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February 27, 2005
open source - tales of the ordinary
At client sites, and conferences, I'm often asked if one can really take Open Source seriously. Of course for those who use it, and embrace it already, there are some clear success stories.The big success stories like the Apache webserver that Oracle integrated into it's 9iAS product, or the Linux Operating System on which all of Oracle's products now run on, are obvious ones. But how does Open Source impact our everyday usage of technology? John Udell over at Infoworld talks about the Unsung heroes of open source, the independent developers that are increasingly playing a very important role in computing today.
"When people talk about the heroes of open source, you tend to hear such familiar names as Linus Torvalds, Larry Wall, Brendan Eich, Guido van Rossum, Monty Widenius, Miguel de Icaza, and Rasmus Lerdorf. No question about it: These people are my heroes. But so is Roger Binns, and so are the countless other unsung heroes of open source. For solving a host of vexing problems with quiet competence, and for doing it in ways that invite others to stand on their shoulders, I salute them all."
I have to agree with Mr. Udell on that.
Posted by admin at 11:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 24, 2005
Oracle Resources - Part I
In an effort to consolidate, and index some of the best article and script resources for Oracle, this is the first in a series presenting links and reviews of Oracle specific technical content on the web.
If the Oracle world were to produce a superstar rock band, The Oaktable Network would probably be it. With many of the trappings of stardom, they nevertheless continue to churn out some of the most technical, and sometimes controversial material about Oracle.
Their site contains scripts and articles of very technical and always useful nature, and is highly recommended.
Also their Oaktable Press books, part of APress are highly recommended. I read "Oracle Insights: Tales of the Oaktable" and the material is insightful, and in some cases controversial. If you're looking for a voice outside of Oracle Corporation to learn about how the product really works, this is it.
Posted by admin at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)
February 23, 2005
Open Source in Government
The viability, and adoption of Open Source and Linux in government has gotten a lot of press recently. The German government has been switching in a big way, the UK government says Linux is viable and don't forget Vienna, Austria. Meanwhile RH has announced a federal unit to work with the government on adopting Open Source in government.
There's a project of the Niedersachsen police called Nivadis (German only) which is a custom system built on Weblogic + Oracle running on RH Linux Itanium servers. That's not even mentioning the almost 12000 desktops they're switching to Linux.
Even the National Security Agency has gotten into the act.
If you want to keep up with this area, I would recommend this new email list on Linux and government. You may also want to check out this whitepaper from NetAction.
Posted by admin at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)
February 18, 2005
looking for Open Source talent
The tech industry is starting to perk up after a few years licking it's dot-com wounds. Alas according to this Linux Pipeline Report Open Source experts remain in short supply. A quick look at Craigs List for New York or San Francisco seems to confirm this. A search for "Linux" returned 170 and 573 search results in those cities respectively.
Posted by admin at 05:21 PM | Comments (0)
February 10, 2005
OTN- Projects for Oracle page
Oracle has published a growing list of Open Source projects which build on Oracle Technology.
Of particular interest to me is the SQL shell which provides editing, and history, as well as the various libraries for all your favorite languages such as Perl, Python, C and C++.
Posted by admin at 09:51 PM | Comments (0)
Welcome to Oracle + Open Source
Welcome to Oracle + Open Source, a website which brings together the free-wheeling world of Open Source software, and the commercial world of Oracle's enterprise class database. We'll cover developments in this area, including new tools, technologies and the latest developments. We'll also keep a close eye on Oracle's trajectory in terms of contributing to and incorporating Open Source components into it's product lines.
Posted by admin at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)