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Bill Claybrook

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Top Stories by Bill Claybrook

In the past two days, Novell has made two important Linux-related announcements  - the release of its Connector for Microsoft Exchange Server to open source and expansion of its Premium Service support for Linux. The release of Connector makes the entire Evolution product available as open source under the GPL license. This is a good move for Novell because it is important to provide a product that allows Linux users to collaborate with Windows users with respect to e-mail, scheduling meetings, etc. without having to spend an additional $69 for the Connector. The Connector may have been viewed as a revenue generator for Ximian, but that is not the case for Novell. Novell is interested in attracting more users to its Linux desktop offering and this will help. The second announcement  - expanding its Premium ServiceSM support program to cover its Linux offerings - is th... (more)

Linux Viewpoint: Sun's Plan to Confront Linux

I don’t get it. Sun is still trying to go against market trends and push Solaris on SPARC when many customers want Linux. Sun has a wonderful volume server business with Solaris on SPARC. In fact, Sun has lowered its SPARC-based volume server prices so much that it can compete on price with some of Dell’s offerings. And some of Sun’s middleware products are included. But many users want Linux. Linux server sales are growing by at least 30%-35% per year. Users are interested in Linux for a number of reasons: they don’t want to be locked in to proprietary hardware; they know that i... (more)

Linux Is Being Kicked Around: Why?

Today I read an article by a journalist with quotes by analysts about Linux and how difficult that it will be to move to Linux from Windows and from UNIX in some cases. Then there is this book written by someone named Kenneth Brown based on a study of Linux and its derivation. Mr. Brown says that Linux may have been derived from UNIX and that some open source types do not respect others IP. UNIX code is in various operating systems. In the early 1980s when I was learning to be a UNIX kernel programmer, I picked up a copy of Lyon's annotated UNIX book. His book had the source code... (more)

Linux.SYS-CON.com Analysis: Red Hat Sales - How Do They Do It?

On June 17, 2004, Red Hat announced what I would call a good a good 1Q05 (the quarter ended on May 31, 2004). The revenue for the quarter was $41.6M - a 53% year over year increase. That number will likely change with Red Hat's re-statement of its revenue after PricewaterhouseCoopers found a "flaw" in their accounting for subscriptions. Red Hat will now start recognizing subscription revenue on a daily basis over each contract term. My understanding is that PricewaterhouseCoopers uncovered the flaw on June 16, 2004, the day before the 1Q05 earnings were announced and well after K... (more)

The Business Value of Open Source

What is open source? It is a way of developing, distributing, and licensing software. In the late 1970's and early 1980's, the roots of open source as we know it today were established. The pioneers of open source were more interested in building software that helped them achieve both social and technical goals than in taking advantage of the business aspects of open source. Today, users, systems vendors, ISVs, systems integrators, and others are interested in exploiting the business value of open source. A number of people and organizations from the mid-1970's to the present hav... (more)