Which side do you set it down on? I can see needing to become intimately familiar with the key-lock feature everytime you set it down or put it in your pocket. That's annoying.
I serve many small local business, many who have some employees that work from from regularly or permenantly.
For telephone, the cell phone makes the most sense. Works anywhere and if you get all employees on the same carrier, you can get free mobile-to-mobile calls, thus reducing the amount of minutes everyone needs. See if you can put them all on a large family plan or something.
For data, DSL/cable at people's homes is great, but a step further would be internet via cell phone/Treo/Blackberry when they are mobile. If you get Blackberry's on one of the above plans, the tethering internet access is often included (some carriers). Depends if they will be sitting at their home "desks" all day or running around more.
Employees should still have company-provided computers. A huge huge problem is the kids of the employees getting on their home computers and messing things up (spyware, consumer apps, not running updates, etc). Kids have their computer, Mom and Dad have another password protected computer that kids do not use even if just for a second.
I would also recommend still having a server somewhere for backup and to ensure all of the company files are stored in one place. Novell's iFolder product is an excellent choice for getting files synced back to a server with little to no user interaction. It comes in their Open Workgroup Suite package (along with GroupWise for e-mail, etc, etc, the works.) They also have an open-sourced version of iFolder at http://www.ifolder.com/ but last I looked it was somewhat unstable.
You still will have to deal with tech support of everyone's PC (printing, drive crashes, all the regular stuff) so a remote control package that will traverse NAT would be helpful. UltraVNC has a reverse-VNC mode that will work in this way with the user just kicking off the connection and you taking it from there. Also, a software management type app would be nice for patching and software distrribution. Don't want to have to run to everyone's house to install a new program, etc, if possible. Novell's ZENWorks is aaaa decent general purpose management app and something like Shavlik is good for patching Windows boxes.
As others have mentioned, communication is key between employees. Encourage them to meet and/or use those cells phones a lot, especially if they have free mobile-t0-mobile calls they have no reason not to pick up the phone regularly.
The benefits can be great if done right. There's nothing like getting up and walking into the next room to be at work!
Dell has too many empty promises and component lock-in (eg, no AMD offerings until recently (especially after that big Opteron blitz has past) no real linux boxes even though there were previous accounements, etc). And then the CEO admitting they were using the cheapest hardware they could find to cut costs. Sorry guys, too inconsistent on multiple levels and takes too long to "build" systems. I've seen companies cancel Dell orders and buy other brands just to get stuff sooner. Build to order is great (and others can do it for you too, HP for one) but it takes too long for the little benefit, IMHO.
HP already has multiple desktop and laptop systems certified for Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise products. Their workstation-class machines are RedHat certified.
It's hardly an expenditure, as Novell is receiving $348 million. But maybe that's your point as well.
This is a classic "If you can't beat them, join them" scenario. But with the added bonus of having "them" pay us. Straight business. I think the open source community needs to get more comfortable with "business".
I think it makes no difference if there are IP infringements or not. Microsoft has everyone convinced there are and that is a fact. Novell can now say (and is) If there are infringements or not, we don't know, but you're covered either way. That's a major warm fuzzy for a client spending a large sum of money on a platform.
For example.... Company X is talking to Novell on a full-on linux migration. They get a second opinion from Microsoft, who says FUD and scares them. Company X tells Novell "Sorry" and goes with the all Microsoft solution to stay in the clear.
Now with this joint deal in place, Novell can confidently sell an all linux migration. If the customer says they believe the MS FUD, then Novell can confidently say SUSE works with Windows so there is no reason to go completely Windows anymore, and then get at least a partial sale out of it. Partial is way better then none.
And then Novell can hope once the customer sees how great their SUSE boxes are, they will want to migrate further. MS hopes the same thing but to Windows. Ultimately, Ron is not lying, it is what the customer wants, which I really like about the deal (so far)....
Novell already has GroupWise. They really don't need another mail system. And they aren't going to stop developing it because MS asks them to--it's a revenue generator. NetMail/Hula is not much of an Exchange competitor IMHO.
I believe that's why they open-sourced NetMail/Hula in the first place--to start getting it off their plate and onto someone elses who wants to run with it. Novell (and any company in the world) has a finite amount of programming resources and they cannot take on everything, as much as they do or don't want to.
To my knowledge, NetMail was never really a full-featured desktop mail server anyway. It was a great large-scale webmail system and that's about it. I don't think that's the same boat that Exchange (or GroupWise for that fact) is in.
Besides, as someone mentioned above, I think Zimbra is the winner here anyway.
I believe it is standard practice for openSUSE meetings to have a moderator in control of the questions (eg, turning on one person at a time to ask questions). I'll find out for sure next status meeting! Anyone in attendance could pose their question to the moderator or to the wiki before to be included. I don't believe there was a hard time limit (although a 1 hour notice was posted, even thought the meeting went for almost 2 hours).
Also, I think it's reasonable to believe that Nat doesn't know everything about the deal. There were some questions that didn't get good answers as a result. (Like what happens is MS doesn't fulfill their end of the deal, etc). I hope Novell corporate is reading the transcript and is working to answer.
I was able to attend the meeting this morning and feel the text of this slashdot story is a little misleading.
People who are unable to attend can post their questions in the wiki before the meeting (the wiki link in the article). The questions in the wiki were reviewed during the meeting, and many were addressed. Some, however, were not specifically addressed as they were answered during the live Q&A earlier in the meeting. Therefore, all of the questions (live and on the wiki) were addressed in one way or another.
That being said, I think it was great to hear from Nat directly.
Is there no wait and see how this turns out, or at first sign of a problem are people really bailing? Sure there's commercial interests vs non-commercial which make the initiatives and reactions different, but come on.
Maybe join one of the independent projects that support all distros if you really disagree....?
So, is this a CentOS or a real fork? It sounds more like a fork, which doesn't sound like a good idea. Oracle should have licensed the OS from RedHat and then provided a package deal.
Oh Big Larr, so excited about linux but no way to harness it. Thank got they didn't buy Novell.
Sounds like that need Novell's AppAmor software. It is an application-level firewall. You could take firefox and make a firewall around it so it can't do anything that you don't want it to (remote code execution, blah blah). Interestingly as well, you can wrap up apache with it to prevent web server hacks and whatnot. Not sure if you can put it around the kernel to prevent rootkits from installing, but if you cover your points of entrance (browser, e-mail, file sharing, etc) you should be pretty well covered.
Even comes with the base SLED/SLES10 and I believe will be in openSUSE and other distros soon.
Can't they just use the standard Fedora GUI--why another GUI? Too much re-learning and too much time spent on redesigning something that is already and will continue to go under heavy development.
Dang, Oracle is fiesty. I know big Lar wants to kick it up a notch, but sheesh, give us a break. Just partner with RH/Novell and offer bundles or something. You don't have to buy the whole frickin' company!
Besides, the world does not need yet another Linux distro.
I think you should become the CEO as they seem to be closer to the ideas and workings of the company (the "visionary"), whereas the Financial types hammer the books and tell you how much you can spend on your ideas (not as irreplacable as you are). There's no reason salaries and perks can't be similar. Finally, it often doesn't matter what the title is, as long as things are working out. But I still think it should be you.
Slashdot Mirror
Or perhaps a small parachute?
Anyone see any brakes on the thing? Or does the driver just start blowing air out of their mouth forward?
-m
Project Black Box. Just drop it off in the parking lot and plug it in.
http://www.sun.com/emrkt/blackbox/index.jsp
-m
Which side do you set it down on? I can see needing to become intimately familiar with the key-lock feature everytime you set it down or put it in your pocket. That's annoying.
-m
Hi,
I serve many small local business, many who have some employees that work from from regularly or permenantly.
For telephone, the cell phone makes the most sense. Works anywhere and if you get all employees on the same carrier, you can get free mobile-to-mobile calls, thus reducing the amount of minutes everyone needs. See if you can put them all on a large family plan or something.
For data, DSL/cable at people's homes is great, but a step further would be internet via cell phone/Treo/Blackberry when they are mobile. If you get Blackberry's on one of the above plans, the tethering internet access is often included (some carriers). Depends if they will be sitting at their home "desks" all day or running around more.
Employees should still have company-provided computers. A huge huge problem is the kids of the employees getting on their home computers and messing things up (spyware, consumer apps, not running updates, etc). Kids have their computer, Mom and Dad have another password protected computer that kids do not use even if just for a second.
I would also recommend still having a server somewhere for backup and to ensure all of the company files are stored in one place. Novell's iFolder product is an excellent choice for getting files synced back to a server with little to no user interaction. It comes in their Open Workgroup Suite package (along with GroupWise for e-mail, etc, etc, the works.) They also have an open-sourced version of iFolder at http://www.ifolder.com/ but last I looked it was somewhat unstable.
You still will have to deal with tech support of everyone's PC (printing, drive crashes, all the regular stuff) so a remote control package that will traverse NAT would be helpful. UltraVNC has a reverse-VNC mode that will work in this way with the user just kicking off the connection and you taking it from there. Also, a software management type app would be nice for patching and software distrribution. Don't want to have to run to everyone's house to install a new program, etc, if possible. Novell's ZENWorks is aaaa decent general purpose management app and something like Shavlik is good for patching Windows boxes.
As others have mentioned, communication is key between employees. Encourage them to meet and/or use those cells phones a lot, especially if they have free mobile-t0-mobile calls they have no reason not to pick up the phone regularly.
The benefits can be great if done right. There's nothing like getting up and walking into the next room to be at work!
-m
Dell has too many empty promises and component lock-in (eg, no AMD offerings until recently (especially after that big Opteron blitz has past) no real linux boxes even though there were previous accounements, etc). And then the CEO admitting they were using the cheapest hardware they could find to cut costs. Sorry guys, too inconsistent on multiple levels and takes too long to "build" systems. I've seen companies cancel Dell orders and buy other brands just to get stuff sooner. Build to order is great (and others can do it for you too, HP for one) but it takes too long for the little benefit, IMHO.
HP already has multiple desktop and laptop systems certified for Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise products. Their workstation-class machines are RedHat certified.
Dell is for home users...
-m
It's hardly an expenditure, as Novell is receiving $348 million. But maybe that's your point as well.
This is a classic "If you can't beat them, join them" scenario. But with the added bonus of having "them" pay us. Straight business. I think the open source community needs to get more comfortable with "business".
-m
I think it makes no difference if there are IP infringements or not. Microsoft has everyone convinced there are and that is a fact. Novell can now say (and is) If there are infringements or not, we don't know, but you're covered either way. That's a major warm fuzzy for a client spending a large sum of money on a platform.
One less major piece of FUD to be spread.
-m
It makes sense from a sales point of view.
For example.... Company X is talking to Novell on a full-on linux migration. They get a second opinion from Microsoft, who says FUD and scares them. Company X tells Novell "Sorry" and goes with the all Microsoft solution to stay in the clear.
Now with this joint deal in place, Novell can confidently sell an all linux migration. If the customer says they believe the MS FUD, then Novell can confidently say SUSE works with Windows so there is no reason to go completely Windows anymore, and then get at least a partial sale out of it. Partial is way better then none.
And then Novell can hope once the customer sees how great their SUSE boxes are, they will want to migrate further. MS hopes the same thing but to Windows. Ultimately, Ron is not lying, it is what the customer wants, which I really like about the deal (so far)....
-m
Novell already has GroupWise. They really don't need another mail system. And they aren't going to stop developing it because MS asks them to--it's a revenue generator. NetMail/Hula is not much of an Exchange competitor IMHO.
I believe that's why they open-sourced NetMail/Hula in the first place--to start getting it off their plate and onto someone elses who wants to run with it. Novell (and any company in the world) has a finite amount of programming resources and they cannot take on everything, as much as they do or don't want to.
To my knowledge, NetMail was never really a full-featured desktop mail server anyway. It was a great large-scale webmail system and that's about it. I don't think that's the same boat that Exchange (or GroupWise for that fact) is in.
Besides, as someone mentioned above, I think Zimbra is the winner here anyway.
-m
I believe it is standard practice for openSUSE meetings to have a moderator in control of the questions (eg, turning on one person at a time to ask questions). I'll find out for sure next status meeting! Anyone in attendance could pose their question to the moderator or to the wiki before to be included. I don't believe there was a hard time limit (although a 1 hour notice was posted, even thought the meeting went for almost 2 hours).
Also, I think it's reasonable to believe that Nat doesn't know everything about the deal. There were some questions that didn't get good answers as a result. (Like what happens is MS doesn't fulfill their end of the deal, etc). I hope Novell corporate is reading the transcript and is working to answer.
-m
I was able to attend the meeting this morning and feel the text of this slashdot story is a little misleading.
People who are unable to attend can post their questions in the wiki before the meeting (the wiki link in the article). The questions in the wiki were reviewed during the meeting, and many were addressed. Some, however, were not specifically addressed as they were answered during the live Q&A earlier in the meeting. Therefore, all of the questions (live and on the wiki) were addressed in one way or another.
That being said, I think it was great to hear from Nat directly.
-m
Is there no wait and see how this turns out, or at first sign of a problem are people really bailing? Sure there's commercial interests vs non-commercial which make the initiatives and reactions different, but come on.
Maybe join one of the independent projects that support all distros if you really disagree....?
-m
Ahh yes, my bad. Part 3 is good as well.
-m
Most boring video ever... :)
Actually, when they opened the inner compartment. for a second it looked like there was an Atari inside!
-m
Visit http://www.novell.com/linux/microsoft for official details...
-m
So, is this a CentOS or a real fork? It sounds more like a fork, which doesn't sound like a good idea. Oracle should have licensed the OS from RedHat and then provided a package deal.
Oh Big Larr, so excited about linux but no way to harness it. Thank got they didn't buy Novell.
-m
Reverse the charges on your credit card asap. Then, let your domain expire and snipe your own domain back with another registrar.
o n/0,,sid26_gci810538,00.html
http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefiniti
There is a probability that it won't work, but there's not much else to do without a team of lawyers.
Good luck.
-m
Yes, it is opensourced from Novell.
p armor
Here's a link to the Novell Forge: http://forge.novell.com/modules/xfmod/project/?ap
SELinux is out there too, but quite a bit more difficult to configure, even as a distro. AppArmor can be added to any system you have easily enough.
-m
Sounds like that need Novell's AppAmor software. It is an application-level firewall. You could take firefox and make a firewall around it so it can't do anything that you don't want it to (remote code execution, blah blah). Interestingly as well, you can wrap up apache with it to prevent web server hacks and whatnot. Not sure if you can put it around the kernel to prevent rootkits from installing, but if you cover your points of entrance (browser, e-mail, file sharing, etc) you should be pretty well covered.
Even comes with the base SLED/SLES10 and I believe will be in openSUSE and other distros soon.
More here: http://www.novell.com/linux/security/apparmor/
Too bad they chose RedHat for those laptops--they wouldn't be worrying about this!
-m
True, but when they learn it and then move to another computer in school/elsewhere it will be different.
-m
Can't they just use the standard Fedora GUI--why another GUI? Too much re-learning and too much time spent on redesigning something that is already and will continue to go under heavy development.
:)
Besides, does the video card support XGL?
-m
Dang, Oracle is fiesty. I know big Lar wants to kick it up a notch, but sheesh, give us a break. Just partner with RH/Novell and offer bundles or something. You don't have to buy the whole frickin' company!
Besides, the world does not need yet another Linux distro.
-m
I think you should become the CEO as they seem to be closer to the ideas and workings of the company (the "visionary"), whereas the Financial types hammer the books and tell you how much you can spend on your ideas (not as irreplacable as you are). There's no reason salaries and perks can't be similar. Finally, it often doesn't matter what the title is, as long as things are working out. But I still think it should be you.
-m
All your splunk base belong to us!
Eww....
-m