WARNING... FOR YOUR SAFETY...

Most home invasions come in through Windows...

Saw this come accross the wire on the Ubuntu site and laughed out loud after watching it. I thought it ranked up there with the Ruby Commercials. Of course it's a little simplistic since we all know there are vulnerabilities in Linux as well as Windows. Though the frequent target is certainly Windows due to the ABM (Anything But Microsoft) cooalition's distaste for the "evil empire".

Step 1... round up the lawyers

We have all heard the jokes and everyone has read the phrase before. The first step to improvement is round up the lawyers and send them to the bottom of the ocean.

If you have had your head under a rock or otherwise not seen any tech news lately you may have missed some of the latest fun with lawyers and the grand FUD they can churn up.

First Microsoft came out with a statements about how Open Source has violated 235 of their patents. Of course no details were provided on the patents themselves just a bit of churn and great press. Using their recent deal with Novell for patent sharing (Read my post on how when you wrestle a pig you both get dirty but the pig likes it for more info) as an example of "good" behavior they encouraged others to strike similar deals. Part of the real fun in all of this is how at the same time Microsoft was (out of another side of it's mouth some might say) calling for Patent reform due to suits from others against their own patent infringements.

Then the Linux foundation crafted a rebuttal. As would be expected they called out Microsoft on what the patents were. They clearly called out the FUD aspect and took a more offensive approach and begun to fund patent claims among other actions. Spinning from IBM, Sun and even Nokia releasing patents for Open Source use this approach seems to be gaining momentum.

Now the new GPLv3 is even including language that would cause Microsoft to loose rights to sue if the new Linux license terms in GPLv3 go forward. Further complicating this is how the deal with Novell may actually be what causes Microsoft to loose enforceability on the patents. Now even Novell is exploring patent reform. Even going so far as to fund "Patent Busting" activities.

Wow... I guess if you are a lawyer this would be fun or at least profitable. But as a techy I have to just sit back, pop some popcorn and watch the show.

Solaris vs. Linux

As mentioned in my post Sun gets a new spark I recently had the opportunity to visit with some of the folks from SUN and get some visibility into the efforts they have under way. One of the things that this visit caused me to ponder was Solaris 10. When Sun open sourced Solaris I wrote it off as the death throws of a previously strong giant and it made me sad. I originally cut my Unix teeth on Solaris and did a lot of work with it as the stable foundation on which to build open systems. However, as Linux came into its own I have also been one of those folks who has systematically been replacing Solaris in the data center with Linux. For the most part going with the masses to Red Hat but with occasional forays into others as well.

Some developers that I know have stuck with Solaris for their development environments even through the Linux craze due to tools that they liked. Originally I had gone the other way, moving development environments to Linux and deployment environments to Solaris. Solaris in prod for stability and Linux for tools and speed in development.

With the new innovation going into Solaris, things like ZFS, zones and Grid it gives pause. The difficulty now is that everyone and their kid sister has run Linux, known Linux etc. There is a wealth of Linux talent out there and the Solaris admins are much harder to find. Of course Red Hat has been getting more proud of their products and pricing their support accordingly which also adds to the mix. With all of the recent silliness from Microsoft on their FUD around Open Source and indemnity clauses things get even more interesting. (I personally am of the belief that if they thought they could win they would already be in court... but I am sure the FUD is the real goal)

So given your choice... which would you pick?