What makes a good open source project name, and what makes a good name for a product, or even a feature within a product? And, does it really matter in the world of open source software? From what I have seen, it matters a lot. In fact, poor understanding of technology naming nuances may impede the uptake of open source software. (more…)
Regarding the 50 SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 activations that I recently blogged, there was a subsequent slashdot thread in which several people have sneeringly commented that SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 proprietary. This chaffes me because Novell is part way through a cultural change that I think is nothing short of astounding. Because of open source, the company is becoming a foundary of invention again. We’re finally starting to be recognized again as a place that can really drive new software technology.
So, if you have somehow ended up here having passed through the slashdot firebranding, I ask you to consider some details about SLED, SUSE, and Novell. (more…)
Novell is giving away fifty–count ‘em! fifty!–one year activation codes of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop to members of the open source community. Fifty activations at a list price of USD$50 means fifty squared. That’s almost a $2500 value.
Thanks to an insightful (as in, “Why didn’t we think of that?”) comment from alert reader Liquidat, we’re upping the ante, raising the stakes, and sweatening, make that sweetening, the pie for putting yourself on the Your Linux is Ready map.
The site doesn’t mention it yet, so because you read my blog, I’m giving you a head start because a head start is supposed to be one of the best ways to win in a random drawing.
Fifty activations! Thats like, seven squared!
Wait a minute…seven squared? That’s only forty-nine! Where did the other one go?
LIQUIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!
This just in…Novell Open Audio brings in security architect Roman Drahtmueller and the godfather of AppArmor, Crispin Cowan to discuss security in SUSE Linux Enterprise.
After featuring so much GNOME stuff on the lead up to the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, a couple readers assailed me with directives to give some love to KDE.
While I was in Nuremberg, Coolo and I conspired to post a sneak-peak at the SUSE KDE team’s work on the new main menu that they have been prototyping around the time that we post his interview.
Looks like Stephan Binner has posted a flash movie of the “Kickoff” menu in action. So, if you missed its meteoric rise on Digg, check it out.
By the way, while I was at LUGRadio Live, I spoke with the peeps at the Kubuntu counter. They were friendly, but one did make some kind of snide remark to me like, “SUSE still does stuff on KDE?” Yes, Kubuntu counter guy, but its mostly this crazy stuff called research-based innovation. 
Alternate Title for this Post: “The Ken and I”
Ever know one of those people who take things that they’re passionate about really seriously?
I had an impromptu hallway conversation with Ken Muir yesterday. He’s the director of engineering over Novell’s GroupWise product line. As an engineering manager, Ken is typically very…what’s the word…determined? I’ve always known him to be that way, even way back when he was simply a developer and I was merely a product guy, both of us on the ZENworks product line. (Ken’s gone places since then, and I…well…I have a blog.) But ever since Ken started on GroupWise, he has seemed to be more singularly focused on, and empassioned by, his product than I’ve ever seen him before. I’m not saying that I know Ken extremely well, but I know him well enough notice the difference. I’m glad that GroupWise has his attention.
Anyway…Imagine my embarrassment when I ran into product line manager Phil Karren and started spouting off that we really need to get a much better GroupWise client for Linux out, and get it out soon. (In doing Linux demos, I want GroupWise to look like the coolest thing since beer in a can. I mean, doesn’t GroupWise deserve that?) Just as I was just getting warmed up for a good rant to Phil, Ken appears. To be sure, Phil would have shut me down soon enough, but he wouldn’t have done so quite as…abruptly? Ken pounced on my second or third sentence, his voice already rebuking me before he had even come into sight. Phil settled back and watched on with some amusement. (In fact, come to think of it, Phil’s smile may have expressed the deeply kharmic satisfaction that one gets upon seeing a car that had earlier sped by and cut you off in traffic, now pulled over by a cop.)
Anyway, Ken and I got into it for a couple minutes, and eventually found common ground, worked out agreements, etc. That’s not to imply that we had some kind of out-and-out verbal altercation–it was all very respectable. We have known each other long enough to have the kind of rapport that allows us to debate and know that we will have a productive outcome. Ultimately, we know that we share a commitment to a common cause.
Anyway, one of the outcomes in this case is that Ken posted “GroupWise Linux and Mac Client Futures” on Cool Blogs. It’s a really good post–exactly what I want to see more of from product leaders at Novell. In the post, Ken specifically names the current priority items on his team is working on, and solicits readers’ feedback on the list. Ken will take your comments very seriously. Trust me on that.
One last thing. Ken also mentions that he’ll be at the upcoming GroupWise Advisor summit. If you’re going, introduce yourself to him. He’s a good person to know.
Our latest edition of Novell Open Audio gets back into our long list of interviews from Erin and my visit to Novell’s SUSE office in Nuremberg. This one is really cool if you have wondered how SUSE Linux Enterprise (or even openSUSE for that matter) is created. We look at how SUSE’s AutoBuild process works, and then we follow on with how the teams there automate a lot of testing for quality assurance.
Erin and I also offer a mea culpa to the openSUSE community regarding our incomplete explanation of what the openSUSE distribution is all about. Here at Novell Open Audio headquarters. we’re all about cleaning up after ourselves.
The audio quality on the interviews is still substandard, and will continue to be throughout all the Nuremberg interviews we have still to release. Our Microphones tested fine before we left. Something went wrong, and now Mike the Audio Guy is working on some new microphones for our next venture.
Finally, if you have not rated or commented on some of the recent shows, please do! We hang on every word of the comments–seriously!
Novell has a frappr thing up through which you can get some free stuff.
[Aug 25 Update: 50 SLED activation codes!?]
Don Marti seems to think I’m perhaps a bit over-the-top about SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop:
Ted Haeger (owner of a tricked-out SUSE-fanboy Dell) was in full Demo Madman mode yesterday, showing off a Novell contribution to OpenOffice.org that enables VBA macros to run (with an appropriate security warning) – then he and his team put up a brave iguana[sic]-throwing effort at Golden Penguin Bowl, narrowly losing to the Ubunteros [sic].
Point taken, Don. The effectiveness of the sad clown archetype is badly underrated and due for a comeback anyway. From now on my advocacy role models shall be Droopy Dog and recently deposed Senator Joseph Lieberman.
A comment on my recent VBA Macros update asks several questions about security for macros in OpenOffice.org.
I asked Noel Power to help me out, and he graciously provided us with some brief answers to show some of what he is thinking about regarding security for macros.
I daresay that I think our beloved Beagle Boy has gone Bananas.
SoaP is a movie so powerful, I daresay it will bring a generation together. Moreso than 9/11, this will define the quintesential moment of our time.
Comparing to Citizen Kane? Joe, have you no respect for fine art? Were Citizen Cain any measure to SoaP it would still be known today as Citizen Muthaf’n Kane. The best Orson Wells had to offer was “Rosebud.” There’s certainly none of Samuel Jackson’s wry subtlety in that, I’ll say.
Novell recently released an updated version of Compiz for SLED10*. While I have not identified many changes that end users would notice, there is one that Nat Friedman first showed me at LinuxWorld Expo last week. The Scale plugin (which scales down all open windows on a desktop, allowing you to pick which you want to come make the active window) has gotten a cool improvement.
The scaled-down windows used to lay out on the page like this:
Now they share the screen space much more evenly, like this:
It’s a subtle but noticeable change. My example shots aren’t the best for showing the improvement, but I only had one screenshot of the old scale plugin, and I had worked on it a lot to get it so it did not waste any screen real estate. So, regretfully, this new one I just made shows a lot more screen waste than is typical of the plugin’s updated behavior. Nevertheless, I like that it no longer crams the scaled windows onto the screen (always favoring the upper-left). It has a more natural visual appeal.
Taking another example using three open windows, it evenly distributes them like so.
My favorite part of the story about when Nat showed me this is that he had pulled it from internal Novell repositories. I was helping him organize his demo for the LinuxWorld Expo pre-conference keynote he was to deliver that afternoon. When he installed it, I remember thinking to myself, “Well that’s not a very real demo if you’re going to show unreleased code for Desktop Effects.” The following day, Novell released the patch to all subscribers of SUSE Linux Enterprise, and thereby vindicating Nat’s use of it on stage. I love how quickly open source updates happen.
….
*It’s possible that the code has been also released on openSUSE as well, but I don’t have that installed at the moment.)
As I previously mentioned in my post about VBA macros, you gotta love a guy like Michael Meeks. However, I’ve recently learned that you also gotta love Novell’s Noel Power, since he’s doing much of the work at Novell on VBA macro support in the Novell Edition of OpenOffice.org. The amount of work these guys have already done will go a long way to improving OpenOffice. That is, of course, dependent on if/when this massive code contribution gets accepted into the upstream version. (Michael expresses some concern that the folks at Sun may be too caught up with their own work in this area to review Novell’s submission.)
Since that first post on this subject, several people have submitted macros for the team to test. When I started this, I wondered how long before the team would ask me to back it off a bit, but so far they tell me to keep ‘em comin’. So, if you find macros that don’t work in the Novell Edition of OpenOffice on SLED10, let me know! It’s still thaeger at my company’s name .com. (Please include “VBA Macro” somewhere in the title.)
Yesterday, Michael sent me an email with a spreadsheet attached showing the list of functions that the team are now working on integrating. It’s a solid list, and I really respect their process. Rather than run the fool’s errand of parsing the entire VBA language, the team is taking a more parsimonious route. They’re using community- and customer-submitted macros to determine which VBA features/functions we currently support inadequately (or not at all). According to their apparent frequency of usage, the team is first taking on the parts in which they can make the biggest impact (most likely weighed against development effort to complete, of course).
The best part of the file Michael sent to me was that the data was formatted into a “Data Pilot,” which is OpenOffice’s analog to the Microsoft Excel “pivot table.” Data pilots, as well as support for xls pivot tables, is a whole new feature area in OpenOffice.org that I really ought to post something about, too. (So many features, so little time.)
As an interesting side phenomenon, many Macintosh community members were recently alarmed to learn that apparently Microsoft has made some kind of announcement about Microsoft stating that they may be dropping support for VBA macros in Excel on Mac. That linked many Mac users over to my blog post, and produced a couple more macro submissions. I’ve always had a lot of respect for the Mac. It’s a great platform. (In fact, I survived my college years using an old Mac XL. That’s right, a converted Lisa!) These Mac users now see OpenOffice as a potential salvation to Microsoft’s abandoning them. Yet another reason for open source, methinks. Again, I hope that Sun are not so distracted by fixing their proprietary VBA support that they can take a look at integrating Novell’s patches up‑stream.
[22Aug06 Update: Noel Power provides some answers on macro security.]
On some of my posts, I include an occasional application screenshots. The better ones that I have done may look something like this one of f-spot (which I made when frustrated with the quality of a screenshot in a presentation I was reviewing).
You might notice that it has really nice shadowing. Too nice. Casual consipracy theorists could get the idea that my blog might be supported by a cadre of Novell graphics people as part of a underhanded–even dastardly–marketing effort by Novell.
For everyone else, the cool shadowing is simply courtesy of Compiz, the compositing manager that sits atop Xgl or AIGLX and provides all the cool Desktop Effects in SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.
However, if you have ever tried to screenshot an application while using Compiz, have probably found some issues.
First off, the Alt+PrtSc key combo that usually can grab a screenshot of the currently active window does not grab the window decorations (title bar, mainly) on the window under Compiz. (more…)
