Interview with Chris Schlaeger from Novell/SUSE
609896
At aKademy I had the chance to talk to Chris Schlaeger about SUSE, its relationship with the KDE community, his view of the Linux enterprise desktop and the speed of development of several key features in KDE (a Dutch translation can be found at Bart&amp;David
466408
I got an interesting teaser in the e-mail this week: âStudy Suggests Nearly Half of All Leaders See a Disconnect Between Strategy and Execution.â I wonât say who sent it because they blew the execution: The so-called study wasnât posted anywhere online, and when I called the number, theyâd already left for the weekend.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
360527
Tycho:  We are mentioned briefly in the most recent Major Nelson Radio podcast, where we learn that the man apparently can't remember which one of us is which, even though he stood before us in our marble reception hall only days earlier.  The end of the same podcast features an interview with one Chip Lang, Vice President of Online Commerce for Electronic Arts.  The good Major keeps it social, and does not savage his guest, presumably because he likes his job and would like to keep it Never fear! We can do what he can't.
175015
Last week, I had the privilege to address the North Texas Linux Users Group. Ralph Green asked me to present information on my upcoming book called "Linux System Administration" by O'Reilly. I only had the cover and the gallies, since production goes to press in early March. So, I showed those.
13585
The Zend Developer Zone has posted their latest episode of the PHP Abstract podcast hosted by Cal Evans himself covering ways you can attract quality talent to your organization.   Along the way I've picked up a few truths, mainly stolen from people like Joel Spolsky. Some of these ideas can be found in an article I wrote a while ago titled "Nerd Herding", a link to which can be found in the show notes. Recently, I've had many people ask me variations of the same question, "How do I find talented programmers?" So today, I'm going to share with you some of the things I've learned.   The latest show is available for direct download or, as always, you can subscribe to their feed to get this and lots of other great shows.
213676
Both Chris Shiflett and Eli White has posted reminders/comments about the upcoming DC PHP Conference happening November 7th through the 9th in Washington, D.C..   Eli mentions the talk he will be giving ("my stock 'High Performance' talk") and Chris points out the two talks being given by other OmniTIers - Paul Jones on framework and application benchmarking and Nate with a look at CakePHP   Registration for the conference is still open so you can still get in on this great three day event with sessions on topics like API design, MySQL security, lots of Facebook talk and where PHP fits in with today's politics.
451061
The latest episode of the Zend Developer Zone's podcast, PHP Abstract, has been posted. This time it's hosted by Chris Hartjes on the subject of "Opinionated Software".   Today's special guest is Chris Hartjes. Chris has been building PHP applications since 1998. Currently employed as a Senior Developer for the Cake Development Corporation, Chris has been labeled as an "agent provocateur" within the PHP community. He contributes to open source projects, gives lectures on programming-related topics and tries to share what he's learned via his blog.   Opinionated software entails things like frameworks (his specific example is with the CakePHP framework's ActiveRecord functionality) that has a sort of agreement with the developer that things are going to be where it expects them (allowing for less time configuring and more time developing).   To hear more about this sort of software, grab the latest show's mp3 or subscribe to the feed in your aggregator of choice.
481653
I'm back, with a very interesting topic too!  Joel Spolsky, ex-Microsoft Manager and software engineering guru has a new essay, How Microsoft Lost the API War that is creating quite a big storm in the blogging communitiy.  Joel posits that the priests in the holy Temple of Microsoft have lost their way, because it has split into two factions, and the wrong faction is winning. One faction worships on the alter of backward compatibility, while the other is led by fervent priests who are proselytizing to raise up the new gods of .NET and Longhorn. Joel suggests that the new gods will cause the destruction of the holy Temple because Microsoft's great victories were built on the altar of keeping customers happy with backward compatibility. Furthermore the old gods of the Windows API continue to grow more grotesque and cruel with the passing of time, driving former worshipers into the arms of the friendlier gods of World Wide Web.  This story sounds extremely plausible. I must admit that i fit the profile of the developer who used to develop on the Window's API, is familiar with COM and Win32 who now develops mostly using PHP and Python. However I continue to develop and maintain Windows apps that keep our customers happy, and we still plan to develop new Windows apps. Some points:  Temple of the Blind? Firstly, Microsoft is still a compelling place to work for to people who feel that they can make a difference. The Temple continues to attract talented people with a Unix background. For example we have the recent hiring of Ward Cunningham, author of the Wiki.  Microsoft is still able to keep talented people like Raymond Chen, and others like him who continue to look after the Windows API, and Longhorn apparently will still give high priority to backward compatibility. Open sourcerers like Miguel Icaza are sufficiently attracted to the .NET vision to stake their careers on Mono. Longhorn and .NET are compelling technologies, so even if Win32 is not so cute anymore, M'soft is providing something that remains very attractive.  What i do see M'soft doing wrong is that they aren't disseminating the .NET runtime fast enough. It remains an optional install in XP Service Pack 2 for example. Also their IE dev team appears to be hog-tied due to political reasons; nevertheless IE remains good enough, particularly when I can embed IE as an activeX control, something I cannot do with Mozilla (AFAIK) - Update: I'm wrong.  Temple of the Spider?  Secondly, people don't merely use a web browser. They run the web browser in the OS.  So let me ask you, if you are using DreamWeaver or HomeSite or Photoshop or vi or emacs or Gimp, how many of you are willing to give it up for a java applet (or whatever your favorite technology is) running in your web-browser? Precisely.  Temple of the Abandoned?  Third, Joel makes the claim that developers are not developing to the Windows API. Well he could be right. But I bet a lot of them are still calling Win32.  If you are using a framework or IDE like Delphi or wxWindows (or .NET or VB) then you certainly are insulated from the Windows API, but that doesn't mean that you're not calling the Windows API all the time. I don't see Borland dropping their Windows version of Delphi at any point in time.   In fact, the fact that many developers are using some form of framework is a compelling argument for Microsoft to enhance the .NET framework to attract developers who are using other frameworks.  Today, not that many students learn x86 assembler, but that doesn't mean that Intel lost the CPU wars. Just because fewer people are learning Win32 doesn't mean Microsoft has lost the API wars, if the frameworks run predominantly on Win32.  Temple of the Lost  Joel even warns you in the beginning that "because I'm talking about big trends, I need to exaggerate and generalize". But you still get sucked in because Joel Spolsky is a first-class writer, in the same order as Philip Greenspun or Eric Raymond. That makes him so persuasive and plausible. But this is not Indiana Jones and doomed temples, but Steve Jobs and reality distortion fields.  Other opinions:  Harry Fuecks (PHP is ASP's upgrade path),  Dennis Hamilton (M'soft is just covering all bases), Robert McLaws (Joel is wrong in 7 points), Oliver Travers (the web is not good enough), One Run-time to Rule them all....
720255
Just before Christmas, Novell released it much anticipated public beta of Open Enterprise Server (OES). Based on the Linux 2.6 kernel, OES includes Novell&#39;s NetWareÃÂ® and SUSEÃÂ® LINUX Enterprise Server
402591
Question: We're in the early stages of startup and beginning to shop for technology. We'll need basic hardware and software, plus many other technology and Web-based services to sell online, service customers and keep it all secure.
297820
InfoWorld - Looking to bolster Linux in enterprise environments, Novell is offering its first service pack for Suse Linux Enterprise 10, with capabilities for new quad-core processors. The company also announced Monday commercial availability plans for Suse Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack.
524442
Novell brings updated kernel to enterprise LinuxTimed to coincide with this yearâs linuxworld expo, Novell has announced SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9. Though Novellâs SuSE division has marketed a commercial Linux distribution based on the v2.6 kernel, this is the first to be granted the more stringently qualified âenterpriseâ designation. Besides kernel-level improvements and the usual collection of updated software packages, this release offers improved fail-over, clustering, and resource management and comes bundled with Novellâs ZENworks configuration management software for Linux. The company claims that its AutoBuild system allows it to offer identical configurations for a variety of platforms, including x86 (both 32- and 64-bit), Itanium, IBM POWER, and IBM mainframes. Free evaluation downloads are available now and support subscriptions start at $349 per dual-CPU server.SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, Novell/SuSE
659320
Jonathan Corbet talks about the development process, why Sun's ZFS won't become part of the mainline Linux kernel and other issues.
277372
Gabe: Wired has a pretty big article about Penny Arcade in it's latest issue. We've done a lot of interviews but Wired actually sent a writer named Chris Baker out to spend a few days in our office. Sort of like a geek version of Jane Goodall, He hung out with us all day and took notes while we played games and made the comic. Chris interviewed everyone here and even found time to question our wives and friends. Living with us the way he did I think he managed to get some pretty candid stuff out of Tycho and I. Things we might never have divulged during a standard interview. By the end of the week I think we all considered Chris a friend and a valuable addition to any Halo 3 team. The resulting article is a pretty complete look at our little company here as well as the most honest interview I think anyone's ever managed to get out of us. If you're interested you can read it online right here.   -Gabe out
303820
On the Zend Developer Zone today, Cal Evans has another of his interviews with the speakers at various PHP conferences, this time, it's with Theo Schlossnagle of OmniTi.   This is another in a series of interviews I've been conducting as I travel to different conferences. Most of the people I get the chance to interview are directly involved with PHP in some way. This interview is a bit different. Theo Schlossnagle is the founder of OmniTI, one of the premier PHP consulting companies in the world. OmniTI consults with companies all around the globe on issues ranging from architecture to security.   Cal asks questions about the background of OmniTI, how they find/retain programmers, Messaging Systems, Theo's book, scaling in general, and some of his thoughts on what PHP still has to overcome.
138357
Not since SCO has there been a company so reviled by the open source community as Novell following its deal with Microsoft.  Already there are some clear signs of the negative effects of that anger: senior coders have left the company; Novell has posted a loss for the most recent quarter; and there are calls for a boycott of Novell products â to say nothing of imminent changes to the GNU GPL that might well nullify the entire Novell-Microsoft deal.  Some people are rubbing their hands in glee at the thought of Novell crashing and burning completely, but such a development could actually turn out to be one of the worst things to happen to free software.
340755
(InfoWorld) - This year in IT has been anything but dull as industry titans Bill Gates and Scott McNealy prepared to exit stage right, long-time bitter foes Novell and Microsoft cuddled up and Hewlett-Packard saw a spying scandal shred its reputation. There was plenty of commentary to accompany all that activity, so let's check out some of the most quote-worthy artifacts of the past year. Good night and good luck "I'm thrilled not to have to be CEO anymore. That was a temporary thing that I took on about 22 years ago." --Â Scott McNealy on handing overÂ CEO honorsÂ at Sun Microsystems to ponytailed whippersnapper President Jonathan Schwartz. McNealy appeared upbeat despite having failed to fully reverse the company's poor financial performance. "The world has had a tendency to focus a disproportionate amount of attention on me." --Â Bill Gates, claiming he won't be missedÂ all that much as he steps away from his daily chief software architect role at Microsoft come July 2008 to focus on his charity organization. Gates will remain as company chairman "indefinitely." Sure, we love Linux, we just love Windows more "If you want something, I'm still going to tell you [to buy] Windows, Windows, Windows." --Â Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, aiming to "bridge the divide"Â between open-source and proprietary software with a surprise partnership with Novell. Sounds like he hasn't got that whole co-opetition thing straight yet, ditto on what the whole lovefest means for patents, with the vendors differing on their interpretations of what the deal will mean. "I prefer to be an optimist, and will happily take the option that not everybody needs to be enemies." --Â Mr. Maverick himself, Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, with his sunny take on Microsoft/Novell, at odds with the disgust voiced by many in the open-source community with the Suse distributor.Â  Could've, would've, should've ... didn't "I understand there is also a written report of the investigation addressed to me and others, but I did not read it. I could have, and I should have." -- Mark Hurd, Hewlett-Packard's embattled CEO, stating the obvious over his failure to peruse key information describing the company's bizarre attempts to unearth the source who leaked board-level confidences.Â  "If I knew then what I know now, I would have done things differently." --Â Patricia Dunn, HP's former chairman, testifyingÂ before a U.S. Congress subcommittee about those techniques Hurd didn't bother to look into, which included pretexting. Forced out of HP in the wake of the spy scandal, Dunn continues to maintain the methods were legal. After all, she was assured of their legality by HP's own lawyers.Â  Touching evil "We actually did an evil scale and decided not to serve at all was worse evil." --Â Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, about the year-long soul-searching process that the company went through before deciding to offer a censored version of its services in China. Google famously espouses the "don't be evil" credo.Â  That competitive spirit "We will compete like gentlemen. We'll come in with swords, not bombs and guns, and fence." --Â Shai Agassi, president of SAP's product and technology group, describing how the vendor is balancing a desire to stomp all over Microsoft in the small to midsize business (SMB) applications market while simultaneously cuddling up to the Redmond Rampager to make sweet music around their joint Duet product.Â  "This is capitalism; we're competing." --Â Larry Ellison, Oracle's CEO, giving his spin on why his company is offering "enterprise support" for Red Hat Inc.'s Linux distribution; other than push down Red Hat's share price and potentially put the vendor out of business that is.Â  Telling it like it is "I think my response was 'What idiot dreamed this up?'" --Â Mary Ann Davidson, Oracle's chief security officer, in typical blunt manner, remembering her reaction to the company's scheme to brand its databases as "unbreakable."Â  "Anybody [in the Internet space] who wasn't interested in YouTube was either asleep or not being honest." --Â Jonathan Miller, AOL chairman and CEO, regretting that Google, not his company, bought the video-sharing startup. Less than a week later, Miller was out of a job asÂ Time Warner replaced himÂ with veteran television executive Randy Falco. Could the two events, perchance, be related?Â  The batteries and the bees "It's kind of like impregnating someone. It only takes one, so the more of them there are, the more likely that you'll impregnate someone,"" --Â Rick Clancy, a Sony spokesman, indulging in some plain speaking as to how short circuits caused by microscopic metal particles in the vendor's lithium ion batteries led to a handful of laptops catching fire. The result? A series of major recalls of millions of Sony batteries.Â  Waxing poetic "Enterprise search software is so clearly bereft of soul,"Â Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager for Google's enterprise business, on how high-end search needs to take a leaf out of consumer search's book and focus more on the needs of end users.Â  "I think there was a good balance between different hair and beard lengths." --Â Kaj ArnÃ¶, vice president of community relations with MySQL, in a colorful description of the cross-section of attendees at the Free Software Foundation's First International Conference for GPLv3.Â  Slicing off the fat "We had become bloated. It's like middle-age spread. You don't know how it happens, but one day you look down and it's there." --Â Donald MacDonald, vice president and general manager of Intel's digital home group, as he patted his belly, graphically describing the chip giant's attempts to slim down its 100,000-strong work force. Shedding some light under the financial covers "You can talk about the negatives of 4 to 5 percent market share, but it's kind of like being in the ocean. We're on the bottom, so it doesn't matter what the weather is like up top." -- Steve Jobs, Apple Computer CEO, trying to allay shareholders' concerns about his company while suggesting he might have spent a little too much time watching his animation studio Pixar's "Finding Nemo" movie.Â  "What the chief accountant creates is a work of art." --Â Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, defining most financial reporting as less of a historical record and much more of a forecast. Perhaps that's why so many IT companies fell foul of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this year, particularly in relation to past practices around the granting of employee stock options.