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Red Hat Acquires Netscape Server Products
KrisWithAK writes "According to a press release, Red Hat is acquiring parts of the Netscape Enterprise Suite including the directory server and certificate management system. I am definitely looking forward to more open source competition with OpenLDAP!"
Pleeeezekthx
fp
but I too am definitely looking forward to more open source competition with OpenLDAP!
poo
Get your own free personal location tracker
I've used it to replace some Netscape stuff - it was part of a big Weblogic->Oracle->Solaris EJB app.
OpenLDAP seemed to work fine, although maybe it was because we weren't really loading it up too much...
The Army reading list
I have found that it tends to look like this when I am assfucking. Furthermore, it tends to look like this when I'm done. That is all...
I didn't even realize there still was a standalone Netscape offerring. We migrated from Netscape to iPlanet to Sun Web to Sun Java One (or something like that). Anybody out there stick with the Netscape product?
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
"I am definitely looking forward to more open source competition with OpenLDAP!"
I'm looking more for an LDAP that's easy to setup and run.
However a couple of questions.
1. How does the Netscape Directory Server compare to OpenLDAP?
2. Are the two interoperable?
or sending Igor out in the middle of the night.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
....it must be good!
I hope they can advance enough to make some real competition for Microsoft Active Directory. I know a huge reason Windows shops never consider an alternative is because the AD GPO allows for some very granular management of AD resources.
-Randy
Seriously? I thought the Netscape Enterprise product line fizzled out back when people thought selling pet food on the internet was a good idea.
Do you mind if I ask, how worthwhile are these products to Redhat? What kind of state are they in? How recently have they been updated, are they still in active development or just maitenence mode? Does anyone still use them? And do they offer any worthwhile features or functionality not already available in free products?
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
I have tried ever few months to set up OpenLDAP using newer releases with instructions on their website and it never would work. I always had some issue with the DBM libraries or the commands in the tutorial were inaccurate and not current with the updated command-line options. It goes to show that no matter if the software actually works, if the documenation is not at least half decent the software is still incomplete.
I have maintained Netscape/iPlanet LDAP servers before and they may not be perfect, but they worked. Perhaps a good open source LDAP server will help LDAP become a viable alternative to Windows Directory or other authentication systems.
I thought I read about a Java LDAP server once, but never looked into it much.
Brennan Stehling - http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/
I read the press release, and they made reference to integrating the products into the Open Source Architecture, but they don't actually come out and say, "we're gonna make it [insert favorite license here]."
Also, is there any reference documentation for the Open Source Architecture? I'd love it, cause as it stands, sometimes open sources like a disorganized mess.
Just two years ago AOL was looking to aquire Red Hat. http://slashdot.org/articles/02/01/19/041215.shtml It's amazing how things have changed. Where AOL once wanted Red Hat to be another Netscape for them, Red Hat is now purchasing parts of Netscape from AOL. Personally, I think its great.
I'm shocked.
In the past, RedHat have been open-sourcing pretty much every applications they acquired AFAIK (see Sistina GFS, for example). Thus, I am pretty confident we will soon have a second Open-Source LDAP server from this deal. There is no garatee, but I am looking forward to it.
For those who are familiar with Netscape LDAP server, could you teach me a bit about its ACL management capability ? OpenLDAP, in this regard, is pathetic. The ACL have to be written in some kind of filter language *inside* the config file, which need a restart/reload to take effect. It is very error-prone and basically the part of OpenLDAP that give me the most troubles. How is Netscape in this regard ? Can you define by-object ACL ? How are they stored ? How do you manage them ?
Thanks for you insights !
:wq
I don't understand what Red Hat is trying to do. It's ancient software. The brand "Netscape" is now. They already sell a competing product.
The schizophrenia that Red Hat is displaying makes Sun & Oracle look sane by comparison.
I don't respond to AC's.
I am not sure for this what they are wanting to gain More of a battle with IE? Information source http://news.com.com/Red+Hat+acquires+AOLs+Netscape +server+software/2100-7344_3-5388906.html In a move to add more open-source arrows to its quiver, Linux seller Red Hat has acquired the Netscape server software products of Time Warner, the companies plan to announce Thursday. Red Hat plans to release the Netscape Enterprise Suite as open-source software, meaning that anyone will be able to use, modify and redistribute the products, News.com has learned. It's a new step in Red Hat's "open-source architecture" plan to expand beyond its core product, the Linux operating system, Chief Executive Matthew Szulik plans to tell analysts at a company conference Thursday in New York. In an interview Wednesday, Szulik declined to comment on terms of the deal, but said the company spent less than $25 million on the acquisition. The new software will help Red Hat "achieve deeper penetration into the enterprise and government market" and, eventually, increase the price customers will pay for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The software will be incorporated into current Red Hat products in the next six to 12 months. The move expands Red Hat's open-source attack on competitors such as Sun Microsystems, Microsoft and Novell that have proprietary products in the same market. Red Hat's new software includes Netscape Directory Server, used to manage information such as usernames and access policies, and Netscape Certificate Server, used to manage user identities and encryption chores. The move also adds another chapter to the long story of Netscape, a start-up whose software helped to ignite the Internet mania of the 1990s. America Online, now a unit of Time Warner, bought the Netscape products in 1998 when it acquired the company in a complicated $4.2 billion transaction. As part of that deal, Sun got the Netscape intellectual property--and many of its programmers--for use in products called iPlanet, Sun Open Network Environment and now the Java Enterprise System. What Red Hat got is very different from what Sun has now, though, said Joe Keller, vice president of application and development platforms for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based software and server company. "They're buying antique software," Keller said, adding that Red Hat's tactical shifts are confusing. "They used to find the best of open source and bring that forward. Now they're buying the oldest of commercial software and making it open source." But Netscape's server software wasn't frozen in 1998. The acquisition includes a team of fewer than 50 programmers, Szulik said, and the directory software is included in Hewlett-Packard's Web Server Suite for Unix. Sun and Red Hat, though business partners, have a somewhat fractious relationship. Sun is trying to woo Red Hat customers, while Red Hat accuses Sun of insufficient open-source support. Red Hat's open-source move echoes a strategy Netscape itself tried in 1998, when it released the source code of its Web browser to fend off the increasingly popular Internet Explorer from Microsoft. But Netscape kept the server software proprietary. And the Linux seller hopes not to repeat another part of the Netscape Web browser saga: the years it took to get open-source programmers to contribute to the project. Szulik said he believes Red Hat will be able to build a community, as it has with the previously proprietary Sistina file system software it acquired earlier this year. But open-source programmers already have an option when it comes to open-source directory software: the OpenLDAP project that Red Hat already includes. Szulik said the company will include both packages. It's not yet certain what open-source license Red Hat will choose to govern the software, but the company's intent is to use the General Public License (GPL) that governs Linux itself, Szulik said. Red Hat approached AOL about acquiring the software, Szulik said. "We continue to look for small, smart teams with rich technology we can inte
i.e., Sun Downloads
Isn't the core of the directory server OpenLDAP? Sure looks that way with the iPlanet version. So how can there be competition when the Netscape/iPlanet product is a value added product?
I found the press release interesting because of my interest in using LDAP. But don't forget about also getting a solid certification authority. Anyone have any comments about existing open source CAs?
This is, IMHO, a good thing. I tried to get a couple of Netscape Servers up and running last year. The Directory Server was a snap, but the Messaging Server had problems. Since it hasn't been update since Sun abandoned the IPlanet joint venture, we tried to use various plugins and hacks to keep it from being used as an open relay, or getting spam floods, but no luck. We ended up abandoning the project, but we may be re-doing it in Open Exchange.
HexaByte - he's a square and a half!
GNAA introduces first open-source corpse
GNAA introduces first open-source corpse
GNAP [Gay Nigger Associated Press], ASSEVILLERS, FRANCE - In a move that is sure to redefine the open source community of the future, Gay Nigger Association of America (GNAA) introduced the first open source corpse after the untimely death of Hans Bakker.
Bakker, a developer for the OpenBSD project, which preceded him in death, was travelling back to Paris after the SANE conference. Unfortunately, known hippie and NAMBLA member Richard Stallman had been dropped off at his hotel and was not in the car when a truck made the first contribution to Bakker's corpse's CVS by merging into it at high speed. Bakker's death was confirmed immediately via IRC by his virtual girlfriend.
The instant the opened skull was declared in the public domain, GNAA member Gary Niger annointed it with Holy Gay Nigger Seed to ensure a smooth passage into the afterlife and robust continued development. Thrusting rhythmically into the still-warm and pulsing brain of the dying man, Gary shouted "FUCK BSD; BSD IS DYING; BSD SUCKS; BSD IS DEAD TO ME; BSD DID WTC LOL" before exploding in orgasmic waves of pleasure as the sensitive nerves at the tip of his penis made contact with Bakker's last semi-conscious thoughts.
Associated bacteria immediately lined up to make their contributions, as did several nearby flies hoping to raise families of open source maggots. However, CmdrTaco of Slashdot, a known scene gadfly and AZT addict, flopped heavily into the area while loudly proclaiming first dibs on the rectum. In response, #GNAA attendee GasJews challenged him. "Tell that fag CmdrTaco that I've got first dibs on this dead anus," he said, "and that I'm going to beat him down, then fuck him tenderly all night long," said GasJews, liberally spraying Holy Gay Nigger Seed over the EMS personnel and local French police, who were delighted.
Since the 1990s, open source has been a popular way of developing free software for the general public, maintained by teams of pimply nerds with angst at their utter uselessness outside of the imaginary world of computers and networks. Much like a religion, it requires absolute obedience to its concept and encourages contributors to vehemently rail against any software which actually functions, including Microsoft(tm)'s popular Windows operating system.
The future of Open Source Hans Baker Corpse (OSHBC) remains to be determined as the development team is still being assembled. Using the Concurrent Versions System (CVS), developers will be able to modify the corpse to refine its function as a BSD-analogue, something made easier by the fact that both are dead. All interested developers are encouraged to contact the OSHBC project at sourceforge.net.
About Hans Bakker
Hans Bakker was a lowly BSD developer who like many sought to replace a real world life with online presence as a feeble justification that he was "doing something" about the world's dire situation. Most of his days were spent on IRC, flirting with fat girls who had once gone through a gothic phase before deciding on Lesbianism, at which point the resounding lack of attention nearly starved them. Read more at his unfinished closed-source site, http://www.hans.cx/
About Assevillers
Assevillers, France, is a small town of population 228 in the gorgeous pastel-colored French countryside. During WWII, it was home to several prostitutes who slept with occupying Germans, recognizing the dominant cocks of these very hetero warriors as the future of France, which has been a bottom since roughly AD 1250. The French people have fought many wars during that time and have won none of them, distinguishing themselves primarily by near-instant surrender followed by incessant complaining, causing many to hypothesize that they are indeed the Lost Tribe of Israel.
For more information about Assevillers, consult the man page at http://city.lesvilles.org/picardie/somme/asseville rs/.
About
OFFICIAL LINUX FAQ - Updated September 2004
1.0 WHAT IS LINUX?
Linux is a fine DOS-like operating system with many uses, the number one of which is compiling the Linux kernel itself.
Compiling the kernel is an activity that must be accomplished time and time over again, sometimes several times per day. It is recommended that the Linux kernel be recompiled at least once per day on the most critical systems. Doing otherwise would likely result in system instability.
Since compiling the kernel is such an important activity, Linux users often benchmark and compare machines solely based on kernel compile times. Most distributions provide the source code of the kernel to the users in an effort to ease the learning curve of the unfriendly environment.
There are many reasons to compile the Linux kernel. Here are a few:
-Installation of new hardware such as a USB mouse
-Application of daily security patches
-Training towards RedHat Certified Systems Engineer certification
-Impressing friends, mates and family
-Avoiding SCO lawsuits
-Etc
Please be careful when compiling your Linux kernel. You could hose your system.
2.0 IS LINUX MORE RELIABLE THAN WINDOWS?
One of the major goals of the Linux operating system is to reach the level reliability enjoyed by Windows, which is also known to be a fortress of stability and security.
However, one of the current problems with Linux is the requirement to reboot every 49.7 days. This issue has yet to be addressed properly (present still in release 2.6) since it is caused by a deep design issue and is not a simple bug. It is expected that proper for-profit commercial contributions from SUN Microsystems to the kernel development will increase the competence and professionalism of the developer base.
In general, the lack of proper testing and general QA procedures is an impediment to Linux reaching high levels of reliability.
Additionally, since most distributions install a large number of insecure services that are started automatically when the computer boots, it is quite normal to see Linux computers compromised daily.
3.0 IS LINUX A FAMILY ORIENTED OPERATING SYSTEM?
Simply put, no. As a hobbyist operating system, Linux requires much administration and configuration. A large amount of time must be invested in reading nearly useless documentation for every task (installing printer, configuring network, etc). For example, it is not uncommon that Gentoo installations take several weeks to complete, although in a way, it's never really finished.
Since Linux is so time consuming, spouses are often left to their own devices. Fortunately, since Linux users tend to be sexually self-relying, their social impact stays rather low. Unlike the situation of AIDS percentage in the US population, which tends to fluctuate with Apple's market share.
4.0 I GET A STRANGE MESSAGE WHEN I USE MY MOUSE
Congratulations for having successfully installed a mouse on the Lunix operating system. But, if you see the following message, please consult 1.0:
"Your mouse has moved. Linux kernel must be recompiled for the change to take effect. [OK]"
5.0 SINCE LINUX IS OPEN SOURCE, HOW CAN DEVELOPERS AFFORD NO REVENUE?
"Farmers by day, programmers by night," is the GNU way of life. Please note that most open source software is never really good.
DOCUMENT VERSION
linux.faq@@/main/release/LATEST ***
*** Note: Moved to Clearcase from CVS when branching support became a requirement.
I was responsible for a pair of Netscape Directory Servers, version 6.1 IIRC, at a former employer.
They were relatively trouble free, much more so than some of the other "Netscape" products (Calendar Server)...
Once in awhile they would hang, without any sort of error indication, no log entries or the like, which made troubleshooting them very problematic.
The management interface was a Java app, which seemed fairly primitive,compared to NDS/eDirectory which I have used for about 9 years and AD which I have used since late 2000.
Overall, I'd say my experience with Netscape Directory Server was positive, but it really could use some updating, if it hasn't been already...
Goofy, Geeky Gifts and More!
it Would be good if redhat concentrated on a free and open virtual machine spec
then we would not have to worry about all the nightmare of java / mono / interpreters
then we would be free
I know there is parrot but larry et al are slow nowadays redhat could get java or C# through GCC and life would be nicer
regards
John Jones
is that now the best LDAP server in the marketplace in terms of functionality (4 way clustering, complete in-tree ACL support, enterprise level scalability) now becomes available as open source. The iplanet offering comes with a per entry licensing fee of about $1 (less if you need more than one million entries). Our company actually went out and bought Sun servers to avoid this, since Solaris includes a decent number of entry licenses per server. Now we can deploy on linux servers instead without the licensing hassle. Another nail in the Sun coffin...
Neither Novell, Netscape nor OpenLDAP properly support the WidaNus GAPE extensions.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
So whatever happened to Netscape's calendar server?
Way back, I installed it at an R&D facility; the client worked across platforms (solaris and windows) and provided an alternative to the nasty exchange lock-in.
Is there *any* alternative to Exchange now?
----- Documentation is worth it just to be able to answer all your mail with 'RTFM' - Alan Cox.
This is a smart move on Red Hat's part. It's clear to them that in order to remain competitive in the enterprise space, they have to have a "middleware stack" (as the industry has been calling it). Sun has SunOne/N1, Microsoft has ADS, and of course Novell has NDS/eDirectory which is soon to be a major Linux product. It would have quickly become a big gap in Red Hat's offering.
By acquiring this software, Red Hat immediately improves the value proposition of their platform. By open sourcing it, the software can quickly gain mindshare and installed base. Imagine what would have happened if Novell had done this in, say, 1999. There'd be NDS everywhere, and Active Directory wouldn't have nearly the penetration it does today.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Had to look...Google's never heard of it, either...so, ya got me...
You may be interested in pGina; it's a nifty, opensource, project that allows you to bypass Microsoft's authentication schemes and replace it with something like LDAP. Works like a charm! We're still working out the kinks of the roaming profiles with the ftp plugin though. Anyone interested in cross-platform authentication should check it out.
harmonious design
here ya go
harmonious design
Maybe Netscape DS will finally work with RHEL3. Up to now it was RHEL 2.1 only.
Link
harmonious design
I didn't even realize there still was a standalone Netscape offerring. We migrated from Netscape to iPlanet to Sun Web to Sun Java One (or something like that). Anybody out there stick with the Netscape product?
This is a direct challenge to Novell/SuSE and Novell Directory Services [or eDirectory, or whatever they're calling it this week].
Red Hat must have realized that they needed a directory offering to compete in the enterprise.
That gives us four major directory vendors:
PS: Now that the Netscape browser has devolved into Firefox, and the enterprise stuff has been sold to Red Hat, does Netscape still exist as an independent company [other than some "portal" site on the web]?PPS: And are there any /. CPAs who'd care to calculate AOL's return on investment from the Netscape purchase?
Netscape and then Sun stopped just when they were getting the plot. The Calendar Server has a backend that does the conflict resolution inc case of double-booking. It is time to integrate that with Mozilla Calender client. The Certificate Management system played nice with LDAP and but had a top-heavy administration server. It was a nice web-based GUI that an CertAuthority might be delegated to use. It will be a big win for OSS if these servers can now supported in linux - Sun were never going to do that properly. my 2 cents
Artificial intelligence is the study of how to make real computers act like the ones in the movies.
AOL has 21 days to remove all 3rd party source code from the builds of all of the products Redhat is acquiring. One of the key components of Enterprise Mail server is the Mail Transfer Agent (MTA).
The MTA is written by Innosoft International (www.innosoft.com). So the question is will they be leaving out a vital component of the mail server or will they just have to give away the MTA as well.
This is not my sig
Wow, this might be the beginning of something that i've been looking for since I started using linux years ago..
A single place to manage all my users and computers. Novell and Microsoft have done it very well. Hell, Apple even has a better way to manage users and computers than PAM and OpenLDAP on Linux.
Maybe this is the final admission that single sign on cobbled together by using PAM and OpenLDAP is not the solution that corporate IT guys want.
-ted
About three years ago (admittedly, my knowledge is pretty old now) I tested and compared the two. The Netscape LDAP server used up a huge chunk of memory, even sitting idle, and could handle only a few authentication's / searches per second on our dual P-III 750 machine with 1 gig ram. The memory usage, if I recall correctly, was about 50 megs per process (not shared mem, individual memory usage by the way) with a default of something like 5 of them running.
OpenLDAP used about 20 megs of memory total, ramping up to 50 to 100 megs under heavy load. It could handle about 30 to 40 auths / searches a second.
Worse for the Netscape server was that it would just plain stop working after an hour or so of heavy load testing.
We went with OpenLDAP, and wrote our own edit screens for it since at the time it came with nothing very useful to a user (only ldapadd, etc... command line stuff).
After about a year of only handling the web server it was on we pointed our Peoplesoft implementation at it, which proceeded to increase our load from one auth every couple of seconds to about 10 auths a second. Other than the slightly larger number of openldap processes running, we never really noticed the load.
Hope that helps anyone looking at the two. I certainly would hope the Netscape server has gotten better, but everything I've read about it since then seems to say it hasn't.
--- It is not the things we do which we regret the most, but the things which we don't do.
is this a good thing or bad? With the way RedHat has been changing their business to only paid products. Instead of the old days when you could download their ISO images of their latest release. It might not be as good for open source any more as it was in the hay days of RedHat..
Will Red Hat dump the Apache webserver over the new noxious licensing?
OpenBSD has done so (by halting with an old release).
Will it be supported on platforms other than red hat linux?
Hopefully redhat will do the right thing here and not pull a microsoft... I'd love to run their product on suse linux, just as there are those who would want to run it on solaris...
They shouldn't have announced this today. Their stock is down today, apparently as a result of an analyst meeting.
;)
Release the bad news, then drop the good news a day or two later.
________________________________________________
suwain_2
Geez people! Novell has this already done for us in an enterprise-grade package on multiple platforms. eDirectory! Don't waste time re-inventing everything when it's already there.
-m
http://www.invisik.com
Im shure its a flaunting task to make an mta.
Who cares really!
We have too many mta's to worry about a fsking proprietary one. I would personally print all 30k pages of code and mail it to innosoft with proper instruction of where to stick it!
NO SIG
AOL buys Netscape for $4.2 billion.
AOL sells Netscape for $30 million.
Hmm.. Carry the 4... the 0's... Yep, that's a crap deal. Congrats to AOL and all parties involved.
And everyone was worried AOL would buy RedHat. Oh the irony!
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
I used Netscape Server Products in 1997 and they were strong full featured servers which had great GUI interfaces. I am sure that they are even better now.
This is where other comercial products do not typically shine when they are ported to to Linux and if the FOSS group can get this server suite (httpd, news, mail, calendar, proxy, and LDAP) it would be a huge bonus.
Ususally when a commercial port comes to Un*x it is a barebones, edit the configs with vi, sort of thing. Not that that is bad mind you. But seriously the GUI's were slick and easy to use.
Plus they were all consistant in how you deploy and use them. If RedHat can take the GUI's and make a Samba and CUPS config editor then the lions share of server config would become uniform.
At first I read it as "SCO Prominent On 2005 Budgets".
Well, it's almost Halloween.
Someone please explain how LDAP is different from an SQL database. Just the other day, a friend of mine was telling me how his LDAP server uses an index to speed up searches and I said, 'Ah Hah!!!... it's just like a database." But he said the two differ a lot, but didn't go into the details... how do they differ?
LDAP is not a database. SQL is not a database. One is an access protocol, the other is a query language. They serve different needs, but neither one actually specifies anything about underlying database.
LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. Unsuprisingly, it's a PROTOCOL.
SQL stands for Structured Query Language. Unsuprisingly, it's a QUERY LANGUAGE.
Nearly any database could certainly support both. Neither makes any definition of storage method; LDAP is concerned with communication in a particular format, SQL is concerned with proper specification of a database query.
In practice, data accessed through SQL (which is anything but lightweight) is usually held in large, complex, general-purpose databases. Data accessed through LDAP is usually held in tight, fast, specialized datastructures.
LDAP databases should be optimized for speed of retrieval, since the ratio of writes to reads is very very low. SQL databases do not generally make such assumptions.
Clear?
Now that Red Hat, Novell and Microsoft are all working against IBM Websphere's "integration servers", with everyone's cart tied to the Outlook horse (nevermind the other clients that just fill in the gaps), what's to stop Microsoft from leaving them all in the dust by "upgrading" Outlook to a new protocol, incompatible with the old one? They'd leverage their desktop monopoly, just like they're doing with their IM protocols.
--
make install -not war
You can replicate from one to the other. LDAP systems use LDAP to replicate data between databases. Compatibility is one of the goals.
I sometimes look up web sites of large companies/organizations and see they are running "Netscape-Enterprise", usually on Solaris. optus.net.au is an example.
Other than that, for a HTTP server everyones migrated to Apache, and for other stuff, everyones migrated to open source except some companies with deep pockets.
"With Microsoft, you get Windows. With Linux, you get the full house" - unknown
The netscape calendar server was just a rebranded CorporateTime calendar server. It's now being rebranded by Oracle, and it still sucks.
... scary stuff. The server sends the user's password to the client in the clear.
I once watched the calendar protocol on the wire
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=www.geic o.com
Looks like some enterprise sites are still running it.
Although, they are the low cost provider.
I should know........
Gecko
You can use group policy with OpenLDAP and Samba 3 with Nitrobit Group Policy.
1) History. The Netscape/Sun (iPlanet) joint venture was dissolved in 2001, with both parties retaining intellectual property rights to all the collaborative code. AOL decided to pursue development of several server products, under the umbrella Strategic Business Solutions. In 2002/3, the product list was shortened, a new group was formed (Netscape Security Solutions), focussing on essentially CMS, Directory (NDS), and Enterprise server (NES). See http://enterprise.netscape.com
Netscape Communications Corp is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner. The browser development always has been entirely independent of server development, except for use of the same facilities in Mountain View. We all reported into two completely different management chains. So, browser engineering layoffs and gecko development, while interesting, are largely irrelevent.
2) Sales/Support. Sales and Support are currently fully staffed for these products. Sorry, but these products never really fit into AOL's consumer strategy, that's just the facts of life. AOL just isn't known to be in the business of marketing server software (although they have a great need for it internally). AOL did the right thing for their customers by selling off these products to a company who is more able to give them the development they deserve.
3) Continuing development after iPlanet. Sun had versions of NDS, CMS, NES. Soon after, they shortly killed their CMS development. Sun has indeed done a great deal of development of their Directory Server, but we have taken the product in a different direction.
There has been a lot of development at Netscape in the years since iPlanet. The code bases are very different.
4) Directory Server (NDS). Lots of people are asking "Why not use OpenLDAP?". This is really a question of the size of your deployment. NDS scales far, far better than OpenLDAP, has multi-master replication to provide high availability. These aren't trivial features, and have taken significant development time to get right, with thousands of hours of coding and test case development. Moreover, NDS ships in mission-critical systems as part of HP-UX.
5) CMS - People don't generally know this, but CMS is THE Certificate authority run by the Department of Defense. That's right, DoD has many CA's installed within their organization, and every one is CMS. That's over 10 million certs issued in the last 4 years for one single deployment. So, I found this slashdot comment particularly funny:
Somehow, I think anyone seriously considering more substantial PKI deployments, may consider CMS.
Geotrust is also a huge deployment of CMS - issuing more certs than Verisign, these days. See this link.
CMS supports FIPS approved hardware crypto devices
CMS is Common Criteria certified (http://niap.nist.gov/cc-scheme/vpl/vpl_type.html
CMS has huge amount of auditing capability.
Not to mention that CMS is just more secure, scalable, performant, and highly-reliable than any other CA out there.
There so much more in upcoming releases.
when any of the code developed/enhanced by Netscape would ever see the light of day. As a old-time Netscape Solution Expert, I think this could very possibly turn out to be one of the most important events in computing history.
Still it makes me sad that Apple did not see it's way to buying up Netscape before they got chewed-up, swallowed, and spit out by AOL and Sun. I was saying this way back when Apple was still shipping Apple Network Servers running AIX...well, maybe now we'll see Netscape server products finally running on Mac OS X!
It never ceases to amaze me how shortsighted the technology industry can be.
.
NDS scales far, far better than OpenLDAP, has multi-master replication to provide high availability. These aren't trivial features, and have taken significant development time to get right, with thousands of hours of coding and test case development. Moreover, NDS ships in mission-critical systems as part of HP-UX... People don't generally know this, but CMS is THE Certificate authority run by the Department of Defense. That's right, DoD has many CA's installed within their organization, and every one is CMS. That's over 10 million certs issued in the last 4 years for one single deployment... Geotrust is also a huge deployment of CMS - issuing more certs than Verisign, these days... CMS supports FIPS approved hardware crypto devices... CMS is Common Criteria certified (http://niap.nist.gov/cc-scheme/vpl/vpl_type.html
Sounds like a lot of nice code.
So do you think Red Hat will stick to their stated principles and give it all away for free?
Oracle Calendar?
If you are running Windows XP or have access to a Windows 2003 Server, download ADAM and give it a openminded look. I think you will find that it works very well for application development. The ADAM/adsiedit utility will allow you to quickly interact and begin development and management of ADAM. Multimaster replication, multiple data partitions on a single server, robust authentication and authorization, scalability and expandability.
And in the end if you cannot overlook the fact that you must have a copy of Windows XP or 2003 server to run it, at least you will have a good example of something one of you (or a group of you) can copy when developing or improving an open source alternative.
Looks like somebody is confusing server products with client applications. Here is the inside scoop, which the media has never got its story straight. After the AOL-SUN divorce of iPlanet, AOL laid off 500 of it's 700 iPlanet employees and took back it's most wanted 200 people back to its Mountain View campus. This left Sun to scramble with the scraps that AOL left behind. So, when the media reported "Sun kept Netscape engineers," it only meant that Sun hired those people laid off by AOL. This is what the public doesn't know. Guess who were among the 200 people that AOL brought back? There, Netscape server development continued at AOL, powered by the original veteran Netscape developers. As of today, Netscape Directory Server, Netscape Certificate Management Server, and Netscape Enterprise Server, are still under development. If you show these engineers the comments quoted from Keller on the press coverage, they'll probably laugh and say, "I code, therefore I exist, and hence my product exists." If you call these Netscape products "antique software," what do you call Solaris? fossil? Of course, these products still exist because they still have customers, not because AOL has any vision in them. Red Had really has a steal of the century here, thanks to AOL's lack of vision.
We've been running iPlanet/Sun Directory for 4 years and its been very reliable (not bad, given that my developers treat it like it's an RDMS and our write ops are way over what any sane admin would allow). I've also worked with OpenLDAP for a couple of years and have been impressed with the latest version's performance, but couldn't justify rebuilding a half dozen servers. The only problem right now is that Sun doesn't really support Linux, which is where we're consolidating most of our enterprise stuff. Now I'll have a viable alternative to consider. Can't wait to give it a try, there's this old Proliant 3000 in the data center ...
eldapo
Netscape Directory Server 7 will have support for RH 3.