Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Servers

    Open-Source Leaders Accept New Challenges

    By
    Peter Galli
    -
    February 1, 2005
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      BURLINGAME, Calif.—A slate of Linux and open-source software luminaries took to the stage Tuesday here at the OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) Enterprise Summit, as they discussed how their interests and concerns have expanded along with the capabilities of open source.

      The keynote address, titled “An open conversation with Linux and open-source software notables,” was more of a question-and-answer session to find out what the panelists are working on and what their views are about issues facing the industry.

      The several hundred attendees heard from Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds; Linux 2.6 kernel maintainer Andrew Morton; Brian Behlendorf, chief technology officer at CollabNet and one of the founders of the Apache Foundation; and Mitch Kapor of the Open Source Applications Foundation.

      “I try to manage the kernel from a technical point of view and, sadly, I dont do much technical coding work anymore. I have become a manager,” Torvalds said when asked by the moderator, OSDL CEO Stuart Cohen, what his job involves.

      Torvalds said what he does is “read e-mail” and that he does not talk to customers much as that is not what he enjoys doing.

      Morton said the development model around Linux has been changed so that patches and changes are made to the current 2.6 kernel, and so no 2.7 development kernel had been released as yet. He added that he and Torvalds are maintaining and updating the 2.6 kernel at a rapid rate.

      Behlendorf said he is spending a lot of time talking to companies about their software problems and how software is written. “There is a disaster out there, and most software projects fail,” he said.

      Kapor said he is focusing on developing Chandler, a new open-source personal information manager, which will move from pre-alpha to alpha this year and will see the code get into peoples hands.

      /zimages/3/28571.gifRead more here about Chandler and other projects Kapor is working on.

      “I am also working on a new standard for calendaring known as CalDAV, along with a number of large companies like Oracle [Corp.] and others who are still under the covers at this point,” Kapor said.

      “It will be a well-constructed, widely adopted standard for calendaring. Implementations of this will be offered this year, both open source and proprietary, which will give an alternative to the proprietary solutions,” he said.

      Asked what makes open-source software development successful, Torvalds said one of Linuxs strengths is that all of these projects are going on simultaneously, some of which split into two, others that go away and still others that continue.

      “There are competing and often symbiotic relationships between the various projects, which is a big positive. The decoupled nature of these is also vital to their success,” he said.

      Morton said the decoupled nature of the kernel is essentially behind its success, where specific subsections are controlled by specific people. “On the Linux project, there are some 50 people who head subsystems and have people working with them on this,” he said.

      “What is needed are well-defined standards and interfaces. Also, the distributors could take up the whip on the desktop front and start being more proactive and cracking the whip on that front,” he said.

      Kapor said the most successful software projects control the flow of people into the project. At Mozilla, there is still a lot of flow around this, he said. Regarding Firefox, a decision was made to allow only a core group to make it happen and, looking back, that might have been too closed a process, he said.

      /zimages/3/28571.gifClick here for an interiew with Mozilla president Mitchell Baker on Firefox and more.

      It is also important to have people with the right interpersonal skills, Kapor said, adding that sound judgment “is not all that common.”

      “People that have it in open source can assume a lot of responsibility,” he said. Many open-source projects are too small to take on a more modular, decoupled nature, and this makes their success more challenging, he said.

      Asked what the future holds for Linux in the next five years, Torvalds described himself as the “anti-visionary.” He said the process has people “looking away from the ground in front of them to the beautiful utopia ahead, and that is when we stumble and miss the technical and other issues right before our eyes.”

      Kapor said the dynamics that have fueled open-source software will be spreading to other areas, and that the outlines of this would be far clearer within the next five years. The open-source dynamic of decentralized cooperation on modularized technology will continue to become more widespread, he said.

      From his perspective, Behlendorf said that while open source has many users, a lot of that does not come back in terms of development effort from those users on Linux and other open-source software.

      “Some of that is cultural, and we need to let people know elsewhere in the world that its fine for them to contribute and they are welcome. Users need to be more willing to take risks and experiment and roll the dice. We also need you to try and assign strategic values to the fact that you can do what you want with open code and a lot of freedom, which is hard to represent on a balance sheet,” he told attendees.

      /zimages/3/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis.

      Peter Galli
      Peter Galli has been a financial/technology reporter for 12 years at leading publications in South Africa, the UK and the US. He has been Investment Editor of South Africa's Business Day Newspaper, the sister publication of the Financial Times of London.He was also Group Financial Communications Manager for First National Bank, the second largest banking group in South Africa before moving on to become Executive News Editor of Business Report, the largest daily financial newspaper in South Africa, owned by the global Independent Newspapers group.He was responsible for a national reporting team of 20 based in four bureaus. He also edited and contributed to its weekly technology page, and launched a financial and technology radio service supplying daily news bulletins to the national broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, which were then distributed to some 50 radio stations across the country.He was then transferred to San Francisco as Business Report's U.S. Correspondent to cover Silicon Valley, trade and finance between the US, Europe and emerging markets like South Africa. After serving that role for more than two years, he joined eWeek as a Senior Editor, covering software platforms in August 2000.He has comprehensively covered Microsoft and its Windows and .Net platforms, as well as the many legal challenges it has faced. He has also focused on Sun Microsystems and its Solaris operating environment, Java and Unix offerings. He covers developments in the open source community, particularly around the Linux kernel and the effects it will have on the enterprise.He has written extensively about new products for the Linux and Unix platforms, the development of open standards and critically looked at the potential Linux has to offer an alternative operating system and platform to Windows, .Net and Unix-based solutions like Solaris.His interviews with senior industry executives include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Linus Torvalds, the original developer of the Linux operating system, Sun CEO Scot McNealy, and Bill Zeitler, a senior vice president at IBM.For numerous examples of his writing you can search under his name at the eWEEK Website at www.eweek.com.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×