Slashdot Mirror
Scanner Spots Open Source Installations
Mike writes "Information security firm OpenLogic has begun letting users download 'Discovery,' an application that scans Windows, Linux, and Solaris machines and attempts to identify open source software. The Discovery application claims to identify more than 5,000 versions of the top 900 open source packages. The scanning engine is able to detect open source installations whether they were installed explicitly or bundled with other software products. Kim Weins, vice president of marketing, says 'We developed it in response to customers not knowing what open source programs they were using.' I can't help but think that this a move to slyly demonize FOSS by scaring businesses into thinking they don't know what's on their PCs."
You know, given the Vista experience, we're getting to the point where you know there's open source software afoot if the scanner simply runs without crashing something.
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1) It can be used to help companies ensure that they are being compliant with the various licenses [good].
2) It can be used to "root out" those 'evil' open source applications [bad].
Unfortunately I agree that option 2 is most likely as it is really used to search for applications and not code. Why you would want to search for explicitly open source, vs. just knowing what is on a corporate PC doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Ok, I give up, why you?
I'm probably not alone curious and wanting to download this free app to (re)discover which OSS is installed on my computers... You can download it from here: http://www.openlogic.com/discovery/new_download_re gister.php?ls= and you need to give your name, email, location and some more before downloading the beast.
Animoog.org
I have 12,000 violations on my laptop. I better make out a check to the EFF before the bang the door down... what's the annual licensing fee on GPL software again?
Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
Looks to me that this is just a simple inventory tool so business has an idea of what's on their machines, and perhaps if they see that people, having appropriate account permissions on the PC, are voluntarily installing open source alternatives, say OpenOffice instead of MS Office, businesses may be more conducive to migrating to OSS, or at least openly accepting it.
Business have no clue what's on their machines. That's why you have staff workers running around as admin all the time, and picking up literally thousands of instances of spyware/adware/malware. They just can't get enough toolbars and cute fluffy pointers.
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
Why the accusatory last sentence? Open Logic is a company that provides services for open source products, and the impression I get from this tool is that it shows managers how much they already depend on open source.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." - Bob Dylan
The way they worded it made is sounds like FOSS was malware or a virus. "Scan your computer to detect a set of programs that you may not know exist in the system". Plus what is the point in having a Linux scanner as it is all (nearly all OSS). Solaris I'm sure has a good bit of FOSS in it now adays (apache, php, sql, etc). As for windows, what is it's purpose (Hey you're running gaim, firefox, etc) Once you have a list what does that imply? You must delete them? The only reason I can see doing this is for gathering statistical data. But I don't see average joe user doing that as they don't care. They just want something that works. I'm curious if this program phones home afterwards.
So what's next "Anit-Open Source Software" to remove it?
It could also scan for and find Open Source software that was installed by a third party without proper compliance with the GPL. Install as much third party junk as you can, then scan to see who is using GPL software without compliance.
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
Gee, I sure hope I'm not running any open source software on my linux boxes...
You know, the interesting thing is, so many people are trolling this, but if you are, you must have never been through VC funding.
/ALL/ open source software used ANYWHERE in the company. Yeah. Sounds like fun, right? It sure was. Either way, this app could've made my life a lot easier. :(. Too bad I see it NOW!
I had to make a list of
Jay | http://oldos.org
I've looked into software to do software auditing before - most of it fell into one of two camps:
1. Free AND lousy - many only checked the "Add/remove programs" list in Control Panel, which is practically useless if a package was installed just by copying to c:\program files.
2. Expensive AND horrific license - most of the commercial software auditing tools which claim to do everything but make the tea seem to be licensed with rather nastier licenses than the software they're meant to be auditing.
Is there anything out there which is Free or Very Cheap, without absurdly onerous licensing and doesn't suck?
Stop assuming things are always against your pet project. A tool that scans to see what software packages are installed? Seems like a good idea to me. Unless of course, you believe in security through obscurity.
I can't download it unless I give a real email address. I tried a fake hotmail address and it said "enter a business email." Which means my real hotmail junkmail box won't cut it. And I tried a different fake domain but then it said to go check my email (but it was fake, so I can't). So I can't download it without giving this company--that I don't really trust--my real email address.
Not gonna happen.
This has to be a Microsoft ploy. It makes absolutely no sense that a business too dumb to figure out what apps are on its machines will be able to use yet another app to figure it out for them. The only possible use for this "technology" is to propagandize that open-source = virus. Time to scan this company's account books for a check from Redmond.
Why do I need this software? It's easy enough to figure out without downloading random stuff from the internet.
$ uname -rs
FreeBSD 7.0-CURRENT
$ pkg_info | wc -l
1630
So, subtract 1 for nvidia-driver. Subtract 1 for linux-flashplugin. Subtract 1 for acroread7. That's still a helluva lot of open-sores software... I hope the BSA doesn't come after me!!!
CEO: we need to start scanning now!
..
..
..
IT Guy: which computers should we start with?
CEO: Start with the people who file the most computer complains and go downward
(IT guy comes back next day)
IT Guy: Sir all of the Vista machines who had problems reported 0 infections, and at the bottom of the list the department running OS X and Linux development machines. They had tons of the stuff.
Back in the 80's, it was obvious just by walking by a desk as to wether they were running dos or a mainframe terminal. Most companies have NO clue how much OSS is in their company. Some will no doubt use this to root it out. Others will start down that path and find out that it is being used heavily, and start supporting it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
This is a solution to the wrong problem. What would really be usefull ( and I might even pay for ) would be a utility to scan windoze boxes for ALL software installed on them and ( ideally ) just report on software that is not part of our corporate standard for workstations. Although our users have read ( or at least signed ) our Acceptable Use Policy, which states that prior permission is required before installing software on company boxes, we still waste a lot of time diagnosing problems caused by unauthorized software.
You live and learn, or you don't learn much.
Seems like this will be a great tool to "out" companies using & abusing open software in their packages for Windows. Will be interesting to see who starts to find bits & pieces of GPL'd stuff hanging about various binary-only installations that don't come with source code for the app.
1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.
find "packages" built into other "packages"? I really hope so, so it can tell me that internet explorer is installed with zlib built in.
...you could run this, take the output, do set-subtraction from the set of all software on the computer, and have an excellent closed-source software detector!
The "cue the foo posts in 3, 2, 1..." posts will commence with no subsequent foo posts in 3, 2, 1...
I know in my own organization that management barely knows what the proprietary software does for them, much less the open source software. So this could be a really good thing if it causes IT managers, CIOs, CTOs, etc. to wake up and realize just how much of their business really runs on open source software. They might start treating it with a little more respect, even though much of it does not appear on their budget reports.
Ouch! The truth hurts!
I wonder if it detects itself?
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
I can't help but think that this a move to slyly demonize FOSS by scaring businesses into thinking they don't know what's on their PCs.
They have medication for that.
First, I like FOSS products. I suggest to users that they install OpenOffice, Gimp, Inkscape, and other products INSTEAD of applying to our IT purchasing dept and costing the company hundreds of dollars.
BUT I know users don't stop there. Everytime I touch a user's laptop I find some extra software I don't want to support. Most of the time I don't remove the software, I just deliver the customary warning: "If this software causes a problem with your system I will reimage your PC rather than waste time diagnosing the issue". Usually that does the trick and everyone is happy.
I know that for every piece of software I see, I miss three. I would love to scan all of my machines and come up with a report that I can compare against my problem tickets to show my manager that controled, managed FOSS saves money and DOES NO HARM. With this product I might be able to show that FOSS can coexist with the standard software images, as long as users don't install it themselves.
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
no linux version? you insensitive clod.
I guarantee within a year at least one person will accidentally replace their virus-scanners with this software.
"Oh no, you've got Firefox, reformat your drive before they get your CC numbers"
Okay. Let me see if I have this straight:
We can use a free scanner to eliminate free software inside my anti-free software organization???
I've found logs for /myphpadmin and such on my domain logs. This could be used to exploit known vulnerabilities of installed open source packages, if I had any.
Haven't RTFA, so I don't know for sure whether this scanner can be used on the open wild.
Then I could get rid of everything that's not open source. :)
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
I've been wondering that myself. The only thing most "Add/Remove" ones do is dump the registry file,[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Window s\currentversion\uninstall](IE-programs that register with windows).
import system.cool.Sig;
How does it even know what is open source and what isn't? Does it have a master database of programs? How does it match it? Against an MD5 hash? What if I download a Firefox trunc source code, change a line and recompile it? Will it find it?
And what about something like this:
/* Released as open source. Free to copy, redistribute or whatever you want */
#include iostream.h
main()
{
int myint;
cout << "Enter a number: "
cin >> myint;
cout << "The number " << myint << " sucks and so do you!";
return 0;
}
If someone downloads and compiles this, will yournumbersucks.exe show up on the scanner?
UTF-8: There and Back Again
This service sounds suspiciously similar to running p0f. http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/p0f.shtml
OT Question: is p0f the cat's meow or has it been bested?
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
From TFS: "an application that scans Windows, Linux, and Solaris machines and attempts to identify open source software."
What will they think of next? Panning for dirt? Yes, I think you might find just a teensy bit of open source software on the average Linux install. Now what?
... build a scanner that inventories ALL software and catagorized it as OSS, unknown or proprietary/licensed? Odds are its the latter two that will come back and bite corporate IT departments in the *ss if not properly licensed.
Have gnu, will travel.
I can't help but think that this a move to slyly demonize FOSS by scaring businesses into thinking they don't know what's on their PCs."
2) It can be used to "root out" those 'evil' open source applications [bad].
This is actualy good. First they fear it. Then they learn about GPL and LGPL. Publicity about GPL is a good thing. Then they compare that with any other EULA. At that point, they start noting much of their free to obtain free software has EULA's. Quick, is it easer to track GPL for 20 applications or pass the EULA for 20 applications to the legal department for review? After review, which do you think will remain?
In the Windows world, they may find they have Quicktime with iTunes, Acrobat Reader, MusicMatch, Easy CD Creator, AOL installer, and any number of downloaded and bundled applications all with EULA's, most of which do not permit the things the GPL software permits.
I've gotten to the point where if a software package requires an EULA besides one of the BSD or GPL ones, I'm very reluctant to continue. This is a good thing.
The truth shall set you free!
Expensive AND horrific license - most of the commercial software auditing tools which claim to do everything but make the tea seem to be licensed with rather nastier licenses than the software they're meant to be auditing
Arthur? Is that you?
It's also ironic that may of these same companies allow WinZip and other unlicensed shareware.
dpkg --get-selections
if(OSVendor = Microsoft) /; ls -lR)
return "No Open Source found"
else
return (cd
How about a scanner that scans for commercial software and then recommends FOSS replacements for it?
Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
croddy@localhost $ vrms
Non-free packages installed on localhost
doom2-wad IWAD from ID Software's DOOM 2 computer game
iozone3 Filesystem and Disk Benchmarking Tool
nvidia-glx NVIDIA binary Xorg driver
Reason: Proprietary license
nvidia-glx-dev NVIDIA binary Xorg driver development files
Reason: Proprietary license
openlogic-discovery Tool for locating installed open-source software packages
Reason: Who needs this - when you've got me?
5 non-free packages, 0.3% of 1519 installed packages
I don't really need such a tool. :)
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
I just want to let you know OpenLogic is a big fan of source. Our mission is to enable companies to use more open source software. Our whole business is built around that proposition, so we are definitely not trying to get companies to remove FOSS. The reality is that enterprises we work with are already using lots of FOSS -- whether they realize it or not. However, the corporate legal, compliance, IT and architecture folks want to know that they have certain policies and procedures in place around open source -- especially for software that's going outside the company or software that's going into production. By getting certification, support and indemnification from OpenLogic, it allows the corporate compliance types to feel MORE comfortable about FOSS and therefore be more willing to let developers use FOSS. The reason that we developed this free tool is that when we talked to companies, they weren't really sure what FOSS they were using. For many companies, the asset management tools that they already have in place can not necessarily detect open source software. We wanted a simple tool that would let them create that inventory. As far as registration, we have been debating that internally and have some changes planned to reduce the barriers -- so stay tuned on that front. Kim Weins
A lot of people have talked about easing people into Linux via Wine, etc. I've often thought that the reverse process might actually be easier. That is, install OpenOffice on their Windows machine and let them get used to that. It's really just as easy to use as MS Office, IMO. Once they've gotten used to that, find other open source alternatives that they can use without leaving Windows. Then, once Windows is the only non-open source thing they're using - they're ready to switch to Linux. I'm not claiming this is the "only path", but I think for many people it might be an easier path.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
Observations:
> the scan s/w itself is not FOSS.
> OpenLogic, who issued the press release (it's NOT a news story) seems to be focussed on managing FOSS dists in the enterprise.
> According to their website, OpenLogic is a Microsoft "technology partner" ("indentured servant"). ditto with Novell. But they're also partners with redhat. Tainted, but there's hope.
They do seem to be paying for and building up a developer community, but I didn't see a list of what projects they're working on or who's helping them. They may be too new to have anything going yet.
I don't see how this can work in a shop with developers compiling their own, although it would be easy to scan for pre-compiled binaries.
Given the EULAs that are being added to non-FOSS packages lately, I'd worry lots more about them than FOSS. This goes double for the properly purchased and licensed proprietary S/W. It seems like licensing some vendors' software is just a way to put yourself on their litigation radar. Screw that - I want FOSS just for the legal simplicity.
Pavlov wouldn't be so famous if he'd used a can opener instead of a bell.
I don't think that would be in their interests. From the company's website:
OpenLogic is a leading provider of open source solutions that enable enterprises to safely acquire, support, and control open source software. OpenLogic provides enterprises with a certified library of open source software that encompasses hundreds of the most popular open source packages. With the broadest open source coverage in the industry, OpenLogic offers indemnification; updates; and enterprise-grade technical support backed by the OpenLogic Expert Community.
Granted, it would have been better if this software were FOSS itself, but maybe that will come in time. They are, after all, in business to make a profit.
I suspect that the problem is in creating the checksums required to recognise the installed applications.
A database of free/OSS programs can be generated and given away for free because they can get the apps for free and they know that if one app can be legally scanned for then they all can. A database of commercial apps, on the other hand, requires the compiler to purchase at least one license for each app they install to checksum, some of which will be obscenely expensive yet extremely unlikely to be on an end-user's machine.
An added complication is that many of the non-OSS apps will have a license that explicitly forbids any form of reverse engineering including the publishing of any form of checksumming of the package. At the very least you can say that they all will have different licenses that will need to be read in minute detail by expensive lawyers before they can be added to the database.
Probably because most Slashdotters had the same exact reaction I did:
"I'll bet their best customers will be high-ranking, low-technical knowledge PHBs looking to eliminate any non-MS solutions in their shop that techies might've installed behind the backs of upper management."
Basically, the only people who will want to buy a tool to ferret out unknown FOSS apps (and not any commercial apps) are the kind of people who are afraid of their presence lurking in their enterprise. If it was a general purpose inventory tool that recognized both commercial and FOSS software, there'd be less to worry about, but targetted to only find a category of software that some would consider "dangerous."
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Since they have an annoying form you have to fill out to get the download location I figured I'd save everybody the time and effort. Here's the page to all the downloads:
o w.php
http://www.openlogic.com/discovery/new_download_n
Until there's a Linux version.
Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
I'm sorry -- did you just argue that checksumming an application -- an act that reduces the information present to a handful of bytes -- is equivalent to reverse engineering? That's a pretty new definition of reverse engineering to me!
I was always of the opinion that reverse engineering was more about determining how a program works, which checksumming is pretty darned useless for.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Naturally an open source version of this scanner already exists. It just does the opposite. Doesn't everybody want their own virtual Richard Stallman?
Oh mi goood!
jus think aboutit!
if I had some open sauce on my teh puter?!!! teh world would be at finito!!!111
open sourcers are evil pinko commie bastards, and darwinist gay aborters!
AND WE ALL OTHERS JUST LOVE MICROSHAFT!
h00ray for stupidity!
FTFA:
Customers would guess that they had 15 or 20 open source products on their networks only to discover that workers were using 200 or more open source applications, she said.
Knowledge is your friend. If their intention is to root the applications out, they will discover how expensive non free software really is. Awareness always leads to more free software use.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
At a previous employer later acquired by IBM, I worked on a tool for identifying what software was installed on a given mainframe, and once installed, it would track the usage of each application each day/week/month/year, so companies could identify software they were no longer using and could suspend license/maint. fee payments. It worked by wedging itself into the OS and capturing each program load request for tracking execution, and it would scan the system for files that met certain signatures (file size, hash code, contents, etc.)...
I can see value in such a tool outside the mainframe world, even if there are no software license fee issues, and independent of any GPL-like concerns - installing many FOSS OS results in a huge collection of software being installed, and knowing exactly what is and is not on the system has a certain value...
Ken
IMHO I think this article is in response to this one posted earlier on the /. forums: http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/09/ 1424259linux.slashdot.org While this article isn't an adequate argument against the following reply within this article, it does put things into perspective:
Because many companies have explicit policies forbidding open source, period.I've seen it get so stupid as to call it "shareware", ie: unlicensed software. The lack of a vendor really freaks out a lot of PHBs, and heck, a LOT of older IT folks who still are scared by open source. Don't forget, OSS is less secure because everyone can see the source code, and it's less reliable because you don't have a multi-billion dollar vendor backing you when things go wrong. (not sure if I really need the sarcasm tag with that last sentence or if it's obvious enough)
"As Is" really hurts the OSS industry and needs a solid business model to provide adequate support to ease a lot of concerns within the market. I deal with a lot of open source software, but the problem is that I know how to code which means the coding process is easier to overlook than the average joe that just wants the software to work. For the general populous whose job it is to do other things than just play with code all day, they have to have a solid reason to be productive with the tools available to them. To complicate their tasks, complicates their ability and/or stability. To simply state that the software works but any problems you have are you own is a bold statement that would turn anyone off. Linux Distributions offer one method of providing support but what about people that have invested a lot of money into other Operating Systems? They can use the software but with no support outside of signing up with a Linux Distribution Company what are they expected to shift towards and how much will it cost them, not just with software and support but time and training as well? All in all, what good is a product without support and if OSS is to ever make a mark, there has to has to be appropriate support on other operating systems.
With fears of the 'because it is open, hackers can see what is wrong' argument, the first problem is that hackers already have the source for almost all proprietary software out in the market. If they don't they could just decompile the software to gain a general idea of how the software works and how to exploit it. So obscurity never works within the software market because there are legal ways of obtaining any type of encrypted code and it's been that way ever since VB 1.0 came out (at least to my recollection and I apologize for referring to that thing as a point of reference). For programmers who say that they don't care to understand how hackers work, then they aren't good programmers. If you don't know how software can be improved beyond any current market doubt, then you are setting yourself up for failure IMO.
No, no hidden agenda in a scanner for open source software... any more than there would be in, say, a scanner that searches your company database and reports people with Hispanic surnames. Or reports iPhones used to connect to the corporate network. Or 401K accounts showing investments in Asian stock index funds.
These are just, you know, interesting pieces of data. Anyone might be intellectually curious to know them. It certainly wouldn't imply any kind of animus against people with Hispanic surnames, or iPhones, or Asian stock indexes. It's just, you'd like to know what's going on in your company, wouldn't you?
So damn true. FOSS is likely the least problem causing software that users install. Compared to all the shareware, adware and other things that actually cause problems by design in some cases it's downright harmless.
Let's assume a company runs the scanner, and it picks up a huge list of FOSS products. What happens then? People have been speculating that the intent of the program is to identify FOSS products for the purpose of getting rid of them. That might be the intended purpose. However, unless this program prints the money to buy commercial replacements, the most likely outcome is begrudging tolerance of FOSS followed by genuine appreciation for all of the work it does.
Question 1: How are we going to get rid of all these open source products?
Answer: Not easily
Question 2: Why get rid of it all?
Answer: We're not sure, and oh by the way, we have no budget to buy replacement products anyway
Question 3: What happens if we leave it alone?
Answer: Probably nothing.
If the people marketing this program care anything at all about the issues of "risk" and "compliance", they will announce a new version that includes a database of commercial EULA agreements for the user's legal department to review, and then scans for products whose EULA is not on the legal departments approved list. Unless, of course, the real purpose of the scanner is FUD about FOSS, in which case, the scanner will remain as-is.
Any serious analysis of FOSS vs. commercial software for risk and EULA compliance is a good day for FOSS. This scanner starts off as a FOSS elimination tool, but it could easily work in reverse.
It reports any non-free software that you have installed.
Badass Resumes
This is more than a bit silly. Scanning for just open source software makes about as much sense as an email service that scans just email from mailing lists. While there may be reasons to scan for non-compliant software, there doesn't appear to be any compelling reason for this to exist as a product. If a company is going to scan for software, just scanning for open source software has no business case.
Perhaps I am dense, but this just doesn't seem to make any sense, even as a direct attack on the open source community at large....
Indemnification isn't FUD, it's a fact of life in many real world businesses. Ever heard of Sarbanes-Oxley for example? Or the privacy laws surrounding medical information? Etc... Etc...
Why would you need to show them the GPL? Is the business planning on distributing copies of the software?
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
I'm really surprised no one has yet mentioned what we use in our IT department, the Belarc Advisor, a free download at http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html. It scans for all software, regardless of open source or not.
"The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server."
This glorious software revolution heralds the liberation of the managing proletariat !
No longer shall the downtrodden managers be shackled in the chains of their ignorance!
No longer shall they be cuckolded and deceived by a caste of cynical hoarders of knowledge !
Fear not managers, you have nothing to loose but your ignorance !
This software shall be the sword and shield of management committees everywhere !
Even among the companies that will allow just any ol' user to install applications, there are some who have policies against applications that don't come from above.
This could just as easily work in favor of Open Source applications. If typical scans reveal popular apps, and those popular apps are the ones people use with great success, and there are eyes that open to the fact that they too, use Open Source applications, that they are among their favorites, and exactly what Open Source applications are.
In the event that a corporate IT manager looks at some such report, and says to a CTO, "Look, CTO - I told you our Open Source software initiative would work". "Our users are spending 75% of their sanctioned computer time in such applications as Open Office, Thunderbird, and GAIM." "The supplemental reports I have generated show the remaining 25% divided between other Non-Open applications; iTunes, Spybot Search and Destroy, AdAware, ClickMeFun2000.exe, Solitaire.exe, and these commercial products to allow Windows users to our UNIX services."
That's a conversation I'm looking forward to having, because I'm anxious to deliver the punchline!
Persistant home folders on a SAN, with an imaged Linux Desktop! Yes, we can even have anti-virus..
...there's nothing "sly" about protecting yourself from a software license. In the same way that an installation of BSA software could entail drastic legal ramifications, so too could the installation of OSS with licenses like gplv3.
the new demands of the gplv3 change the value proposition of the software licensed under it. So like it or not, there is now going to be a reticence about oss. Those who argued for strong gplv3 provisions and said they didn't care if it affected adoption, should now recognize the reality. There will be a problem with uptake.
libertarian: (n) socially liberal, financially conservative; neither left, nor right.
... iPhone?
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
OSS is less secure because everyone can see the source code, it's less reliable because you don't have a multi-billion dollar vendor backing you when things go wrong.
Because everybody can see the source, and submit bug fixes, it's more secure and reliable not less.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Who are these companies who don't allow open-source software? Even Microsoft makes extensive use of GPL software.
Nor is Microsoft the only business of Bill Gates that uses FOSS. His Dreamworks SKG, the "G" is "Gates", uses Linux and Cinepaint.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Who are these companies who don't allow open-source software? Even Microsoft makes extensive use of GPL software.
Probably ones rapidly going out of business.
Like Gates' Dreamworks SKG and IBM?
FalconShould there be a Law?
I do not think that most of the people cheerleading for FOSS appreciate this. They just know that $DISTRO is neat, so obviously everyone who doesn't agree that it's perfect for a 10,000 seat enterprise network must be an "idiot." Le sigh!
That brings up a concept that's lacking with most people, a person needs to decide on a task then get an appropriate tool to compleat it. In some cases, as regards software, it may be a commercial closed source package like Windows (though I can't really think of a single use for Windows which does not have a better choice), OSX, or Photoshop; or a FOSS package like CinePaint or Linux.
FalconShould there be a Law?
IBM? Gee, I guess I had better uninstall this IBM-provided copy of Linux that I use here at work, and inform the 40,000 or so other IBMers who use it that IBM doesn't actually allow this inside the company!
This is still an early version, so we are definitely looking for feedback on what people like or don't like. We are still working on adding more open source "fingerprints" to the library -- so it may not find everything if it's not in our fingerprint library yet.
Kim WeinsThe only use I can see for this is in conjunction with a similar application that lists everything installed, where this application is used to eliminate programs from the list of potential licensing problems.
To see what use it is it may be better to see more about it. It can be used to " acquire, deploy, and manage multiple open source applications for use within their Enterprise infrastructure. The open source applications available through the platform have the advantage of both being certified by the vendor (more below), as well as bearing IP infringement indemnification from the vendor (provided the customer purchases technical support for the selected open source app from the vendor)."
FalconShould there be a Law?
install OpenOffice on their Windows machine and let them get used to that. It's really just as easy to use as MS Office, IMO
That's one way, a good one at that, to get people to switch However it doesn't work very well switching to OpenOffice from MS Office. OO doesn't handle everything Office can, like some macros. Until OO gets better you can find yourself up shit creek when someone sends you an Office document. When this happens to someone who just switched, they won't blame MS, they'll blame OO and say it not good enough.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Why would you need to show them the GPL?
Some pointy haired bosses don't yet understand software you don't buy. If you didn't buy it, it's either spyware, malware, or pirated.
Reading the GPL lets them know there is another variety of software. Free software. It doesn't come with a per seat license. It doesn't come with an expensive price tag. PHB's sometimes understand this. Running the software isn't going to trigger a sucessful BSA audit from a disgruntled employee.
The truth shall set you free!
Do the macros just fail to load, or does the whole document fail to load? When I've used macros in MS Word in the past, they were typically editing short-cuts, so if someone I sent the document to couldn't open the macros, but could still load the document, the only bad thing would be the error message. Of course, I think that in a lot of cases, even in Word you'd get a warning message about macros being potentially dangerous.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
or does the whole document fail to load?
I haven't done it myself so I don't know whether it's the docs or the macros, however I've heard from others that they've had problems though not what the problem is.
FalconShould there be a Law?
They're selling indemnification insurance. Open Logic is a capitalist enterprise, not some FOSS charity. They're in the business of monetizing FUD.
Looking at their list of partners I doubt their spreading FUD.
FalconShould there be a Law?
So they make it sound like a virus scanner... well we know Bill thinks Open Source is "viral" but this must be some kind of joke.
Wouldn't a better security tool be one that scans your system for closed source software?
I'm not saying that open source software is guaranteed to be more secure, but I find that because the source is open, it is easier for me to trust it. Who really reviews the code for open source packages they download anyway? I don't. But because I know that I could if I wanted to, and other people could if they wanted to (and some might?), for that reason I find it easier to trust it.
Proprietary software... now that is hard to trust.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
I ran the scanner across the 7,745 directories and 99,364 files found on one of my Windows machines, and it failed to detect:
I'm sure it works great for a narrow subset of OSS software, but the broad category of software I have installed, should have been detected. I wouldn't trust this.
It's the same thinking that lead to some tapwater in plastic bottles being sold because it's "better" than your tapwater. Despite study after study showing that most bottled water is just filtered tapwater, people still suck it down and pay a huge cost per gallon for it, rather than just getting a cheap home charcoal filter rig and using their own water for like a penny a bottle. Some people just aren't comfortable with anything unless it costs a lot of money. I don't know why that is, but it appears to be human nature and the marketing brainwashers are fully aware of that situation. Software is certainly no exception there.
I have for a fact at least these "fully" installed:
- Mozilla FireFox (fairly common you would think.)
- FileZilla (an FTP client)
- Pidgin (used to be gaim)
un-impressed by the tool.. It's most impressive feature appears to be sorting by file size, WOW!You dirty dirty troll. Read this article and it becomes common understanding that you have purposely and indignantly misled many dumbfounded, slow witted readers into your trappings of blatant troll post whoring. Nice job, anyone with a brain can see that this isn't worth a '/.' front page mention. We only wish that the mods were so quick to jump on the case, rather than being engrossed in so much anti-microsoft anti-SCO malarkey from the groklaw bastards. Not saying that these people have anything over microsoft or against FSF, just that the standard of quality for these types of articles is SEVERELY reduced for anything other than a Stallman suckup or a ballmer expose. There, I said it, Bunch of dirty suck-ups, propaganda artists and Fud spreaders you all are!... This article is garbage along with 50% of the post troll bullshit that is spewed on '/.'
DreamWorks are also very pro Open Source, they use Linux workstations and have repeatedly asked Adobe to release a Linux version of Photoshop (though it was Disney who eventually paid to get Photoshop working under WINE).
The point was more likely that IBM cut 13,000 jobs last year and DreamWorks is surviving because of one smelly ogre.
However as IBM and DreamWork's main competitors also use and support Linux it was a fairly week point.
There's a much easier way. Instead of downloading their software, I just did
dpkg -l
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions and I'll hook you up with one of our engineers for details on how to do this.
Kim Weins