Archive for the 'Open Source' Category

Amazon EC2 Gets It Right

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 27, 2008
in Open Source, Software, Startups, Technology and Virtualization
. 0 Comments

I’ve written a couple of articles about the Amazon EC2 service. It’s the Elastic Compute Cloud that lets you build very scalable (and, reliable) web sites "in the cloud", using Web Services created and operated by Amazon.

It’s amazingly good.

And, just got significantly better.

Amazon just announced two significant improvements to the service:

Elastic IP Addresses:

Elastic IP Addresses are static IP addresses designed for dynamic cloud computing, and now make it easy to host web sites, web services and other online applications in Amazon EC2. Elastic IP addresses are associated with your AWS account, not with your instances, and can be programmatically mapped to any of your instances. This allows you to easily recover from instance and other failures while presenting your users with a static IP address.

Availability Zones:

Availability Zones give you the ability to easily and inexpensively operate a highly available internet application. Each Amazon EC2 Availability Zone is a distinct location that is engineered to be insulated from failures in other Availability Zones. Previously, only very large companies had the scale to be able to distribute an application across multiple locations, but now it is as easy as changing a parameter in an API call. You can choose to run your application across multiple Availability Zones to be prepared for unexpected events such as power failures or network connectivity issues, or you can place instances in the same Availability Zone to take advantage of free data transfer and the lowest latency communication.

These two capabilities answer the primary complaints that I have heard about the EC2 service, and I suspect will allow for significant customer adoption in the next 18 months. Static IP Addresses, combined with serving up the proper certificates, should allow for fully secure computing under Amazon EC2.

The guys at RightScale have described Setting up a fault-tolerant site using Amazon’s Availability Zones.

Amazon also announced User Selectable Kernels:

Amazon EC2 now allows developers to use kernels other than the default Amazon EC2 kernels with their instances.

Including:

This release makes the following new AMIs and AKIs (Kernel IDs) available:
AMI: Fedora Core 6 - 32 bit - a stock FC6 release with matching kernel and RAM disk
AMI: Fedora 8 - 32 bit - a stock F8 release with matching kernel and RAM disk
AMI: Fedora 8 - 64 bit - a stock F8 release with matching kernel and RAM disk
AKI: 2.6.18 Kernel - 32 bit - a stock 2.6.18 kernel (can be used with 32 bit AMIs)
AKI: 2.6.18 Kernel - 64 bit - a stock 2.6.18 kernel (can be used with 64 bit AMIs)

Tags: Amazon, EC2, Cloud Computing, Web Services, Static IP, Failover, Redundancy, Brian Berliner, brianberliner



VirtualBox Corrupts My VMware VMDK Files!

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 26, 2008
in Open Source, Technology and Virtualization
. 0 Comments

I hate it when I’m stupid.virtualbox-logo-1

I started blogging again, and wrote about how I am now using Windows Live Writer as my blog editor. Problem is, that I use Mac computers exclusively, so I needed to run WLW under VMware Fusion (inside a Windows Virtual Machine).

That works pretty well, for the most part, but VMware Fusion does not do copy/paste of images between the virtual machines (yet). And, since I like to include an image with every post, it’s kind of a pain to save the image to a file under Mac OS X only to turn right around and load the image into Windows Live Writer. For me, the writing process is enhanced when friction is removed from the process.

So, I thought, naively, that perhaps the free VirtualBox tool might have this capability. Download the product and install it on my Mac OS X Leopard Server and give it a go. The VirtualBox site says that you can use your existing VMware VMDK (Hard disk image) files with VirtualBox. There is evena video showing you that it works great. The VirtualBox User manual says:

Starting with version 1.4, VirtualBox also supports the popular and open VMDK container format that is now supported by a large number of virtualization products. This means you can import your existing VMDK files by way of the Virtual Disk Manager just like existing VDI images; see chapter 3.5, The Virtual Disk Manager, page 34. While VirtualBox fully supports using VMDK files in most situations, the more advanced features of virtual hard disks are presently not supported.

After trying, and failing, to import my VMDK files into VirtualBox, I found, much to my dismay, that my VMDK files were trashed by the VirtualBox import and no longer readable by VMware Fusion. The term "import" usually implies that it is non-destructive. Nope.

I blamed the Fusion failure on the Apple Security Update that I had just installed. Silly me.

After quite a few hours of reading VirtualBox code and poking around with the VMware VMDK on-disk formats, I was able to "patch" my VMDK files into something that Fusion would once again read. Take a look at the VMware Community Forum article for detailed history.

In the corrupted VMDK that was mucked with by VirtualBox, mine looked like the following:

# Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
CID=4c06b51e
parentCID=f6d5af3d
createType="monolithicSparse"
parentFileNameHint="AmyOffice.vmdk"

# Extent description
RW 41963828 SPARSE "AmyOffice-000001.vmdk"

# The Disk Data Base
#DDB

ddb.toolsVersion = "7362"
ddb.virtualHWVersion = "6"
ddb.uuid.image="309b24ab-4acf-4b11-cbbe-f6935882d848"
ddb.uuid.modification="12ff42d5-f691-4ba3-7abb-6686efa6d59f"
ddb.uuid.parent="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
ddb.geometry.cylinders"0"
ddb.geometry.heads"16"
ddb.geometry.sectors"63"
ddb.geometry.cylinders="0"
ddb.geometry.heads="16"
ddb.geometry.sectors="63"

And, it was padded by NULL characters. I extracted it from the VMDK using "dd":

# dd if=AmyOffice-000001.vmdk bs=512 skip=1 count=2 > out

I didn’t like the look of the entries: Note that there is no equals sign between the cylinders/heads/sectors section at the bottom and the values. That did not sit well with me at all. Nor did I like the value of the cylinders was 0 and the heads/sectors did not match the binary values in the first data structure after the MAGIC KMDV in the VMDK file.

Badness.

Comparing this text header info with a very old backup of my VMDK file, it appeared that I could drastically simplify this section.

So, I did.

I edited the "out" file, and made the following changes:

  • Changed the CID to 613506eb
  • Deleted everything after this line (but keep it in): ddb.toolsVersion = "7362"
  • Extended the NULL padding at the end to get the file back up to 1024 bytes exactly.

Then, I patched the VMDK with the following command:

# dd conv=notrunc if=out of=AmyOffice-000001.vmdk bs=512 oseek=1 count=2

Don’t forget the "conv=notrunc", or your VMDK file will be truncated (which I did, and had to copy over from backup again, sigh).

And, guess what? The VMware Virtual Machine booted up with no problem!

I promptly uninstalled VirtualBox. You get what you pay for sometimes.

Now, if I could just get Time Machine to efficiently backup my 30GB Windows VM…

Tags: VirtualBox, VMware Fusion, VMware, Fusion, Virtualization, Open Source, Brian Berliner,brianberliner

Bug Labs at EclipseCon 2008

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 19, 2008
in Mobile, Open Source, Software, Startups, Technology and Venture Capital
. 0 Comments

bug_labs I enjoyed the presentation done by Bug Labs at EclipseCon 2008, titled BUG: A Customizable Hardware and Software Platform using Linux, Java, and OSGi. If you haven’t seen the BUG device, you should check out their Products page.

It’s Geek Candy.

And, it’s entirely built with Open Source goodness - both software AND hardware. Bug Labs gets it!

Start with a BUGbase (which is a full-fledged Linux box on an ARM processor), combine it with a variety of BUGmodules to add various hardware capabilities (like LCD screens, video cameras, GPS devices, accelerometers and the like), and snap it all together to do something interesting. Or, make your own hardware to their spec, and use their software stack. Or, run a different software stack on their hardware. Or, create your own BUGmodule hardware. It’s all open. Knock yourself out.

While I find the hardware interesting, I think the truly exciting part of the business is the software components and the dynamic nature that binds it all together.

Yes, it’s got OSGi at it’s core, including a version of the Concierge runtime!

I think that was a very smart, and bold move. This company may be doing some of the most practical and interesting work in the OSGi space.

This will be a fun company to watch.

spark-capital They are good guys.

Bug Labs is a Spark Capital portfolio company (shout out to Bijan Sabet!).

Microsoft Open Source Software Lab at EclipseCon 2008

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 19, 2008
in Open Source, Software and Technology
. 0 Comments

521 At EclipseCon 2008, Sam Ramji of Microsoft Open Source Lab presented the Keynote on Day 2. Check out Port 25 for more about the Microsoft OSS Lab.

The slides showed Sam’s title as "Director, Platform Technology Strategy"

I have to say that the Keynote was not very good. Of course, to be fair to Sam, he did not have a lot to work with. It’s clear that Microsoft is not spending what they should spend on interacting with the Open Source community. Their budget is only $5M annually for his group (see below).

I liked Sam. He’s gotta be frustrated at Microsoft. Again, to be fair, Sam has been at this for the last 3 years, so he has had adequate time to effect change. And, I think he has. But, still, my take away was that Microsoft is really only giving Open Source a passing glance. As we suspected. Now well confirmed.

Sam outlined some of the current projects and ways that Microsoft is interacting with the OSS community:

  • Linux hypervisor (Xen) interoperability with Microsoft hypervisor (HyperV)
  • WS-Management collaboration
  • Mozilla - Open Source Firefox plugin for Windows Media Player 11
  • Apache Software Foundation - Tuning apache on Windows Server
  • Helping CollabNET with Subversion on Windows.
  • Getting MySQL to run better on Windows Server
  • Getting PHP to run better on Windows Server
  • Samba - Providing support and license modifications to enable Samba development
  • Higgins & CardSpace work
  • SWT on Windows Presentation Framework (for native Windows Vista controls written in Java).

A couple of the Q&A Questions:

  • When will Microsoft become a member of the Eclipse Foundation? Response was, literally, a joke: "I thought we were doing that when we acquired you"? Ha. Ha. Ha. (Ugh). Nothing more added.
  • What other Eclipse projects look good? Response was perhaps something where Eclipse could author Silverlight apps. There are others, but not willing to discuss them with us.
  • Will Microsoft have Eclipse committers to do the SWT/WPF integration? Response is no. Microsoft would work with the committers and provide support and resources.
  • I asked a question about the Microsoft OSS Lab budget now, and how it will grow in the future (given that Microsoft revenue is currently $50B). Response was that the Lab alone has a budget of $5M, but they work across the company to assess the strategy and work with the OSS organizations. So, the Microsoft OSS Lab is a change agent. Sam followed up with a shameless plug. The Lab’s resources will increase if we tell Microsoft that their work is valuable.
  • Why did Microsoft define new Open Source licenses instead of using current ones, like EPL? Response was that Microsoft is positive on Open Source. Made that clear with their Codeplex initiative (which nobody in the audience knew about). Microsoft wanted explicit treatment of how patents and intellectual property is handled.

There was very little "strategy" discussed in the keynote presentation. Lots of words, not much action. Nothing at all in the way of a Roadmap for the future. I think Sam missed an opportunity here.

Google Summer of Code 2008

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 18, 2008
in Open Source and Software
. 0 Comments

logo_gsoc

Now is the time to nominate projects for the Google Summer of Code 2008. In particular, what SOC projects would be great for Eclipse? Basically, anything that you would like a student to work on for 3 months in and around Eclipse toolset.

You can volunteer as a mentor to help your project through (or not). But mentoring is a very lightweight way to help facilitate the project this summer. Also, Google graciously pays for all the development cost (and supports the Open Source community).

If your project gets selected, it will be assigned the resource. Brainstorm session during the conference included such ideas as:

  • XQuery Editor
  • Custom display of classes in CDT Debugger
  • Support for J2SE Security Editors for Policy Files (integrated with OSGi model instead of Sun security model)
  • RELAX NG Compact Form Editor
  • Better code obfuscation configurator
  • Support for Maven

There is a wiki here. Edit away!

Fake Steve at EclipseCon 2008

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 18, 2008
in Blogging, Entertainment, Mac OS X, Open Source and Technology
. 0 Comments

  

Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs, won the keynote slot at EclipseCon and, as expected, gave a very entertaining keynote address. Excellent choice. Refreshingly irreverent.

Dan takes no prisoners. Every big tech company is fair game, and he calls it like he sees it. Something that he cannot do at Forbes. The Fake Steve blog now generates a nice 1 Million pageviews per month.

Some snippets that caught my funny bone:

  • "Mainstream media is like the COBOL programmers…"
  • "I’m a Mac fan. Here with my MacBook Air, that’s didn’t work - that’s why I love Apple. But, it’s so beautiful… and only 3 pounds!"
  • Dan likens Apple to a cult rather than a product company. He says, "If the Church of Scientology made computer products, they would be Apple."
  • "You look up narcissist in the dictionary and there he (Steve Jobs) is."
  • Great photos of Uncle Ballster and Dr. Stevil (which I can’t find to link to right now).
  • Lots of Sun and Jonathan Schwartz bashing (I spent 7 years at Sun Microsystems, so I could certainly relate). Such as, "There’s always some new line of bullshit from Sun."
  • On IBM: "They’re the worst company in the world to deal with as a reporter."

Anyway. Tune into his blog for more laughs.

At EclipseCon 2008 - Look Me Up!

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 18, 2008
in Open Source, Software, Startups and Technology
. 0 Comments

eclipseCon2008 Just like last year, I’m back at EclipseCon 2008 this year!

The Eclipse Foundation puts on one heck of a good conference. The sponsors are top-notch and the breadth and depth of the conference is always quite impressive. If you are heavily invested in Open Source and Java-based tools in your enterprise (and which enterprise is not?), then EclipseCon is the place to be.

Final Thoughts on EclipseCon 2007

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 8, 2007
in Open Source, Software and Startups
. 0 Comments

So, EclipseCon 2007 has wrapped up today. Some final thoughts.

  • The conference was well attended and organized. Near as I could tell, everything went off without a hitch. There were some problems accessing wireless from the Hyatt, but I was only out there once. The food and booze was good. And, yes, I packed on a couple more pounds with the ever-present cookies and brownies. Ugh. Conferences. Sheesh.
  • Eclipse used to be just an IDE for developing Java applications. Now, it’s so much more. It’s now a really, really good IDE for developing Java applications. It’s also a platform for applications to run on top of (see Eclipse RCP) used by tools like Azureus and the Actuate BIRT Report Designer. Even more, the Eclipse Foundation brings together all the projects and makes sure that everything is legal and structures. When you say "Eclipse", you really are saying a mouthful.
  • The conference had the expected amount of talk focused on Eclipse and a variety of the extension work being done either directly in Eclipse, or as a plug-in, or on the platform.
  • All 3 of the Keynote talks were very good and entertaining. None of them focused on Eclipse or the Eclipse ecosystem, but they were all very good nonetheless.
  • Additionally, I was pleasantly surprised to see all the focus on OSGi at the conference (OSGi was formerly the Open Services Gateway initiative, and is now the OSGi Alliance). There were numerous really good sessions talking about the current progress of the OSGi Alliance and related projects. This stuff is finally maturing. Lots of Open Source technologies available now, like Equinox, Knopflerfish, Apache Felix, and Newton. There is even talk about getting Spring and OSGi working together with the Spring-OSGi project.
  • Looking downstream, however, it may make the most sense to combine OSGi, Spring, and SCA (the Service Component Architecture) to form the best-balanced service fabric. Paremus appears to be leading the charge here, and announced such a product, Infiniflow, at the conference. Very cool.

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Open Source Business Models at EclipseCon 2007

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 6, 2007
in Open Source and Software
. 0 Comments

Brent C. Williams, an independent Equity Research Analyst, gave a quick-paced ride through some Open Source Business Models and key activities from 2006 at EclipseCon 2007.

Some takeaways about a couple of big activities in 2006:

Case 1:

  • Oracle decides to "clone" Red Hat Enterprise Linux in October 2006, and to offer it for half the price of Red Hat. Stats: First 90 days, about 9,000 downloads of the product. Compare that to 1,000,000 people who downloaded Fedora Core 6 from Red Hat in its first 90 days.
  • Red Hat ignored the move by Oracle - no price reduction, no individual deal discounting. Red Hat has a premium brand. Software is not price-competitive at the market level.
  • Oracle announced that they will join the Eclipse board and donate a number of technologies. This is a good, smart move for them, however not big enough to overcome the blowback from the cloning experiment gone bad.

Case 2:

  • Novell - Microsoft licensing deal.
  • Novell recently reported $91M of invoicing for Linux subscriptions, up 650% over the previous year. However, $73M of that was from existing customers. Sounds like small change to me.
  • Novell thinks their problem is trying to catch up to Red Hat. Novell needs to build a brand identity for SuSe that is something other than "We’re not Red Hat".

Brent’s Prediction: If Microsoft sues anybody for patent infringement in 2007, that there will be an Open Source community response such that each of Microsoft’s existing software patents would receive prior-art petitions filed against them with the patent office (and 70% of such petitions are accepted by the Patent office).

What do investors care about for 2007?

  • Simple. More revenue. Either "Economies of Scale" revenue (sell copies to more customers in existing markets) or through "Agility" revenue (open source companies are more agile and can branch out into adjacent markets easier).
  • Example: Actuate and their BIRT efforts have helped to boost their stock price.

Miscellaneous points:

  • Software Market is not a Commodity Market.
  • Open Source Software market is even more of a branded market than proprietary software (strong emotional preferences found in the Open Source community).
  • Interface Standards do not affect pricing. Implementation of the "standard" interfaces is what customers are buying.

Tags: ,,,

IP Issues - Mixing Commercial and Open Source Software at EclipseCon 2007

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 6, 2007
in Open Source, Software and Startups
. 0 Comments

Panel of Palamida, OpenLogic, Black Duck Software, IBM, and BEA Open Source licensing experts at EclipseCon 2007.

Some takeaways:

  • Lots of organizations have no idea how to make the risk/reward analysis of when they should use Open Source Software and when they should not.
  • Some companies go so far as to have policies that forbid the use of Open Source Software within their products, or even block access to sourceforge.net from the office. None of these tactics work to stop the developer from bringing the code in anyway.
  • Most organizations really have no idea how much Open Source Software they are using in their product, or which licenses those products are using.
  • TiVo, Linksys, and Progress Software/MySQL case identified as some big/well-know cases of companies using Open Source with some kind of legal action taken against them with respect to their use of Open Source Software, Check out gplviolations.org for more information (at least within Germany).
  • Companies should have Open Source areas of expertise. An individual or group that understands these IP and licensing issues and can communicate with executive management, engineering,and the legal department effectively. Or, companies should use an Open Source consulting firm, like the Olliance Group.
  • The major Open Source communities have gotten really good at certifying the originality of the work that is contributed. Buyer must still beware, however. There is risk associated with any software that is developed through an open, community process.

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