Much like a pair of old hippie jeans, turns out open source software can be
full
of holes, too. So Doug asked readers last week whether they'd still trust
open source -- and if they miss said hippie jeans:
I still have my old, patched, hippie pants. What I miss is being the
size I was when they fit.
As for trusting open source software, or any software for that matter,
my motto is "trust, but verify."
-Dave
I trust open source 100 percent. I have used Open Office for years, both
on Windows and Mac; I do not use MS Office. I also use Firefox on Windows
and have had no problems -- it's also much faster than IE. Nothing is 100
percent secure (I work in IT and manage Windows desktops/servers, Cisco, F5
Firepass -- they all need to be patched). But 100 percent for open source!
I introduced many people to OO and Firefox and haven't heard any complaints.
Do I miss my hippie jeans (and also my tie-dyed shirts and bell bottoms)?
Sure do...but I still have the long hair!
-Bob
Actually, I don't trust any computer, no matter who wrote the software.
I manage to make a pretty good living working on them, but I have no delusions
that they are making my life better. If you do trust them, don't cry about
how your life got screwed up. You messed it up putting your faith in a stupid
machine.
I will say that you can install any software in an exploitable manner.
Most software can also be installed in a reasonably secure manner. If you
do it right, it will work (yup, even Microsoft software); if you do it wrong,
it won't work well (yup, even Microsoft software). What would be helpful would
be to get past the name-calling and accusations and focus on getting a tool
that does what you need.
-Anonymous
Got anything to add? Let us have it! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail
to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on July 28, 20080 comments
Kim Kido bought a Vista PC, presumably with the intention of using and enjoying
the new Microsoft operating system. But Kido hated Vista, and after carefully
reading the tiny print of the legalese-laden license agreement, Kido demanded
a refund from HP.
The bad news for HP? Kido is a blogger, and her entire story of two months
worth of e-mail and telephone calls ended
up on Valleywag. Kido eventually got her $200 back, and HP got far more
than $200 worth of bad press.
Posted by Doug Barney on July 28, 20080 comments
A few weeks ago, I had a nice sushi lunch with the folks from
DNSstuff.
Their whole reason for being is that the Domain Name System (DNS) is the new
hacker target, and taking down DNS takes a whole heap of machines along with
it.
Those folks sure were prescient as Microsoft recently
had to patch its DNS implementation -- a patch that itself caused problems
such as Exchange outages.
Nevertheless, Microsoft is "urgently
warning" IT to patch their DNS. The vulnerability can allow spoofing
attacks, although no such attacks have yet been reported.
Do you take DNS security seriously? Share your thoughts and advice by writing
[email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on July 28, 20080 comments
Sun and Microsoft get along fine now, thanks to a 2004 deal where Microsoft
paid the Mountain View computer concern some $1.8 billion to settle Sun's lawsuits.
That's why I'm sure that neither company is complaining about Transitive Corp.'s
QuickTransit software which allows Solaris apps -- even those written for SPARC
processors -- to
run
under Hyper-V on Intel boxes.
The most interesting part of Transitive might not be its product, but one of
its advisors. Dr. Mendel Rosenbaum is a technical advisor to Transitive. Virtualization
buffs may recognize that as the name of VMware's co-founder and chief scientist.
Is it any wonder, then, that QuickTransit also works with VMware?
Posted by Doug Barney on July 28, 20080 comments
OK or not, Steve Jobs' health and Apple's future are still on top of many people's
minds. Here are some of your thoughts:
Mr. Jobs IS a rather remarkable man, but every remarkable human in history
has had to retire at some point.
Organizations need to plan for the same and the rest of us can count
our blessings to have coincided in time with the lives of the living remarkable.
-Anonymous
I watched the iPhone 3G announcement video a while back and I was taken
aback at how gaunt Jobs looked. Not being an Apple customer, I don't keep
track of what happens there so I was not even aware he had been sick. After
reading that investors are dumping stock simply on the rumour of his ill-health,
I can't imagine what will happen if/when he passes away.
I agree with you. The industry will, eventually, lose one of the most
important figures in the history of personal computing. Get well, Steve!
-Dan
One reader thinks the recent BlackBerry flaw, now
patched, still isn't enough to make people turn to the iPhone:
What? No one is dropping the BlackBerry to get an iPhone. If you can
find a 3G network, if Father Steve allows you to run the app you need and
if you don't mind doing hard resets to restore your phone once or twice a
day, you might want an iPhone. If you don't mind very short battery life unless
you turn off the GPS and Wi-Fi, you might want an iPhone. If you want to restrict
yourself to one carrier -- and not the best one, at that -- you might want
an iPhone. If you want to send the phone in just to change the battery, you
might want an iPhone.
The iphone is a toy, and not a very good one, and is not suited for business
use. The BlackBerry may not be perfect but it works and it works every time
you use it, something no one can say about the iPhone.
-John
Doug asked
for advice recently on how to keep multiple machines in synch. Jeff thinks
the answer is in Google:
Just give in to the dark side. Turn your life and your documents over
to Google. No OS needed, any computer will do. If that won't work, try Mozy.
Great backup program. Restores are a little slow but you can initiate them
yourself. I recommend only restoring what you need to begin with; get the
rest when you get your full machine up and running. If you have Google popping
all your e-mail accounts, you'll always have copies of them.
-Jeff
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on July 24, 20080 comments
Wall Street and Mac fans are biting their nails over
rumors
that Steve Jobs is in poor health after he made public appearances looking thin
and sickly.
The New York Times looked
into the matter and reporter John Markoff writes that Jobs himself has been
reassuring friends and Apple board members that he's just fine. There's apparently
a problem that caused him to lose weight, and he had surgery to straighten that
out (imagine that: surgery to actually gain weight!).
Still, there's pressure for Apple to disclose its succession plan in the event
that Jobs steps down. If Apple ever does get a new leader, could that person
please, please license the Mac OS to hardware OEMs like HP and Dell? The market
needs a good $500 Mac laptop.
Posted by Doug Barney on July 24, 20080 comments
Kevin Johnson, the former head of Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division,
has resigned, and his group -- which includes Vista as well as online services
-- has been
split
into two.
When I first heard the news, I figured Johnson was taking the rap for the poor
market performance of Vista, and the fact that Microsoft lost
over a billion dollars in its online business.
I was wrong. Johnson is the new CEO of Juniper, the high-flying network gear
maker. Juniper is one hot company. A nobody seven years ago, it's now arguably
the only networking company that can truly challenge Cisco. Good luck, Kevin!
Posted by Doug Barney on July 24, 20080 comments
Just weeks after VMware
unceremoniously
ditched founder and CEO Diane Greene, you'd think the company would report
poor financial results. But no; actually, the company
reported
great financial results. At least in my opinion.
Second quarter revenues of almost half-a-billion dollars were up 54 percent
compared to the same quarter last year. Profits are shining, as well -- up $14
million to $61 million in quarterly profits. And it's expecting to grow almost
50 percent this year compared to '07.
Jeepers. I guess Greene really did mess up! I'm sure there are plenty of companies
that would want her to screw them up to the tune of 50 percent growth!
Of course, those stunning growth rates did nothing to please the Brooks Brothers-clad
stock set. These clowns say VMware isn't growing as fast as they expected, making
Greene a colossal failure in their eyes. Nuts, eh?
Posted by Doug Barney on July 23, 20080 comments
Critics love to slap Microsoft around for its security problems. And by admitting
its faults each and every Patch Tuesday, Redmond gives these nitpickers plenty
of ammo. The open source world tends to keep its flaws more on the down-low
-- not exactly hidden, but not exactly disclosed with fanfare, either.
That's why it may be a surprise to some that open source apps have more holes
than a pair of hippy jeans, and are far
less secure than commercial apps.
Do you trust open source? And do you miss your old, patched, hippy pants? Send
answers to both to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on July 23, 20080 comments
Some folks are real dopes -- and there's no better way to discover that than
on the Internet. We have thugs posing with guns on MySpace, predators leaving
electronic trails of perversion, and now a
brand-new
idiot: Joshua Lipton.
This 20-year-old moron was caught drunk driving (it's easy to get caught when
you crash and nearly kill someone). Then, two weeks later, someone posted Facebook
pictures of Lipton posing with a bunch of beer cans and wearing a striped prison
shirt. That's not going to look too good at trial.
Do social networking sites like Facebook have any role in your organization?
Tell me yes, no or maybe by writing to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on July 23, 20080 comments
So is Google becoming
Microsoft's
evil twin? Here's what a few readers thought:
You're dead-on with your assessment of Google. I've had the same concerns
myself for some time now.
-Paul
I have to echo your thoughts. I had rather positive feelings about Google
until I was invited to an interview at their shiny new datacenter in Central
Oregon last year. After a VERY bizarre interview -- unlike anything I had
ever experienced in 20 years in IT -- I did some more checking and had to
reach the same conclusion. I don't know for sure if Google is evil, but it
is certainly doing a lot to make me think so!
One example: The name of the fake company that it hides behind that houses
their datacenter (the sign outside) is "ValDeMoort Industries."
Now, I have to ask, who would name their datacenter after the ULTIMATE EVIL
character in Harry Potter? It was dumb, but maybe not. Maybe it is really
a message?
Honestly, I think Google just suffers from being an extremely immature
company run by extremely immature billionaires. Microsoft has had the advantage
of 30 years of experience, BG hired some of the top business managers in the
world right out of the gate, and he "grew into" his success.
-Jim
Nope, I totally agree with you. While I'm a MS partner and respect MS,
I don't always agree with them either -- but at least you can talk to someone.
Google bought Postini recently. If Postini weren't such a great product,
we would have dumped it 100 percent becuase of the crap we have been going
through. And this is an understatement.
-Don
Yes, I think Google has too much and it needs to be cut back. No one should
get any slice of Yahoo; it should stand on its own two feet. Ditto with MS
on the same subject, so yeah -- they are becoming the evil twins.
And do you think that MS buying Yahoo's search business will help MS?
I don't think it will help at all. MS will screw it up and it will burn. The
problem that I see is that what will Yahoo then get for income to do other
things such as its one-of-a-kind chat system which feature-for feature kills
anyone else? I would invest in Yahoo, but only if King Carl steps down and
leaves.
-Bruce
I guess I would rather opt for free services from a vendor that provides
open source options for those not willing to fork out money for an expensive
OS that is unreliable, less secure and a huge resource hog. I can't wait for
the Google phone.
-Nathan
I live in a Microsoft/Dynamics world all day long and I'm happy with that
world -- it keeps that regular paycheck coming. But I don't want to see a
monopolists dictating to that world, Microsoft, Google or anyone else.
-Ron
Doug recently asked readers to name their favorite defunct IT magazines. Here
are some of your nominations:
I'll take InfoWorld over any of the others any day. I wouldn't
say it's defunct either. I continue to get lots of good stuff from them.
-Bruce
It's still in print, but nothing the way it was in the "good old
days." The magazine: Computer Shopper. To pore over the endless
advertisements when looking to build your own systems was priceless.
-Michael
My favorite defunct magazine is not one related to my current occupation:
Drag Racing USA. Back in the '70s, before it went defunct, this magazine
covered both the races and the newest machines, regardless of what class the
car was in.
One of the last magazines that I received featured a new short dragster
that Big Daddy built and called the Swamp Rat. Two weeks later, I'm at my
local drag strip, Renegade Raceway. Don Garlits brought his longer dragster
and raced it. While I was walking through the pits, he was signing some pictures
for fans. When he was signing a picture for me, I asked him, "Where is
the Swamp Rat?" He looked at me kinda funny and asked, "Where did
you hear about that?" I told him, "In Drag Racing USA."
Turns out it was Don's favorite magazine, too, and I got to spend quite
a bit of time talking with him between the races about his newest dragster
and his career in general. I regret to say that I no longer have that signed
picture, but I do have the great memory of getting to talk with one of drag
racing's great giants in his prime. That is a memory for a lifetime that would
not have happened without that magazine.
-Les
And yesterday, reader Chris suggested
that the iPhone fan who got teased
by a television reporter while waiting in line should've responded with
some snark. One reader thinks that's missing the point:
I think Chris did miss something. It's true that the man in line for
an iPhone didn't exactly "own" the reporter, but he also didn't
sound like he was going to run home and cry. What he said was on the money.
The question was insulting and in no way should pass for news reporting. The
idea of attempting humor in response to such a condescending question is inappropriate,
and acting like the reporter's behavior was funny would have just encouraged
him.
What those news people were doing is like something elementary school
kids do whenever they don't understand something. It was nothing but a smug
attempt at trying to belittle others to make themselves feel better about
themselves. It is a common behavior among luddites or the technically-challenged
to attempt to demean those that understand or enjoy what they do not. If anyone
wants to eschew electronics, then let them continue to bang blocks of wood
together. It's none of my business. I don't see computer experts walking around
with microphones asking everyone without the most recent phone or PDA if they
are virgins or eunuchs.
-A person who doesn't own an iPhone and probably never will
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on July 23, 20080 comments
In the weeks since he took over VMware, new CEO Paul Maritz has been pretty
darn quiet. My guess is he was huddling with EMC honchos figuring out what to
say. Well, they still haven't announced how independent VMware may or may not
be from EMC, and they still haven't announced a grand, new strategy, either.
Maritz did make some rather bold pronouncements in this week's earnings call.
First, he announced that ESXi, the embedded hypervisor, will
be free. With bundling deals with all the major server makers, this makes
ESXi almost part of the operating system.
This is big news, but it's not VMware's first free tool. It has the VMware
Player for PCs, and VMware Server, a stripped-down tool, is also free.
Maritz also gave a glimpse of the future. ESX, the enterprise hypervisor, remains
immensely important, but the more critical aspect is building out the overall
infrastructure.
I think VMware should design infrastructure tools that are totally independent
of the hypervisor, and support Xen and Hyper-V. That's VMware's future.
Does a free ESXi change the game? Send your take to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on July 23, 20080 comments