Leadership By Numbers

Knowledge is not power, but learning is. As kids, we made art with paint-by-number kits. Simply matching the outline numbers with an oil paint gave us the illusion of mastery. I've worked in all facets of the IT industry: as IT management, as a consultant, systems administrator, developer and instructor. And, I still see a lot of paint-by-number projects which try to be the real thing. IT leadership is about reading the numbers, then going outside the lines and taking risks.

LEADERSHIP
BY NUMBERS

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01/16/2011

Wi-Fi Update with InSSIDer

Category Administration Linux Open Source Ubuntu

Time for a Wi-Fi tune-up for the home office, and one of my first tools of choice is InSSIDer by Metageek. It provides a dynamic presentation of channels, traffic flow, encryption types and other statistics. Over the last six months, I've noticed that my Wi-Fi connectivity is getting a bit sketchy, depending on my location. My original configuration was put in place six or seven years ago. Perhaps I'm experiencing a problem of congestion from the addition of many more neighborhood routers.

Metageek now supports rpm and deb Linux packages. You'll need Mono, so there are extra instructions for Ubuntu 10.04. My work laptop is Ubuntu 10.10, so the install was quick and effortless. After I fired it up, I could see two Wi-Fi problems that required my immediate attention: up my encryption and change the channel.

When I originally set up my first Wi-Fi router, it was using 802.11b and WEP encryption. A few years later, I upgraded the router, but was lazy and kept the same security standard. After all, the amount of Wi-Fi activity in my area was very low. It was like living on a country farm in the Internet, where no one really bothers locking the front door. Well, the neighborhood's changed, and InSSIDer exposed just how many accounts were within range, and many of their encryption standards were WPA with TKIP/DSA. I can probably mitigate my guilt by drawing on my Wi-Fi configuration frustration with earlier Linux distributions. A 128 bit WEP key was about all I could get to work across a variety of NICs.

After moving to WPA-PSK with TKIP/DSA encryption, it was time to change the channel. When I selected channel 1, there wasn't anyone in my vicinity using Wi-Fi except for someone on 11. So, as more and more users set up their own routers I just assumed that they understood about the importance to avoid overlapping channels and wouldn't all choose channel 1. Apparently, I'm a leader. InSSIDer graphed the painful reality that just about all of my next-door neighbors were on channel 1.

Now that I've moved my Wi-Fi channel and upped my encryption, I'm feeling pretty good. Too bad it's now cheap and easy to crack WPA-PSK in less than six minutes. That information, though, I'm going to keep from my neighbors.

Technorati Tags: security, wifi, metageek

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:37 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (13)

07/17/2010

Desert Island Reading for Linux

Category Linux

If you could only have one book on Linux, it would have to be the outstanding
LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell, Third Edition by O'Reilly. It just came out in June in its 3rd edition, and deserves notable fanfare. Sure, the orientation is about getting LPI certification, but this massive tome is an encyclopedia of well-presented technical information.

No bull.

Technorati Tags: Linux, LPI

Posted by Jack Dausman At 11:49 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/09/2010

Super LightWeight Lotus Symphony

Category Administration Linux Open Source
Lotus Symphony is a cross-platform office suite, which is an advantage if you are looking for a zero-cost, light-weight desktop operating system. Because if you are really thinking of running Lotus Symphony, with its Eclipse-based foundation, on hardware that is of marginal ability, then some of the Linux variants would be a good choice.

Phoronix has a write-up of their analysis of "Power & Memory Usage Of GNOME, KDE, LXDE & Xfce." Interestingly, the LXDE, "Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment" really shined, and there are several Ubuntu-based distributions which are built with LXDE. This last week, I tried out WattOS, and as it runs as Ubuntu 9.10, it's possible to install Lotus Symphony from the Ubuntu Partner repository. One click install.

WattOS isn't as sophisticated as MacOSX, Windows 7 or the latest, full, Ubuntu. But, Lotus Symphony on WattOS works quite well and makes it possible to extend the usefulness of a lot of systems that might otherwise be limping.

Technorati Tags: Lotus Symphony, WattOS, LXDE

Posted by Jack Dausman At 4:17 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

02/25/2010

VERDE Gets a Close Look and Pre-announces Hosting Option

Category Administration Linux
In September, IBM's Client for Smart Work was announced as including Virtual Bridges VERDE VDI solutio n. It was a surprise to many analysts in the virtualization industry, as VERDE hadn't been receiving the same press as other VDI companies. I've worked with VERDE's solution, and have been impressed by it. Gabe Knuth has given a wonderfully detailed assessment of VERDE's VDI in his "A first look at Virtual Bridges VERDE."

Virtual Bridges then added some of their own commentary:

We feel the cherry-on-top of VERDE is our TCO story -- the combination of higher densities, lower storage requirements and lower software acquisition costs uniquely deliver a VDI value proposition where the numbers finally add up, whether a Windows 7 refresh or just an XP desktop infrastructure make-over. This is really where we stand apart from the field.

The biggest surprise, is that Virtual Bridges will be offering a complete, hosted solution.

The hosted service will be formally announced over the next few weeks.
For more info on licensing, discounts or hosted options interested parties should send an email to sales at vbridges dot com.
Virtual Bridges and IBM have a relationship across several fronts. Customers can buy from IBM as part of either an IBM Client for Smart Work (ICSW) adoption from Lotus and IBM partners or as part of an IBM Smart Business Desktop Cloud from IBM Global Services End User Services group where we are one of three official Offerings (Vmware and Citrix being the other two). By buying through IBM users can get the advantages of integrated product and service delivery with other IBM offerings. Virtual Bridges will often support IBM, either directly or through our wide range of international partners, in the background of these adoptions, especially in international markets where IBM has a closer relationship with the customer already established. Virtual Bridges is happy to sell direct, through partners, or in partnership with IBM depending on the customers preference.

Technorati Tags: Gabe Knuth, Brian Madden, Virtual Bridges, VERDE, VDI, ICSW

Posted by Jack Dausman At 11:13 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (3)

10/21/2009

Virtual Ubuntu with Notes -- Do You Want It ?

Category IBM/Lotus Linux Ubuntu
IBM is now offering the African package of its Virtual Ubuntu for the rest of us. It's touted as a choice fit for today's netbooks--a downsized desktop for the pintsized workstation. Does it really make sense ? It's definitely a splashy topic. The news made it on Slashdot, with an unusually large number of respondents. Let's look at the parts:

Ubuntu on a netbook has proven itself, even providing a 'Remix' version best suited for the smaller netbook screens. Dell just released their Ubuntu 9.04 ISO, so anyone can purchase brand-name hardware that supports Ubuntu.

Virtual Desktop Integration (VDI) is starting to get some serious attention. These platforms have come a long way from their earlier, nearly dumb terminals based on protocols like VNC. Citrix and Microsoft are promoting the XenDesktop package, with VMware and Parallels presenting their own VDI infrastructure. Canonical's Ubuntu has had several different VDI choices, but with the addition of IBM's approval and partnership, Ubuntu under VDI is being recast as Enterprise Grade.

Lotus Symphony looks good and works well on Windows, Macintosh and Linux. As a Microsoft Office alternative, it's a good choice, but it's not the only player. The question for IT managers is whether or not Sun's OpenOffice is preferred to Lotus Symphony. Both have large companies behind their development, offer support and sell at a zero price point. Until recently, I would have understood a hesitancy to pull in Lotus Symphony. But, Sun is now in negotiations to be purchased by Oracle; a company that is not a flagbearer for Free Open Source (FOSS). The future of OpenOffice is uncertain, and IBM is strongly committed to the ongoing maturation of Symphony. Interestingly, Lotus just released an upgraded Symphony development kit that uses a Visual Basic style of programming (LotusScript) that works with Lotus Notes.

Lotus Notes is now at release 8.5.1, and has revitalized their entire product line. It's obvious from numerous press accounts, that inclusion for iPhone support has been widely welcomed. Lotus Notes has been polished up and shows well in any office environment. Rob Koplowitz, Forrester Research's principal analyst summarizes that,"Lotus can now go side-by-side with Microsoft in a UI bake-off." Add in the integration capabilities of Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony and there is now a framework for a uniquely productive office suite. I'm not sure there is anything equal to it. With the addition for Sametime IM and Quickr Entry, IBM has a challenge to Google Apps.

An IBM-Canonical VDI looks like an arrangement where the pieces fit well together: each link stands well on its own merits. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols gives his summary analysis of IBM's news, and concludes with a pricing breakdown. If your site is running Lotus, then you need to be evaluating VDI possibilities. If you are not using Lotus, then you couldn't ask for a better friend during your next round of negotiations for license renewal.

Update: I'm looking to identify some point of contacts for the IBM Business Partners who can provide the VDI solution. I've worked with Virtual Bridges, and I know they are included in the list. In the meantime, there is a ROI/TCO calculator with some more details.

Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, VDI, IBM/Lotus

Posted by Jack Dausman At 8:33 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

09/21/2009

Jono Bacon's "The Art of Community" on PDF

Category Linux Open Source Ubuntu

Jono Bacon is the Community Manager for Ubuntu, and author of the highly praised "The Art of Community." The text has been published by O'Reilly under a Creative Commons license. Jono has decided to include access to a PDF of his work (though, he also encourages everyone to purchase a commercial copy, as well).

From OpenNTF to Sourceforge, if you are working in open-source, then this is a must-read.

Throughout the eleven chapters and 360+ pages the book covers the major elements of building strong community:

* Foreword by Leo Laporte ' emmy award-winning broadcaster and founder of the TWiT Network provides a thoughtful foreword, complete with his expected wit and repartee.
* Preface
* Chapter 1 ' The Art of Community ' We begin the book with a bird's-eye view of how communities function at a social science level. We cover the underlying nuts and bolts of how people form communities, what keeps them involved, and the basis and opportunities behind these interactions.
* Chapter 2 ' Planning Your Community ' Next we carve out and document a blueprint and strategy for your community and its future growth. Part of this strategy includes the target objectives and goals and how the community can be structured to achieve them.
* Chapter 3 ' Communicating Clearly ' At the heart of community is communication, and great communicators can have a tremendously positive impact. Here we lay down the communications backbone and the best practices associated with using it.
* Chapter 4 ' Processes: Simple Is Sustainable ' We then move on to focus on putting the facilities in place for your community to do great things. In this chapter we build simple, effective, and nonbureaucratic processes that enable your community to conduct tasks, work together, and share their successes.
* Chapter 5 ' Supporting Workflow with Tools ' We continue our discussion of community facilities to build workflows that are driven by accessible, sensible, and rock-solid tools that enable your contributors to do great work quickly and easily.
* Chapter 6 ' Building Buzz ' With a solid foundation in place, we move on to build excitement and buzz around your community and encourage and enthuse every man, woman, dog and pony to get involved and participate.
* Chapter 7 ' Measuring Community ' Although many consider community hand-wavey and unmeasurable, this chapter confronts the myth and guides you in tracking, monitoring, and otherwise measuring the work going on the community so it can be optimized and simplified.
* Chapter 8 ' Governance ' Our next stop is the wide-ranging and seemingly complex topic of governance. We explore what options are available for a low-friction, capable, and representative governance strategy for your community.
* Chapter 9 ' Handling Conflict ' One of the most sensitive topics in community leadership is handling conflict. In this chapter we explore how to identify, handle, and prevent irksome conflict; handle divisive personalities; and unblock problems.
* Chapter 10 ' Creating and Running Events ' Events offer an excellent opportunity for your community to bond, be productive, and have fun, and this is where we cast our beady eye in our penultimate chapter.
* Chapter 11 ' Hiring a Community Manager ' Finally, we close The Art of Community with some advice and guidance for organizations who want to hire a community manager to conduct and implement the wide range of topics that we have discussed throughout the book.

Technorati Tags: Jono Bacon, Ubuntu

Posted by Jack Dausman At 2:07 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

09/08/2009

Right now, Microsoft Doesn't Get Open Source, Open Standards

Category Linux Marketing Open Source
Amazingly brazen, Microsoft is "training" sales staff to parrot that Linux is a poor choice for matching the consumer experience of Windows. Sam Gustin writes:

In fact, the slides must be viewed against the broader backdrop of the looming battle between Microsoft and its rivals -- including Apple and Google -- over the very future of computing itself. In essence, Microsoft is trying to prepare the battlefield for the day when Linux may present a viable threat to its stranglehold on the operating system market. That time is coming sooner than most people realize.

It's hard to believe that with less than 1% market share (for consumer desktops) that Linux is a sufficient threat to drive Microsoft into the indoctrination of retail employees. Linux is such a complicated, hybrid, modular platform that even with the wonders of the popular Ubuntu, it's going to take many years before Windows as a desktop erodes and diminishes as has IE.

Just a few weeks ago, Microsoft was contributing Linux kernel code, stepping into the arena with Intel, IBM, Sun and other firms that build around Linux. Of course, the Microsoft offer wasn't an act of pure altruism, but it was a welcome attempt to redress virtualization concerns. Linux, under Microsoft's VM technology, does not work nearly as well as do competing VM vendors. I guess, Redmond accepts that Linux can be supported if it is yoked as a VM in a Microsoft installation.

2008 and 2009 saw the rise of Netbooks with different Linux distributions in tow. At $300 to $400 the Microsoft tax was too much of a percentage. There was some pricing battles, and Microsoft eventually relented for an extended run of XP, and a very low cost. Netbooks are still running a lot of Linux, and the much touted "higher return rate" has been effectively discredited. The netbook revolution is still underway, with a new initiative being created from ARM chips, instead of Intel or AMD. In an overview of the upcoming ARM's war (sorry, irresistable), Agam Shah notes are these mini-laptops will exclusively run Linux and their vendors are looking to compete against the present group of Netbooks.

Smartbooks are designed to have similar characteristics to netbooks, including compact keyboards and screens. The devices are designed as alternatives to netbooks, most of which are based on Intel's Atom chips and come with Microsoft's Windows OS. The first smartbooks will come with Linux, as Arm-based chips do not support Windows XP.

The most dramatic trend, to my eye, is not Desktops of any size, whether any of the Windows variants, the Netbooks, or the mini-smartbooks. It's the smartphones and new-gen handsets. For a must-have purchase, the iPhone is on top, with RIM's Blackberry next in line. Nokia's newly coveted N900 runs Linux, and Google's Android is Linux. Microsoft's Windows Mobile has nearly evaporated in the competitive heat, listing in the single digits for its percentage of the market. Very few manufacturers have embraced Windows Mobile for their next OS release.

If Microsoft is stumbling on adapting and adopting open-source, open-standard technologies--are other commercial companies in the same plight ? Is there only an either/or choice ? According to Matt Assay (of Alfresco, and open-source collaboration platform), IBM gets it right: " it's impressive just how much open source influences IBM's product development. . . . IBM seems to have figured out better than most how to marry the global open-source laboratory with a massive internal laboratory."

If it took IBM ten years (or so) to fully re-architect itself to embrace open-source, open-standards, then I expect Microsoft to be able to make the same turn in less time. Until then, I'm thinking hard about my next mobile device.

So many devices, all running open-source, open-standards with Linux.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 10:14 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

08/22/2009

There is a Complicated Job Market for Messaging Professionals

Category IBM/Lotus Domino Linux Open Source
"You know, there are a lot more jobs for Exchange," was offered as a suggestion by a well meaning associate. My company has decided to continue upgrading on Domino, rather than migrate to Exchange of Google Apps. The history of this decision is complicated, but everyone has been sincere in minimizing risk and choosing wisely.

"So," I wondered, "are there really lots more opportunities for Exchange?" I spent some time looking at the numbers from both SimplyHired.com and Indeed.com for the Washington, DC area (where I work), and the numbers seem pretty consistent. Microsoft Exchange does have an edge, which is around 20%. While this is a good number, it's not quite the spread that was insinuated by my friend.

What I find even more interesting, is that Domino has more offers for higher salary ranges. So, in one respect, I'm less inclined to transition into a technology for a lower salary. Then I thought about some of the other aspects of Lotus Notes and Domino that make it a unique platform. One that stands out for me is that it runs on different operating systems.

Here's what the job market looks like for Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, and Linux. From this perspective, the difference between Notes and Exchange is statistically insignificant, and being able to match my messaging platform with the upward rocket trail of Linux seems like a very smart move.

Technorati Tags: Linux, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange

Posted by Jack Dausman At 9:24 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

05/14/2009

Is Lotus A Smart Choice?

Category IBM/Lotus Linux Ubuntu

The good news is that IBM understands Lotus collaboration as dead-central to their "Smart Work" initiative. Bob Picciano, the Lotus GM, has written up his attack points at CIO.com, and then took time for a conference call with some bloggers (thanks to Nathan Freeman for his transcript).

There is more to Picciano's analysis than a C-level,
marketing cold-call for reducing cost. I'm reading his words as a shift into the core strengths of the Lotus platform, and a revitalized effort to engage customers. Not just customers as in Enterprise Businesses, but customers as people who are as diverse as those with strained resources in developing economies, as well as those working with mashups against huge data-centers. It's a smart message.

The timing is late for Lotus.

What Lotus Notes does well, no one else can touch. But, IBM's competition delivered a smoother GUI earlier, provided more appealing hosting options, and created lock-in by tying the customer's assets into a single platform. The years of building out with Workplace, the slow maturation of Sametime, an awkward UI to Notes (pre-8.5), and weak data integration with Domino has taken a toll on the public image of Lotus.

Lotus Notes is the only collaboration platform that can be delivered as a full-featured client on Linux, Macintosh and Windows. That is an amazing capability. Yet, even in the Ubuntu Linux stronghold of Free Open-Source Software, there is no recognition for Domino, and very little for Notes. That is a stunning disconnect.

The Ubuntu 199 Exam Objectives actually requires Linux System Administrators to understand the process of integrating with Microsoft Exchange:

125.4 Configure Evolution mail client (Weight: 2)

Description: Candidates should be able to configure Evolution to work with a variety of server types and mail protocols. This objective includes the secure configuration of POP3, IMAP, SMTP as well as the integration with an Exchange mail server. Candidates should also be able to set up filters in Evolution to manage spam and other email.

Key files, terms, and utilities include:

evolution
~/.evolution/*
evolution-exchange

IBM has all the right pieces to build a new customer base, but that opportunity has many challenges. I think a lot of the Lotus faithful have become so accustomed to being an underdog, that there is a community expectation that no one but the Disciples of Domino understand the product. Many of us who have lived with the rise of Lotus Notes have accepted an industry insulation that lacks appreciation for our virtues in security and stability. It's a mistake to ignore public perception.

Google Apps is awesome. It's becoming it's own trend, and university after university are discarding their messaging infrastructure for Google's. And, Microsoft ? Their Exchange 2010 is just not half-bad. It's had a serious update, most of which was cooked off-stage with little pre-announcements, and it's scheduled for an early debut. They have also done a great job in building up a hosted solution, and that has been years in the making. And like it or not, Sharepoint is taking up a lot of oxygen.

It is possible for Lotus Notes to adapt and morph into a platform which is better accepted. But first, there needs to be a hard stare at some tough realities. Rejected technologies never rebound.

Let me point out a famous struggle between Microsoft and WordPerfect. The European Committee for Interoperable Systems has just published their findings in support for the EU Commission's recent preliminary findings, on January 15, 2009, that Microsoft violated antitrust law. On page eleven, there is a chart of the dominance of Microsoft Word over Wordperfect. Look at that curve for Wordperfect, because it's the shape of a plumetting demise that never, ever recovers.

Technologies just don't have comebacks. Companies might readjust, but no one is going to revisit Token Ring or fire up the Iridium satellite network and SmallTalk will never resurge. The trajectories of technology on a down slope are boringly consistent at SimplyHired.com or Indeed.com.

Smart Work for Lotus is going to have to extend beyond new economies of lower cost. Bob said that it takes smarter people to implement the Smart initiative. That's a good line. I'm hoping it has many meanings. I'd like to see real integration and interoperability into other open-standard and open-source platforms. It'd be great to have Lotus Symphony as a pre-load on Netbooks. The pricing of the Ubuntu PPA for Lotus Notes (and marketing) needs to be nudged forward. Even LotusLive holds promise.

Smart Work is going to be hard work, but IBM/Lotus can rebuild if they are working towards a new base.

Technorati Tags: Bob Picciano, Lotus Notes, Ubuntu

Posted by Jack Dausman At 8:29 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (9)

04/02/2009

Sametime Unified Telephony is Gaining Wider Acceptance

Category Announcements IBM/Lotus Linux Lotus Foundations Sametime
Too small to consider any "Unified" technology ? Sametime Unified Telephony is priced by per user--so it scales down, as well as up. Today, in a conference call with IBM, a brain trust of David Marshak, Alistair Rennie, Bruce Morse, and Marisa Viveros provided an overview of Sametime Unified Telephony (SUT).

The concept of Unified Telephony has been a long-time in coming. Every study I've read cites significant advantages for integrating VOIP, video, messaging, collaboration, etc. However, until relatively recently, it's been the sort of gee-whiz technology that you see on The Jetsons and requires a single-vendor solution. No one wants a rip-and-replace solution (and we are all tired of vendor lock-in).

Bruce pointed out that with the 14 vendors who have already validated their telephony systems, SUT is now supported on 75% of all installations. More vendors are in the pipeline, and because the SUT communication protocol is running as a "ratified SIP" the validation has been averaging one day to complete. Clearly, there is an advantage to running with "open and published industry standards."

Allistair drew on the strength of being able to work "well with what exists" rather than re-architecting onto "a homogeneous stack" from a single vendor. He doesn't just mean the hardware pieces, but also the messaging core. SUT isn't only for companies with a strong IBM/Lotus presence, because it's been designed to mix well with different platforms that haven't been "burdened" by weaker collaboration capabilities. It's a marked advantage for IBM, that SUT has a "more practical vision" that integrates into existing equipment.

The occasion for the call was VoiceCon 2009, where a SUT demonstration was provided that was similar to the one premiered at Lotusphere 2009. I was at the Lotusphere presentation, and the interplay between different phone devices, Sametime, and back-end PBXs received welcome applause. At VoiceCon, IBM included an even larger variety of devices and telephony systems for their staged overview.

SUT will be released in July and it's going to deserve a close look. Gartner has already recommended it for it's "great potential." But, Gartner may also have been overly cautious about its lack of suitability for smaller enterprises.

IBM is already gearing up the next release of Lotus Foundations to include SUT.

Technorati Tags: Sametime Unified Telephony, Lotus Notes, SIP

Posted by Jack Dausman At 9:11 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

03/21/2009

Why Notes IMAP is Now a Problem

Category IBM/Lotus Linux Ubuntu
Have you been to wi-fi cafe, like Caribou or Starbucks ? They have become laptop showrooms, offering everything from the Dell Mini 9 to upscale Apple Macbook Pros. I'm tempted to park my cup of java (straight, no sugar) and run EtherApe to trace the connections, but it's obvious that most of what is happening in the cafes is what I see on the corporate desktop: e-mail.

On Windows systems, there is a lot of Outlook 2003/2007. On the Mac's it's Apple Mail, and on the Linux distros, it's Thunderbird and Evolution. Oh, and everyone is using web mail as well for GMail, and Yahoo). I'm not prying, but I do fall into a friendly chat session every now and then, and I've learned more about what is happening than I expected. Two things are obvious: everyone has multiple e-mail accounts, and they are using IMAP to connect them up into a single client. Which is why, I'm not seeing as many Notes clients as I would expect. Notes and IMAP just don't seem to mix well.

It's not a secret that Notes has been weak on IMAP. Ideajam.net has a topic to "remove IMAP support from the Notes client" that has garnered more votes in favor than opposed. Apparently, there is some frustration that the current IMAP capabilities are not workable, and it would be better off if Notes just dropped IMAP in general. I'm voting the topic down, though, as I think it would be a mistake. Lotus Notes needs a robust IMAP implementation with a consumer-friendly GUI. Especially now, with the launch of a Ubuntu client.

IBM is on the edge of pushing out the IBM Open Collaboration Client Solution for Ubuntu. They actually have an OCCS ISO for you to take it for a 90 day trial run, and they have a PPA repository. This is a terrific mail client on Ubuntu--but it doesn't do IMAP easily. So, now there is a problem for IBM/Lotus. We know that most people have multiple mail accounts, and they don't want to shift between them. And, we know that IMAP is the de-facto protocol for general mail usage.

To add a little spice into the mix, the latest Gnome 2.6 will now support Microsoft's MAPI. This means that I can take an Outlook 2003 or 2007 PST file from a Windows system, and run it on a Linux installation. I can use the Linux Evolution mail client with a very simple configuration to become an Exchange client.

If I were a Lotus Business Partner, looking to convert Exchange shops to Domino--I'd be looking at the Ubuntu OCCS. After all, it is a disruptive force on any pricing spreadsheet. But, now that MAPI is integrated into Linux, it makes it possible to preserve the back-end Exchange installation and simply switch out the client OS. No messy mail file conversions.

Putting a good IMAP interface into the Notes client would go a long way in ensuring an opportunity for OCCS. With solid IMAP, the Notes client could provide at least a rudimentary connection to an Exchange server, and other mail services, while also offering Domino (for those that have it).

Throw in a Starbucks card, and I think a crowd would grow.

Technorati Tags: OCCS, Ubuntu, Lotus Notes

Posted by Jack Dausman At 5:38 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (6)

01/28/2009

Setting DAOS Estimator on Linux

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino ND8 Linux

Working the DAOS Estimator was a bit fussy on my Linux test server. DAOS is an important tool for justifying the task of a server upgrade to 8.5. Today, I set up it up on a RHEL 5.1 server. To make everything perform smoothly, I needed to run the following steps:

Switch to root
Chmod the daosest file to be executable
Chown the daosest file for root:root
Move it into the executable directory, /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/xxxx/linux/
Because daosest couldn't see a few key libraries, I needed to create three symbolic links into the /usr/lib directory from the files in the executable directory:

libxmlproc.so
libndgts.so
libnotes.so

Switch to whatever is the "notes" account
CD into the /local/notesdata directory
Run the /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/xxxx/linux/daosest with the synatx for an output file (-o 'file.txt')

Works great, and now I can switch over to the production servers, tomorrow (I hope) and get some reports. It's also fun to run it in the Domino server console, so that I can capture the statistics without taking the server off-line.

Technorati Tags: Domino 8.5, DAOS, Linux

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:27 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (3)

01/25/2009

Prevent Downadup/Conflicker Worm Infection

Category Administration Linux Security

Install Ubuntu, and use OpenDNS.org. There. That mean ol' Donwadup/Conflicker worm won't be able to hurt you.

It's not just about being Microsoft-free anymore; it's about being sensible and secure.

Technorati Tags: Downadup, Ubuntu

Posted by Jack Dausman At 10:08 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

01/07/2009

Linux Netbooks Are A Disruptive Force for Everyone

Category Linux

Playing the part of an industry spoiler for this week's Macworld, Microsoft is accusing Apple products of having an "Apple Tax." Of course, being that Windows market share is taking a dive, it's not an unexpected reaction. After all, not too long ago, Bill Gates was predicting that hardware would become nearly free, and he had some words left over to address the open-source community:

free software can do some good stuff, but not the really good stuff.

So, what's happened to the computing world since Bill made his guesses ? The most popular platforms for industry growth are Apple MacBooks and Netbooks with either open-source Linux or the older Windows XP. In the Fall, Microsoft noted their earnings were affected by Netbooks running Linux. Now days, Windows is being squeezed between a premium product line and a premium operating-system value.

In fact, Netbooks with Linux are probably a problem for Apple and even Linux manufacturers. Sooner or later, Apple is going to need to come to earth. And, even Linux stalwarts have been whip lashed by the uptake in Netbooks. MadTux, an on-line retailer for pre-loaded Linux systems, is closing shop. Linux is no longer esoteric, and has even become a commodity.

For instance, many users of Dell's Mini 9 Netbook, have noted that Ubuntu works well for them; "great computer, best computer I've ever owned," and "Ubuntu offers tons of software to keep you busy, full function computer to take anywhere." Almost everyone expects this trend for using Linux on low-cost Netbooks to steamroll forward.

Today, H-P has produced a Netbook that can run an amazing 8 hours on battery life. Consumers can select their operating system of choice: Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Novell SuSE. Even more amazing is the annoucment by Freescale Semiconductor, Inc that it's aiming at a $200 Linux Netbook.

As far as I can tell, Linux Netbooks are going to be a pervasive presence. I'm not sure if their popularity is going to flatten out in the manner of tablet laptops, or if they will have iPhone cachet. I just know that anyone with a Netbook is going to be wondering why anybody else in their right mind would be paying a Microsoft Tax.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 4:03 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (3)

01/01/2009

A Harder Look at Domino and Open Source

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino Linux Open Source

What does the Open Source community think of Lotus Notes ? The response ranges from tepid curiosity to those that predict significant benefits from forging stronger ties with IBM. Interestingly enough, no one mentions Free Open Source Lotus Notes, other than some in the Lotus community.

UbuntuPodcast #15 has a quick mention of the IBM/Lotus Microsoft-Free Client. If you fast forward to minute 54, you can catch a few words about the new IBM client packaging. The show hosts don't know a thing about Lotus Notes, but they do think it's cool for IBM to use an open-source oriented platform to bash on Microsoft. Being Anti-Microsoft, though, is more of a sub-culture meme than a corporate value to be posted with "we are about excellence." I'm not really looking for more T-Shirt wit, as I am for understanding deeper trends in Open Source and Open Standards. Who actually best represents the Open Source community ?

Well, The Linux Foundation is definitely at the core of Open Source. Lora Bentley interviewed Amanda McPherson for what her top five open source predictions would be. Amanda is a founding team member of the Linux Foundation and Vice President, Marketing and Developer Programs. Lotus Notes ranks as her number three prediction, only she never uses the words "Lotus Notes":

Corporate use of Linux on the desktop will make strides in '09. Look to IBM's Collaboration Client (virtualized Linux on the desktop bundled with open source productivity apps) to win some large-scale deals. Vista has made corporate America think twice. The new world of online apps is also contributing to this trend.

In an earlier December post on her blog, Amanda says, "Linux on the desktop combined with products like IBM's Collaboration Client are proving to be very attractive to certain enterprise computing segments."

To my thinking, McPherson understands what Lotus Notes brings to Open Source and she isn't arguing that it should be re-molded as a pure Open Source product. I have already suggested some ways to encourage more connectivity between Open Source and Lotus Notes. Lotus Foundations, Lotus Symphony, Ubuntu Notes, and The IBM Collaboration Client are making in-roads in Open Source. Want more ? Wouldn't it be interesting to work with Amazon's EC2 for hosting Domino on RHEL, CentOS or Ubuntu ?

There are a lot of opportunities for working with Lotus Notes in Open Source. I'm already looking forward to 2009.

Technorati Tags: Lotus Notes, Ubuntu, Linux, Amanda McPherson, Lora Bentley

Posted by Jack Dausman At 2:19 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

12/31/2008

Open Source Domino is a Solution without a Problem

Category IBM/Lotus Domino Linux Open Source Ubuntu

The topic is interesting, but not compelling. Let's start with an acknowledgment that I share with The 451 Group: Open source is not a business model. Certainly, it can be part of a business model, but it does not stand alone.

Now, "making Lotus Notes work better with open-source" is an idea I can support, wholeheartedly.

Sell Lotus Domino on the Ubuntu Store. Why not? If you check the link, you'll see that IBM has already figured out how to sell DB2 on Ubuntu.

Sell the Lotus Notes client as a mail client for anyone. Why is the Lotus Notes client the only mail client that an end-user has no reasonable means to purchase ? For example, if I look at Amazon, I can easily purchase Outlook, if I'm check for Lotus Notes, I get books.

Encourage better open-source development, and foster that growth with IBM Business Partners. Lotus Symphony supports 3rd party plug-ins, and we have OpenNTF.org but it'd be really impressive to see something like what Ubuntu has done with Launchpad.

Finally, get some real training out in front of this push. Sure, people learn differently, but most people learn best in the same way that they enjoy movies: in a crowd. If there aren't enough IBM/Lotus training centers to support orienting customers to open-source alternatives, then create a traveling show that floats from city to city. I'm sure that it could be a shared sponsorship.

Technorati Tags: Open Source, Lotus Notes, Ubuntu

Posted by Jack Dausman At 1:16 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (11)

12/16/2008

Pay Attention to Netbooks: A Microcosm to the Future

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Linux Management Open Source

There is a drama on the IT stage which features hardware vendors, open-source and commercial operating systems in turmoil and competition. I think that while the scale is puppet-show diminutive, the themes soar as large as any opera. There will be tragedy, and there is certainly comedy. The netbook has arrived, and it will impact messaging systems more than the next-gen phone architecture from Apple, Google, and Nokia.

The Economist has pronounced the union of netbook and Linux as a complete solution: "For many users, the basic, free software shipped with a netbook will be quite enough." Initially, the netbooks heavily favored Linux with their first outing by Asus, Acer and Dell. Lately, netbook vendors have begun to tilt more towards Windows XP, a trend that I expect to carry through the holidays and into the Spring. We are in a recession and there is a lot of inventory to move.

The drama is whether or not netbooks will return to Linux, or if their brief tenure with open-source was merely an interruption to Microsoft's dominance. The comedy is that I expect these jewel-box laptops with their teensy keyboards to become the face of consumer Linux.

The market force pushing netbooks is all about money, and Microsoft can't afford to keep Windows XP competitive against desktop Linux at the same time they are preparing a release of Windows 7. After all, Windows 7 requires system resources that a netbook lacks, and Windows XP is being retired. The hardware manufacturers are in a tough spot because perpetuating Windows XP is more expensive than slapping on Vista. A Vista netbook will be slow, but at least the hardware is supported. Security patches, hardware drivers, and the integration of new technology that was never envisioned at the time of XP's inception--all of it has to be pushed into the lifecycle of any netbook/laptop which is installed with Windows XP.

Let me see if I can summarize some of this stage play into some bullets:

Windows XP is going to become more and more expensive for manufacturers and Microsoft to support.
Windows XP lacks key architecture integration drivers and APIs for new technology, like Wi-Max.
Windows Vista and Windows 7 are too resource intensive for netbooks
Linux is built on a different distribution model that easily allows it to continue to support security patches and new device drivers.
Linux comes "batteries-included" with the latest video drivers, multi-media codecs, full desktop office-suites, and heavy duty Internet applications.

Isn't it weird to think that a Linux netbook will continue to be supported and will stay current for years to come, while a Windows XP configuration for the same hardware will slowly become less and less supported ?

Finally, don't forget Apple. Steve Jobs has frowned on a $500 Apple netbook, which means that there is a ready audience for Apple-to-Linux-Netbook integration. If it becomes easy for me to sync up my Linux netbook with something running OS-X, then Apple is a winner at the expense of Microsoft. I expect this to happen within 18 months.

So, IT messaging is going to have to deal with netbooks. Cheap, omnipresent, always-connected, mobile web netbooks. We need to start thinking now, ahead of the curve, for identity protection and data security. I think the benchmark standard will be the IBM/Lotus Notes Linux client. Its configuration gives a 100% secure solution with enterprise collaboration.

This is a lot of drama on such a small stage.

Technorati Tags: netbook, linux, lotus notes

Posted by Jack Dausman At 5:34 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (3)

12/09/2008

Lotus Symphony and Ubuntu are Best Products of 2008

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Linux

CRN has announced The Best Products of 2008 with Lotus Symphony and Ubuntu winning in their categories. Hot on the heels of IBM's latest announcement for a Microsoft-Free desktop, this CRN win solidifies IBM's credibility.

Symphony was noted as a suitable desktop replacement:

The Office 2007 installation here at the Test Center by default saves documents in the Office 97-2003 format (in the interest of backward-compatibility) so there were no problems editing files created in Symphony under Office 2007, or vice versa. The Test Center found Symphony a snap to use, and switching to Symphony after years of using Microsoft Office was painless.

Ubuntu was identified as a full-featured Desktop operating system:

Here's the bottom line: Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop Edition easily ranks higher than any other Linux desktop operating system we've looked at in the Test Center. Based on performance numbers, its Ethernet and wireless management and zero licensing cost, this is an operating system that we can recommend to VARs-not just as an alternative to Windows but as a strong operating system in its own right.

Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, Lotus Symphony

Posted by Jack Dausman At 8:29 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/05/2008

Is IBM's Microsoft-Free an Opportunity for Dell ?

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Linux Ubuntu

IBM has announced another Microsoft-Free desktop solution. Early this year, it was with RedHat, and now Ubuntu has been added into the fold. "Microsoft-Free" is nothing less than an IBM war banner. I'm curious who else IBM is marshalling for its support beyond RedHat and Ubuntu.

IBM's Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS) is not a tack-on, but a nuanced and fully client-integrated desktop package. The software vendors have been lined up (IBM, RedHat and Ubuntu). So, who are the hardware vendors and ISVs that will push this solution ?

The biggest winner for OCCS implementations could be Dell. After all, Dell already offers Ubuntu as a consumer option (not just for enterprises that purchase in blocks of a hundred). Even better yet, if your work site has an Inspiron 530, 1420, 1525; XPS m1330, 1530; or the Studio 15, guess what ? Dell already has a free Ubuntu ISO for these models !

The OCCS is promising, and may even be brilliant, but in order for IBM to take away Microsoft market share, IBM is going to have to partner, partner, partner. Forget counting seat conversions, I'm not going to measure the success of OCCS by nothing less than the support channel. If there are enough partners for it, then it'll work.

As for Dell ? If they don't have something prepped for Lotusphere '09, then they need a new marketing team. Lotusphere will give them an excellent opportunity to reap the benefit of all their hard work with Linux and showcase their products.

Technorati Tags: Lotusphere2009, Dell Computers, Ubuntu, OCCS, Lotus Notes

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:35 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

10/31/2008

Domino 8 Does Support HTTP Password Quality, even with the iPhone

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino ND8 Linux
It was almost a deal-breaker. Our new ND8.0.2 server had to be configured to support tough passwords for HTTP clients. Reading over the documentation about the Security Policy settings gives no indication if "password quality" works for HTTP authentication. Even worse, the IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8 Reviewer's Guide explains that password quality "applies to password on embedded Lotus Notes ID only."

In fact, the Security Policy settings for password quality works great for HTTP clients. I've configured our ND8 server so that (1) each HTTP account gets a simple, default password, (2) each HTTP account is set to require a new password when they authenticate, (3) a Security Policy has been configured for each HTTP account, and the password quality is set at our corporate standard.

The final test was whether or not everything would function for the iPhone. Because Apple uses a Safari browser, built on WebKit, I couldn't be sure that our iPhone accounts would be able to work with the ND8 interface for changing HTTP passwords. If it didn't work, then I was going to have to dig into the forms and redo them. Luckily, the iPhone passed all the tests, and everyone is very happy. After the user authenticates to the server by the Mail Redirector, they immediately are prompted to change their password, after which their iNotes Ultralite is displayed and they can read their e-mail.

Technorati Tags: IBM/Lotus Domino, iPhone, Security

Posted by Jack Dausman At 3:50 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (4)

10/29/2008

Microsoft versus Linux for Netbooks?

Category Linux Ubuntu
Remember when Firefox was being launched ? Very few pundits thought it would survive well against Microsoft's dominance. Firefox has thrived. And, now a new class of mobile devices, netbooks, is opening up opportunities for Linux. I am reading Sunday paper advertisements of Dell's Mini 9, which are quite clearly describing that it runs Ubuntu.

Microsoft is being perceived as "getting some real competition," which is mostly coming from Ubuntu. Owned by Canonical, Ubuntu now has a world-wide installed base of 8 million users.

"We're not sharing our revenues publicly but I will say revenue growth is extremely strong and we're bullish across the board both at server side and desktop," Kenyon said. "The difference between now and even 12 months ago in terms of size and volume of deals coming through is a big difference."

"We'd expect there will be further significant announcements on that [partners] thread before the end of the year," Kenyon commented. "In terms of the large ISVs, we already have a good story with IBM DB2, Websphere, and now Lotus Notes as well."

It's cool to read that Lotus Notes is associated with this surge, but there is another story: it's the netbooks. Hidden in Microsoft's latest finanical statement, there is a subtle hint about a cross-current with these micro-laptops.

The company notes that growth in the client division was four points short of guidance. The company said PC units grew 10% - 12% in the latest quarter, in line with its guidance, but with a different product mix. Traditional PC units were slower, while netbooks were stronger.

The strangest part of this competitive trend is that underneath the netbooks, is another class of even smaller computing devices. These are the new smartphones, which have gotten smart enough to be running full-fledged operating systems. And, their OS is not Microsoft.

Technorati Tags: Lotus Notes, Ubuntu

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:47 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/11/2008

IBMs Forbidden City is Released for Linux, Windows, and Macintosh

Category Linux

IBM has built an incredible 3D world of the ancient Forbidden City. Three years in the making, IBM has meticulously built a virtual recreation of the architecture and artifacts of the former palace grounds, enabling online visitors to get a first-hand view into imperial China as embodied in the intricate design, history and storied culture of this newly accessible Forbidden City.

IBM's BladeCenters with Linux Blade Servers are at the heart of this virtual world - supporting robustness with the capability to enable thousands of concurrent users and the scalability comparable to that of massive multiplayer online games. IBM built the application using WebSphere Application Server, Tivoli, ESB (Message Broker), DB2 Viper, and IBM BladeCenters. The virtual world runs on Linux, Windows and Mac operating environments.

http://www.beyondspaceandtime.org

Posted by Jack Dausman At 3:49 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

09/29/2008

Linux and Children

Category Linux Nyumbani Open Source

I don't think I'm too biased, but to my thinking Linux and Children are a natural pairing. A few years back it was expected that the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) would provide the blueprints for breaking down the economic divide between the computing have and have-nots. Sadly, OLPC hasn't taken off with the expected velocity required for its world mission of bringing inexpensive, educational computing for children. But, it may have served as the catalyst for the widespread manufacturing of inexpensive laptop hardware, combined with open-source Linux.

In an ironic turn of events, Venezuela has ordered 1,000,000 laptops for use by schoolchildren, using Intel chips and a Linux operating system. It's ironic because the OLPC eventually adopted Windows as a suitable host, but in the end it looks as though Linux carries less political stigma for foreign adoption.

Personally, I have built a childrens computer lab in Kenya at Nyumbani and have seen they "why it makes sense" first hand. With the General Purpose License, Linux isn't just free, it comes with the blueprints. Sure the sourcecode is available, but really its "man," "info" on the desktop and a thousand Linux forums, mailing lists and blogs. The Intellectual Property is completely exposed.

Next to coming with the blueprints, Linux is shipped "Batteries Included." For the current distributions, Linux comes with OpenOffice, Firefox, Gimp, and thousands of other applications. It's the foundation of future education.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 10:17 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

09/22/2008

Cross-Platform File Syncing . . . Finally

Category Administration Linux

[Follow up: The more I use DropBox, the more I'm impressed with its cross-platform support and overall usability. Sometime, I'll try and give a comparison with JungleDisk ]

Weird, but true: Lotus Notes has spoiled me with full client support on Macintosh, Windows and Linux clients. Keeping Notes data synced up is easy, because that's what Notes does best. Trying to do the same with my documents across three different operating systems has been much more difficult . . . until Dropbox.

Of course, the idea for cross-platform deployment is to be able to meet the needs of distinct computing populations. The premium-product-crowd of Apple Macintosh, the mainstream use of Windows, and the up-and-coming presence of Linux desktops. I'm not a typical customer, but I am a perfect test case. My home systems are Linux and Windows, my office systems are Macintosh, Windows and Linux.

I could store the date on the web with a wiki or something like Zoho, but I'm frequently disconnected. I really need to be able to have immediate access to the same set of documents across my different clients. I could create my own hosted NAS and run rsync scripts, but I prefer working with choices that I can encourage others to adopt. There have been several recent forays into off-line storage, especially with Amazon's S3.

Amazon S3 has been a tremendous commercial success, and the darling of cloud computing. There have been only a few consumer tie-ins to S3's remote data capabilities, unfortunately none of them have been completely cross-platform. Ars Technica just published an article on Dropbox, which relies on S3 for document syncing with the full range of clients: Windows, Apple and Linux. Finally.

I've already set it up on several systems, and I'm giving Dropbox a two-thumbs-up review. In order to set up your Linux system, you'll need to access the beta page for downloads. Or, if you are using Ubuntu, you can choose to simply add their repository:

deb http://www.getdropbox.com/static/ubuntu hardy maindeb-src http://www.getdropbox.com/static/ubuntu hardy main

This is a good business model, and I'm expecting to be hearing more about Dropbox.

Technorati Tags: DropBox, Linux

Posted by Jack Dausman At 1:47 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

09/18/2008

YuuGuu and Sametime

Category Administration Linux Sametime

Screen-Sharing is one of the most useful features of Sametime, especially because Sametime has been the only cross-platform provider for screen-sharing. YuuGuu.com now supports cross-platform screen-sharing.

After reading a PC World review of Yuuguu, I thought I would give it a spin. There are lots of available screen-sharing clients. I've used LogMeIn.com for several years, because I need a public means for supporting screen-sharing. However, LogMeIn only offers limited cross-platform support, and I need to be able to work between Mac, Windows and Linux clients.

Yuuguu does not disappoint. I used a Ubuntu (8.04) and a Macintosh (OS X 10.5) client to test the interaction. The installation was very straightforward for both. Interestingly, Yuugoo offers three packages for Linux: Fedora/Redhat, SuSE and Ubuntu. I think their business model has correctly sized the Linux community by offering builds for specific releases and versions.

Once installed, it requires registration with an e-mail account and then it was up and running. I could show my screen, let the other party control it, and even dynamically re-size it. It's pretty useful, but it's no Sametime. YuuGuu is borrowing flash technology to present the screens, and there is a noticeable time lag. It's good enough for remotely accessing someone else's system and providing support. It's not good enough for a corporate environment that is doing real-time markups and presentations. Yuuguu is barebones and Sametime is a mature, fully integrated IM/e-mail/Web Conferencing system.

My conclusion: Yuuguu.com is a solid choice for cross-platform screen-sharing, and good enough for me to drop my account with LogMeIn.com. I think it bodes well for corporate products like Sametime, because more people can experience what it means to collaborate in real-time. I also expect the major public IM providers are squirming a little bit with YuuGuu, iChat, LogMeIn and others. Sooner or later, screen-sharing is going to be an option with any IM platform.

Technorati Tags: Yuuguu

Posted by Jack Dausman At 1:40 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

09/04/2008

Quick Fix For Sametime 8

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino ND8 Linux Sametime

I don't know why, and IBM doesn't know why, but there are occasional times when the Sametime servers do not create instant or scheduled meetings. What's especially frustrating, is that there doesn't appear to be any trace or log information that would even signal when this failure occurs. We only know by personal testing, or when a client notifies us. I need these servers working 24x7.

Running a scrub of fixup, compact and updall against the stconf.nsf will return the server to full utility--but it has to be performed with Domino off-line.

My work-around has been to create a shell script, and run it weekly as a cron job. If you have the same problem, then you might need this simple solution. Note, that I'm relying on Daniel Nashed's excellent Unix/Linux Start script (which is referred to in my shell script as "Domino").

#!/bin/sh
# change this to #!/bin/ksh for AIX and Solaris
#include
########################################################################
# Main scrub Logic
# A cron job is expected to run this once a week
########################################################################
echo "Stopping Domino at $(date +%c)" > scrublog.txt
cd /local/notesdata
/opt/ibm/lotus/Domino stop
echo "Domino stopped at $(date +%c)" >> scrublog.txt
/opt/ibm/lotus/bin/fixup stconf.nsf -f
/opt/ibm/lotus/bin/compact stconf.nsf -C -D -i
/opt/ibm/lotus/bin/updall stconf.nsf -c
echo "Scrub job is complete at $(date +%c)" >> scrublog.txt
echo "Now starting Domino at $(date +%c)" >> scrublog.txt
/opt/ibm/lotus/Domino start

Total time for downing the server, and scrubbing the database has been less than 10 minutes.

Technorati Tags: Lotus Sametime

Posted by Jack Dausman At 5:36 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/30/2008

Cool. ND8.5 Beta 2 with XPages Baked In To Templates

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino ND8 Linux

After work, I set up a ND8.5 server on a RHEL 5x server. I wanted a quick look at some of the standard templates, through a web browser. I haven't been disappointed.

The Discussion database hasn't changed in it's web layout since (I'm guessing, here) R5 ? The new interface is very slick, the rich-text editor doesn't require an applet and it has a special Lotus logo, "Web 2.0 powered by Domino XPages." I'm sure that over the weekend, I'll be reading more and more blog entries with screenshots.

Clearly, a lot of pride has gone in to building this release.

Technorati Tags: IBM/Lotus Domino 8.5

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:48 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/15/2008

Community Linux Distros On the Rise

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino Linux

Jay Lyman, 451 Group analyst, has noticed that "Companies are increasingly choosing free community-driven Linux distributions instead of commercial offerings with conventional support options." Naturally, I agree. Linux licensing needs to be more flexible to compete with a Microsoft-free line-up.

Recently, I found myself explaining to upper management that Ubuntu, CentOS, et al. aren't really "free-os." But I was struggling for terminology that defined the uniqueness of these Linux distributions. When Lymon discusses Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu and CentOS, he uses the term "community" distros.

To demonstrate the symbiotic relationship between the commercial and community Linux ecosystems, Lyman explained how a school district rolled out Fedora on a handful of machines for a small project and ended up liking it so much that they adopted Red Hat's enterprise Linux distribution across the entire district. In that scenario, small-scale usage of the free Fedora distro translated directly into a major commercial support contract for Red Hat. In turn, Red Hat invests its resources in Linux improvements that trickle back down into Fedora.

So, I'm going to try to slip in "community Linux" instead of "free OS" where I can, and maybe the picture will get clearer.

Technorati Tags: Jay Lyman, Ubuntu, Linux

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:21 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

08/15/2008

Dell to Put Linux On Every Laptop

Category Administration Linux

It looks as though Dell is upping the ante against Asus with its Splashtop "Latitude ON" is a pre-boot Linux environment that will included its own ARM processor and flash memory. It's a computer inside of a computer.

APCMag has a screen shot of Latitude ON, and an overview of its features. My read is that if Dell actually ships Latitude ON, then its greatest impact will be to de-sensitize Linux for the masses.

The second benefit, is that for those of us who tire of Linux tuning our installations, I'm guessing that any laptop that can run Latitude ON will be able to work with a standard Linux distro.

Technorati Tags: Dell, Latitude ON, Linux

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:03 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/13/2008

Microsoft-Free with Bob Sutor and Kevin Cavanaugh

Category Linux Management Open Source
The recent brouhaha over the "Microsoft Free" announcements by IBM is still resonating. DesktopLinux.com (from eweek) covers the Open Colloration Client Solution and LinuxInsider.com covers "Lindpendence" efforts which recognize the Microsoft-free nomenclature.

Bob Sutor has posted his PDF for the LinuxWorld keynote. I think his frank assessment of the promise of Linux (and all of open-source) is worth reading as a wake-up call to those comfortable with the technical superiority of their favorite open-source under-dog.

John Fontana of NetworkWorld gives the following quote for Sutor, regarding open-source increasing its adoption:

"I'm getting tired of waiting," Sutor said. "Either it's going to happen or it's not going to happen."

Technorati Tags: Bob Sutor, Kevin Cavanaugh, Microsoft-free

Posted by Jack Dausman At 2:35 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/31/2008

My iPhone Domino Server

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino ND8 Linux
Because our primary mail servers are ND7, in order to take advantage of the UltraLite in 8.0.2, I've created a separate server running RHEL5 and ND8.0.2, just to host a few mail accounts that Must Have iPhone E-mail.

Works.

I'll write up the steps in more detail, next week. But, for now I'll capture the highlights:

Cross-certified 8.0.2 (beta) server with the ND7 mail servers.
Replicate mail files, with certain conditions: (1) only at editor level so design changes and ACLs are not exchanged, (2) the design on the ND8 server has the latest Mail8 architecture, (3) only 30 days of e-mail are replicated (with size reduction). I'll add Single Copy Template, but for now the file sizes are workable.
Created an application to stamp critical views (on schedule) to keep the contacts, journal, calendar and task entries current (otherwise, they are older than 30 days, and won't stay in the replica).

There are some "gotchas" that you need to be aware of when mixing different releases, different templates, and working within the same domain (for mail routing). The UltraLite design isn't frozen, yet. So now I have the ability to roll out more accounts to give IBM some feedback from real users.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, Lotus Domino, Lotus Notes, UltraLite

Posted by Jack Dausman At 3:55 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/25/2008

Linux Server Pricing is Still Crazy

Category IBM/Lotus Domino Linux
In the process of upgrading and consolidating our Domino servers, I'm replacing the systems with Linux (where appropriate). It's not because of price.

Scott Klein did a price layout which touches on the "real-world" cost for Linux servers that most of us must meet. Commercial Linux costs more than Microsoft Windows. Weird, isn't it? After living with Ubuntu, Fedora, et al., it's easy to assume that because of the GPL everything Linux must be the least expensive, if not free. You're forgiven if you think that the Microsoft sticker price is highest.

When my company purchases a license for Microsoft Windows Server, they have no intention of adding on the Software Assurance tax. Even though the initial price for a Windows server is higher, without Software Assurance the Microsoft choice becomes cheaper, when measured over three years (or longer). Why?

Microsoft doesn't charge for updates.

Novell SuSE and RedHat charge annual "subscriptions" rates to keep the code updated. Kill your subscriptions, and your servers will slowly fall behind with patches and security updates. Year by year, those Linux subscriptions total up.

The pricing model is a donut. At the top end, a fully priced Windows infrastructure is quite pricey and at the bottom end, we have free Linux distros (which are beginning to capture more and more of the enterprise data center). In the middle, though, commerical Linux is being out-flanked by the no-cost upgrade policy with Window's servers. It's 2008, and our Windows 2000 servers are still getting patches.

Some engineers are converting over their RHEL installations to the CentOS repository. It's possible to make it work without a hitch, but I don't think that's a long-term solution.

My guess is this price structure is temporary. After all, there are a couple of commercial grade Linux releases (I'll add in Oracles Unbreakable Linux) and competition will bring a correction to the market.

At least, that's the theory.

Technorati Tags: Linux, Domino,

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:31 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/16/2008

Why Tinkering With a Linux Install Will Become a Lost Art

Category Administration Linux Ubuntu
This summer, I've had the opportunity to update, migrate, and reconfigure workstations and laptops over to Linux (mostly Ubuntu 8.04). It can be a lot of trouble, depending on the complexity of the install (e.g., multiple sound cards) or the state of the wi-fi drivers. I'm doing this because (1) at each cycle with each system I pick up a little bit more about Linux and (2) right now, it's the most direct way to build a solid Linux workstation for my friends and family.

But, I don't expect to be offering this service in the future. After all, once I've polished up the installation, it's just too easy to create a master image for anyone else !

For instance, my parents visited this summer and I helped my Dad choose a Lenovo 3000 N200. This is a terrific buy at $400, and it took me a weekend to put on Ubuntu with the right network configuration, etc. I've created a backup of the system (http://www.clonezilla.org) which is about 2.5 G.

Now, I have a Ubuntu image for the Lenovo 3000 N200 which anyone else can use. You don't have to fuss with reading a wiki page where I detail all the little widget tunings I turned. Just grab a copy of the clone'd image and install onto identical hardware. Trouble is, I don't know where I can upload my 2.5 G of files.

So, I'm betting that within 18 to 24 months, we'll start to see sites which will host hardware-specific-images. The manufacturers and the resellers would l-o-v-e to see free images, and the Linux FOSS community would l-o-v-e to see more Linux desktops.

And, just when I was getting good at modprobe.

Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, Linux, Lenovo

Posted by Jack Dausman At 3:29 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

07/16/2008

Best Sametime Tip

Category Linux Sametime
Here's a tip that works better than bottled carnival tonic to fix odd problems with Sametime. Recently I was getting authentication errors for the meetingroom servlet, and erratic A/V settings with the calendar integration for on-line meetings.

I enabled VP_TRACE_ALL in the debug section of the Sametime INI and started reading through the entries. Nothing was standing out to identify the source of these problems, and I had already double-checked all the configurations.

In the end, I downed the Domino tasks and ran through the basic set of maintenance utilities against the vpuserinfo database. My servers are RedHat Enterprise Linux 4.4, so I needed to ssh to connect, and then ran the following, familiar commands, from the /opt/ibm/lotus/bin directory:

fixup /local/notesdata/vpuserinfo.nsf -f (add -j if you use transactional logging)
compact /local/notesdata/vpuserinfo.nsf -C -D -i
updall /local/notesdata/vpuserinfo.nsf -c


After removing VP_TRACE_ALL and starting up Domino, the Sametime tasks and servlets ran correctly and all the problems were resolved.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 3:24 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/15/2008

Techworld Sings About Notes Linux

Category Administration Linux

Rodney Gedda of TechWorld writes that Notes on Linux is here and ready.

Notes 8 on SLED 10 is a pleasant surprise.
Moving the Notes client to the standards-based Eclipse development environment should do no end of good for IBM and its customers
Notes on SLED is simply brighter and better than it is on Windows XP
a consistent cross-platform user experience

Rodneys comments aren't without some criticism for a user interface that still feels "heavy," but he is generally impressed. Techworld is moving towards Windows XP extinction, and has been testing the Notes Client on Novell's SLED 10.

Technorati Tags: Linux, IBM/Lotus Notes

Posted by Jack Dausman At 3:43 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/11/2008

Happiness is . . . Migrating to Sametime 8.01

Category Administration Blackberry Linux Sametime
We have been doing the roll-out for our new Sametime 8.01 cluster. Our viral marketing is the on-line video conferencing and Blackberry integration. Users can't believe how well everything works, especially after dealing with the limitations of Genisys and WebEx (which are good products).

The biggest difficulty in our upgrade has been the inability to join the previous Sametime 3 server to the new cluster. What we have done is implement a Desktop setting in our Policy to push and lock the settings into the client. We have about a 85% success rate, because some accounts have never had Policies applied, and their configuration had blocked the Dynamic Client Configuration (DCC).

We are also using the SSO for Sametime authentication, which is nothing less than a gift, because the users don't do anything to authenticate.

Sametime is working with Firefox 2.x and 3.x, Safari and IE 6/7. We have Linux, Macintosh and Windows clients that can participate.

I've configured the system to be as open as possible (it is only available behind our firewall). This means, that if someone in a subsidiary would like to join a meeting, they can do so as "anonymous" and then put in their own name.

It looks like we'll have to create some screen casts on how to use certain features. These will be placed as swf files in our Socialtext wiki and then I can add links to the Sametime server if users want to create their own meetings without going through the Calendar Scheduler.

And, finally, it's just so very nice to be able choose my server OS. I can avoid vendor lock-in and take advantage of competitive pricing. We have built the Sametime 8.01 servers on RHEL 4.4. Now that Network World has established that the current batch of Linux servers are greener than Redmonds' offering, it's a benefit to our data center. In terms of performance, it's also a tremendous plus to be able to run a database server without virus scanning.

I couldn't ask for a better way to start the weekend.

Technorati Tags: Lotus Sametime, Lotus Notes, Linux

Posted by Jack Dausman At 11:58 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

06/20/2008

Warming up to UltraLite on Domino 8.5

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino ND8 Linux
Now that the Sametime 8.0.1 installation is in place, I've been able to turn my attention to some other matters: what's the best way to support our executives with their iPhones? I really don't want to go with IMAP: no fail-over, no calendaring, etc. What about the UltraLite iNotes ? Is it really viable ? YES !

Today, I set up Linux CentOS 5.1 and then installed Domino 8.5 Beta 1. I'm using CentOS because this is a test server, and I don't want to mess with our RedHat licensing (and I want to test the waters for a FOSS server). The set up went quite easily, and I was glad to have access to webadmin.nsf with the Firefox 1.5 client that is standard on 5.1.

Everything worked fine with webadmin, but it's a little peculiar to be running Domino on Linux and see that the icon for the server operating system is a Windows 95 flag (not sure what that means).

Then I accessed the iNotes mail file. Very clean. Very fast. It's clearly designed for micro-screens. I'm quite impressed by it. It's easy to read the mail entries, browse contacts, and send e-mail. It's going to work as a mobile solution.

Funny thing. I expect that by the time there is a Traveler plug-in for the iPhone, there is going to be a lot of people who are satisfied enough with the Ultralite version. And, of course, there is a bonus to being limited to on-line http access.

In the sad circumstance of someone losing their iPhone, with Ultra Lite there won't be any storage of local data. I don't need to be worrying about how to remotely wipe the client.

Technorati Tags: Lotus Notes, iPhone, Domino 8.5

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:51 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

06/07/2008

Messaging Wars Are Boring, The Real Fun is Competing Platform Stacks

Category Administration Linux Sametime
Scott Morris has provided a huge list of Linux migrations. Governments, financial institutions, and corporations have all found sound business reasons for their move off of proprietary systems. His listing came to mind during an IT discussion I was having about Sametime integration.

I've been finishing up installing Sametime 8.01 on Linux (it really is as good as you are hearing). Because my company has several subsidiaries, I've been thinking of ways to include them under our Sametime umbrella. Well, Sametime is "Lotus" and so the discussion was led to into an Exchange-vs-Domino conversation. I deferred.

Really, the landscape has changed, the old wars are history. Vast numbers of Exchange accounts are moving into a hosted environment. There just isn't enough substance , in my mind, to justify keeping Exchange local unless it is for compliance reasons. Today's debate is about a much more complex mix of messaging standards than the old client/server model.

In NetworkWorld, John Fontana has an article about Exchange being dumped for Linux-based clone. Moving off of Exchange, a hospital was able to free up storage limitations, and provide improved support for message recovery.

Going to an open-source platform stack proved to be more economical, and flexible. Escaping vendor lock-in allows for future-proofing and because of open source, this can be a better fiscal decision.

So, I'm not really looking at single vendor solutions, as much as what can be built out on a mix of open-source platforms and hosted solutions. Right now, Sametime on Linux can work simultaneously with multiple LDAP sources. Next week, I hope I can connect up with our e-dir admin, and see about making some headway.

Technorati Tags: IBM/Lotus Sametime

Posted by Jack Dausman At 4:23 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

06/01/2008

Ubuntu Resources for Those Notes 8.5 First Time Linux Installs

Category IBM/Lotus Domino ND8 Linux Ubuntu

Ahhh. Notes 8.5 beta has been released. Domino Designer in Eclipse. Supported roaming with the Standard install. Google Calendar integration. And, Symphony 1 is out.

Oh, and the Linux Notes client can finally be placed on a Free Open Source Software client platform. I think it was a matter of time, and while RHEL and/or SuSE have FOSS clients, I had my fingers crossed that Ubuntu would get the nod. So, now we have a supported FOSS client with Notes. On Ubuntu. It's just weird looking at a Notes .deb package.

If you don't know where to start with Ubuntu, Y aser Sulaiman's Best Ubuntu Resources is current and recommended ! !

Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, Lotus Notes 8.5

Posted by Jack Dausman At 4:36 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

05/23/2008

Console Log Magic

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino Linux Open Source

Enabling the console log is a quick tool to capture Domino debugging data that is easily sortable. I'd like to take a couple of minutes to explain some of the more unique aspects of the console.log, and how I've become very fond of my hybrid Win-Linux workstation, which can easily process these logs.

Because my Domino servers run on AIX, Linux and Windows, I need a workstation that supports them all. The simplest solution has been to run two OS on a single workstation through virtualization. After a couple of years of using just about everything that can be run on an x86 system, I've settled into a Windows XP as host and Ubuntu 8.04 as guest with Sun's VirtualBox.

I'm going to explain how I do the following:

Creating the console.log
Accessing the console.log
Pausing and restarting the console.log and some caveats

Creating the Console Log: ND6 introduced a few new capabilities for working with a console.log (http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/ls-D6variables/). Because the primary purpose of having a console.log is for debugging, it's not expected that every production server would have such a log. Going to the console and entering "start consolelog" will immediately invoke the recording of all console activity into a text file: console.log. Naturally, "stop consolelog" will cease the activity of the console.log. However, the "start consolelog" command does not last beyond a Domino restart.

So, if an administrator decides to create a console.log file with "start consolelog" then after the server is restarted, there won't be anymore console recording. To make the console logging stick, there is a Notes.ini configuration: CONSOLE_LOG_ENABLED= (1 is yes and 0 is no).

Accessing the Console Log: Now, why exactly is it that I'm working with a console log? After all, the data could also be found in the miscellaneous view of the log.nsf. That log file is more of a general purpose resource. The log.nsf creates Notes documents, and those are harder to be read and processed outside of a Notes client. It's just easier to have a big ol' text file like a console.log that can be quickly filtered.At my work site the connection protocol for administrating a system varies somewhat from team to team. The Unix admins prefer ftp and telnet, the Linux crowd only installs ssh. I don't have a problem with the Windows servers, as I can always (easily) share a directory and map a drive to them. But, it's a pain to always have to work with the limitations of a telnet session or ssh.

I'd like to be able to map (or mount) a Linux/Unix directory from my local workstation. And, while I'm filling out my wish list, I'd like to be able to process these directories with my own tools. For instance, my own bash scripts on my own schedule, or Python (which has not been loaded onto the production systems).To get the tools I need, I've added Ubuntu 8.04 to my Windows system through Virtualbox: http://www.leadershipbynumbers.com/ms.nsf/d6plinks/BMAA-7EHS9K. In the "seamless" mode it's a very unobtrusive addition.

Now, I can some powerful Linux/Unix utilities which are not available on Windows. Let me start with sshfs:sshfs allows directory mapping from Linux to a ssh server. It's sort of like a secure FTP.Here are the steps:

sshfs is in the Ubuntu universe repository, if it hasn't been installed.
mkdir /media/*xyz* (where it will be mounted as the remote server directory via ssh)
sudo chown *your identity* /media/*xyz* (so you can access it)
sudo adduser *your identity* fuse (this puts your identity with the fuse group, if you are not already in)
logout and login (to bind fuse to your identity, a logout is required)
sshfs *serveraccount*@*server.org.com*:/local/notesdata /media/*xyz* (this will mount the server directory as /media/ using the scp protocol)
fusermount -u /media/*xyz* (this will unmount the directory setting, so that you can run sshfs on another server for mapping a second server's directory to the same /media/*xyz*)

Now you can create a simple bash script to create your mapping. I could put it into my /etc/rc.local, but I like to invoke them manually.Once sshfs is run, then I can use a file manager (probably Nautilus) and access the files directly. I can edit them with my own edit tools and process them with my own scripts.

FTP :I rely on CurlFtpFS which allows me to mount an FTP connection as a directory. Both CurlFtpFS and sshfs rely on fuse so, again, your workstation login identity should be a member of the fuse group, and so should the mount point. It's not necessary to be SU to invoke curlftpfs.Here's what it looks like for an anonymous FTP connection:

$ mkdir sunet
$ curlftpfs ftp://ftp.sunet.se/ sunet/
$ cd sunet/

If you need to authenticate, just add the name a password in the url: as in ftp://user:pass@site.com/. Some people like to use CurlFtpFS to log in the root directory, rather than the home directory of the login identity. The simplest technique for relocating the login directory is to add ../ to the login url (e.g., curlftpfs ftp://ftp.myserver.com/../../.. /mnt/ftp). Kumar Appaiah has a good article on "Fun with Fuse" (http://linuxgazette.net/134/appaiah.html) which you might find useful for learning more about Fuse.

As an aside, I'd like point out that even if I could load up and run CurlFtpFS, fuse, sshfs, Python, etc., from a Windows client, without a line of Linux code involved, I'd still want to use Linux. Not because I'm a Microsoft-hater, but because of the Linux framework that supports package updates. It's really, really nice to get automated updates for the code that I use.

Pausing and Restarting the Console Log and Some Caveats. Great ! Now I can access my console.log and do things like the following: cat console.log | grep "2008/05/20?" | grep Error. I can create a scheduled task to sort the console.log and then write it out in HTML(ish) format into the /data/domino/html directory for public review. I can run Python against the file and do all sorts of reports. It's all good. Except for one little, tiny problem.Domino is still writing to the console.log when I'm trying to access it. I'm going to get caught in a tug-o-war over permission rights.

If it's a short request (e.g., "tail -100 console.log"), I'm probably not going to have a problem, but otherwise I'll find that I've been denied access. If I'm persistent, eventually I'll find that the console.log is suddenly (and, inexplicably) available. No fuss at all. Wonder what I did?Turns out, nothing much, because if a connection is made to the console.log, while Domino is trying to write to it, then Domino will let go. Within a few minutes, Domino will actually revert the CONSOLE_LOG_ENABLED to 0 !! No more active console.log, which seems to defeat the purpose of what I'm trying to do in the first place.

Of course, it's a good thing that Domino is sensitive to my brute force attempts at reading active files. I know better than to work with the notes.ini while the server is running (I've missed that bullet, but many admins have brought their server to a halt by making text edits to notes.ini on a live server). There is a workaround, though.In the beginning of this article, I pointed out the "start consolelog" and "stop consolelog" console commands. Before working on the console.log, run "stop consolelog." You'll need to give it a minute or two, because it's designed to gracefully disconnect, giving a few moments to cache out anything still in RAM, in case you're running it for debugging and the server faults.

With the console.log inactive, you can now fully access it with your Linux client and start processing.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 7:05 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

04/21/2008

Why Do I Recommend Open Source and Domino?

Category IBM/Lotus Domino Linux

This last week, I had a short conversation with an IT project manager, who didn't understand the "open source thing." This is a person who I know to be thoughtful and mentally sharp. I think, sometimes, it's too easy for me to be in my own bubble: checking my Bloglines, PlanetLotus, Slashdot, Groklaw, etc. Open Source is a phenomenon that still hasn't hit mainstream, even in IT. Maybe not nascent, it's in its adolescence with the typical growth spurt right before full maturity.

SAP Research has published an informative analysis on the "Total Growth of Open Source."

Our work shows that the additions to open source projects, the total project size (measured in source lines of code), the number of new open source projects, and the total number of open source projects are growing at an exponential rate. The total amount of source code and the total number of projects double about every 14 months.

Typically, Open Source is brought into a company through the back-door, to quickly solve problems on the cheap. I think there may be an association of cheapness, and even frugality towards Open Source. I remember that's how many Windows servers were brought in as part of the client/server revolution--they were less expensive and simpler to setup. Now days, I know shops that have gone from Windows to the commercial Open Source offerings of RedHat and are starting to use Fedora or CentOS as free alternatives to RedHat. But, it's not just about the money.

How about spending $59 million for a CentOS system? That's the cost for the University of Texas super-computer, Ranger, which draws 2.4 megawatts to run, and requires 1 megawatt to cool it. It just seems weird that Open Source Linux is now powering super-computers, as well as the $350.00 Asus EEE PC (#4 on Amazon's Bestseller list for computer gear) Open Source has exposed all the wiring (well, the source code), making it very flexible for multiple applications.

Which brings me to why I prefer Open Source solutions, and why, specifically, I favor Linux for Domino. Uptime.

The Yankee Group has released their independent 2008 Server OS Reliability Survey. AIX and Linux rock.

The top Linux distributions Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and NovellSuSE Linux notched the biggest reliability improvements in the latest2007-2008 survey. Each decreased per server per annum downtime by anaverage of 75%. The biggest and most unwelcome surprise in the surveywas that Windows Server 2003 downtime increased by 25% to nearly 9hours of per server, per year downtime compared to the results itachieved in Yankee Group's 2006 Global Server Reliability Survey.Windows Server 2003's decreased reliability is attributable to a seriesof security alerts Microsoft issued in the summer and fall time framewhich caused network administrators to take their Windows Server 2003machines offline for significantly longer periods of time to applyremedial patches.

Even Ubuntu was mentioned as "highly reliable, with 1.1 hour of per server, per annum downtime." Usually Ubuntu is mentioned as popular for the desktop, it's nice to see that it's picking up momentum for back-end services. However, it is the Linux distro that I use most often. It'll be certified for Lotus Notes 8.5, and if you are concerned that you'll never get your Uncle Joe, or the CFO onto Ubuntu, Canonical is offering training. For $100, it "provides simulations, practical exercises and information to make daily tasks easy."

Hm. "Practical" and making "daily tasks" easier are good enough reasons for me to keep working with Open Source.

Technorati Tags: IBM/Lotus Domino, Ubuntu

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:03 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (2)

04/17/2008

Red Hat IBM Lotus Notes Live DVD

Category IBM/Lotus Domino ND8 Linux

A few bloggers have pointed out the new RedHat/IBM initiative for supporting IBM/Lotus Domino on RedHat. It's cool, but I don't think the word has been spread, that RedHat is also providing an ISO for your evaluation. The ISO is for a Linux Live-CD with IBM/Lotus Notes 8.

http://rhx.s3.amazonaws.com/iso/Red_Hat_IBM_Lotus_Notes_8.iso

Very cool.

I went ahead, downloaded it and burned it to DVD. Amazingly, it fired up on my Dell Latitude D630 without a complaint. Even something as mainstream as Ubuntu has required that I use the Dell supported version of Ubuntu.

All you need is a user.id, and you can run your Notes from a Live-CD.

Important notes:

The RedHat configuration does not support reading a NTFS file. So, you'll need to load your user.id onto a flash drive or something else before starting up the Live-CD. As a matter of fact. You don't need a hard drive, at all.
A Live-CD means that the OS is reading from a CD, which is not as fast as a hard drive. So, be patient. However, once RedHat is up and running, and you have Lotus Notes working--it blazes, because so much has been loaded into RAM.
It's a limited time evaluation, and explains the limitations with a comprehensive, 13 page pdf.

How's it work ? I'm impressed. I'll be making some copies and handing them out at work and bringing them to the next DC Notes User Group.

Technorati Tags: IBM/Lotus Domino, Linux

Posted by Jack Dausman At 5:35 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

03/27/2008

Why Linux is Secure

Category Linux Security

There have been lots of back-and-forth jousts over the trophy for most-secure operating system. The losers pick over the criteria and the winners down their toasts with a brandished “I told you so” salute.

The contests never really made sense to me, because security has to be measured as a cohesive system. I don't understand the concept of secure, “generic” configurations. No such thing. I can imagine evaluating “most secure Java application server with an RDBMS back-end,” or “most secure messaging client desktop configuration.”

So, taking the example of a messaging client, I consider Linux to offer the most secure base for building the Most Secure Messaging Client. Technically, I believe it possible that a fully loaded Vista or Mac OSX setup could be measurably better in overall security (by whatever criteria is selected). But, if I can implement a comprehensive security installation for a fraction of the competitive offerings, then it's more likely to happen.

For Linux, the two most used security frameworks are SELinux and AppArmor which work on servers and workstations. SELinux has a reputation for requiring lots of tuning to be effective, and AppArmor has been criticized for not being granular enough. Linux workstations can use either system, along with a firewall to achieve a high degree of security.

Of course, Linux adherents like to talk about their “sudo” partitioning of rights, which separates the user level from full administration privileges. It's a big improvement over the general use of most Windows systems, whereby anyone can install anything. The next release of Ubuntu will include PolicyKit, in development by RedHat, which offers more nuanced rights distribution than just user and root access through sudo.

But for those of us that are concerned about security, we know that real security is about encryption. It's taken years, but the standard has slowly been raised. I can't secure my notebook, if I don't encrypt the data. Period. Otherwise, my client station is hard and crunchy on the outside, and soft and chewy on the inside.

So why is Linux a better security-mousetrap? Because there are continued open-source efforts, by a variety of vendors, to fill in every possible security concern. Regarding encryption, there is a portfolio of device encryption schemes available for Linux. For instance, Phoronix reviewed dm-crypt on Ubuntu to check the overall resource load for the client: the worst case example was 7% overhead. That value is small enough that it's not even going to be noticeable by the average user (and I'd gladly trade disk encryption for the periodic virus sweep that is run against my client).

Here's another example: Opus Palladianum, a secure browser, is being developed at the University of Illinois, using a unique security model that relies on SELinux for its underpinnings. It's only available on Linux.

Seriously. The reason Linux is secure, is because it can.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 9:32 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

02/15/2008

Red Hat Domino

Category Linux
Red Hat is offering a pre-configured Open Collaboration Client Solution, which the rest of the world knows as Domino. It's a solid package:

IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8: email, calendaring, scheduling, integrated instant messaging/chat, and application development
Lotus Expeditor: client middleware and application development
Lotus Symphony: a Microsoft Office alternative for under- and over-provisioned users and application development
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 client and server: provides reduced costs and improved operational flexibility

Posted by Jack Dausman At 5:09 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (3)

01/24/2008

Plugging in Your FOSS Linux Client into Active Directory

Category Linux

Supporting a free, open-source, heterogenous IT infrastructure is getting more and more support. FossBazaar.org offers "Governance best practices, automation tools, and open communication."

Welcome to FOSSBazaar, an open source community web site of technology and industry leaders who have come together to accelerate adoption of free and open source software in the enterprise.


With the announcement of Ubuntu Notes, sys-admins will need to be considering their options for client Linux deployments in a heterogeneous corporate environment. There are some significant issues, but account management is going to be the most important. The current leader for authentication and policy management is Microsoft's Active Directory, so what's the best solution?

So far, the highest marks are going to Likewise, with its open-source support as well as its commercial directory product. Eweek has coverage of Likewise, which is very favorable. LikewiseOpen has packages for the most significant Linux distros (Redhat, SuSE, Ubuntu, Centos, et al.) as well as support for AIX and Macintosh systems. And, there are Likewise listserv archives for general support (commercial support is also available).

It looks good.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 4:20 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/23/2008

Ubuntu Notes -- Peanut Butter and Chocolate

Category Linux

Good news from Lotusphere, 2008. Finally, a supported Notes release on a Free Open-Source platform. It had to happen, there is just too much of a need and everyone has been hacking Notes into their own, favorite FOSS distro. The question, for me, was which Linux? Fedora, and OpenSuse I expected as a logical choice (their commercial Linux offerings already provide a supported operating system for Domino and Notes). Fortunately, the choice was made for Ubuntu.

Putting Notes on Ubuntu is a marketing coup. Checking trends.google.com shows a strong momentum for Ubuntu versus, say, Windows Vista.

Not everyone thinks that IBM & Ubuntu makes the greatest pairing. The Register's Open Season thinks that Ubuntu Notes is “Red Hat's worst nightmare” because it marks a move away from Red Hat. I don't see it that way at all, because there is much more IT control over a server OS, than a client OS. My organization supports only one Linux release, Red Hat, and if I ever attempted to bring in any other Linux server OS, I would be stopped in my tracks. And, I agree.

There is just too much work with integrating a server OS with monitoring systems, backup agents, SAN drives and more, that enterprise Linux will only benefit from Ubuntu Notes. If I spread out the cost of 1,000 FOSS clients and one or two Linux servers, the savings is all in the clients. That's going to be appealing to enterprise accounts. Likewise, mixing IBM Nitix with Ubuntu Notes is going to be irresistible to the penny-pinching SMB market.

Sometimes the strangest combinations turn out to be the most natural.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 2:26 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (3)

01/15/2008

AIX Virtualization

Category Linux

So, while my blogging has been slow--it's only because the rest of my Domino activity has not. I'm doing a mountain of upgrades, on AIX, Linux and Windows. I've been reading more and more about IBM's attempt to let Linux run on its AIX virtualization with Workload Partitions (WPAR).

While it requires an upgrade to AIX 6, WPARs will run on Power 5 architecture--which is a promising way to extend the usefulness of an existing AIX infrastructure. Sooner or later I hope to have the opportunity to run Domino on RHEL as installed on an AIX server. I still have a lot of questions about computing efficiency and creating a useful cost analysis--but AIX/Linux virtualization looks to be considered.

In the meantime, IBM has just released a RedBook on Virtualizing an Infrastructure with System p and Linux.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 4:55 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

01/03/2008

Samba Makes Inroads to Microsoft

Category Linux
Some time back, I had the opportunity to listen to Bruce Perens (of Samba fame). I was startled by his frank admiration for Microsoft's technology. It's not that I disagree with his assessment, but I'm just not accustomed to hearing members of the FOSS royalty give any political recognition to Redmond. Apparently, the feeling was mutual.

Sam Ramji writes of the close working relationship between Samba and Microsoft. I'm happily surprised. Pretty neat.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 9:48 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/02/2008

Ubuntu Continues to Keep It's Momentum

Category Linux

Canonical has done phenomenal work in promoting a professional Linux distribution which has Everyman appeal. They are now distributing an open-source Ubuntu Desktop Training Course in PDF. If you are thinking about adopting Ubuntu in a corporate environment, then you'll want to download and print up this two-day course.

Of course, if you really want to get involved, there is always room for participants in the Launchpad site for the continued development of the Desktop training curriculum.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 7:57 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/05/2007

Interesting Technote on CentOS and IBM/Lotus Domino

Category Linux
In technote 1280093, IBM clarifies the official position on using FOSS as a host server for Domino: not "at this time." I'm a little surprised that they felt a need to point out that, specifically, CentOS is not supported. Of course, as I've pointed out before, IBM does, in fact, support free open-source Linux as an operating system. You can actually preload Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) on IBM hardware. This is really interesting, because OEL is a free download from Oracle and is loosely based on RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Yes, it is a complete “RHEL” derivative, but Oracle's Linux is more a 3rd generation product than 2nd . Turns out that OEL probably owes more to Cent-OS than to RedHat.

Question

Is any release of Lotus Notes® or Domino® supported on the CentOS platform?

Answer

No freeware or open source Linux® Red Hat distributions, including CentOS, are supported at this time for any Notes or Domino release. For a list of detailed Notes/Domino system requirements, refer to technote #7007909.

For more information on CentOS, refer to the following URL:
http://linuxcentral.com/catalog/index.php3?prod_code=L000-631

Someday, maybe, it'll all make sense.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 3:04 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

05/28/2007

I think it's time that IBM Lotus reconsider supporting Ubuntu

Category Linux
I think it's time that IBM Lotus reconsider supporting Ubuntu. Many of us have successfully installed the Domino server and Notes client on Ubuntu (albeit, with some technical shoehorning to make a good fit). There are many reasons that I prefer Ubuntu to RHEL or SLED, but I suspect the core reason is better community support. This is not exactly a secret, anymore, is it?

Dell is putting Ubuntu on consumer hardware which might even end up in WalMarts. And now, PC World has listed Ubuntu as #16 in its list of the Top 100 products of the year. With all the momentum behind Ubuntu, why doesn't IBM support the platform? It is because it's open source? Or is it that Ubuntu is perceived as a consumer Linux distribution?

I'm confused by IBM's dismisal for a Lotus-Ubuntu match up because (1) IBM does support free open-source Linux for their commercial products, and (2) IBM even supports Ubuntu for commercial offerings--just not for Lotus. Let me take an example for each point.

IBM does, in fact, support free open-source Linux as an operating system. You can actually preload Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) on IBM hardware. This is really interesting, because OEL is a free download from Oracle and is loosely based on RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Yes, it is a complete “RHEL” derivative, but Oracle's Linux is more a 3rd generation product than 2nd . Turns out that OEL probably owes more to Cent-OS than to RedHat.

Cent-OS is a complete recompilation from RHEL source files that removes any copyrighted mentions of RedHat. This is legal, but of course, unsupported by RedHat. If you would like to learn about RHEL and don't want to pay for a licensed copy, then Cent-OS is a terrific option. Oracle has apparently found it easier to massage the Cent-OS files into OEL, than to work first hand with the RHEL files. IBM isn't supporting the Cent-OS distribution, but it doesn't make much difference because Oracle charges the same price for the download: free.

Ubuntu is also supported as a Linux platform, but only for DB2. I suspect there are two factors for supporting Ubuntu.
- Ubuntu is a creation of a commercial company, Canonical Ltd., which does offer commercial, enterprise-grade support contracts.
- Ubuntu also has strategically identified its enterprise releases, which will have much longer support for security and drivers. The “6.06 LTS”release is not slated for end-of-service until June 2009.

If DB2 can be positioned for distribution on Ubuntu, then what's the delay with Lotus Domino and Notes? C'mon IBM, it's time to redress your positioning of Lotus and mix in Ubuntu.

It might even make a dent in the SMB market.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 10:52 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (6)

05/12/2007

Ubuntu Unleashed, Unilaterally

Category Linux

Earlier this week, I gave my recommendations for the best Linux resources (slanted towards Ubuntu) and now find that OpenSourceProject.Org is hosting an e-book edition for Ubuntu Unleashed. That's pretty cool.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 3:13 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/08/2007

A Quick Nod to My Favorite Linux References

Category Linux

Right now, my time is quartered into AIX, RHEL, Ubuntu, and Windows. That's a lot of time to spend on Linux. Let me tell why I think Linux is a solid long-term investment. If I'm right, then you might as well study up and I'll give you my favorite resources.

Looking at the horizon, I expect Linux to continue to expand it's piece of the Operating System pie. My logic has nearly nothing to do with its technical excellence, but more to do with financial investment guidelines. Linux is protected from the risks of disaster because it is like a mutual fund based on the S&P 500. And Microsoft or IBM, or Sun, or anyone other single vendor is almost exactly what they appear to be, a high-risk tech stock. Linux is the only OS which is supported by competing vendors, it's almost an oxymoron.

Just like comparing stocks to an index mutual fund, I expect the single-vendor OS to have a release which transcends all the other OS's for price-performance value. But, the advantage will be short lived, and I can never tell which company is going to get the “A” listing and which will get “D” or lower. Is the most recent AIX running on cell processors going to rule? Or is it going to be Solaris on a new UltraSPARC? Longhorn has some very cool and useful features which is going to be turning heads and hearts.

And Linux? Well, Linux is going to be the “B+” option--the difference is, I know it will perform at this value, and I know it will continue to do so. Here's my analogy (borrowed from the financial world): suppose I set out ten boxes, each with varying amounts of cash in them from 50 cents to 50,000 dollars. All the boxes are unmarked, except for the one representing Linux. The Linux box has, say, 35,000 dollars in it. If you pick the Linux box, you can walk away with just about the highest amount. Nearly.

Or, you can try and guess which one of the remaining nine boxes has the $50,000. Eight of the boxes have much lower sums. If you are with a group of people, and everyone gets to shake the boxes and guess, someone is going to get the $50,000. I promise you, that the person who picks the #1 box will have bragging rights about their ability to shake paper.

My question for you is this, are you trying to shake paper or do you want to lower your risk?

Here's the short list of my favorite Linux resources to learn:

Posted by Jack Dausman At 5:00 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

04/29/2007

Sametime 7.5.1 on Linux

Category Linux
My day job is at the Museum of Lotus Antiquities. We have a few thousand plus users on Notes R5; for servers we start with an R4.6.6, many R5, and a sprinkling of ND6. When I arrived to my position last October, I realized that I hadn't touched R5 since 2002. Most of the clients haven't been touched since 1999. Unfortunately, the poor employees don't understand their role in historical reenactments, and insist on 21st century standards.

Ignoring the R4 and R6 servers, the difference between ND6.0 and ND7.0.2 is 10,801 fixes, and enhancements. The gulf is so wide, that we require OS upgrades for several Windows and AIX servers. There is a lot to accomplish for our upgrade, but now I have hope.

Sametime 7.5.1 has been released, and a Linux version is supported.

Our internal Sametime 3.1 server runs on a NT box with 650 M. As users have been upgraded to ND6.5.5, they have been connecting to the Sametime server for the presence awareness, and they like this feature. During our BES upgrade (the DST change really shortened that upgrade timeline) I was able to add in Sametime capabilities for the Blackberries. But the lowly Sametime 3 server is being ever burdened by more connections, and requires a nightly restart. Finally, it's been slated for a hardware/software upgrade before the beginning of the official Domino upgrade.

The nice thing about a Sametime server, is that it can authenticate over LDAP and doesn't require being in the same Domino domain with all the other application and mail servers. I'll configure Directory Assistance for replicated directories, to ensure message delivery. This means that an ND7 server can be introduced into the architecture without changing the Domino directory administration server.

I double checked with an IBM engineer, Maurice Cogdell, and Carl Tyler (who is in the midst of an exciting career change) and it's all good.

The Linux aspect is important because my company has more than 300 Windows servers, and is looking to dampen any Microsoft expansion. We also have a few Linux engineers on staff (certified), so we are all working together.

Finally, most of the application developers are working with BEA's WebLogic, which uses Eclipse for its IDE. Our developers have Notes development experience, so they'll understand the backend model, but their Eclipse skills will give them a significant advantage in customizing and creating applications.

This weekend, I'm setting up a ST 7.5.1 Linux test box at home (the Institute for Old Notes doesn't have any test boxes, because, well, the hardware is so old that many of the NT test boxes can't even support 500 M and are built with the MCA architecture). I'm very pumped about being able to make some headway and launching into the new century.

On Monday, maybe I'll dust off my jet pack for the morning commute.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:40 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

04/25/2007

Setting Up on Ubuntu 7.04

Category Linux

Over the weekend I've had the opportunity to work with Ubuntu 7.04 and I'm giving it two thumbs up. Wif-Fi is very, very nice and I've finally got the video drivers to work correctly on old laptops. My new test on video is not the glxgears test, but the successful installation of the popular shooter, Tremulous. I don't really play the game, but I have it running fast on a PIII laptop with 16 M of video RAM. Here's some quick pointers:

- Get the DVD iso, if you can. I found the DVD Ubuntu install to be smoother, and it has some more options.

- The unofficial guide(http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty) is a terrific summary of configuration info.

- Wi-Fi is as better supported on 7.04 than on anything else I've ever run. If you still can't get it working, be sure to check out http://linux-wless.passys.nl/ for any specific guidelines on your NIC.

A lot of people are avoiding Automatix as it has a reputation for trashing apt, EasyUbuntu seems a preferred solution for those that want a straightforward list of recommended packages to install. EasyUbuntu relies on a third-party repository (Medibuntu) for many of its multi-media codecs. Ubuntu identifies these choices in their community documentation ( https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats) so it's a light endorsement.

The most direct way to maximize your ATI or NVidia interface is to do the following (after you back up your /etc/X11/xorg.conf)

(1) sudo dpkg-configure xserver-xorg. If your system is a laptop with limited RAM, try dropping your displaydepth from 24 to 16.
Then, (2) install and run Envy (http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html). I've spent way too much time try to tweak video hardware with xorg.conf adjustments. Envy installs and configures the vendor's Linux drivers. If the automatic install fails, try the manual (which is quite automated, but runs a script that may give you a prompt or two). This is an outstanding tool.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 1:02 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

04/20/2007

Ubuntu Hopes

Category Linux

Ubuntu is all over Slashdot with the 7.04 release of Feisty Fawn (there's gonna be some serious Bambi jokes on this one). Michael Dell has let it be known that he's a Linux hipster using, yes, Ubuntu 7.04. So, I think the debate is over about which Linux distro will be the first one used on Dell consumer hardware. For those just getting into Ubuntu, there is FullCircle magazine--which publishes a PDF journal on Ubuntu.

It's no secret that I think highly of Ubuntu, and have used it extensively (including setting up the Nyumbani Computer Learning Center). And, for all that I really like Ubuntu (and Linux in general), I have to admit that some of the rough edges just about kill me. I dread having to work with video drivers. Over the last couple of weeks, I've been spending more time than I could afford in a vain attempt to optimize the ATI drivers in some Compaq Evo laptops. The high schoolers at Nyumbani wanted some games which were more sophisticated than the Edubuntu release. "Done," I said. In the end, I sent over some games on a custom CD repository (using an outstandingly useful utility: AptOnCD,) without resolving some of the video issues.

My hope for Linux video reconciliation lies with the 7.04 release. All the beta news has been positive about video configurations and the inclusion of better drivers. I've already run the bittorrents, and will be doing an install tonight. And, I think I'll take a look at The Open Source Security Motherload for tightening down my configuration.

Naturally, I'm looking forward to running ND8 on 7.04. It's going to take a little bit of work to sell ND8 on Linux at my work site. Even though the economics of the Expeditor version of ND8 are dramatically favorable, there is always the inertia of what is familiar. I'm hoping that with some desktop manager polish and ND8, the familiar will be dumped at the speed of a neck snap for something sexy and cheap.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 8:47 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/22/2007

March of the Penquin

Category Linux
Kevin Cole heads the Ubuntu Linux DC LoCo Team and sent me a heads up on Eric Raymond's recent move to Ubuntu from Red Hat. The story is now making it's way up on Digg.com and it might show up on Slashdot.org. I think in combination with Dell's awakening on Linux popularity, it's gratifying to note that the Ubuntu initiative is taking hold.

Update: 2/22/07. Slashdot has picked up the story.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 8:21 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

11/28/2006

Why it makes more and more sense to move away from Windows XP

Category Linux
Even though my company employs several email gateway systems (including a managed service), we still get spam. Which means, that our messaging group is still answering why spam is getting through all of our terrific, and expensive, defenses.

Over the last several months, spam has surged onto the Internet with a renewed system of distribution: botnets of compromised workstations. Unsuspecting workstations are being infected with a trojan virus that surreptitiously compromises tens of thousands of computers.

Secureworks has graphed out the details of the latest SpamThru botnet attack. What is interesting to me, is that most of these infected systems are local to the US, and most are running on the latest Windows XP service pack. I would have expected the US workstations to have better than average protection, and it is especially surprising that the systems with the latest service pack have the highest infection rate.

I think it's time to start considering an earlier retirement for Windows XP than most companies have planned. The clear choices are going to be Windows Vista, Macintosh OSX and Linux. The costs are going to be more complicated to measure because while Vista may be more expensive as a desktop OS, the upgrade costs will be less. But, now that the Macintosh runs on Intel hardware and can dual-boot into Windows, it offers an attractive alternative that might increase its marketshare. So, the Mac turns out to be a real possibility. Microsoft doesn't want to lose any desktop revenue to Apple (or anyone else) and, like any good poker player, it has played the game well by covering all bets with a Novell SuSE Linux alliance. Don't like the expense of Vista's license and its hardware requirements? Novell will sell you their Linux client at a fraction of the cost, and it is Microsoft friendly.

I'd like to think that the FOSS offerings of Ubuntu and others will make an impact on desktop computing. But, that would just as believable as Nintendo coming out with the cheapest game machine and trouncing its heavyweight competition. Oh, wait a minute . . .

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:37 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

11/21/2006

Running the Lotus Notes Linux Client on Ubuntu

Category Linux
Right next to Nomad, I find that deploying Notes on Linux to be a persuasive alternative to a Microsoft-centric messaging/collaboration client.

Out-of-the-box, the Linux client for Notes is supported on RHEL and SuSE. Which means, that it installs and runs with very little (or any) user configuration for the two most commercially successful Linux distributions. It also means that if you want to go even cheaper (the RHEL WS license is $179) you can try the Free OpenSource (FOSS) alternatives, like CentOS or WhiteBox.

However, for FOSS Linux popularity, the likes of Ubuntu and Mepis are the leaders. And, the amount of effort to match up the necessary run-time libraries for Linux Notes on these Linux releases can be troubling.

Julian Robichaux has pointed out the work of Nick Boldt, who has created an install script for the Linux Notes client on SimplyMepis (which should work on Ubuntu, as well).

After Thanksgiving, I'm going to give it a run. Thanks, "Codeslave!"

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:45 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (3)

11/03/2006

Great Analysis on the Novell and Microsoft Kiss and Make Up

Category Linux
The news about Microsoft's willingness to work with Novell (over Linux) is just so out there, that it's hard to absorb. Thankfully, Stephen O'Grady has done a wonderful job in a Q&A discussion that gives his best overview.

Still, to think that within a month of Ray Norda's death I'm reading about rapprochement between Novell and Microsoft is almost enough motivation for me to bring my CNE status out of hiding.

(Thanks, Sean, I fixed the link)

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:28 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

09/04/2006

Domino is alone on Linux, but Is Linux Mainstream?

Category Linux

I'm feeling better and better about Linux and Domino. It's been entertaining to watch the growth of Linux, as it ripples throughout the IT enterprise. For instance, Linux-watch reports on the rise of LPI certification, which is now being used as the base for SuSE and Ubuntu. LPI is the first vendor-neutral certification that I can recall which is taking hold.

Now, the LPI organization is going further, and hosting a service to connect up LPI professionals with job opportunities.

On August 16 at LinuxWorld in San Francisco, the organization launched a new employment and contract matching service for open-source workers who are registered on LPI's internal exam candidate database.

The new program will match qualified open-source workers with employers and contract opportunities. Although the program will focus on LPI-certified Linux professionals it also welcomes other system and network administrators to register, obtain an LPI ID number, and provide their skills profile for this matching service. The program will be piloted in North America, Latin America, China, India, and Germany.

In VARBusiness, the topic is whether or not Linux is Mainstream, with the consensus being that it's 90% of 90% ready. The VAR report breaks down the adoption rate into small, medium, and enterprise organizations. Interestingly, the smaller organizations have the least significant Linux penetration (19%). Midsize (42%) and enterprise (39%) business have embraced Linux at a greater scale. I find this ratio counter-intuitive, as I expected to see higher adoption rates in cost-conscious SMBs. But, there are some interesting comments in the VAR analysis:

. . . there's only one commercial-grade collaboration package available for Linux today, IBM Lotus Notes. . .

"We see SuSE Enterprise 10 Desktop as a basic knowledge-worker desktop," says Ladd Timpson, worldwide channel marketing director at Novell. "A $50 desktop provides for all the apps and the environment that you're used to using."

The concept of a $50 desktop is nearly mind-numbing, because that includes the cost of a basic office suite, OpenOffice. It's becoming apparent that a knowledge-worker workstation doesn't have to add an extra $279 for the operating system (Windows XP Professional Retail), and another $360 for the office suite (Microsoft Office Professional Edition, 2003).

There's good and bad in weighing out the value of a fully-configured Microsoft solution, versus an open-standard, open-source Domino:

Unquestionably, a Microsoft workstation is going to offer a plethora of features, and will integrate invisibly into a Microsoft architecture of Active Directory, Exchange, and SharePoint.

On the other hand, using an open-source solution with Domino is going to offer the following benefits:

Domino is the only collaboration platform to support Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, and Linux clients (which is quite an enterprise footprint)
Domino supports integrated IM for all three client types
Domino collaboration also supports a wider range of browsers (ever use Firefox with Microsoft's Outlook Web Access?)
Domino will be joining Lotus Workplace in supporting ODF, a vendor-neutral document storage format better suited for long-term retention
When a basic Linux desktop loaded with OpenOffice and IBM/Lotus Notes is one quarter the cost of Microsoft Windows and Office, money talks
IBM/Lotus still has a virus infection count of zero, and security on Linux is widely considered to be better (though, with Vista, Microsoft is making appropriate steps)

I'm seeing Linux being slowly absorbed into organizations at the desktop level (just like it was first introduced via the backdoor in the server room). Linux's growth and acceptance is inevitable, as cost and security will continue to be critical components of any decision. Maybe in two years, desktop Linux can match the Firefox rate of 15% in companies.

I wonder how many months it will take to get an LPI certification?

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:00 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (5)

07/25/2006

A Strange New World . . The Linux Notes Client

Category Linux

The Linux Notes Client is up, running, and I'm using it to create this entry. Because I have enough to show and comment about, I'm going to segment this posting.

The Beta is available for Business Partners (PartnerWorld Software download), and for those with Passport Advantage. If you want to read all my comments, just click on the "READ MORE" link under the picture. Otherwise, enjoy looking at the Developerworks Domino 7 forum via the Linux Notes Client.

For Ubuntu users, Peter Hicks has taken that time to analyze and write up the steps for installing the Linux Notes Client.

Chris Whisonant has consolidated some of the other bloggers insights on the Linux Notes Client.

Ubuntu Community Forum has added a quite comprehensive write-up on the Linux Notes Client configuration

Ted Stanton has invited comments about the Linux Notes Client

Posted by Jack Dausman At 3:39 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

07/22/2006

DC User Group Session

Category Linux
Great user group last night, with a demonstration install of the Lotus Notes client for Linux. I'll say more about it after the 24th (as I'm officially on an IBM NDA, and I'm not sure what is appropriate or not for me to publish).

Kevin Pettit gave a terrific over view of OpenNTF's DominoWiki.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 5:21 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

06/23/2006

Ubuntu Is Showing the Desktop of the Future

Category Linux
Addendum 6/30/06: Long time Mac guru, Mark Pilgrim (Dive into Python author) has made the switch to Ubuntu, and has provided his list of essential Linux software for his Ubuntu system.

Addendum 7/05/06: Terrific source list generator for Ubuntu. Use with common sense.

Julian Robichaux has made some Ubuntu recommendations, and I thought I would add to his list, and explain why I think Ubuntu is important for the IBM/Lotus community of professionals.

The venerable Linux.com has an article on “Ten tips for new Ubuntu users” which is surprisingly useful. As someone who is neither a Linux newbie, nor a pony-tailed guru, I find most of these top-ten lists weak in content and rich in rhetoric—not so with Linux.com. These recommendations, coupled with Automatix and EasyUbuntu, make Ubuntu a real joy to use.

Now, why do I use Ubuntu Linux, and how do I see it as an important trend for IBM/Lotus? Well, Linux has had a solid piece of Domino mindshare since R5, but that is only for the server back-end. It has been so successful, that Linux is second only to Windows for Domino deployment.

The client side for Lotus on Linux has been much, much slower to gather either credibility or marketshare. Finally, though, the client Linux distributions are making headway for mainstream adoption. The leader of the pack is Ubuntu, a relative upstart (even it is based on Debian, a core Linux distribution) who has upset Mandriva, RedHat, and SuSE as it has charmed everyone with its ease of installation and software packages.

Of course, I fit the profile for Early Adopter with technology, and that's a good enough reason to be working with client Linux. I expect it to eventually gain a significant percentage of general-purpose desktop clients (the key word being “eventually”). I've used many, many different releases of Linux, and I've never found a reason to stick with one until Ubuntu.

I think the answer to why I use Ubuntu is that all my major concerns have been addressed with its pricing structure, security, incredibly active support community, and available open-source software. It's not ready, today, for wide-spread desktop replacements, but it's getting close. Remember what it was like to see the Mozilla browser ripen into Firefox? Yeah, well, that's what I'm talking about.

What's big business think about all the fuss over Ubuntu? Wall Street Journal isn't impressed, but Inc.com sees Ubuntu as an alternative to investing in Microsoft's Vista:

But don't kid yourself. That sort of jump wouldn't be without its trials and tribulations. The biggest potential hurdle: If you're reliant on enterprisewide software such as a customer-relationship management system, you might have trouble getting it to run on Linux PCs and you'd probably have to replace it with a Linux-friendly product.

That's a conversation to have with your top tech person, of course. But if he or she pales at the mention of Linux and tries to get you to dismiss it out of hand without clear reasons, you may want to consider the possibility that it's not just your operating system that might need replacing.

Probably the most unexpected source of Ubuntu adulation has come from the Mac corner. Has there every been a more deep-seated assemblage of vendor loyalists that Mac users? Stephen O'Grady, of RedMonk, notes that while it doesn't signal a tipping point for Ubuntu credence, when Mac users move to Ubuntu it does further reveal its appeal.

Of course, IBM continues to consider its options with Linux:

Jim Elliott, Linux advocate for IBM Canada, said Ubuntu has seen a huge spike in interest and that if it and Xandros continue to grow, IBM would increase its support.

Which brings me back to why I'm working with Ubuntu as desktop Linux—because I can. With Hannover coming, and the transition of Lotus development tools into Eclipse, I expect to be spending more time being OS agnostic, and being less concerned about weighing the valuation of a single vendor model.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 9:44 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

06/01/2006

Enterprise Ubuntu ("Dapper") Has Been Released

Category Linux
Ubuntu has released "Dapper Drake," the Enterprise version. This is a game changer. Go to Ubuntu and you can have a CD sent to you--free. And, not just one, but a set of five, ten, or a mixed set of Ubuntu for 64 bit processors, Macintoshs, and PCs.

Official Release Statement (good reading)

Official Guidelines

Unofficial Guidelines

Downloads

Ubuntu is freely available, including security updates for five years on servers, with no restrictions on usage and no requirement to purchase support contracts or subscriptions per deployment. Full telephone & online support on commercial terms is available globally from Canonical Ltd and other companies. "The economics of Ubuntu deployment are fundamentally different from those of other leading Linux distributions that offer commercial support" said Jane Silber, COO of Canonical Ltd. "Companies and individuals can deploy Ubuntu widely, and purchase support only for the machines where they need the assurance of a Support Level Agreement. This makes Ubuntu the preferred choice for large scale deployments where support contracts are not essential on every machine."

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:49 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

05/28/2006

Don't trust Julian Robichaux

Category Linux

Don't trust Julian Robichaux. Oh sure, he seems like a nice guy: NSFTools blogger, OpenNTF contributor, Podcaster, Lotusphere Luminary, and such. We've all trusted him for years, so I am shocked to learn that he has been recommending Ubuntu to all of his techno-geeky readers without providing adequate warning. Shocked.

Ubuntu is only to be recommended to technophiles under controlled conditions because of its addictiveness. Let me be honest with you—My name is Jack and I've used Ubuntu in about every form it exists. nUbuntu for security analysis, EdUbuntu for educational distribution, Kubuntu for those that can't live without KDE, and even Xubuntu for older, resource-weak computers. My Thinkpad dual-boots into Ubuntu and I'm writing in OpenOffice on Ubuntu, right now.

This Memorial Day weekend, I gave a Live Ubuntu CD to my 13 year old nephew. His first question to me was, “how do they make money?” I thought about explaining the economic model of the open-source community, or even suggest that he read Mark Shuttleworth's own intentions to make Canonical, Ltd. commercially successful. But, I handed him the CD and said, “just try it.” Obviously, I like Ubuntu.

Not sure about trying out a Linux distribution? Ubuntu is amazingly easy to set up and configure (even picked up my Asus Wi-Fi card). There is a optional add-in, Automatix which makes it even easier to add all the essentials to your system.

So, I'm not saying, don't use Ubuntu, just please be careful . . . it introduces something back into working with computers that you may have not experienced in a long time. Fun. I haven't enjoyed any OS this much of any kind, since I had an Amiga. For battle-weary IT professionals, exhausted from struggling with their bureaucratic hierarchies, Ubuntu reintroduces the feeling of amazement which captured our attention in the first place.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Mark Shuttleworth Interview, Part I: on Dapper, and Ubuntu in the Enterprise

RedMonk analyst Stephen O'Grady on Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Blogs

http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/

http://ralph-wabel.net/

Posted by Jack Dausman At 7:27 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (4)

05/21/2006

Ubuntu Certifications Are Ready

Category Linux
When I installed the workstation software for the Nyumbani computer learning center, I chose to go open-source. For a number of reasons, I selected EdUbuntu and every thing worked well, even on aging Dell PII Optiplex systems.

As a Linux distribution, Ubuntu sits somewhere between the commercial Linux vendors (RedHat, Novell/SuSE) and the FOSS choices (too many to list). Ubuntu is a commercial venture, but the company, Canoical, Ltd., only sells support. The product is completely FOSS.

Linux distributions which lack commercial presence have traditionally been less supported by third-party hardware and software manufacturers. Ubuntu is changing that trend--vendors are warming up to it. IBM certified DB2 for Ubuntu, and Sun has recently decided to offer it on their hardware, and to even offer support for it.

So, it's about time that a Ubuntu Professional Certification (UPC) became available, equal to RedHat and Novell/SuSE. The UPC is rooted in the LPI exams, requiring only one more test that is specific to Ubuntu.

This week, the UPC exam was officially released at Linuxworld, South Africa, where six South Africans wrote the questions. Of course, I think it is completely appropriate that Nyumbani's Computer Learning Center is working with a technology that has such strong ties to Africa.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:02 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/20/2006

How-To on Linux Security

Category Linux
In the Domino landscape, more and more administrators are turning to Linux--but many have a hesitancy to adopting a new platform. It's a "better to have the devil you know . . . " sort of issue.

LinuxSecurity.com has a very direct, itemized, high-level overview of ensuring a secure Linux installation. It's not too long of a read, and it will do you well in catching you up to the concepts of security implementation in the world of Linux.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 10:54 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/15/2006

Ubuntu Center Update

Category Linux

For you Ubuntu junkies, Ubuntu Center has released its latest version.

Ubuntu Center is a web based interface for accessing all kinds of information that's being stored on your computer running Ubuntu Breezy, Kubuntu, XUbuntu, or even nUbuntu box. Ubuntu Center accomplishes all of this by integrating PHP software licensed under the GPL license in one giant package suitable for use on a Ubuntu computer. This release adds tons of new features and bug fixes and is suitable for everyday use.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:39 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/10/2006

Domino Workshop on Linux

Category Linux
My company is planning on a one-day Domino 7 on Linux workshop. The idea would be do a basic Linux install, and then add Domino and provide some basic configurations. It'll be fun.

But, the effort has me thinking about Linux, and how to explain it to those who are unfamiliar with it. I remember when I first started, and I was so confused by the array of distributions. All About Linux has a great mindmap chart of the primary Linux distributions.

The other major sticking point for me, was trying to understand the file system. Bryce Harrington and Kees Cook have just published a helpful overview on LVM (which makes sense for database servers).

Posted by Jack Dausman At 1:12 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (3)

04/18/2006

Whether IBM with Linux?

Category Linux
RedHat buys up JBoss, which had spurned the acquisition attention of Oracle. So now, RedHat has a complete J2EE open-source solution to compete against WebSphere and BEA. Oracle, who never gives up (remember the protracted drama with PeopleSoft), is angling for Novell, which would give it SuSE. Where is IBM's Linux base for Websphere?

In a very short period it looks as though the two commercial Linux distributions used for IBM's WebSphere (and Websphere Community Edition) will now have their own vested, J2EE product lines to nurture. I'm not suggesting that RedHat and SuSE will ever rebuff IBM, but that IBM is going to have to answer which Linux/J2EE platform is the best.

I'm guessing that we are going to see the Debian distribution begin to rise in stature at IBM. Already, Ubuntu is certified for DB2. And, Debian has two advantages:

Linux is the only operating system which has competing manufacturers and vendors. Linux is not a single-source product. Having IBM embrace Debian demonstrates the strength of multiple Linux sources.
Debian has had a few commercial releases (e.g., VA Linux, Corel), but none has survived. Instead, Debian has become the poster child for FOSS (free open-source software). Certifying Debian for WebSphere would undercut the commercial Linux distributions just as easily as it would for Microsoft or Sun.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:32 PM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

04/18/2006

Linux Virtualization in the Crosshairs

Category Linux
So, Microsoft has surprised everyone (including me) by supporting commercial Linux distributions in Virtual Server 2005 R2. My cursory response is that their decision is a win-win for Microsoft and customers.

Some analysts have been quick to point out that Microsoft may have been driven to embrace virtual hosting of Linux as both VMWare and Xen have free commerical and free open-source offerings. Perhaps the unmovable Microsoft was shifted as customers have been irresistibly drawn to non-Microsoft virtualization solutions. Or, maybe there is more to virtualization than is immediately obvious.

In order to virtualize an OS, the host is represented via standard device drivers to the virtual image. The virtualization software intercepts the virtual OS and hands it to the host OS. Of course, this degrades the responsiveness of the virtual OS. Any host OS application will always be more efficient and responsive than a virtual OS application.

Weaker response time is acceptable, as long as the host OS has plenty of headroom to spare. Most studies suggest that the average corporate server has about 20% utilization--that's a lot of CPU cycles free for virtualization. That's good for virtualization as it encourages a better ROI for hardware expenses.

What's bad for virtualization is that the device drivers supplied to the virtual OS are generic. Tom Yeager of InfoWorld writes up:

In the worst case, which is often the common case, every disk I/O request a guest makes gets converted to a user-level system call by the host, which then trickles down through another two or three layers to get to the real device driver, and the result bubbles up to the guest after the data’s been copied from one location to another several times. Through this whole process, the guest’s driver probably has the guest OS kernel locked while it waits for a response. What’s worse, your fancy storage controller with a 256MB cache might be emulated as a controller with a 128KB buffer. So not only does every request for a block of disk data have to travel all the way up and down the whole host/guest stack, it has to be broken into much smaller bits and many more requests.

Virtualization is probably a poor choice for large databases (including Domino and Exchange). On the other hand, Sametime (Instant Messaging) makes a great virtual candidate, as it is mostly CPU and RAM intensive.

Now that the topic of virtualization and host device drivers has been explored, you can ask yourself whether or not you think Microsoft will ever fully support high-performance device drivers for Linux. Many manufacturers are reluctant to support GPL drivers, and it does impede the release of open-source device drivers.

Here are my recommendations:

If you work within a Microsoft monoculture, then Linux on Virtual Server 2005 is the best way to integrate Linux, just keep it light and focus on proof-of-concept installations. Avoid applications which require significant disk I/O.
If you work in a mixed OS environment, than VMWares' Virtual Server is going to be your best bet. Besides the option for a physical disk connection (versus virtual), you can expect the parent company, EMC, to continue to provide storage I/O tuning.
Xen is going to be the defacto choice for host systems running RedHat and SuSE. It's true that you can incorporate Xen into almost any Linux distribution, but it is not for the faint hearted. The biggest advantage of Xen, is that it is already working along the lines of hypervisor technology, and as the chip makers begin to roll-out extensions into their design for virtualizations, I expect Xen to be the performance leader (but, only on the commercial Linux distributions).

Posted by Jack Dausman At 2:34 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/26/2005

Live from Nairobi !

Category Linux
A lot has happened since the last posting, which is not possible to encapsulate into a blog posting (I'll try to add some details later). The short list is: lots of wild animals up close, an unforgettable Christmas at an orphanage, the car-jacking and death of a priest not 200 yards from our gate, a visit to a living Masai village, a drive through the rift-valley, and a stop in Narok (which must have been the inspiration for the Mos Eisley cantina of StarWars).

The computer lab at Nyumbani.org is up and running. The original Dell Optiplex workstations could not handle a full install of Edubuntu, and I've been rattling around with different install simulations to get the size down, but with the same packages. I've used Microsoft VPC to test different configurations, but with very little success.

I took a break to visit Masa Mari for three days. Masa Mari is a 1,000 sq. mile game park full of everything from straggling Wildebeasts, late in their migration, to cheetahs and their cubs. When I get a chance, I'll fill in some of the happenings and include a few pictures.

As we returned from the gamepark, we were welcomed with a shipment of refurbished computers. Interestingly enough, they were preloaded with SuSE 9. Apparently, Linux is not quite the stranger in Kenya that I thought of it. Unfortunately, the new computers were very underpowered, and were really whitebox amalgamations of widely different pieces of hardware. They did, though, include larger hard drives, so now it's been possible to upgrade the Dell computers, install Edubuntu and everything works wonderfully. Edubuntu takes a few minutes to boot-up, but is very responsive. There is nothing about the finished systems that feels like they are running a PII.

A content filter, firewall and router has been installed with which to connect to the Internet (IPCop); a very straightforward setup. IPCop allows add-ons, so that Dansguardian can be applied. It's not realistic to connect up an orphanage to the Internet without some sort of content filtering, and I don't know of anything that is better than Dansguardian.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 10:03 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (3)

12/16/2005

No Linux Support in Nairobi?

Category Linux
For the next several weeks, my blogging is going to slow down. I'll be in Nairobi, Kenya working at an orphanage (Nyumbani.org) over Christmas with my family. I've volunteered to assist in configuring their computer lab, which consists of 25 Dell Optiplex GXA computers (PII, 256 M RAM) that have Windows 98 on them (and doing any other work that they need, be it washing dishes or painting walls).

This, to me, is a perfect example of making good with Linux. There is an educational distribution of the incredibly popular Ubuntu, which is called Edubuntu. To those unfamiliar with Ubuntu, a quick news.google search will reveal that it is steamrolling through the Linux landscape (it is even certified for IBM DB2, a first for a non-commercial Linux distribution). I'm also hoping to install a decent firewall with content filtering (IPCop).

However, moving over to Linux is not an easy decision:

Ubuntu is free and incredibly well supported. On the forums, all of my technical questions have been answered within a single day, and some within an hour.
Ubuntu is an African Linux distribution, and the match up just seems too perfect for Kenya.
Edubuntu is focused on educational resources and a classroom setup (it even comes with a client for Linux terminal server for systems that have minimal resources).
Ubuntu can be configured to run with systems that cannot support Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server.
Ubuntu recognizes a large set of computer devices (i.e., video drivers, NICs, sound cards, etc.).
Ubuntu is a Debian variant of Linux, and supports the wonderful Apt and Synaptic tools for obtaining upgrades and new program installations through Internet downloads, or off of a CD.
Linux is not Windows and is immune from the vast array of viruses, worms, and security compromises.

The last point turns out to cut both ways.

Frankly, there is no Nairobi Linux technician to call to reset the server, or help out on administration. So far, all the visiting volunteers (who come from Industrial countries) only have Windows experience, and they want to donate old Windows software. We'll probably install both Linux and Windows as dual-booting (if the hard drives are big enough).

Right now, the irony seems too great. At the same time that the entire Swiss Federal Government is converting their infrastructure of 3,000 servers to open source Linux, I'll be in a third-world nation working to accommodate Windows.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 4:21 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (4)

09/28/2005

Auditor Release

Category Linux

The Auditor is a Knoppix based, live CD that offers a library of security tools. Because it is a "live" CD, it doesn't install anything on the hard drive being examined. A very useful learning tool for forensic analysis.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 1:35 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

09/21/2005

Microsoft AD and Linux Directory Integration

Category Linux

The usual path to connect up a Linux server into a Windows domain, has been with SAMBA. Jason Perlow has a concise overview of which integration technique may work well for you, and why.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 1:39 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/17/2005

Workplace Services Express 2.5 Packaged in VMWare

Category Linux

IBM continues to push the envelope with Workplace as an SMB solution for messaging and collaboration. They have combined forces with VMWare and Red Hat to provide a 90 day evaluation of a completely configured, virtual image of Workplace Services Express 2.5.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and IBM Workplace Services Express will be preinstalled in a VMware environment and packaged as a virtual machine that can be downloaded electronically from Red Hat Network. This will allow access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux and IBM Workplace Services Express in a preinstalled environment, reducing the effort required for a customer or prospect to deploy, use and evaluate a working installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and IBM Workplace Services Express.

WSE is not necessarily difficult to install and configure, I'll be interested to see exactly how they have optimized the system. The offer doesn't become available until September 1st, but I'll be downloading from the RHN as soon as it is available.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 11:20 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

04/20/2005

Knoppix 3.8.1 is Released

Category Linux

Knoppix continues to be one of the most useful utilities around. It is a "live CD" of Linux, which means, it simply runs off of a CD (no hard drive required, no installation, no messing with your current installed operating system).

What is especially cool about Knoppix 3.8.1 is the inclusion of UnionFS which makes it easy to customize Knoppix on-the-fly.

Knoppix 3.8.1 is not merely a version update, it is a substantial upgrade that makes it possible to quickly deploy a custom Linux installation. I expect to see Knoppix continue to rise in popularity because of its increasing usefulness.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:00 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

04/06/2005

Why Linux Will Continue to Dominate for Commodity Technologies

Category Linux

John Fontanta has an insightful article on the dominance of Linux messaging. He covers all the major players, from Domino to Stalker's CommuniCate Pro, but I really liked the quote about Domino:

While the converts remain mostly small and midsize companies, they are raising awareness at a time when millions of users of Microsoft Exchange 5.5 are seeing support end for their software.

"Linux is all business, there is no fluff. It does its job," says John Giantelli, the senior IT director at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). "After two years, we are up, we are running and we are happy."

Giantelli converted to Linux in 2003, which he picked over Windows 2000 to run his Notes/Domino installation and to replace his aging and unstable Windows NT infrastructure.

"Downtime is unacceptable to us," says Giantelli. "The Microsoft OS runs some of my products here very well, but for mail it was just not cutting it."

Working with Linux polarizes the choices in technology. On one side we have products like Microsoft Exchange which are specific to a single manufactuer and a specific OS release. On the other end of the spectrum there are messaging systems like Gordano and IBM/Lotus' Domino, both of which run on a variety of OS (including a variety of Linux distributions). This is a good thing, and it's why it makes sense to have a variety of Linux distributions.

When I choose Linux, I know that I have a range of manufacturers that are contesting for my dollars, while providing the same infrastructure. I know that I can move my Oracle or DB2 over to Novell SuSE from RedHat. I know that I can test on Caosity, then release on RHEL4. I know that I can use Debian to host my DNS/DHCP services. That's to my financial benefit, and it lets me sleep easier. No single Linux manufacturer is going to be able to retire a Linux feature, and force me to upgrade before I am ready.

It's not all rosy, because systems management of Linux is not as mature of the other systems--but it is getting better. The trial over which OS is the best are over. The championships are given event by event, and right now, Linux is carrying the torch for commodity technology.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:00 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/17/2005

Desktop Linux to Continue to Rise

Category Linux

LinuxJournal has a good analysis of findings from DesktopLinux.com. The impact of Linux has not been felt outside of IT backrooms, because most of its adoption has been into database engines, and network services. The cost savings for using Linux servers have been credible, and have significantly touched Unix and Windows installations.

It's time for the desktop.

We agree with much of this study, but we also see a major shift in strategic corporate initiatives that will increase Linux desktop market penetration to 25% within the next 24 to 36 months. The reasons given for a 6% adoption rate do not take into account Windows vulnerabilities and enterprise searches for desktop alternatives.

Studies of Linux desktop adoption make little sense without adding "other OS vulnerabilities" to the list of reasons for Linux adoption. Many organizations consider their Windows desktops to be a single point of failure in their enterprises.

CIOs of major telecommunication firms, for example, view the computing environment as a significant threat. As soon as customer service offices at these firms began accepting e-mail and using the Internet to manage phone accounts, they became flooded with spam, viruses, spyware and exploits. eGovernment initiatives, which also use e-mail and Web services, face threats similar to what these telecommunication firms and similar enterprises face, as they all experience heavy demand for customer service.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 11:49 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (1)

12/16/2004

Knoppix 3.7 is out

Category Linux

Kyle Rankin has a quick overview of the new Knoppix 3.7 release (everyone's favorite Instant Linux and all-around systems toolkit).

Posted by Jack Dausman At 2:54 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/25/2004

Free Speech, Free Beer Linux and Domino

Category Linux
One of the more dramatic promises of Linux has been to reduce costs. However, while it may be cheaper, different distributions use different pricing structures. Some are free, others are not. I enjoy using Linux, and would like to see Domino used more often on it than it is, but none of the supported versions (http://www.lotus.com/dominolinux) are free.

I understand the reasons for relying on a distribution which is backed by a vendor who can assure device driver compatability and provide a long-term product life cycle. We need Novell SuSE, Red Hat, TurboLinux and any other commercial version of Linux in order to provide enterprise solutions.

But, the people who are the most interested in making Linux work are found in the SMB segment, where cost reduction can make a big difference. Simply switching from one commercial vendor to another doesn't make a lot of sense. But, we have other choices--there is a middle ground between a Gentoo or Debian install that requires customization for a Domino server and a RedHat or SuSE commercial Linux.

In the future, I'll be writing up in more detail a painless way to install Domino on a Linux release that is code identical to RedHat 2.1 Advanced Server, and yet doesn't break any licenses, the Linux is free and it works with the Java Console. If you want to see what I've done, I've supplied a screen shot of Domino running on Linux in a Virtual PC. Click here for image. (You may have to actually visit my site for the javascript to function correctly, rather than click from an RSS reader.)

If you are in the DC area, I'm planning on doing a free (it's in the spirit of Open Source) afternoon seminar for installing Domino on a no-cost Linux distribution.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 4:57 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (5)

05/06/2004

Knoppix 3.4 is out

Category Linux

Knoppix 3.4 is released. OpenOffice is in, KOffice is out, 2.6.5 kernel, new hardware drivers and better HD install. Head over to slashdot to find bit-torrent feeds.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 1:09 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/05/2004

Linux Security Checklist on Installation

Category Linux

When I speak to administrators about remaining agnostic about the benefits of one network operating systems (NOS) over another, they usually are hesitant to put their neck on the line with an unfamiliar NOS. I appreciate the caution, and would never want to encourage a reckless architecture led by technology fashion.

Linux.com has a great three-part series on locking down your Linux server. So, grab an IBM Redbook on installing Domino (or WebSphere, or DB2) and then use the Linux.com guide to secure the system to your comfort level.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:00 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/03/2004

Linux Numbers Continue to Advance

Category Linux

I've been reading some numbers regarding Linux distributions that almost don't make sense. The desktop count is being touted at 7%, which is getting close to Mac territory. Stacey Quandt, formerly of Giga Information Group and now principal analyst at her own Quandt Analytics, has stated that within "three years I believe Linux will overtake Windows as the number one operating system based on new server shipments."

Posted by Jack Dausman At 11:04 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/07/2004

A Good Overview on the Virtues of Debian Linux

Category Linux

At the end of February, Manoj Srivastava (one of the keepers of The Debian Project) gave a presentation to the Nashville Linux Users Group about "Why Linux," but especially, "Why Debian."

Debian may not have the name recognition of Red Hat or Novell/SuSE, but it is a respected and venerable Linux distribution that is a very popular base for other, better known varieties (e.g., Lindows, Knoppix). If you are thinking about running Domino on Debian, you'll want to check this Notes.Net posting.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:00 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/07/2004

Local Area Security (L.A.S ) has New Release

Category Linux

Local Area Security has their latest release for those who like a Knoppix style security distribution. It's very cool to work with, because it is so easy to setup.

Local Area Security Linux is a 'Live CD' distribution with a small footprint. Containing over 200 information security and administration related tools. As well as a full desktop environment and office productivity applications. With such a small footprint L.A.S. Linux can be optionally loaded and run from physical RAM (assuming there is 256MB or more). We currently have 2 different versions of L.A.S. to fit two specific size requirements

Posted by Jack Dausman At 5:36 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

02/12/2004

Linux Domino to MS-SQL with Two Choices

Category Linux

If you are running Domino on Linux (good for you) then you may find yourself constrained when it comes to connectivity to other RDBMS. Obviously, DB2 won't be an issue, but interacting with a Microsoft SQL Server can be a deal breaker. You have two options: EasySoft or FreeTDS.

EasySoft offers a variety of commercial products, each of them is defined as a Bridge. For Linux to SQL Server there are three possible choices: ODBC-ODBC, JDBC-ODBC, and XML-ODBC.

FreeTDS provides an OSS solution via a set of libraries for Linux to connect natively to Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase databases. Here's how FreeTDS describes their product:

Technically speaking, FreeTDS is an open source implementation of the TDS (Tabular DataStream) protocol used by these databases for their own clients. It supports many different flavors of the protocol and supports several APIs to access it. Additionally FreeTDS works with other software such as Perl and PHP, providing access from those languages as well. There is also a native (type 4) JDBC driver available for platform-independent Java clients (including Java Server Pages applications), with support for most of the JDBC 1 API and portions of the JDBC 2 API.

FreeTDS has many possible uses. It has been used by Unix/Linux webservers to present data stored in SQL Server to the web, for porting SQL Server database code from NT to Unix, to import data into SQL Server from a Unix source, and to provide database access on those platforms such as real-time systems that have no native drivers.

The FreeTDS C libraries are available under the terms of the Gnu LGPL license, consult the COPYING.LIB file in the distribution for details. Major portions of the source code for the JDBC driver are copyright CDS Networks, Inc., or Craig Spannring, the original author of the driver, with a license which permits "[r]edistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification" provided the conditions in that license are met (see the license included with the driver's distribution).

FreeTDS has an active mail list, in which you'll find the praises of Domino developers, and I know of some IBM partners who have been happy with the CSV version of FreeTDS. Apparently, the performance was surprisingly good.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:48 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (1)

01/04/2004

OSS Licensing Explained by Red Hat's General Counsel

Category Linux

Groklaw (which received this year's O'Reilly's OSDir.com Editor's Choice Award for Best News Website) has republished Mark Webbink's article on "Understanding Open Source Software." The intended audience is corporate attorneys, wherein Mark explains free and open source software and compares various open source licenses, detailing how the GPL really works, explaining US copyright law, and listing some corporate law office best practices for software, from the standpoint of what policies are prudent for the corporate environment.

He also explains how derivative works are defined, touches on the indemnification issue and the difference between open source and "shared source", and highlights some of the main myths and misconceptions about the GPL and open source.

The article is very well written and should be added to any pitch for adopting Linux (yes, I know there are other OSS OSes, but the clients I see are only just now considering Linux). HR or IT department is tired of tracking licenses, and the legal department is wary of any software purchases and their restrictions.

Ok, now I think this is a great table that plainly lays out the licensing differences

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:00 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

12/04/2003

The virtues of Linux espoused in new IBM RedPaper drafts and more about John Terpstra

Category Linux

There are two new RedPapers, in draft, that aim to dramatically define the strengths of Linux. "Linux, Why It Should Replace Your Windows NT Domains" is a good overview that lists the key rubrics (e.g., security, stability, etc.). I'm hoping that the completed edition will include specifics about licensing. For many CFOs and IT managers, there are vagaries in the range of open source licensing. It's confusing why Debian and Mandrake can be publically distributed as an ISO, but RedHat ES cannot, or that SuSE will allow a remote FTP installation.

The second RedPaper is "Open Your Windows with Samba on Linux," and it could have just as easily have written, "Open Your Eyes . . . ." With the release of Samba-3, Linux is looking a lot like mortar between the bricks. Of course, this Saturday, John Terpstra is presenting locally at NovaLUG, and everyone is highly encouraged to attend.

John Terpstra, Co-Founder of the Samba-Team will present an overview of features new to Samba-3, the highly successful Windows network file and print services integration tool. The fast-paced presenation will highlight how the new features provide improved interoperability with Windows Server 200x solutions, and how you can benefit from it.

John will present a summary of challenges in the Windows network interoperability mine-field and the choices available to conquer them.

John is one of the authors of the successful new book, "The Official Samba-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide" and will be available to sign copies of the book at the meeting. He will also provide an overview of a new Samba-3 book he is writing and that is due for release in the second quarter of 2004.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 9:31 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

11/25/2003

If you work with Windows and Linux, you must attend this upcoming NOVALUG meeting !

Category Linux

Northern Virginia Linux User Group is hosting John Terpstra (Samba Developer) this coming December 6th !

John is a co-founder of Samba, which is an open source success story as large as Apache. LinuxWorld has an article on the latest version, Samba-3. John is also the author of the Prentice-Hall book, "The Official Samba-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide."

If you are not knowledgeable about Samba, you should know (1) that it provides file and print services for Windows clients on Linux systems and (2) that the latest version integrates with Win2000 ADS and outperforms the Win2000 platform on identical hardware by more than two to one.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 4:44 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

11/05/2003

SUSE is the New World Order

Category Linux

Novell is up 40%, it's market capitalization exceeds the cost of the merger. They actually made money simply by spending $210M US on SUSE. RedHat is down 10%. And, IBM provided $50M US for Novell to make the purchase.

I'm tempted to change to SUSE.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:00 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

10/13/2003

Domino on Linux: New Book by Zatz Publishing

Category Linux
There is a new publication on Domino Linux. At $80, it's not exactly cheap, and it's also hard to justify the expense with IBM having a Redbook on the same subject matter--available as a free PDF.

You can always go to http://www.lotus.com/redbooks to see the latest Redbooks, RedPieces and RedPapers.

Of course, it's terrific news that there is some effort to boost the profile of Domino's support of Linux. IBM/Lotus includes Linux with the Windows 2k, AIX and AS/400 primary builds.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 1:35 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

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