing in particular, written in Java and OpenSource.	IBM Public License
Enhydra	Enhydra project delivers a servlet runner with a difference.
Expresso Framework	Expresso is an architectural framework with extensible Java components for developing database-driven web applications based on open standards.	The Apache Software License
firecat	firecat is a server-side JavaScript Webserver.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Flexible XML-based Languages (FXL) Project Framework	The Flexible XML-based Languages (FXL) project is a open-source research project which leverages the creation/integration of domain specific languages (DSLs) and various modeling approaches (MDSD/MDA) to provide consistent, XML-based solutions for varying tasks in today’s software development, runtime and maintenance phases.	The Apache Software License
Free Trading Platform	Free Trading Platform offers software to bootstrap a brokerage operation and perform its day-to-day business.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Freenet	Freenet is free software designed to ensure true freedom of communication over the Internet.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
FreeTTS	FreeTTS is a speech synthesis engine written entirely in the Java(tm) programming language.	BSD License (BSD)
Ganymed SSH2 for Java	The Ganymed SSH2 for Java library (implementing the SSH-2 protocol) is used in Ganymed and a couple of other projects here at ETH Zurich.	BSD License (BSD)
Gemini	Gemini is a very simple-to-use non-intrusive Java framework that seamlessly enables bidirectional relationships between plain old Java objects (POJO).	GNU General Public License (GPL)
GGZ-Java	The GGZ Gaming Zone is a free cross-desktop gaming integration platform.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Global Javadoc Viewer	This application allows to conveniently browse, over the Internet and local filesystem, multiple javadoc sets, using a single packages/classes hierarchy tree and a searchable index.	Artistic License (Perl AL)
GNU Trove	High performance collections for Objects and primitive types.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Gomba	Gomba is a collection of Java servlets that allow developers to quickly build RESTful web services.	The Apache Software License
Hibernate	Hibernate is a powerful, ultra-high performance object/relational persistence and query service for Java.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
HSQL Database Engine	HSQLDB is a relational database engine written in Java, with a JDBC driver, supporting a subset of ANSI-92 SQL.	BSD License (BSD)
IBM Jikes	Jikes is a compiler that translates Java source files as defined in The Java Language Specification into the bytecoded instruction set and binary format defined in The Java Virtual Machine Specification.	IBM Public License
InfoSapient	InfoSapient is an Open Source, Common License 0.5, Java 1.2 and above, program for the easy expression, execution and maintenence of business rules within a company.	IBM Public License
iSQL	iSQL(IndependentSQL)-Viewer is a JDBC 2.0-compliant application that is designed to exploit JDBC Features for all compliant drivers.	Mozilla Public License (MPL)
iText	iText is a library that allows you to generate PDF files on the fly.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
ITracker: Java Issue Tracking Software	ITracker is a Java J2EE issue tracking system designed to support multiple projects with independent user bases.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
JacORB	Java implementation of the OMG's CORBA standard.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Japple	Japple is a rapid application development environment for building web applications and services.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
JAT - Java Application Template	JAT is a flexible Java base-framework which can be easily extended to improve projects start-up time.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Java Outline Editor (JOE)	This is an outliner and MDI implemented in Java Swing.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Java Wireless Connection Program
JavaClientForDict	Set of Java interfaces for communicating with DICT (RFC2227) dictionary servers.	The Apache Software License
Jawin	The Java/Win32 integration project (Jawin) is a free, open source architecture for interoperation between Java and components exposed through Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) or through Win32 Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs).
JBeans	The JBeans project is a complete re-implementation of the java.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
JBoss	JBoss is an Open Source, standards-compliant, J2EE application server implemented in 100% Pure Java, as is our full product suite.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
jCharts	is a 100% Java based charting utility that outputs a variety of charts.	A BSD-ish license
jDictionary	JDictionary is a dictionary application written in java.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
JDigraph	JDigraph is a Java library for representing and working with directed graphs and paths.	BSD License (BSD)
JDOM	The JDOM project intends to provide a solution for using XML from Java that is as simple as Java itself.
JDots, Java Dynamic Object Tree System	JDots is a small library of java classes which can be used by the developer to build a dynamic (runtime) tree of objects.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
jEdit	jEdit is a programmer's text editor written in Java, being developed by Slava Pestov and others.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Jete	Jeté is a system and integration testing framework.	The Apache Software License
Jetty	Jetty is a 100% Java HTTP Server and Servlet Container.	Artistic License (Perl AL)
Jext	Jext is a powerful 100% pure Java programmer's text editor.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
JFaceDbc	JFaceDbc is a JDBC client application written in Java.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
jFin open source pure java financial library	Pure java implementation of financial date arithmetic: date adjustment, date offset and day count calculation.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
JFreeChart	JFreeChart (version 0.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
JGraphicTools	JGraphicTools is a easy to use Java-API and a collection of usefull tools for graphic manipulation.	The Apache Software License
Jiplet Container - SIP development environment	Jiplet is short for Java SIP Servlet.	The Apache Software License
JLop	Why JLop? By many years i'm interested in fully portable programs: sources or executables that can be run 'unmodified' on many different computing machinery, on different os, different processors, different hardware.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
jMOS	Open java implementation for Media Object Server Communications Protocol (MOS).	The Apache Software License
Jofti - cache searching	Jofti is a simple to use, high-performance object indexing and searching solution for Objects in a Caching layer or storage structure that supports the Map interface.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
JOnAS	JOnAS (Java Open Application Server) is a pure Java open source implementation of the EJB (Enterprise JavaBeans) specification.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Jonathan	Jonathan is an open source adaptable distributed object platform, which currently provides several personalities, including on compliant with the OMG CORBA specifications and another with the RMI specification.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
JORAM	JORAM (Java Open Reliable Asynchronous Messaging) is an open source implementation of the JMS (Java Message Service) API.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
JOrganizer	JOrganizer is a webbased PIM (Personal Information Manager), written in Java.	The Apache Software License
JORM	JORM (Java Object Repository Mapping) is an open source adaptable persistence service.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Jostraca	Jostraca is a general purpose code generation toolkit for software developers.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
JOTM	JOTM (Java Open Transaction Manager) is a fully functional open source standalone transaction manager that implements the XA protocol and is complies with the JTA APIs.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
JPackage Project	JPackage project aims are twice, provide a coherent set of Java software packages for Linux, satisfying all quality requirement of other applications and establish an efficient and robust policy for Java software installation.
JPedal	A Java library to extract text and images from pdf files and provide a rasterizer.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
jPOS	jPOS is a Java based, production grade ISO-8583 library/framework that can be used to implement financial interchanges, protocol converters, payment gateways, credit card authorization clients and servers (merchant/issuer/acquirer), etc.	A BSD-ish license
jPOS	jPOS is a Java based, production grade ISO-8583 library/framework that can be used to implement financial interchanges, protocol converters, payment gateways, credit card verification clients and servers (merchant/issuer/acquirer), etc.	The Apache Software License
JPublish	JPublish is a powerful web publishing system which uses the Velocity template engine in combination with a content management framework to build dynamic web sites.	The Apache Software License
JRuby	JRuby is a re-implementation of the Ruby scripting language in Java.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
JSecurity	JSecurity is a powerful and flexible open-source Java security framework that cleanly handles authentication, authorization, integrated session management and single sign-on.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
JSmooth	JSmooth is a Java Executable Wrapper that makes a standard Windows executable binary (.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
jTans	jTans is a Java version of Tangram, an ancient Chinese puzzle.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
JTrac	JTrac is a generic issue-tracking web-application that can be easily customized by adding custom fields and drop-downs.	The Apache Software License
JUnit	JUnit is a simple framework to write repeatable tests.	IBM Public License
Just4log Logging optimizator.	Just4Log is basically a library to enhance dynamically the performance of various logging systems inside a java application.	The Apache Software License
Juxy - Java unit testing for XSLT	Juxy is a simple library for unit testing of XSLT templates.	The Apache Software License
JXplorer LDAP client	An LDAP browser and administration client.	A BSD-ish license
JXTA	Juxtapose (JXTA) was originally one of Bill Joy's research projects aimed at developing a network programming and computing platform able to solve a number of the problems in modern distributed computing.
Jython	Jython is an implementation of Python written in 100% Pure Java, and seamlessly integrated with the Java platform.	Python Copyright (Python)
Karapan Sapi Struts Generator	Karapan Sapi is a generator that automatically create files for Struts framework based web application, From an XML meta data, Karapan Sapi will generate: Database creation scripts (SQL DDL) struts-config.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
kCommand	Developnet's kCommand product is an ultra-lightweight generic command architecture that provides a simple and effective mechanism for J2ME clients to execute remote commands on J2EE servers over HTTP.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Liferay Enterprise Portal	Liferay Enterprise Portal is a Java/J2EE portal system that provides personalization (like Yahoo!), web email (like Hotmail), document library, message boards (like Jive), shopping (e-commerce), Wiki and many other web tools all available in one place.	MIT/X Consortium License
Log42jme	log4j2me is log4j for j2me platform.	The Apache Software License
Lumbermill	Lumbermill is a JFC Swing log processing and distribution system for Log4j.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
LUSID - electronic Personal Development Planning	LUSID is an interactive fully customisable web-based Personal Development Planning (PDP) tool.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Luxor XUL	Luxor is an open-source XML User Interface Language (XUL) toolkit in Java that supports handpicked Mozilla XUL goodies and includes a web server, a portal engine (supporting RSS), a template engine (Velocity), a scripting interpreter (Python) and much more.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Mapyrus	Mapyrus is software for creating plots of points, lines, polygons and labels to PostScript (high resolution, up to A0 paper size), Portable Document Format (PDF), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format and web image output formats.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
MARC4J	MARC4J is an open source library for working with MARC records.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Maverik	Maverick is a Model-View-Controller (aka "Model 2") framework for web publishing using Java and J2EE.	MIT/X Consortium License
Mercator (Java POS)	Mercator is a Point of Sale (POS) application written in Java.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Millstone	Millstone is a user interface library for development of Internet applications with Java.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Mixer	Mixer is a helper-class that is easy to use for Servlet programmers that enable a complete separation of Servlet- and HTML-code.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
MM.MySQL	The MM.MySQL driver was developed in hopes of having a stable, full-featured JDBC driver for MySQL.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
ModelJ - Generate J2EE-Based Web Sites	ModelJ is a RAD (Rapid Application Development) tool that uses code generation to create complete J2EE designs using the Struts and EJB frameworks.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Mondrian	Mondrian is an OLAP (online analytical processing) database written in Java.	IBM Public License
MrPostman - webmail to POP3 email Gateway	MrPostman is an email gateway from local POP clients like Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla's mail client etc.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
n-genes	N-genes is an evolutionary computing framework for Java5.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
NetBeans	NetBeans is an open source IDE written in the Java programming language.
NoUnit	NoUnit measures your Junit tests in your project using Java, XML and XSLT.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
omega t+	omega t+ is a cross-platform Computer Assisted Translation(CAT) tool suite that currently includes omegat (translation editor tool with numerous features), extspell (an Apsell spellchecker user interface), sentseg (for sentence segmenting of documents), and packages for OmegaT (from which omegat is derived).	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Open For Business	Open For Business is a project dedicated to developing a set of open source tools and applications for business software.	MIT/X Consortium License
Open Source Java	Sun sponsors a variety of programs designed to encourage innovation throughout the developer community.
OpenCCM	OpenCCM (Open CORBA Component Model platform) is the first public available open source implementation of the CCM (CORBAC omponent Model) defined by the OMG (Object Management Group).	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
OpenEJB	OpenEJB is an open source EJB 2.0 container system.
OpenEMed	Toolkit for building a secure medical record system from open standard components.	BSD License (BSD)
OpenI	OpenI is a web-based Business Intelligence application.	Mozilla Public License (MPL)
OpenJMS	OpenJMS is an open source JMS project dedicated to Java messaging development and deployment.
OpenNMS	This web-based network and systems management platform competes with commercial products like HP's OpenView and IBM's Tivoli.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
OpenSyncro, eai software for simple integrations	OpenSyncro is a lightweight, open source enterprise application integration tool written in Java language.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
OSCache	OSCache is a JSP tag library and listeners that cache JSP content.	A BSD-ish license
OSCore	OSCore is a set of core utility-classes, frameworks, and modules that are common to the other components of OpenSymphony.	A BSD-ish license
OSWorkflow	OpenSymphony Workflow is a very flexible workflow system that can be plugged in to almost any need or existing application.	A BSD-ish license
P6Spy	P6Spy is an open source framework for applications that intercept and optionally modify database statements.	The Apache Software License
PCGen	PCGen is a java character generator and maintenance program aimed at supporting all d20 games such as D&D Third Edition, Star Wars, and others.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Perst Open Source Database For Java	Perst is an object-oriented embedded database for Java applications that need to deal with persistent data.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Phoenix IE	Phoenix IE is an information extraction toolkit to parse information from any XML documents to arbitrary java objects.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
PowerFolder	PowerFolder is an easy to use, easy to install J2EE-based workflow server.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
ProActive	ProActive is an open source Java library for parallel, distributed, and concurrent computing, featuring mobility and security in a uniform framework.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
ProDBA	ProDBA is a Java based Oracle front-end.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
ProGuard	ProGuard is a free Java class file shrinker and obfuscator.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
QueryForm	QueryForm is a robust Java application that provides a powerful GUI front end for relational databases.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
RETE-DB	RETE-DB is a customizable, multi-user web database frontend; suitable for Address databases, Bug management, Todo lists, File Server.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
RmiJdbc	RmiJdbc is an open source client/server JDBC driver that relies on Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI).	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Roller Weblogger	Roller is server-based weblogging software - a web application - that is designed to support multiple simultaneous weblog users and visitors.	The Apache Software License
Sanshowbean	We would like to introdcue a new type of Java bean that provides a way of transforming structured text information into object oriented text information.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Seppia	A simple framework to manipulate java objects via javascript in a simple and elegant way.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
ServiceMix	ServiceMix is an open source distributed Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and SOA toolkit built from the ground up on the semantics and APIs of the Java Business Integration (JBI) specification JSR 208.	The Apache Software License
Simple Declarative Language (SDL)	The Simple Declarative Language provides an easy way to describe lists, maps, and trees of typed data in a compact, easy to read representation.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
SipExchange - open source extensible soft-switch	SipExchange is an open-source softswitch that provides standard SIP services like registration, proxy and presence.	The Apache Software License
SipUnit	SipUnit provides a class library that allows software developers to create automated unit tests for SIP applications.	The Apache Software License
SiteMesh	SiteMesh was built upon the Java Servlet 2.3 API.	A BSD-ish license
SnipSnap	SnipSnap is an easy to install and easy to use weblog and wiki tool.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
SourceJammer	A platform-indendent, 100% Java, server-based, SOAP-enabled source code control and versioning system.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Spindle	Spindle provides, as a plugin for the Eclipse Platform, IDE support for Tapestry files in the form of editors and wizards.	Mozilla Public License (MPL)
Spring Framework	Spring is a J2EE application framework based on code published in the book "ExpertOneonOneJ2EE" by Rod Johnson.	The Apache Software License
SQuirreL SQL Client	SQuirreL SQL Client SQuirreL SQL Client is a graphical Java program that will allow you to view the structure of a JDBC compliant database, browse the data in tables, issue SQL commands etc.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Swing-XML Authoring Tool	SwiXAT is a Swing-based authoring tool for the quick and easy development of GUI Java applications.	The Apache Software License
Tapestry: Java Web Components	Comprehensive component-based web application framework.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
The JADE Open Framework	The JADE Open Framework is a RAD tool set for the J2EE.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
The Open For Business Project	The goal of Open For Business is to create a set of tools and applications for business software and a community of developers and users to benefit from it and contribute to it.	MIT/X Consortium License
The XAMJ Project	The XAMJ Project aims to develop an XML language, highly integrated with Java, which can be used to develop rich UI applications deployed over the web or launched locally in a user's PC.	BSD License (BSD)
toejam	TOEJAM is a Java Answering Machine.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
TomcatProbe	TomcatProbe is a tool to manage and monitor Tomcat instances.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Uncle Unc	A framework for decoupling back-end services from client interfaces, allowing a consistent presentation of diverse resources to a user, and ease of migration to new client platforms.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Voruta	Simple Data Access Framework for JAVA.	The Apache Software License
WebWork	WebWork is an HMVC web application framework in Java, developed as Open Source (BSD license) and designed to help create dynamic websites using minimal effort and maximum flexibility.	A BSD-ish license
WfMOpen	WfMOpen is a J2EE based implementation of a workflow facility (workflow engine) as proposed by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) and the Object Management Group (OMG).	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Winstone Servlet Container	Winstone is a servlet container that was written out of a desire to provide servlet functionality without the bloat that full J2EE compliance introduces.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
Xbeans	Xbeans is an open source project, which serves as a repository.
XDoclet	XDoclet is an extended Javadoc Doclet engine.
Xineo XML Import Language	Xineo XIL (XML Import Langage) defines an XML language for transforming various record-based data sources into XML documents, and provides a fully functional XIL processing implementation.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
XINS	XINS is a Web Services framework supporting SOAP, XML-RPC and REST.	BSD License (BSD)
XmlTask	xmltask provides the facility for automatically editing XML files as part of an Ant build.	GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
XmlTask	xmltask provides the facility for automatically editing XML files as part of an Ant build.	The Apache Software License
XMLUnit	A unit testing framework for XML that leverages the power of JUnit.	BSD License (BSD)
XNap	XNap is a pure java file sharing client licensed under the GNU Public License.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
XUI Rich-client framework	XUI is a Java and XML developer toolkit designed to reduce the amount of code needed to build an AWT or Swing rich-client application.	Mozilla Public License (MPL)
Ziga	A filesharing application written in Java.	GNU General Public License (GPL)
ZK Framework	A server-side web development framework with AJAX .	GNU General Public License (GPL)

Open Source Community

2007-01-31T01:25:00.000-08:00

Open Source Community

Open Source Research Community
In the spirit of free and open source software (F/OSS), we are attempting to establish a community in which information will be freely exchanged, so that we may further the understanding of open source and its implications outside the realm of software development. We invite researchers to post their papers on open source and free software here, and to add themselves to the research directory, so that our community can become steadily larger and more comprehensive. Authors rooted in any discipline should consider a submission of their F/OSS-related work to our database of online papers. Authors can submit working papers, abstracts and related links for posting on this site.
Open Source Software Engineering Tools
Tigris.org provides information resources for software engineering professionals and students, and a home for open source software engineering tool projects. We also promote software engineering education and host some undergraduate senior projects. Software engineering practices are key to any large development project. Unfortunately, software engineering tools and methods are not widely used today. Even after over 30 years as a engineering profession, most software developers still use few software engineering tools. Some of the reasons are that tools are expensive and hard to learn and use, also many developers have never seen software engineering tools used effectively.
Open Source Community Node
You are now part of a network connecting more than a billion of people worldwide. Technology between you and them allows you to communicate, share and cooperate with them as part of a worldwide community. Libervis.com is about building a community around the simple idea, that you should have freedom to cooperate in a networked world. We discuss the concerning issues, express ourselves, share ideas and cooperate on special projects. We support Free Culture and Free Software. These ways of thinking may be diverse, sometimes even contradicting, but that is exactly the point, not to create a fan club around certain set of opinions everybody in a club agrees and cheers on, but a community where everybody's opinion will be welcomed, and in turn everybody's opinion may be challenged.
The Helix™ Community
The Helix Community is a collaborative effort among both leading technology companies and open-source developers to extend the Helix DNA™, the first open multi-format digital media platform. Helix DNA is the foundation of the media players in the world's best mobile phones and also the free Real Player, Real Producer, and the Helix Universal Server. All components of the Helix DNA platform are available under either commercial or open source licenses. Additionally, RealAudio and Real Video and Helix DRM are available under commercial licensing terms.
The Cisco-centric Open Source Community
Where your comments, contributions and discussion build the community! This site welcomes and needs your contributions and involvement to provide Cisco-centric Open Source Tools, Scripts and Utilities. together we can help you manage your Cisco equipment. The programs offered on this site are not supported by the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center (TAC). Please do not contact the Cisco TAC because they can't offer you support assistance. If you have questions or require assistance, please direct them within COSI and the open source community.
Microsoft Reaches Out to Open-Source Community
Microsoft Corp. has extended an olive branch to the open-source community, calling for a sit-down to discuss how the software giant can better work with the open-source world. But don't expect to see an open-sourced version of Windows any time soon. Microsoft is making nice with its open-source adversaries, while continuing to defend its rights to hold and use its arsenal of software patents. At a recent conference sponsored by the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) in Cambridge, Md., Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, called for bridge building between Microsoft, its competitors and the open-source community.
Open source community
Cleversafe.org is an open source community creating software for dispersed data storage. Cleversafe Dispersed Storage™ software uses unique information dispersal algorithms to store small slices of data in multiple, disparate locations. Each slice contains too little information to be usable which ensures that all data stored or transmitted on the grid is secure and private. Although each slice is individually unusable, any majority of the slices can perfectly recreate all of the original data. As a result the grid remains fully operational even if up to half of the grid nodes are not operating. The result is a pioneering new technology for data storage superior in security, privacy, reliability and scalability.
Open Source at SGI Overview
SGI established its intellectual alliance with Open Source years before the term was coined. That alliance continues to this day through contributions of SGI intellectual energy and properties to the Open Source developmental maelstrom. SGI believes that connecting ever more of the distributed intellectual resources of the Net helps individual developers and the global Open Source community to develop alliances and accelerate the growth and maturation of market-like computational ecologies. Thus, this site is another SGI contribution. This is the Developer Central portal to all SGI Open Source material. Wanderers, seekers, and developers are offered this gateway to Open Source technical content and advice, libraries of downloadable software, contribution points, email lists, and links to the Open Source community.
Sun Grants Global Open Source Community
As the largest business contributor to the open source community, Sun has always been an ardent believer in open standards and the open source process going back to the inception of this company," said Scott McNealy, Chairman and CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "The release of more than 1,600 patents associated with the Solaris OS far eclipses any other vendor's contribution. Today represents a huge milestone for Sun, for the community, for developers and for customers." Sun's goal in offering access to these patents is to help facilitate innovation and help users get new open source products and technologies to market faster without having to obtain patent licenses from Sun.
New Open Source DB Engines
MySQL AB today announced plans for a certification program for the many powerful database storage engines being developed for its flagship MySQL database server by third-party partners and the open source developer community. Several industry-leading companies -- including Innobase OY (a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation) and Solid Information Technology -- are supporting the new program by joining MySQL AB in producing open source engines for the millions of MySQL® database users worldwide. The MySQL Certified Storage Engine Program's benefits were introduced this morning as part of a keynote address by Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL AB, at the 2006 MySQL Users Conference being held here this week.
Open-source community for advice
China is counting on senior members of the open-source community to help formulate policy ideas to promote open-source software, according to a local software executive. The China Open-Source Software Promotion Union (COPU), a government-backed industry group, has established a think tank comprised of 19 prominent open-source executives from overseas to develop a framework for better international cooperation. The group will hold its first meeting in Beijing during July and will meet annually, said Song Kewei, the assistant to COPU's chairman. Its primary focus is to advise COPU on how local companies and the government can promote the adoption and development of open-source software in China, he said.
Open Source Device Drivers
One of the biggest hurdles for device driver developers entering the Linux open source community is acclimating themselves to a different development environment and learning how to engage with the existing community. These developers need information to help themselves get accustomed to the methods, processes, and coding style of the open source community. The focus of this site will be to act as an information portal to developers, testers, and users to help them gain the vital knowledge they need to begin their interaction with the community. We want to introduce these individuals to the proper way of doing things so they can make a positive first step into their Linux open source community involvement.
Industry open-source model
The company, called Source Labs, will provide certification, testing and ongoing support services for open-source software components. On Tuesday, the company announced that it has received $3.5 million in initial funding from Ignition Partners and Index Ventures. The idea behind Source Labs is that corporate customers need a reliable partner to procure and maintain open-source products, much as they rely on Dell to provide computing gear, said Brad Silver berg, lead investor at Ignition and a former Microsoft senior vice president who helped expand the software giant's Windows business. The trend over the last couple of years, and if you project it forward, it's clear the value (in the software industry) is moving toward maintenance, testing, support and configuration," Silver berg said.
Succeeding with Open Source Community
Most successful open source projects started out as open source. Zimbra took a different path: We cranked code for nearly two years in stealth mode before making the first public release of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite in open source in August of ’05. Since then, of course, it’s been a wild ride: Zimbra is now arguably the most popular open source technology in its category of messaging and collaboration servers. Zimbra’s success has led to inquiries from the owners of existing closed source software that are considering open source as a means to replicate that success. All of us in open source land should encourage proprietary software vendors to go open source, but we should also be realistic with them about their chances for success.
MailManager Developer Community
The MailManager software is developed as an Open Source project. This section of the site is for users and developers in the community. Many customers also choose to get involved in the community so that they can participate in the development of the product. We make extensive use of Source forge the largest open source community site with more than a million members. Many of the links from this section will take you to Source forge and you will need to register with Source forge if you want to get involved with the MailManager project. Testing and reporting bugs is one of the most practical ways to get involved in the MailManager project. We run an extensive test suite and perform significant end user testing prior to release, but we still need community input help to ensure the quality of the software. Your bug reports are very important to us.
Open Source Community Integral to MySQL's
MySQL AB, developer of the world's most popular Open Source database, today announced that the MySQL database is now bundled with key products from Sun Microsystems Inc., Apple and other leading technology companies. MySQL's high performance database is now included on Sun's new LX50 entry-level server, announced Monday, as well as on the Sun Solaris 9 Operating Environment Companion CD and on several Sun Cobalt servers. MySQL is also included with Apple's Mac OS X Server. Increasingly bundled or integrated with leading software and other technologies as a high-speed data management system for web site and business application development, the widespread distribution of the MySQL database supports the overall business strategy for Open Source proponent MySQL AB.
Open Source Content Management System
OpenCms is a professional level Open Source Website Content Management System. OpenCms helps to create and manage complex websites easily without knowledge of html. An integrated WYSIWYG editor with a user interface similar to well known office applications helps the user creating the contents, while a sophisticated template engine enforces a site-wide corporate layout. As true Open Source software, OpenCms is completely free of licensing costs. OpenCms is based on Java and XML technology. Therefore it fits perfectly into almost any existing modern IT infrastructure.
Open Source Security
Open source may have many benefits over closed systems, but don't count security among them--yet. This article looks at why open source software may currently be less secure than its commercial counterparts. Several years ago I wrote a few articles on whether open source software has security benefits, including The Myth of Open Source Security. Since then I've had open source developers tell me over and over again that now there is no myth of open source security. Some of those people will say, "Building secure software is difficult, open source or not; neither open source nor proprietary code should be considered a crutch." Others will say, "Open source developers are more clued in to security issues due to a better sense of community, and their software is more secure as a result."
Jini to open-source community
Sun Microsystems Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., is hoping to move its Jini distributed computing technology to an open-source development community, according to an e-mail one member of the Sun Jini developer team posted on the Jini mailing list last week. Last week, Jim Hurley announced via e-mail that Sun plans to propose Jini to be an open source project for the Apache Software Foundation, which would oversee its further development. Although Hurley and other Sun engineers expressed interest in continuing to work with Jini—and noted that Sun to continue to offer it in commercial products—it appears that the company wishes to no longer host the Jini Web site nor be the sole maintainers of the code.
MaxMind Open Source Community
We support Open Source software in our business. Open source is a methodology for producing software that empowers the end user. We release all of our Linux/UNIX based Client APIs under Open Source licenses. Mailing lists and CVS are available from our SourceForge GeoIP project page. In addition, we maintain several widely used Perl modules on CPAN. As part of our community program, MaxMind continues to support the open source community through contributions to non-profit organizations that support software freedom. We are a corporate patron of the Free Software Foundation, a corporate sponsor of osCommerce, and have donated funds to the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure.

Open Source Servers

2007-01-31T01:23:00.000-08:00

Open Source Streaming Server
the open source version of Apple's QuickTime Streaming Server technology that allows you to send streaming media to clients across the Internet using the industry standard RTP and RTSP protocols. Based on the same code base as QuickTime Streaming Server, Darwin Streaming Server provides a high level of customizability and runs on a variety of platforms allowing you to manipulate the code to fit your needs. QuickTime Streaming Server (QTSS) is Apple's commercial streaming server delivered as part of Mac OS X Server. QTSS provides users with enhanced administration and media management tools as a result of the tight integration with Mac OS X Server; these tools are not available as part of the open source project. Technical support is available for QTSS as part of the AppleCare support plans provided for Mac OS X Server and Xserve.
Novell - Open Enterprise Server
Open Enterprise Server offers a unique combination of options: it includes both NetWare, the long-standing leader of secure networking services, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, an award-winning open-source server for delivering business-level applications. You can choose to use NetWare, SUSE Linux or a combination of both technologies. And no, you won't have to rip out existing infrastructure. You can deploy any or all of the included technologies - it's all up to you. If you're looking for an exit strategy from restrictive Microsoft* technologies, Novell Open Enterprise Server–with its easy-to-use migration tools–provides the foundation for a compelling server-to-desktop alternative.
Netline debuts open source server
Netline Internet Service rolled out a new version of its Open-Xchange Server that features improved compatibility with Microsoft's Outlook, and complemented that offering by also debuting a version of the product designed specifically for small and medium-size businesses (SMBs). Open-Xchange is intended to let administrators migrate and integrate products over to an open source environment so they can create applications without having to change over basic infrastructure components such as a database, e-mail server, or message transfer agents. As an example, a user can retain a favored mail client such as Outlook but also have access to an open source mail client such as Kontact.
Sun warms to open-source server software
Sun is considering making its Java Enterprise System server software open-source, John Loiacono, Sun's executive vice president of software, said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. "It's something we're looking at closely right now. It's absolutely in our interest to go pursue that." Sun's open-source Solaris move is widely seen as a response to competitive pressure from open-source Linux, which has attracted thousands of volunteer and paid developers. For server software, IBM, Microsoft, BEA Systems and others provide plenty of competitors for Sun's JES, which is used for tasks such as hosting Web pages, managing e-mail, tracking passwords and running Java business software.
Poptop - The PPTP Server for Linux
GeoServer is an open source, standards-based server of geospatial information, connecting spatial databases and files to the variety of clients that make up the 'geospatial web', and allowing user contributed editing through standard web-based interfaces. Latest updates... Improvements for this release include an upgrade to GeoTools 2.2.x, and some performance tuning on the toolkit, with users reporting at least a 60-70% speed increase against PostGIS. There are also great user contributed fixes to create PDF maps from WMS and to adjust headers to allow caching, which can optimize GeoServer for tiling web mapping clients like Google Maps or OpenLayers.
The OpenVZ
OpenVZ is an Operating System-level server virtualization solution, built on Linux. OpenVZ creates isolated, secure virtual environments — VEs (otherwise known as virtual private servers, or VPSs) on a single physical server enabling better server utilization and ensuring that applications do not conflict. Each VPS performs and executes exactly like a stand-alone server; VPSs can be rebooted independently and have root access, users, IP addresses, memory, processes, files, applications, system libraries and configuration files.
MailWasher Server
MailWasher Server is an open-source, server-side junk mail filter package for businesses. MailWasher Server differs from other open-source server anti-spam packages in that it offers a polished, well-integrated web interface and built-in quarantine management facilities. MailWasher Server is easier for administrators to set up and manage and easier for users to use the product on a day-to-day basis. MailWasher Server fully supports Windows Server/Exchange Server systems, in addition to Unix-based systems such as Linux and Solaris.
ZOPE
Zope is an open source application server for building content management systems, intranets, portals, and custom applications. The Zope community consists of hundreds of companies and thousands of developers all over the world, working on building the platform and Zope applications. Zope is written in Python, a highly-productive, object-oriented scripting language.
Midgard CMS
Midgard CMS is an Open Source Content Management System built on top of the Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (LAMP) platform. It provides a reliable, powerful and internationalized set of tools for building web sites and networked applications. Midgard utilizes PHP as the web scripting language and provides integration interfaces on Java and C layers. Midgard's unique architecture enables it to provide services like single sign-on and replication. With these capabilities and the integrated full-text search system, Midgard is an excellent match for information-rich web sites and intranets.
The FreeRADIUS Server
The FreeRADIUS Server Project encompasses more than just a RADIUS server. The related software includes a PAM authentication module, and an Apache 1.3 and 2.0 authentication module. The server comes with a PHP-based web user administration tool, called dialupadmin. The RADIUS server has more features and is more flexible than any other free software RADIUS server, and many commercial servers. Most commercial servers are distributed as a "base" system ($), and an "enhanced" version ($$) with more features. FreeRADIUS has all the features of a commercial "enhanced" server, without the associated cost. To support the demanding requirements of a modern RADIUS server, FreeRADIUS features more than 50 vendor-specific dictionary files. It ships with support for LDAP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle databases. It supports EAP, with EAP-MD5, EAP-SIM, EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS, EAP-PEAP, and Cisco LEAP sub-types. It supports proxying, with fail-over and load balancing.
Funambol Projec
Funambol is open source mobile application server software that provides push email, address book and calendar (PIM) data synchronization, application provisioning, and device management for wireless devices and PCs, leveraging standard protocols. For users, this means BlackBerry-like capabilities on commodity handsets. Funambol is also a software development platform for mobile applications. It provides client and server side Java APIs, and facilitates the development, deployment and management of any mobile project.
The osTicket
osTicket is a widely-used open source support ticket system. Plain and simple it is a lightweight feature packed support ticket tool written mainly using PHP scripting language. An attractive alternative to higher-cost and more complex customer support systems; simple, lightweight and easy to setup and use. The best part is, it's completely free. osTicket seamlessly integrates all tickets created via email and web-based form with a simple web interface. Easily manage, organize and archive all your support requests. Your clients will also be able to view tickets status and history online.

Open Source RFID

2007-01-31T01:11:00.000-08:00

Open Source RFID

RFID
RFID systems can be used just about anywhere, from clothing tags to missiles to pet tags to food -- anywhere that a unique identification system is needed. The tag can carry information as simple as a pet owners name and address or the cleaning instruction on a sweater to as complex as instructions on how to assemble a car. Some auto manufacturers use RFID systems to move cars through an assembly line. At each successive stage of production, the RFID tag tells the computers what the next step of automated assembly is. One of the key differences between RFID and bar code technology is RFID eliminates the need for line-of-sight reading that bar coding depends on. Also, RFID scanning can be done at greater distances than bar code scanning.
The Open Source RFID
RadioActive is the first and only open source suite of RFID applications. Currently in the design stages this application will allow for RFID technology to reach its fullest potential. We have a philosophy that RFID technology is going to be almost as big as the Internet where RFID tags are like URLs, and their associated meta data is like the website for that tag, supplying a wealth of information. Eventually RFID will create an “Internet of things”. To reach this goal, there must be a basic application that is free, much like how the growth of the Internet would not have been possible without the Apache web server.
The RadioActive Foundation
RadioActive is the first and only open source suite of RFID applications with a focus on the EPC network. Currently in the design stages these applications will allow for RFID technology and the EPC network to reach its fullest potential. We have a philosophy that RFID technology and the EPC network are going to be as big as the Internet where RFID tags are like URLs, and their associated meta data is like the website for that tag, supplying a wealth of information.
RFID goes open-source
A couple of entrepreneurs out of Toronto have launched an open-source project called The RadioActive Foundation. It's mission? To develop free software for radio frequency identification (RFID) networks--a budding branch of information technology aimed at tracking all manner of people and things via tiny radio devices. RadioActive, which launched earlier this month, is focusing on three applications initially: 1. A system for exchanging RFID data among business partners 2. Middleware for gathering and filtering data from RFID readers 3. Hardware simulation and testing tools.
Open Source RFID Middleware Initiative Launched
The idea of an open source middleware platform is an exciting one, but the challenge will come in gaining traction. RadioActive, a separate open source RFID middleware initiative that RFID Update reported on last August, does not seem to have developed critical mass and has been silent for months. Notably, i-Konect chose to distribute Singularity under a different license than RadioActive, one that is pro-commercial and, according to Ron, "will allow companies to do whatever they want with it." However the initiative evolves, one thing is certain: cheap, standardized, and extensible middleware would change the dynamics of the industry.
Foundation to Create Free EPC Software
The foundation's members, most of whom represent developers and consultants in the RFID industry, receive two primary advantages for their membership. One advantage, Mealling says, is the prestige of "knowing something they are working on [such as writing software for the foundation] is being used." The members also have access to a larger pool of developers and experience. "It's a community of open-source Java developers," Mealling states. Working with others on these software projects, he claims, can be a boost to an individual's career or an organization.
Consumers get open source RFID reader
Dachary is a software developer at the department of research into man-machine interfaces at the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control. He is already known in the open source software arena, being a mainstay of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in France. The radio tags, based on RFID technology, are worrying civil liberties campaigners due to their surveillance potential. They see RFID being used as a way to track the spending habits of consumers by monitoring how products are moved around shops.
Startup Opens Up RFID Middleware
RFID middleware has two main elements: edgeware and EPC information system (EPC-IS). The edgeware collects and filters data from RFID devices (tags and readers) and translates that data into business-event data by using a process manager, which is part of the Singular platform. The process manager filters data in accordance with an application-level events (ALE) specification. (EPCglobal is currently working to standardize an ALE specification; once it does, all members of the EPCglobal Network will use this ALE.) ALE software will be used to link the edgeware part of the Singularity middleware to the EPC-IS part.
Open Source RFID project
Started by two developers from Toronto, RadioActive is the first open source suite of RFID applications. Currently in the design stages, this application should allow for RFID technology to reach its fullest potential. To reach this goal, the developers believe that "there must be a basic application that is free, much like how the growth of the Internet would not have been possible without the Apache web server."
Singularity
Singularity is an open source initiative dedicated to developing and promoting RFID Software technology for use in supply chain management, EPCglobal Network™. inventory management, payment solutions, etc. Singularity has two major components, the Middleware and EPC Information Service (EPC-IS). Singularity provides an open source EPC-IS that supports the EPCglobal™ specifications, as well as enables successful integration of EPC related information into the enterprise. While the Middleware provides RFID/Sensor device and event management. The technology platform chosen for Singularity is Java™, as it can be introduced into almost any corporate infrastructure.
ThingMagic Builds on Open Source with RFID Reader
ThingMagic has a solid head start. Working with embedded Linux, ThingMagic is creating RFID readers -- devices used to feed data to a computer network for tracking merchandise -- with a focus on software. "They knew embedded computing was going to be big," said Kevin Ashton, ThingMagic's VP of marketing. The ThingMagic team was handed a challenging assignment: to create a device that can talk to any RFID tag on any radio frequency, that can integrate seamlessly with the Internet, and that can be manufactured very cheaply and in large volumes.
Open Source RFID/Sensor Middleware M1 Release
i-Konect has released an open source, Java-based platform for integrating RFID and sensory data with enterprise applications such as CRM, ERP and warehouse management systems. The middleware, dubbed Singularity, consists of two components: middleware and information services. The middleware component captures and filters RFID data. The information services component is intended to reside as a member of an enterprise service bus (ESB), although an ESB is not required. The new software is compatible with the EPCglobal's ALE and EPC-IS standards.
Open source 'will solve RFID's image problem
The public image of RFID as a secretive tool of big business and government could improve if open source groups get involved in developing RFID standards, according to one UK charity. The OSI recently formed a consortium of large organisations to create EPCglobal compliant open source software for commercial environments — the group hopes to release the software in the next two years. EPCglobal is the body charged with developing RFID standards.
Open Source RFID Software Foundation Formed
The Foundation's initial releases will include implementations of the ALE, Reader Protocol, and EPC-IS standards that will enable both internal middleware and external B2B data exchange support. The Foundation is also working toward its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in order to support future donations. The Foundation's website, radioactivehq.org, contains additional information on participation, a future road-map, and available software.
Singularity an Open Source RFID Sensory Integration Platform
One open source project focusing on building software for RFID implementations is Java-based Singularity, which is separated into two major components: a middleware component and an EPC Information Service (EPC-IS) component. The EPC-IS will be designed to be EPCglobal-compliant. The project is using the Apache 2.0 license, and aims to reduce entrance barriers and help companies speed their product offerings. The recent M1 release focuses on the middleware portion, which captures and filters RFID data.
Reva publishes open source RFID reader protocol
According to Reva, the main benefit of this effort to the RFID end-user community is arguably a reduction in the inefficiency and confusion inherent in more than a dozen proprietary reader protocols.The introduction of open source projects such as this is aimed at encouraging incumbent RFID reader vendors, new market entrants and technology suppliers to actively participate in the ongoing development, refinement and testing of the SLRRP protocol in a public forum.
RFID Security
Security hasn't been left completely unaddressed by the RFID industry; they're well aware of the problems and have attempted some manuevers to compensate. As mentioned, some RFID systems can be both read and written to. This would be perfect for creating a "universal badge" that could spoof any identity without even a separate transmission system that could be examined and recognized. So what some companies have done is create a 64 bit region that cannot be modified and remains unique to the badge itself. So you use those 64 bits as a badge identifier that authenticates the rest of the data, and trust that your vendor will never release a badge that either a. Repeats identifiers (unlikely, 2^64 is a very large number) or b. can have its identifier changed.
Transparency 'crucial' for RFID systems
"Transparency is very important both for governments — what they want to use RFID for — and for retailers and corporations. They need to be honest about what they want to use the data for," McDermott said. Humberto Moran, the chief executive of UK technology charity Open Source Innovation, agreed that transparency is key, and called for the use of open source software within RFID deployments, to ensure that people can find out what the RFID systems are doing.
California Scrutinizes RFID Privacy
RFID allows for automatic collection of data similar to the way barcodes work. Instead of the printed barcode, a tiny transponder, called a tag, carries the data. An RFID reader, which can be handheld or fixed in place, transmits a low-power radio signal through its antenna. The radio signal powers a chip in the tag that causes it to connect and exchange data with the reader. The reader can then send the data on to the controlling computer, which matches the data against its database to figure out what the RFID tag says. The computer can use that data just like any other data source: It can make an entry in a database or cause an action to happen.
Advanced Standards May Propel RFID To Greater Adoption
RFID, the tag-based, asset-tracking technology that's being propelled into widespread deployment thanks to its adoption by Wal-Mart and the U.S. Defense Defense, is about to get an additional boost from several advanced standards efforts as well as bid to take RFID into the open-source world. RFID is about to get a separate software boost from the newly formed Radioactive Software Foundation, which is looking to develop a suite of open-source RFID software that conforms to the EPCglobal's RFID standards. The foundation was established in June in Toronto by two RFID software houses, N4 Systems of Toronto, and Refactored Networks of Kennesaw, Ga.

Open Source Java Database

2007-01-31T01:10:00.000-08:00

An Open Source Java Database
One$DB is an Open Source version of Daffodil DB, our commercial Java Database. One$DB is a standards based (JDBC 3.0 and SQL 99 compliant), platform independent, footprint size database that can be embedded into any application and requires zero or minimal administration. Daffodil DB is the first Java database that has shown the capability to take on enterprise databases with its high performance in real time environments, Compiere compatibility being the best example so far. One$DB is exactly the same as Daffodil DB barring a few features and has been made available in both Embedded and Network editions.
Open Source Database
One$DB is an Open Source version of Daffodil DB, our commercial Java Database. One$DB is a standards based (JDBC 3.0 and SQL 99 compliant), platform independent, footprint size database that can be embedded into any application and requires zero or minimal administration. One$DB is has been made available in both Embedded and Network editions . Few key features of One$DB are:
1. Stored Procedures
2. MVCC
3. Triggers
4. Views
Sun Releases Open-Source Java Database
Sun Microsystems Inc. announced a move into the database world with the release of Java DB, a distribution of the Apache Derby open-source database technology. During a keynote at the Apache Software Foundation's ApacheCon in San Diego, Tim Bray, director of Web Technologies at Sun and XML specification co-editor, said Sun was incorporating the open-source Java DB into the Sun Java Enterprise System and providing additional support for the database with the NetBeans IDE (integrated development environment) 5.0 plug-in.
IBM to Release Java Database to Open-Source Group
IBM has bequeathed to the open-source movement something it desperately needs: a full-featured, enterprise-ready Java database. The embeddable database, acquired when IBM purchased Informix in 2001, represents a sizable slice—$85 million—of the $1 billion IBM paid for Informix. The full-featured Java database is the first full, commercial product donated to open source, and definitely the first fully functional Java database—something sorely needed in that community, said Paul Rivot, director of Database Servers and Business Intelligence at IBM.
Open Source Native XML Database
eXist is an Open Source native XML database featuring efficient, index-based XQuery processing, automatic indexing, extensions for full-text search, XUpdate support and tight integration with existing XML development tools. The database implements the current XQuery 1.0 working draft as of November, 2003 (for the core syntax, some details already following later versions), with the exception of the XML schema related features.
An Open Source Database Benchmark
PolePosition is an open source Java framework for benchmarking databases. The impetus behind PolePosition came from the observation that developers evaluating candidate databases for future applications often resorted to constructing ad hoc benchmarks rather than using "canned" benchmark tests (or relying on vendor-provided data). This is entirely understandable; to properly evaluate a database for a specific project, you would want to exercise that database in ways that correspond to the application's use of it. Put another way, if the target application will use the database in read-only fashion, you'll have little interest in a benchmark that runs the database through write operations.
Sun plugs in open-source Java database
Sun Microsystems said, it is now distributing an open-source Java database within its Java server software products. In addition, Sun said it has created a plug-in which will allow the database to work closely with Sun's NetBeans open-source development tool. Sun began committing engineers to the Apache Derby project, which IBM started with the donation of an embedded Java database. The Sun-supported version of that database is called open Java DB. Sun uses it in the latest version of its Java Enterprise System suite.
IBM to make Java database open source
The move to make its database products open source deepens IBM's commitment to the open-source development model. With its multibillion-dollar investment in Linux, Big Blue is credited with having made open-source technology more palatable to corporate customers. The decision to release Cloudscape into open source mimics moves by other proprietary software companies, which have created open-source projects around existing products in an effort to generate more interest in the product and make it easier for programmers to access it.
Perst Embedded Database
Thank you for your interest in McObject's Perst embedded database, an open source, object oriented database for Java and .NET. Perst is distinguished by its ease in working with Java and C# objects, exceptional transparent persistence, and suitability for aspect-oriented programming with tools such as AspectJ and JAssist. Perst is small footprint imposes minimal demand on system resources.
Sun adds support for open-source Java database
Java DB, the Sun-supported version of the Apache Derby Project Java database, will now be used as the application-embedded and Java developer database for Java Enterprise System Release 4. Java DB has been incorporated into Sun's Java System Portal Server 7.0 for data storage and is used as the development database in all Sun Java System Application Servers.
Building an Open Source J2EE Weblogger
As a Java developer, you should be aware of the tremendous wealth of open source development software that is available for your use -- even if you have no desire to release any of your own software as open source. In this article, I will introduce you to some of the most useful open source Java development tools by showing you how I used these tools to develop a complete database-driven Web application called Roller.
Perst, Open Source Embedded Database for Java, Released
McObject LLC has released Perst v2.64, an open source, object-oriented embedded database for Java that offers transparent persistence and ease in working with objects.Perst's fundamental achievement lies in making persistent Java objects as efficient and easy to use as possible. In most cases, Perst automatically loads the persistent objects without explicit programmer command. When used with aspect-oriented tools such as AspectJ and JAssist, Perst provides completely transparent persistence.
JDBC - Java Database Connectivity
Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) is a programming framework for Java developers writing programs that access information stored in databases, spreadsheets, and flat files. JDBC is commonly used to connect a user program to a "behind the scenes" database, regardless of what database management software is used to control the database. In this way, JDBC is cross-platform. This article assumes that readers already have a data source established and are moderately familiar with the Structured Query Language (SQL), the command language for adding records, retrieving records, and other basic database manipulations.
Sun Microsystems Incorporates Open Java DB Into Java Enterprise System
The latest release of the Sun Java Enterprise System (release 4) now uses the open Java DB as its application-embedded and Java developer database. The open Java DB is incorporated in the Sun Java System Portal Server 7.0 for use in data storage; it is used as well as the development database within all versions of the Sun Java System Application Server, including the open source Project GlassFish.
McObject Releases Open Source Embedded Database for Java and C#
McObject has announced its official release of Perst, an open source, object-oriented embedded database for Java and C#. In addition to high performance and a modest footprint, one of Perst's greatest achievements is its tight integration with Java and C#, resulting in exceptional 'transparent persistence' and ease in working with objects in these fast-growing programming languages.
Database Engines
To use a database system from Java use the JDBC classes, which allow your program to use either a local data base or one located over the Internet. To package a database engine with your program, you might consider one of the many Java open-source options. Because communication with the database is with a standard protocol (JDBC), Java programs can use databases written in any language, so there is no need to restrict your choices to those written in Java.
Open Source Native XML Database
This section provides a quick but broad introduction to the APIs and interfaces provided by eXist. We begin with an overview of how to configure eXist for XQuery to begin creating and executing XQuery scripts for web applications. For this, we look at how eXist uses either the XQueryServlet servlet or XQueryGenerator (Cocoon) to generate output from XQuery scripts.

Open Source Identity

2007-01-31T01:09:00.001-08:00

Open Source Identity

Open source identity management
A complete identity management solution comprises a number of components. As such, it would be difficult for any single open source project to offer a plug-and-play identity management system. There are, however, a number of projects that offer components of such a system, particularly in the area of federation and SSO (single sign-on).
Novell's Bandit to open source identity management software
'Content Bandit will aim to create services enabling disparate identity management systems to be more readily integrated. The project will work with existing industry standards such as WS- and Liberty Federation, and open source projects including Eclipse Higgins. Novell already incorporates some of Bandit's open identity services within its SUSE Linux distribution and says it will include more of Bandit's services in future releases of other products. The Bandit high-level architecture includes identity infrastructure components for authentication, role-based access control, a role engine, and an audit record framework, as well as incorporating the Higgins common identity component.
Open Source Identity Management Solutions Written in Java
Continuing on the series of "open source" stuff written in Java, here now is a review of "open source" solutions for Identity Management. Identity management encompasses directory services, authentication and authorization services, certificate authorities, administration consoles, single sign-on and provisioning services.
Open Source Identity Selector Announced
OSIS is more than just a small project to build open source identity selectors for Microsoft’s CardSpace (formerly InfoCard); after all, that’s been done. OSIS will support interoperability between the addressable identity systems (OpenID, LID, XRI) and card (or token) based identity systems (more notably CardSpace and Higgins). OSIS has the support of all of the major players (including Microsoft, Novell, IBM, SXIP, XRI, and Verisign).
Red Hat Supporting Open Source Identity Selector
As Pete Rowley said in explaining Red Hat’s decision to participate, “With so many companies collaborating on the project it is clear that this is an important piece of the identity puzzle and that the industry recognizes the opportunity to work together for the common good. The open source movement is much more than just Linux and we’re seeing significant interest from customers and the community in building a common framework for identity interchange on the internet.
Project Bandit to Open Source Identity Management Software
The Bandit open identity services that were released yesterday under GPL or LGPL licenses include the Common Authentication Services Adapter, which Novell created for its Novell Linux Desktop commercial desktop operating system. CASA allows the caching of user and system credentials on a Linux system such that applications can have single sign-on functionality. CASA supports the Linux kwallet equivalent to Microsoft's Passport (remember that?) as well as for GKring and PasswordManager. Novell says that CASA will eventually weave into LDAP directories and Kerberos security programs.
Novell Open Source's Identity Management Technologies
Novell has announced the creation of Bandit™, a groundbreaking open source project with a charter to unify disparate identity systems and provide a consistent approach to securing and managing identity. The identity services in development by the Bandit community are open source and will work with existing industry standards such as WS- and Liberty Federation, and open source projects including Eclipse Higgins. Novell has already contributed significant engineering resources and code to jump start this effort. Ultimately, the goal of the Bandit project is to provide organizations with a consistent approach to enterprise identity management challenges such as secure, role- based access and regulatory compliance reporting.
IBM, Novell aid open-source identity project
The project, which is managed under by the Eclipse Foundation, is based on the concept of user-centric identities researched at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. The software created by the project will likely compete with Microsoft's InfoCard framework, which will form the core identity management role in the software giant's next-generation operating system, Windows Vista. The hope is that the software will help reduce the amount of unsecured data on the Internet and stem the tide of data leaks.
IBM and Novell announce support for open-source identity manager
IBM announced today that they are partnering with Novell and a small firm called Parity Communications to contribute time and code to "Project Higgins," an open-source on-line identity manager. Higgins started life in 2004 as the "Eclipse Trust Framework," a proposal by the Eclipse Project. Eclipse is a nonprofit, open-source development organization, best known for its set of integrated, Java-based development tools. The idea behind the Eclipse Trust Framework (which was renamed Higgins last year) was to create an application programming interface (API) that could be used by users and organizations to create identity and relationship profiles that work across multiple platforms and systems.
What's behind open-source ID push?
The two technology heavyweights are backing an initiative code-named Higgins Project, which the companies pitch as an open-source response to Microsoft's forthcoming InfoCard technology. Both Higgins and InfoCard are being presented as ways to give people more control of their personal data when doing business online. The systems also promise to work with the multiple authentication systems on the Net, making it easier for people to manage Internet logins and passwords.
Novell funds open source Bandit
Novell has launched an ambitious open source identity management project, which aims to allow companies to integrate different identity systems and provide a consistent approach to securing and managing identity. Novell has a track record in identity management products and some credibility in the open source world, due to its acquisition of SuSE Linux, and is hoping that a freely available integration layer will mean more sales for the whole identity management market.
Sun goes open-source for single sign-on identity management
Sun is to open-source its single sign-on Java technologies for authenticating users remotely to a variety of websites and services. It will also open-source client-side software that connects and authenticates against the Sun Java System Web Server and Sun Java System Application Server. In order to drive development of these technologies, Sun has set up the Open Source Web Single Sign-On (OpenSSO) project with the goal creating an extensible infrastructure for identity services including authentication, session and logging. And just like Java, Sun's idea is to have this used everywhere: part of Sun's 'participation age' vision.
Open source identity management, social tools
SocialPhysics is a new program affiliated with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at the Harvard Law School to "Develop a reusable, open source software framework that provides core services including: identity management, social network data models, authentication management, encryption, and privacy controls." This is much more compelling framework on which next-generation introduction sites could be built than SocialGrid.
Sxip Supportive of Novell's Bandit Open Source IdM Project
Novell just announced the creation of Bandit, an open source project intended to unify disparate identity systems and provide a consistent approach to securing and managing identity. We believe the identity management industry needs a common approach to secure, role-based access and compliance reporting for the enterprise and open source projects like Bandit from Novell and Higgins are a great step in that direction. We see this as a natural complement to the user-centric Identity 2.0 efforts being made with SXIP and DIX and are excited to work with them on adding support of Bandit, Higgins and eDirectory.
Novell gets into identity management
Novell has officially launched Bandit, an open source identity management platform that leverages existing open identity technologies like IBM's project Higgins. Designed as a role-based security "enablement layer" for enterprises, Bandit could potentially increase interoperability between disparate identity systems currently used by companies. Novell hopes that the availability of source code will enable independent developers to make their own technologies compatible with Bandit.
Sun open sources identity services
Sun claims it is the first identity management vendor to open source its proprietary single sign-on code. There is, however, an open source project called Java Open Single Sign On. Sun believes its technology is superior. "This is the first commercial grade Web single sign-on technology that is being put in the open community," Gates said. Companies that have purchased Sun's technology include Deutsche Telekom, which bought 80 million licenses for Web single sign-on.

Open Source Games (Cont)

2007-01-31T01:08:00.000-08:00

Open Source Games

Playing the Open Source Game
In this article I will explain why I think that games are fundamentally different to most types of software. I will suggest a few reasons why an open source approach could nevertheless make sense for a commercial game developer, and also point out what I see as the major stumbling blocks that are making it hard for hackers to produce a commercial quality game.
Five addictive open source games
You can use open source software to make yourself more productive, but the open source community has also produced some impressive game titles, such as Freeciv, Vega Strike, and Flight Simulator. I've found some lesser-known yet excellent and quite addictive games for you to try. All of these games have low system requirements and run on multiple platforms, including Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.
Where are the Good Open Source Games?
Despite the impressive list of achievements of open source software, it can be argued that there have not been any world-class games created under the open source banner. Sure, several old games like Doom and Quake have been gifted to the open source community, but there are no comparable original creations in this area. One should not expect this situation to change anytime soon, because the open source development model does not make sense for game development. Most games, by their very nature, have a relatively short lifespan. This is natural. A game provides the user with an experience, but ultimately the user moves on. Since a single user is only interested in the game for a short period of time, it is unlikely that they will contribute much back to the open-source project.
Stratagus: Open Source Strategy Games
Sometimes calling something free might not make for the best publicity. Such was the case with FreeCraft. This open source project began with much promise — an engine that game developers or hobbyists could use to create real-time strategy (RTS) games for Linux, Windows, and other platforms. It also annoyed game developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment (renowned for its RTS franchises Diablo, StarCraft, and WarCraft) for two reasons. The Stratagus engine copies the basic, standard gameplay features of the typical RTS game engine. Its developers admit that they implemented the controversial association with WarCraft 2 because it was easier to use the Blizzard game's graphics than to create their own, though they intended this only as a temporary means to make their engine work.
Open Source Game Development
Amazon's recommendation system recommended me "Open Source Game Development: Qt Games for KDE, PDA's and Windows" when I was looking for an introduction to OpenGL. While it does contain two chapters on OpenGL, there's much, much more. It's not just an introduction to writing open source games, it's a complete introduction to participating in open source projects like KDE."
Open source software and games
Today, for many computing tasks, the open source ecosystem provides programs that equal or surpass what the proprietary Windows-based world offers. Gaming, however, is not among those areas, nor will it likely be anytime soon. But if we look further into this fascinating field, we find a number of positive developments. Open source games do exist, and the development scene is active and creative. You can get a taste of this by visiting sites devoted to Linux gaming, such as The Linux Game Tome, which highlights updated open source game projects every day. You can usually find a couple of announcements for new open source game projects every week.
Open Source Game Development: Qt Games for KDE, PDA's, and Windows
Open Source Game Development: Qt Games for KDE, PDAs, and Windows starts with a review of game design and walks the reader through Open Source game development using Qt and KDE. From there it moves on to cover topics such as Canvas Games (2D), OpenGL (3D), graphics & sound, pathfi nding, AI, particle effects, math, and physics. All relevant sections of the book include ready-to-use code snippets that are accompanied by fully functional tutorial/example programs and extensive API documentation. The companion CD-ROM includes C++ source code for Qt applications and all of the algorithms from the text. After reading this book, game programmers will have the tools and knowledge to master Open Source game development.
Open Source Java Game Utilities: LWJGL 0.98 and Game Gardens
The days of Java applications being necessarily slow and cumbersome is ending as faster processors and improvements to JVM technologies continue to proliferate. What this means is that you can start doing some cool stuff with graphics and interactivity. LWGL is geared to the game developer who wants to develop serious games for fun or commercial sales. The library includes implementations of OpenAL for audio delivery and OpenGL for graphics. Additionally, there are utilities for handling user input (e.g. from input controllers, or, "joysticks"), basic 3D modeling, FMOD utilities (for embedding audio), vector tools, and more.
ExoEngine 3D Game Engine
This 3D engine imports it's level/worlds data from the popular Worldcraft editor . Strangely, Worldcraft outputs it's world/level data in sets of bounding planes which define the contours of solid objects. Thus one has to convert the bounding plane sets into their respective sets of polygons. The resulting set of faces is then quickly optimized to remove hidden or redundant faces created by adjacent objects. Then this face set is converted into a binary space partition tree (commonly called a "BSP tree") representation for both collision detection purposes and efficient visibility calculations. There is also some auxiliary code that recognizes specifically defined entities in the Worldcraft data such as the animated pond and the duck sprites.
Linux Games
The world is filled with Free Software to do all kinds of jobs. From top-to-bottom, a typical GNU/Linux system provides a kernel, basic administration tools, servers, clients, a graphical substrate, and (finally) high-level graphical environments sitting atop it all. Graphics, sound, input, output, networking... you can find Free Software for all of these. Despite this power given to hackers, Free Software games are often considered to be of lesser quality, compared to those available in the non-Free software world. In this review, I'll look at the variety of Free Software games available today and whether Free gaming software deserves its reputation.
Open Source APIs for Java Technology Games
MDR-EdO: Welcome to today's Java Live chat on open source APIs for Java Technology Games. These APIs include Java Binding for OpenGL (JOGL), Java Bindings for OpenAL (JOAL), and JInput. Our guests today are three key members of Sun's Game Technologies group (the group responsible for these APIs): Athomas Goldberg, Jeff Kesselman (Jeff is not here yet), and Daniel Petersen. Also joining us is Ken Russell, who is a coauthor of the JOGL API. Our guests are ready to answer your questions about the APIs, and about Sun's support for Java technology games in general. So let's first level set. Athomas, Jeff, Daniel, and Ken, can you give us a brief overview of these APIs?
2008 Olympics plans open source migration
The 2008 Olympic Games could switch to a cost-saving open source technology platform under proposals to be considered by the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG).The open source move will be recommended by the International Olympic Committee's technology partner Atos Origin on the back of guidance from its suppliers HP and IBM.
Edutainment and Game Theory Realization through an Open-Source UNESCO Virtual Perspolis Project
In the recent years, educational research has shown that peer-to-peer teaching reinforces mastery. Moreover, educators have recognized the value of practical experience and competition. For instance, students can design and build robots which then compete against one other in navigating through an obstacle course. However, a lack of resources or other factors may limit the situations in which this is possible. In contrast, a computer simulation of such a competition would enable more rapid prototyping and further refinement, and could expand the total number of students who can properly share in the experience.
Open Game Licenses
The Open Gaming Foundation believes that a license must provide for two important features in order to be an Open Game license:
1. The license must allow game rules and materials that use game rules to be freely copied, modified and distributed.
2. The license must ensure that material distributed using the license cannot have those permissions restricted in the future.
OpenRTS - open source real time strategy game
OpenRTS is a new project founded to fill a void in the open source game world and create a real-time strategy game. It will be featuring isometric graphics, networked multiplayer and single-player scenarios. The game is being developed using Python and SDL. The software is released under the GPL, and new developers and testers are encouraged to join the project and contribute in their area of interest. The game and source code is available for download at openrts.org.

Open Source Forum

2007-01-31T01:06:00.000-08:00

Open Source Forum

Open Source Forum on Software Patents
The Open Source Forums will be short and focused seminars on topical developments in the Open Source field. It is intended that each seminar will include presentations from invited speakers who will represent a range of views. The forums will also provide an opportunity for all Open Source participants to express their views. The Forums are intended to provide Open Source participants, including small businesses, with an opportunity to get the benefit of a range of views from leaders in the relevant fields and to contribute to the debate on topical developments of relevance to the Open Source movement.
An Open Forum for Open Source CMS & DRM
There are great divides in the contemporary media industry. Many companies and individuals are finding themselves on the wrong side of the laws--Moore's Law, Metcalfe's Law, and Constitutional Law. Authena is devoted to keeping artists and entreprenuers on the right side of the laws. The Open Source Content Management System (CMS) renaissance is under way, and with a few clicks of the mouse or a bit of PHP, you can begin leveraging its vast power to host your band's site, to share or sell your photography, to display your art, to organize and stream your music, to set up a record label or publishing house, and to have fun pursuing your artistic dreams. Simply put, Open Source has moved beyond the operating system, and is now bringing its classic robustness and freedom to content management systems--many are listed in the right hand column.
The Second Open Source Forum
During the Forum many famous in open source community people will make a report. Andrew Morton, the lead maintainer for the Linux public production kernel and the coordinator of the development of the kernel tree for the 2.6 version in the OSDL open source laboratory; Ian Murdock, CEO of Progeny and one of the founders of Debian GNU/Linux project, one of three the most popular open source distributive; Asa Dotzler, one of the main developer of Mozilla Firefox and the community coordinator for the Mozilla Foundation; Zeev Suraski, one of the developers of the most popular programming languages such as - PHP 3.0, PHP 4.0 è PHP 5.0 on basis of Zend Engine è Zend Engine II, also the author of books about the programming methods in PHP; Robin Miller, one of the founders of modern interactive journalism and the editor-in-chief of OSTG, the basis of Open Source movement - are among them.
Simple open source forum engine
Neat Forum is a simple but attractive message board application. It does not require users to be authenticated. It supports multiple forums, anonymous emailing and full administrative functions. Neat Forum solutuion contains Web project, Domain Logic project, Unit Tests project. Front-end is ASP.NET application, with Domain library in the middle, and MS SQL 2000 Database at the back end.
Vanilla 1.0: Next-gen open source forum
Vanilla advertises itself as "an open-source, standards compliant, multi-lingual, fully extensible discussion forum for the web," and on Saturday it saw its 1.0 release. Vanilla will run on any web server equipped with PHP 4.1+ and MySQL 3.23+ and its Ajaxy bits work equally well in any major browser.
Open Source: Open for Business
"Open source is a movement that is technical, political and sociological," says the report, the most recent in a series of annual Leading Edge Forum publications that detail technology with the potential to disrupt the business world. Open source software such as the Linux operating system places the scarce resource of software in everybody's hands. The open, collaborative approach levels the playing field, enabling anyone to contribute and defying the big hand of the corporation. Open source software allows companies to bootstrap a new product based upon existing open source code; extend an existing product, particularly one that was not originally open source; and use communities to create commercial products.
OpenSG
OpenSG is a portable scenegraph system to create realtime graphics programs, e.g. for virtual reality applications. It is developed following Open Source (LGPL) principles and can be used freely. It runs on IRIX, Windows and Linux and is based on OpenGL. Read the motivation to get an overview of the special features of the system and why we decided to start a new initiative. OpenSG is not supposed to be a complete VR system. It is the rendering basis on top of which VR systems can be built. Rendering is a rather well defined task, which we can understand and judge based on our experience in the field. VR systems, on the other hand, have not evolved far enough to converge on a widely accepted approach to solve their problems. The development of OpenSG is supported by the members of the OpenSG Forum and by the OpenSG PLUS project, which is funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF).
GroupServer
The new technology behind our Issues Forums combines e-mail list and web forum technology using GroupServer. It effectively brings e-mail and web participants together in one virtual space. GroupServer is best social software platform we've seen to date for online communities that average citizens actually use. We are working to encourage a creation of a large GroupServer developer community. This will help ensure that enhancements for one group benefit all users - including E-Democracy.Org and any UK Local Authority using the tool. Members of the UK free and open source software community have discovered and joined the project to help test the software.

Open Source Movement

2007-01-31T00:50:00.000-08:00

Open Source Movement

Open source movement Wikipedia
The open source movement is an offshoot of the free software movement that advocates open source software as an alternative label for free software, primarily on pragmatic rather than philosophical grounds. The movement was founded in 1998 by John "maddog" Hall, Larry Augustin, Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Perens, and others. Raymond is probably the single person most identified with the movement; he was and remains its self-described principal "theorist", but does not claim to lead it in any exclusive sense. The open source movement is "steered" by a loose collegium of elders that includes Raymond, its other co-founders, and such notables as Linus Torvalds, Larry Wall, and Guido van Rossum. The founders were dissatisfied with what they saw as the "confrontational attitude" of the free software movement, and favored advocating free software exclusively on the grounds of technical superiority . It was hoped that "open source" and the associated propaganda would become a more persuasive argument to businesses.
The Open Source Movement
The project he was referring to eventually grew into Linux, the open source operating system. Today, far from being a hobby, Linux has grown into a mainstream operating system. Indeed, following the U.S. Department of Justice's decision to discontinue attempts to have Microsoft broken up, many now view Linux as the only long-term challenge to the all-encompassing power of Microsoft. The term open source refers to software in which the source code is freely available for others to view, amend, and adapt. Typically it's created and maintained by a team of developers that crosses institutional and national boundaries. As such, open source software can't be appropriated by one large proprietary vendor. Additionally, open source is generally more stable than proprietary software. After all, when any programmer can read, redistribute, and modify source code, there are more eyes to spot bugs and provide fixes.
Open Source Software Movement
The free/open source software movement began in the "hacker" culture of U.S. computer science laboratories (Stanford, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT) in the 1960's and 1970's. The community of programmers was small, and close-knit. Code passed back and forth between the members of the community--if you made an improvement you were expected to submit your code to the community of developers. To withhold code was considered gauché--after all, you benefited from the work of your friends, you should return the favor. It was in this environment that Richard Stall man began his computer science career in 1971, as a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Artificial Intelligence lab. Stall man worked primarily on ITS, the Incompatible Timesharing System, an operating system homebrewed at MIT to run on the DEC PDP-10. In this collegial environment, Stallman and his colleagues built an enormous array of software tools for the PDP-10.
Open Source Usability: The birth of a movement
I first became interested in the usability of open source software (or the lack of it) while still at UC Berkeley around 2000. I did some work (actually my students did the work!). In the process, I also, met others interested in the topic such as Nancy Frishberg. But I was soon convinced that it was a wasted effort - open source developers did not really understand what usability had to offer, and it was difficult for a UX (User Experience) professional to have much impact. Forward to November 2004. Eugene Eric Kim of Blue Oxen, a company (named in honor of Doug Engelbart) got in touch with me about a "Floss usability sprint" he was organizing. No, not Floss as what dentists nag you about, but Floss as in Free, Open Source, Libre software. I was skeptical, but interested. Eugene sees the problem of open source usability as a problem of collaboration. The open source and usability communities have a lot to offer each other, but don't know how to work together.
Overview of the Open-Source Movement
Briefly, it is a world-wide movement composed, both formally and informally, of many people who feel that the best way to produce software that will be sophisticated, robust, and (relatively) bug-free is to enlist the cooperation of interested, skilled, altruistic programmers who are willing to work for free, inspired by the twin goals of producing high-quality programs and of working cooperatively with other similarly minded people. The best known example of software coming out of the Open Source movement is probably Linux, but there are other important examples, including: * Apache, the program that runs over 50% of the Web servers in the world;
* perl, a very widely used language for implementing interactive Web pages; and
* BIND, the program that supports the Domain Name Service (DNS), by means of which your browser can find the physical locations of the Webpages you seek.
Open source Movement Gets a Lobby
The open source software industry gained a new government lobby Friday with the launch of the National Center for Open Source Policy and Research, introduced during a presentation at the Government Open Source Conference in Portland, Ore. The National Center is a non-profit organization promoting the use of open source software solutions within government IT enterprises. NCOSPR will accomplish this, founder and administrator John Weathers by said, by serving as a facilitator and administrator of projects involving government agencies and the open source community. The National Center will be administered by the Open Source Software Institute on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Miss. It will consist of three components: a National Open Source Resource Center; an academic Open Source Center of Excellence; and an Open Source Public Policy Institute.
Open source movement key for Internet growth in India
Comparing the Indian Internet market to others like the U.S., net activist John Barlow said that countries which did not have deep ties to the
industrial economy would be more unfettered to harness the Information Age. Indians have a particular strength in being able to deal with
uncertainty, ambiguity and chaos, according to Barlow. The Open Source movement is an extremely powerful model for software development and advancement, and emerging economies like India particularly have a lot to gain from adopting it, according to John Perry Barlow, self-styled "Net prophet." Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) and an outspoken proponent of free speech in digital media, gave an address at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, as part of a two-city tour in India which also included Bombay.
Free and open software in Malaysia
Malaysia, like most other developing nations, generally has a positive view on the open source movement. Malaysia stands out in the free and open source software (FOSS) movement, mainly because there's a fairly well organized FOSS movement, the media is FOSS-aware, and there's support from the government for FOSS usage. How it all began in Malaysia, is probably very much like how it began elsewhere. Like-minded individuals meet up, they enjoy similar company and share similar ideas. Then a mailing list gets formed. The activities in almost a decade have been numerous, and far reaching. With efforts from helping the local Thalassaemia association, to providing schools with Linux labs, giving advocacy talks and running open source workshops, the community has come a long way.
The Open Source Movement Gains Ground
Matthew J. Szulik, chair, CEO and president of Red Hat, the leading provider of Linux and open source technology, outlined the challenges and opportunities faced by the movement in the opening plenary session of the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science & Technology. Some 250 people filled the auditorium in Charlotte , North Carolina , for the presentation. Szulik began by showing a promotional video whose theme was that despite ignorance, ridicule and opposition, “truth happens.” It quoted Mohandas K. Gandhi as saying, “First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” Szulik said the video captures the spirit of Red Hat. He complimented ASIS&T for setting up wikis and blogs for the Annual Meeting. He noted that in 1997 Red Hat was a magazine company.
Open-Source Movement Advances
AS the philosophical leader of the free- software movement for nearly 20 years, Richard M. Stallman has often found himself at the center of debate sometimes even the object of it. Last week, he fired the latest round in a war of words that had erupted a few weeks earlier between Microsoft on the one hand, and the backers of open-source and free software on the other. Open source refers to a method of software development in which a program's basic instructions its source code are freely available to anyone who wants to tinker with and, ideally, improve them. The result, according to open-source advocates, is better software that is developed faster. Emblematic of the movement is GNU- Linux, the open-source operating system that has emerged as a competitor to Windows. The free-software movement, espoused by the Free Software Foundation, which Mr. Stallman has led since 1984, is far more ideological than the open-source philosophy.
The Open-Source Movement: 1998 and Onward
By the time of the Mozilla release in 1998, the hacker community could best be analyzed as a loose collection of factions or tribes that included Richard Stall man's Free Software Movement, the Linux community, the Perl community, the Apache community, the BSD community, the X developers, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and at least a dozen others. These factions overlap, and an individual developer would be quite likely to be affiliated with two or more. A tribe might be grouped around a particular codebase that they maintain, or around one or more charismatic influence leaders, or around a language or development tool, or around a particular software license, or around a technical standard, or around a caretaker organization for some part of the infrastructure. Prestige tends to correlate with longevity and historical contribution as well as more obvious drivers like current market-share and mind-share; thus, perhaps the most universally respected of the tribes is the IETF, which can claim continuity back to the beginnings of the ARPANET in 1969.
Open source Movement
In 1991 an unknown computer programmer called Linus Torvalds creates an operating system whose name is Linux. It differs from the rest ones in circulation in two ways: 1) the Linux has an “open code” (that is the heart of the program) which means that any computer programmer is in position of either changing or improving it 2) it is distributed free of expense through the Internet. Linux became a hit overnight, something the “Free Software Movement”, adherents could not even dream about in 1984 when it was founded to disseminate the idea of “free access to information”. The program was accepted and improved at a scale that could have neither been part of Richard Stallman’s (chairman of the Free Software Foundation) dreams, nor Bill Gates’ nightmares. In just 10 years the program that had 10,000 code lines, reached 2,000,000 ones, its users came up to 9,000,000 and approximately 15,000 computer programmers all over the world have been working to improve it. More than half of the Internet servers throughout the world have been using a Linux version, while companies such as the IBM have been offering it as an alternative to the Microsoft Windows.
Open source movement alive and kicking
The seventh Asian Open Source Symposium held in Kuala Lumpur last month signalled a new milestone for the open source movement in Asia. One of the chief outcomes of the three-day event was the issue of the “Kuala Lumpur Statement”, which essentially outlines the establishment of an OSS ecosystem. According to the statement, the ecosystem will be an environment in which “stakeholders interact, collaborate and leverage on one another in a continuous cycle.” The stakeholders include organisations from the public, private, academic and community sectors. Symbiotic growth is encouraged among these organisations in the OSS ecosystem, says the statement. The three-day event was organised jointly by MIMOS Bhd. and the Centre of International Cooperation for Computerisation (CICC) of Japan. The CICC was established in 1983 to cooperate with and assist developing countries in the introduction of computers and information technology, and to promote computerisation for economic and social development.
Free and Open Source Movements
This article reviews the development and need for Free and Open Source movements in software development. Part 1 provides a global overview of climates and conditions that fostered the revolution. The recent economic downturn, coupled with increased distrust of Microsoft's dominance, has pushed the previously fringe elements of free and open source software into the lime light. Businesses, universities, and other organizations are exploring the feasibility of integrating free/open source software into their IT systems. Most are discovering a sub-culture of hackers who have created quality software on par with most commercial offerings. This article explores the history, philosophies, and benefits of the Free/Open Source movement.
Newcomer Bets 'Wiki' Open-Source Movement
A computer entrepreneur from Utah is launching a campaign to unseat incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) next year -- in what may be the most heavily Internet-reliant campaign to date, using blogs, chats and the "Wiki" open-source model. Peter Ashdown is the founder of Xmission, Utah's oldest Internet service provider (ISP). His Web site includes a blog and a monthly live chat session. But Ashdown's site takes public participation on his campaign Web site one step further -opening his platform to all. The site is based on the "Wiki" open-source model made famous by Wikipedia. A Democrat, Ashdown is hoping to take on the fundraising advantage Hatch enjoys in the predominantly Republican state with the Internet. "My small business resourcefulness gives me the rock and my knowledge of the Internet is the sling.

Best Open Source Software

2007-01-30T20:32:00.001-08:00

Best Open Source
Open source software. Often (and sometimes incorrectly) called freeware, shareware, and "source code," open source software has been responsible for key functions of the Internet for many years. But outside of the software development industry, few people have heard the term open source, and even fewer are aware that this alternative software development model exists. Most consumers aren't aware of the wide variety of software available to them. Open source software is widely available, constantly being modified and improved by software developers, has strong technical support, and provides individuals as well as large and small businesses many flexible alternatives to corporate software packages. Now, it's seen as a promising alternative for computer operating systems, web browsers, Internet and web servers, and other key software applications.
Best Legal Practices for Open Source Software
Open Source software has been called the software that runs the Internet - from the Apache web server to the Mozilla browser and from the Linux operating system to the invisible inner workings of the Internet. Open Source refers not only to software programs and the unique licenses that govern them, but also to a philosophy and what some might call a movement. The Open Source licenses represent a very different approach to licensing than most businesses, and their lawyers and legal departments, have become accustomed to in the commercial software setting. Research on the Open Source licenses will often turn up conflicting interpretations, misinformation, philosophical arguments and diametrically opposed points of view. This result should not surprise you, especially if you have researched the commentary on the changing Microsoft software license policies where you will see much of the same.
The Emerging Economics of Open Source Software best
Open Source developers have, perhaps without conscious intent, created a new and surprisingly successful economic paradigm for the production of software. Examining that paradigm can answer a number of important questions. It's not immediately obvious how Open Source works economically. Probably the worst consequence of this lack of understanding is that many people don't understand how Open Source could be economically sustainable, and some may even feel that its potential negative effect upon the proprietary software industry is an overall economic detriment. Fortunately, if you look more deeply into the economic function of software in general, it's easy to establish that Open Source is both sustainable and of tremendous benefit to the overall economy. Open Source can be explained entirely within the context of conventional open-market economics. Indeed, it turns out that it has much stronger ties to the phenomenon of capitalism than you may have appreciated.
Best Open Source Software Solution
A panel of industry professionals at the LinuxWorld Australia conference in Sydney has named the Mambo Content Management System “Best Open Source Software Solution.” The award marks the third time the Mambo software has won the coveted award and brings the number of awards received in the last two years to six. Representatives of the event coordinators and sponsor Builder.com.au announced the award on 28 March. Judging was done by a panel of industry experts. The Team is honored to receive this recognition,” stated Ric Shreves, Director of Advocacy for the Mambo Foundation. “A lot of people work very hard to create and sustain this project and six awards in two years is a persuasive testament to the fact that the team consistently delivers world class software,” added Shreves who was on hand to accept the award together with members of Team Mambo and Mambo Communities.
Microsoft and Open Source Software
The continuous interaction among government, academic, and private research has always been the engine of innovation in the software ecosystem. Governments and universities undertake basic research and share this knowledge with the public. In turn, companies in the private sector use some of these technologies in combination with their even greater ongoing investment in research and development to create commercial products, while also contributing to the work of common standards bodies. Microsoft has been learning from the OSS community regarding the benefits of deeper collaboration and increased transparency leading to better communication with customers. We believe the most effective pathway for a commercial software company is to strike a balance between investing in research and development and the release of intellectual property assets in the form of source code for both reference and collaborative purposes.
Microsoft: Open source's best friend
Microsoft's love-hate relationship with open source software can be epitomised by recent efforts to enhance interoperability and lure developers to Windows. In December, the software giant introduced a pilot programme called NXT to make it easier for ISVs with non-
Microsoft technologies, including Linux and Unix developers, to tailor their products to the Microsoft operating system. Run by Microsoft's partners, the NXT programme offers software development support, technical briefings, testing and marketing campaign funding to these software makers. A representative of the company said the programme is still in the pilot stage. Bill Hilf, a platform strategy technology manager at Microsoft, insisted there is no conflict between the goals of the company's open source lab and the NXT programme. Hilf runs the lab, which tries to marry open source software with Microsoft products.
Best Open Source Product
MySQL AB, developer of the world's most popular open source database, announced that the MySQL database has been named by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) as the winner of the 2004 Codie Award for Best Open Source Product. The Codie award adds to several recent MySQL accolades, including being named for the second year in a row to both the SD Times 100 list and as “Product of the Year” by Developer.com. SIIA, a principal trade association for the software and digital content industry, announced the Codie award winners at the 19th annual awards ceremony on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Calif. The Codie Awards is one of the industry’s most prestigious and recognized awards programs, showcasing the finest companies, products and services in the software and information industry.
Zimbra™ Open Source Software best
Zimbra is contributing its core intellectual property (IP) in enterprise messaging and collaboration to the Open Source Software (OSS) community. Zimbra is making the contribution in the hopes of:
1. Getting our technology into the hands of as many users and developers as possible;
2. Validating and enhancing our architecture and implementation through the OSS community;
3. Driving down costs for and protecting investment in the deployment of collaboration/messaging technology;
4. Giving back to the community that provided so much technology that we leverage within Zimbra - Linux™, Apache™, MySQL™, Postfix™, OpenLDAP, and so on; but at the same time
5. Building a profitable business (a.k.a., funding future investment) through the selling of optional "network" services to those users that choose to become customers as well.
The best freeware software
There are a lot of great freeware products out there. Many are as good or even better than their commercial alternatives. This list features my personal pick of the "best of the best." All the utilities in this list have featured in past issues of my free monthly newsletter "Support Alert" More freebies are published in each new issue. If you are interested in great utilities and freeware you really should consider subscribing. It's free. Listed below are 46 different freeware categories with my selection of the best products in each category. The list is ordered by program function rather than merit so you'll get the most out of it by browsing down this page at leisure. The pathologically impatient can consult the index below.
Open source' software trend faces barriers
Federal, state and local governments around the world are catching "open source" fever, purchasing software that lets them view and modify source code as opposed to proprietary software such as that made by Microsoft. But whether the global trend will continue may depend upon new and old factors that could hinder the increased spread of the open-source movement. Barriers to growth include continued flaws in the ever-improving open-source technologies - which is being used more for computer servers than applications - and opposition by Microsoft, the world's dominant software player and thus the one with the most at stake if governments turn to open-source products. The leading open-source product is Linux, and the recent LinuxWorld in California conference focused heavily on product improvements.

Microsoft Open source

2007-01-30T20:30:00.002-08:00

Microsoft open to open source
Microsoft Corp. says it is looking to turn over more of its programs to open-source software developers, playing a greater role in a process that the Redmond company has criticized strongly at times in the past. Money-makers like the company's Windows operating system and Office productivity suite aren't on the table -or anywhere near it. But the company has so far released two software-development tools to the open-source community, and it wants to continue the practice, a Microsoft platform manager told an industry group this week. There's more of that on the way," said Microsoft's Stephen Walli, who oversaw the process of releasing those tools under open-source licenses. "And it's not just about developer tools. There's other things that we can be looking at when you actually look at the breadth of source code that we have, the breadth of software that we have that isn't actually core revenue stream.
Microsoft's Open-Source Agenda
Analysts and insiders-including Linus Torvalds-say they think that Microsoft's move to start a dialogue with the open-source community shows that the company is recognizing that open source has real, lasting value. After a series of friendly moves towards open-source developers, Microsoft Corp. has talked with Michael Tiemann, president of the Open Source Initiative and vice president of open-source affairs at Linux vendor Red Hat Inc., about meeting with him to "begin a productive conversation" between proponents of open source and Microsoft. Well, for one thing, Microsoft might be trying to cool off the high emotions flying between fans of open source and of Microsoft. "It appears that Microsoft is attempting to change the environment from its currently highly charged, highly emotional state to something more constructive," said Dan Kusnetzky, IDC's system software vice president.
Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win
With little academic attention focused on this question, Harvard Business School professors Pankaj Ghemawat and Ramon Casadesus-
Masanell decided to dive in. Most research to date into the OSS movement has focused on the organization and management issues surrounding OSS. Ghemawat and Casadesus-Masanell chose to explore the fundamental competitive dynamics question: Will OSS ever displace traditional software from its market leadership position? "We believe that there is still a great deal of confusion and puzzlement on how this competitive battle will develop," say the authors of the academic paper Dynamic Mixed Duopoly: A Model Motivated by Linux vs. Windows, which has just been accepted for publication in a special issue of Management Science.
Microsoft Open-source software
IN MAY, the city of Munich decided to oust Microsoft Windows from the 14,000 computers used by local-government employees in favour of Linux, an open-source operating system. Although the contract was worth a modest $35m, Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, interrupted his holiday in Switzerland to visit Munich and lobby the mayor. Microsoft even dropped its prices to match Linux-a remarkable feat since Linux is essentially free and users merely purchase support services alongside it. But the software giant still lost. City officials said the decision was a matter of principle: the municipality wanted to control its technological destiny. It did not wish to place the functioning of government in the hands of a commercial vendor with proprietary standards which is accountable to shareholders rather than to citizens.
Analysis: Microsoft vs. open source
Microsoft is facing a growing battle against open-source software that is edging into politics on a global scale. Just last week, the German government announced a deal to replace parts of its IT system with open-source programs, and Taiwan officials announced, as part of an effort to curb Microsoft's dominance in software, preliminary plans to promote the development of local Linux software. Germany and Taiwan are only the latest countries to take sides in a software battle in which Microsoft and developers of commercial, or proprietary programs, are increasingly facing off with proponents of open-source software. "We are seeing a lot of traction for Linux in the government sector, particularly in China," said Rajnish Arora, senior program manager of enterprise servers and workstations at market research company IDC in the Asia-Pacific.
Microsoft: Open source 'not reliable or dependable
I don't think (open source) is anti-Microsoft in the sense that it's giving people choices in the technologies that they use," Jonathan Murray, the vice president and chief technology officer of Microsoft Europe, told BBC World in the first part of the documentary "The Code Breakers," which aired this week. Some people want to use community-based software, and they get value out of sharing with other people in the community. Other people want the reliability and the dependability that comes from a commercial software model. And again, at the end of the day, you make the choice based on what has the highest value to you," Murray continued. It isn't clear from Murray's statement which category he believes commercial open-source companies such as Red Hat and MySQL fit into. Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the One Laptop Per Child project, was also interviewed in the documentary, and he disagreed with Microsoft's claim that open source is inferior.
Open Source Code Finds Way into Microsoft Product
In a move that shows just how far Microsoft Corp. has come, and how pervasive open-source software is in certain areas, the software powerhouse is, for the first time, including open-source technology in one of its shipping products. Microsoft plans to include the Message Passing Interface-a library specification for message passing proposed as a standard by a broad-based committee of vendors, implementers and users-in its Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition, which went to public beta this week at the Microsoft Developers Conference here and is on track to ship in the first half of next year. MPI is key middleware that was designed by a consortia of all the supercomputing vendors in the 1990s to allow the easy portability of code. It abstracts away things like low-latency interconnect, and our focus is making it super easy for ISVs to move their code," Kyril Faenov, Microsoft's director for High Performance Computing, told eWEEK in a recent interview at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Wash.
How Microsoft invented open source
The open source movement wouldn't exist without Microsoft, Bill Gates told his company's shareholder meeting earlier this week. Open source is also a follower, not an innovator, and destroys jobs, the economy and world peace . Gates was responding to a question from the audience. The transcript doesn't say who it was, but the question itself makes you wonder how the blazes some Linux-loving hippy longhair got into the meeting in the first place. It appears to me that the open source movement is gaining momentum, and as I understand it the key to success of a software product involves efficiently building an ecosystem of developers and users, resellers, and so forth. Historians will note that this is absolutely not what Microsoft came in and said, if it can be deemed to have come in and said anything at all of significance, back in the early days. Microsoft said it would produce an operating system for the IBM PC, and retained the rights to sell MS-DOS to other computer manufacturers.
Microsoft's Open Source Olive Branch
BOSTON - It seems kind of strange to have Microsoft, long considered the open source "enemy," to deliver a keynote at a conference about Linux, but that's exactly what happened in Boston today. Microsoft Platform Technology Strategy Director Bill Hilf delivered a keynote on interoperability between Windows and Linux and discussed the maturation of the debate between the two operating systems. He also detailed Microsoft's own test efforts in its Open Source Software Lab and officially announced the launch of Port 25, the communications and blogging site that gives some additional character and personality to those efforts. Knowing that he stood at the head of an audience that may not have been particularly enamored of Microsoft, Hilf took every opportunity to make sure the audience knew that he knew what they think about Microsoft.
Microsoft open source tactics
Mike Olson, the outspoken CEO of Berkeley DB provider Sleepycat Software Inc., believes that the successful open source players of tomorrow will incorporate at least some aspects of proprietary computing into their business model. In this conversation, Olson discusses why he thinks ever-evolving attitudes toward open source will make these hybrid offerings lucrative. He then runs through an interesting "thought experimentation" to show what would happen if Microsoft ever decided to embrace open source. If you had asked me that question at one and a half year intervals since 1998, I would have given you different answers all the way along. When Linux began to be successful, a number of the big platform vendors, notably Microsoft, launched pretty vituperative anti-open source campaigns. The General Public License was communism written into a copyright statement. And at that time, buyers were just terrified of open source.
Microsoft, Open Source Claim XML Success
Microsoft's recent announcement that it would offer royalty-free licensing for its Extensible Markup Language (define) schemas in Office 2003 has both the software giant and open-source advocates claiming victory for the open standards movement. But analysts and industry experts say the real winners are the independent software vendors (ISVs), whose hearts and minds are up for grabs in the Web services (define) movement to expand the use of XML and open standards. The royalty-free licensing program, which Microsoft announced on Nov. 17th, is related to Microsoft's new Office 2003 versions of Word, Excel and its InfoPath back-end, information-gathering programs. The suite uses schemas (define), or metadata, (define) that describe how information is stored when documents are saved as XML files.
Open Source Ever Defeat Microsoft
While Microsoft has had some 20 years to make Office what it is today, most industry analysts say that new open-source contenders, such as OpenOffice, measure up reasonably well against Redmond's suite. But they also say that while these suites do have most of the features of Microsoft Office, they lack certain advanced capabilities that make all the difference. Clearly, Microsoft continues to define the office space and likely will dominate office software for the foreseeable future. But an interesting question to ask is whether a group of volunteers -- however large -- can ever hope to measure up against Microsoft's millions of dollars. Gates and crew have poured countless programmer hours into Office over the past 20 years, while OpenOffice and other alternative product groups consist almost entirely of volunteers.
Microsoft open source executive
The name Microsoft still engenders boos and moans from the crowd at Linux World, but increasingly open source advocates and Microsoft executives recognize the need for the two camps to play nicely. To that end, Microsoft hired Bill Hilf, an open source industry veteran to help it chart its strategy in the choppy open source waters. Hilf, director for Microsoft’s platform technology strategy organization, is leading a technical session at Linux World – a first for Microsoft – that focuses on managing Linux in a mixed environment. Network World Senior Editor Jennifer Mears sat down with Hilf at the show to hear about Microsoft’s Linux/open source software lab and where the software giant sees the industry heading. What follows is an edited transcript of the conversation.
Microsoft: Getting to grips with open source
Microsoft's recent decision to partner with virtualisation specialist XenSource has added momentum to the notion that it is softening its stance on co-operation with the open source community. But while Microsoft can point to numerous examples of sharing its source code and other data, hardcore open source advocates will no doubt argue that it's just pragmatism on the part of a rapacious competitor. The company's UK technology officer, Jerry Fishenden, claims Microsoft is part of a "broad ecosystem to enable greater interoperability with our technologies". Examples include recent partnerships with open source-based commercial vendors such as database giant MySQL, web server vendor JBoss, and most recently XenSource. Speaking at the Open Source Business Conference, held in London last month, Fishenden told delegates that Microsoft is facing a challenge to decide how much it should co-operate with the competitors.
Microsoft open-source ODF
Avanade Inc., the Seattle-based systems integrator formed in 2000 by Accenture Inc. and Microsoft Corp. -- which still own a majority of the company -- has 3,000 consultants that work exclusively in Microsoft technologies. Nearly three quarters of Avanade's revenue is derived from enterprise IT work done on behalf of Accenture or Microsoft, and that revenue has grown steadily over the past six years. Privately held Avanade, which files SEC reports because of its large number of employee shareholders, is on track this year to report about a half-billion dollars in revenue and its third profitable year. With that backdrop, Computerworld recently spoke with Avanade co-founder and CEO Mitch Hill on a variety of IT topics.
Microsoft executive lauds open source
Microsoft is not viewed as an open source proponent, but a key executive said Wednesday the company recognized the benefits of open source and was becoming more open itself. David Kaefer, director of Business Development, Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft, said open source had bolstered innovation in a distributed fashion, and he called the open source software movement a "very powerful force in the industry." I think one of the exciting things about the open source software movement is it actually brought together a very distributed group of developers," Kaefer said, speaking at "Business of Innovation," a Valley Speakers Series event held at Microsoft's Silicon Valley offices. Microsoft does have a stake in open source, he said. "Certainly, it’s not as big a bet as a company like IBM would be making in open source.
Microsoft: Getting to grips with open source
Microsoft's recent decision to partner with virtualisation specialist XenSource has added momentum to the notion that it is softening its stance on co-operation with the open source community. But while Microsoft can point to numerous examples of sharing its source code and other data, hardcore open source advocates will no doubt argue that it's just pragmatism on the part of a rapacious competitor. The company's UK technology officer, Jerry Fishenden, claims Microsoft is part of a "broad ecosystem to enable greater interoperability with our technologies". Examples include recent partnerships with open source-based commercial vendors such as database giant MySQL, web server vendor JBoss, and most recently XenSource. Speaking at the Open Source Business Conference, held in London last month, Fishenden told delegates that Microsoft is facing a challenge to decide how much it should co-operate with the competitors.
Ex-Microsoft execs launch open source biz
Paul Allen, a Microsoft co-founder, established the Experience Music Project museum in Seattle with its focus on the guitar god. Charles Simonyi, a billionaire software developer who can take much of the credit for Word and Excel, is working towards a 2007 trip to the space station. And, perhaps the most unlikely activity of them all for an ex-Micosoftie, Scott Collison, former director of platform strategy at Microsoft, is the CEO of Ohloh, an open-source startup out of Bellevue Wash. Ohloh, which is both bankrolled and staffed by former Microsoft executives, will be using open-source software to provide companies with a service to help them choose the right open-source software for their needs.
Ex-Microsoft staffers set up open source directory site
A few former Microsoft employees have launched a website that evaluates open source projects. The site, called Ohloh, is not a reviews site but instead a directory of open source software, its co-founders said. We collect from the infrastructure the open source community uses to develop the software," Ohloh co-founder and CEO Scott Collison told silicon.com sister site CNET News.com. "It also serves as an open source directory. You can find open source projects and compare them, and gradually find one that's right for you." The site could appeal to developers who are frustrated by the number of open source projects that lack clear explanations. Ohloh also seeks to help developers make a build versus buy decision by offering code analysis, said Collison, who along with co-founder Jason Allen, previously worked at Microsoft.
Open source Microsoft's nemesis
If Microsoft Corp. investors are concerned about the company's lacklustre shares, they must be downright terrified by the legions of computer programmers who want to drive the technology behemoth into the ground. Open-source software -- which involves, in some cases, thousands of highly motivated programmers teaming up to develop and modify free versions of commercially available software- are invading Microsoft's home turf with increasing ferocity. Linux is the best example. The free alternative to the pricey Windows operating system has already proved popular with computer enthusiasts and now has more casual computer users warming up to it as well. Even Linux's logo, a reclining penguin, was donated to the cause.