proprietary crap

Jan 18 2009

New interesting open Source releases

In case you haven't noticed them yet ..
MySQL Proxy has a new release and moved it's public repo to Launchpad.

(Still Launchpad isn't open source yet .. a matter of time .. but in the meanwhile Jira and Confluence are sadly gaining adoption in the market)

In the devministration area there is a new Puppet module that automagically populates puppet managed machines in Zenoss , I've seen different people using Puppet to populate their Nagios configs, but adding Zenoss to the list is new.. so when will we see the Zabbix and Hyperic plugins ?

Oh yes.. and then there is Chef

Dec 07 2008

Puppy FUD

Dries commented on Seth reporting about the puppyfud some proprietary company not understanding open source was uttering.

It was a pretty lousy comparison actually .. they compared Open Source software to a Free Puppy.. it looks nice and cheap at first but it will cost you anyhow as it needs food and shots etc so it isn't really free after all.

Now the fact is that with the proprietary stuff they are trying to shove down their customers throats, their CMS's also need configuration, updates, and styling left and right, probably just as much as the Open Source alternative out there.
Now as they have a proprietary platform the chance that they have an equally big expert group around their product is small, people don't just buy software to learn it, however they will download a piece of interesting open source software to get aquanted with it.. There probably won't be that much free examples and tips and hints a round, or even free themes to base a site on ..

So no the purebred puppy really isn't the better alternative it's going to cost you equally in maintenance and you have to pay the high cost to actually be able to play with it .. or did you think it would be your software after you payed the pricetag ?

Now there's more bad news for the purebred software buyer. He isn't free to go to any vet, no , he has to go to a specialized one in his breed, actually if he doesn't do so once.. he risks never to be helped by another one in the future either.
And no choosing which food to buy for the puppy, no ther's just 1 brand that works, or maybe 2 .. but the prices have been set .. and it won't be cheap.

So what do you want .. the freedom to go to any vet you like, and to buy dogfood where you want , or even give them some of your own leftovers. Or the heavy pricetag, AND the limited choice in vets and food.

Jul 31 2008

GroundWork heading the same path as Qlusters ?

In this article the ScienceLogic blogs wonders.

Here’s an interview with David Lily, founder and CEO. Hmm. What happened to CEO Ranga Rangachari? As far as I can tell, he disappeared somewhere between Nov 2007 and Jan 2008. No announcement that I could find… Wonder how things are going for GroundWork? Are they about to follow QLusters and drop the “Open Source” part of their name that they tacked on a couple years back?

Then followed up with the article on Qlusters closing shop where they identify different reasons for an Open Source systems management shop to close

What are the signs that a systems management company is going out of business?

a) they abandon their open source project, which was supposedly tied to their commercially supported version

b) they switch CEOs very very quietly

c) they are an “open source” company trying to actually make money (via paying customers, not VC)

d) all of the above

I've read rumours about GroundWorks management leaving before, but are they really heading the same direction ?

Now while we are on the crazy similarities subject ...

Remember Caldera ? Who bought SCO, after which it rebranded to SCO ?
Didn't have a nice ending didn't it ? So can you come up with another example of such a TakeOver and Rebrand scenario ?

Jul 10 2008

iMoko

Matt has a good overview of the hidden costs of the soon to be available Proprietary device with a Vendor Lockin clausule. Some people are probably already slowing down on their coffee addiction to be able to afford the gimmic but the sad truth is it remains an utterly expensive proprietary and closed device to call people.

The fact that here in Belgium even TestAankoop is vouching for a change in legislation to make the brick affordable is just sad.

So let's stop all the BS about this closed device and go buy an openMoko ..

It's just too bad the Neo FreeRunner isn't available yet for a European mobile network (900/1800) (or at least Sold Out)