Saturday Jun 26, 2010
Java 4-ever
I found this video via @sig on twitter. Its very funny.
A lot of people that know me will realise that I'm not the biggest Microsoft fan. I could relate to a lot that was in this video.
When Softies used to talk to me about interoperability with SOAP. I'd ask them why they wanted to concentrated on Simple Object Access Protocol? What happened when there was an Advanced Object?
Sunday Nov 29, 2009
Giving up on Microsoft software for work - 18 months on
Its been 18 months or so, since I started on "Giving up on Microsoft software for work". It has been an interesting adventure, one fraught with skepticism from some, but with joy from myself. The big question I faced then was, "Was it possible to work without using Microsoft software?". The answer has been a profound "Yes", from a pure do things to get work done point of view, but "No"
from getting billable work.
I'm still using a nice 17" Mac Book Pro and have been very impressed with it. During the time I've had it, a new version of Mac OS X 10.6 - Snow Leopard, has been released and the system is still performing fine with the hardware. I've had next to no trouble and everything is working great. Apple have even opened retail stores here in Australia.
This photo is from my recent Sydney trip (the store was extremely busy inside):
Our servers run linux of various flavours - SuSE Linux, RedHat and Ubuntu. Some are on-premise and some are off-premise on Amazon EC2. Email, calender, documents use Google Docs and our CRM is Salesforce.com. Its our intent, that unless it is a client end user machine, that as existing hardware reaches end-of-life, new hardware will not be purchased. However, cloud infrastructure will be utilised.
What has surprised me immensely, during this time, is even though we use no Microsoft software, how dominant it is on-premise. Even with the ill fated Microsoft Vista operating system, corporates aren't moving away from Microsoft in the vast majority of environments that I'm engaged with in my local state of South Australia. Sure there are a few linux servers but they appear to be the exception to the rule. Why?
Lets look at servers quickly. Why isn't linux deployed more often? The two main reasons appear to be that existing support contracts with the outsourcer doesn't allow it (well change the contract is my normal response) and secondly that there aren't enough trained administrators (it doesn't take long to train them). But its more then what I have just mentioned, its also somewhat religious. Its like a fraternity, an old school boys club to some degree, with the managers choosing the technology based on relationships and maybe not on technical merit to get the job done in an efficient & cost effective means. A large outsourcer here in Adelaide (anybody living here will know that it is HP Enterprise Services, formerly EDS) seem to promote Microsoft at the exclusion of Linux. Is this to keep others such as IBM out? Who knows!
Choosing Microsoft as the operating system on the server, invariable also means that only Microsoft development languages and tools will be used.
Lets look on the client. The desktops are running Windows 2003/XP etc in these corporates environments. There may be a few Macs, but they will be with marcommspeople, if they have these in house. Whats surprising though, is that mobile devices, will be a mixture of different vendors, including Apple's iPhone. The iPhone is appearing in the hands of many executive managers.
What I have not looked into, in great detail, is besides Microsoft Office, what are the applications that are running on these desktops? Are they installed natively, are they supplied through a Citrix server or are they web based? The later, is how the majority of applications, that I interact with, have been deployed in recent years. They work in most of the popular browsers, independent of anyone type of desktop. Invariably, they will also have a desktop version that works on Mac, Windows or Linux desktops.
So what is going on with the desktop in these corporates? (Oh, I don't use Microsoft Office either and can write documents, do spreadsheets and prepare/present presentations.)
How old are these applications that only work on Microsoft desktops? Do they still satisfy the business requirements? Has the initial investment been written off? Why aren't they being modernised and turned into web based applications? Are the users complaining that they are unproductive because of the outdated interface?
Some interesting questions. To me if they aren't being asked, or when people ask them, they are being squashed. It suggests that the organisation is stuck in support mode, looking to preserve the status quo. Those that can drive the change, to innovate, to progress forward to the next paradigm will get frustrated and leave.
This is what happens with myself, when people say the solution has to be Microsoft based and linux, or other alternatives can't be considered. To me it is yesterday's thinking.
So even though, I myself have been very successful in giving up on Microsoft software for work, from an acquiring work perspective from potential prospects in my current geography, it is not presently a positive.
Tags work linux windows microsoft consulting apple | Comments 0
Friday Dec 05, 2008
IBM offers a 'Microsoft-free' desktop
I've been Microsoft Free for a while and a few people know about my efforts in this area. Giving up on Microsoft software for work was easy and it is not as painful as one may think.
This morning I received a tweet from Ric Hayman (aka Aqualung) about IBM's new offering on a 'Microsoft-free' desktop. Have also spotted the official press release - IBM and Business Partners Introduce a Linux-Based, Virtual Desktop.
A virtual desktop looks like a traditional desktop but is not limited to a single physical computer. Instead, many virtual Linux desktops are hosted on a server. The combined solution includes:
- Virtual desktop provided by Virtual Bridges called Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment (VERDE);
- Ubuntu, the worldwide leading Linux desktop operating system, from Canonical; and
- IBM Open Collaboration Client Solution software (OCCS) based on IBM Lotus Symphony, IBM Lotus Notes and Lotus applications. IBM Lotus Symphony is built on the Open Document Format (ODF).
I hope there is a concerted effort to break this myth in corporates and government institutions by IBM regarding Microsoft desktops as being the only viable option. The current economical circumstances may also give impetus towards alternatives like this.
However, a good starting point would be for IBM to drink their own champagne and roll it out internally. I guess we'll wait and see what happens.
Sunday Sep 28, 2008
IBM vs IBM in SMB - the competition continues
Following twitter the other day, I noticed a tweet by Ed Brill - "I've been tempted to think about whether failed institutions used Notes vs. Exchange, but all of them are likely IBM customers somewhere.". I sent Ed a tweet containing a link to a blog entry I'd written previously on IBM vs IBM in SMB.
James Governor, picked up on it here in a blog entry and highlighted the issue of X Series advertising and success of IBM software in SMB. Mark Cathcart, jumped in here, with James supporting the case of the underdog (being myself, Aussies are known for coming from behind and winning). Mark commented on the very competitive nature of the x86 market, and eluded if they didn't advertise Microsoft software, they'd be out of business before you could spell b-u-s-n-e-s-s i-n-t-e-l-l-i-g-e-n-c-e. Thinking aloud here, is that why IBM is allowing Lenovo to license their X Series technology in certain areas?
But again his statement conflicts with the view of IBM Lotus as expressed on the comment left by Ed Brill. Through Lotus Foundations, Lotus are intending to deploy an appliance into these SMBs. This appliance will ultimately also have access to Lotus Bluehouse. On a side note, the Lotus Foundations/Bluehouse scenario was what I was looking at eventually achieving five years ago, through WebSphere Portal Express. I'm glad to see that Lotus Foundations runs Linux (no Microsoft required - finally Lotus getting off of Microsoft Operating Systems), think it might use an X Series server (but there is no mention of it that I can point to), and the focus is on your business, not IT. Am a little concerned at the focus on Lotus Notes (but it does allow Outlook connection, not sure about the Mac) but at the end of day, until Lotus Bluehouse is effective, its only email. So for an SMB, why not use Google Apps & Google Mail?
Mark mentioned a product called iDataPlex, which seemed to be targeted at ISPs or larger organisations. Not sure how many SMB organisations, need a "Right-size your Internet-scale data center" type infrastructure? This highlights to me, the difference in thinking between those that sell and support the larger end of town and those that support SMBs.
Its two different worlds, that are equally important but completely separate in what the immediate business drivers are.
Now I did agree about Mark's point regarding the support and incentive to sell, however that's useless if the customers don't want to buy IBM Software in the first place. The x86 hardware market is so competitive that it has now got to the point that it is not worth while quoting, as the winning bid (every one gets the special bid) on a large transaction will have a margin of 1% (that also needs to cover the cost of warehousing and delivery) for the business partner.
The point I'm making here is that the support and incentives are irrelevant, if IBM has not primed the SMB market using business intelligence itself to help progress potential buyers through the product buying lifecycle. I don't want to engage with the customer with an IBM product, if it is the first time they have heard about it. The sales cycle is just too long and hence then unprofitable with considerable training expenses.
In my experience, SMB customer's perceive IBM as IBM, not the individual brands, be it hardware, software or services that make up the organisation. If there is confusion, or mixed messages, they will go to other vendors with clear and consistent messages and experiences. Maybe that is one of the reasons Apple is starting to do so well (this blog post has been written on my Mac Book Pro).
Tags linux google dynamics apple smb lotus+bluehouse lotus+foundations ibm market | Comments 1
Tuesday May 20, 2008
Giving up on Microsoft software for work - initial status report
My monitor blanked out on my Windows XP based IBM T42p Thinkpad. Worry crossed my mind, as I thought the machine had died. Quickly, I realised that the monitor had turned itself off for no reason. I rebooted (as it was a Windows machine) and the system came back.
I didn't think much more about it, until about two and half weeks ago, when it started happening again. I would press FN+F3 and eventually the display would return. This worked for a couple of days, until I was performing the reset every few minutes. At that point the system was no longer usable.
I moved over to my OpenSuSe 10.3 Linux desktop and decided to retire the Windows XP Thinkpad. We already run all our servers on Linux. So "Yes", I decided to make the move away from Microsoft software for work as well as general desktop computing. This was going to be interesting.
Now, I had a Desktop back and quickly got my Email, Lotus Sametime and Skype working. I hit a little bit of a hurdle with twhirl, an Adobe AIR based application, for twitter. I'd become fond of this product, but I couldn't seem to find an install for Linux. I raised a question on twitter and @aqualung came up with the solution. Adobe had an Alpha version of the product for Linux. Downloaded and setup the Linux version and then proceeded to install twhirl. It worked, I was now happy to hear those little beeps again.
This was completed on 3rd May 2008, I raised it on twitter that I was going Microsoft Free. Of course there was someone, @NickHodge who responded that they would try and be the opposite. Just for information, I questioned him a day later and he was not able to work exclusively with Microsoft software.
I was very surprised with the improvements in Open Office and have been able to perform all activities necessary with it for a full work week, two weeks straight. I love the ability to be able to produce a PDF from within it. One thing that I would have liked was integration with WebSphere Portal - PDM (Portal Document Manager) and Open Office/Nautilus File Manager. IBM is this going to be available in the next version of WebSphere Portal?
Working virtual, I need to be able to pick up my work environment and go on-premise on the odd occasion. Either for consulting work or to give a presentation. So I wanted to get a new notebook. What was I going to do? Buy a standard notebook with Windows Vista installed or look at an Apple Mac Book Pro?
It would be a big commitment going down the Apple path, but I knew if I absolutely needed to I could also run the Windows operating systems through either Parallels or VMWare Fusion for Mac OS X. So I thought, well lets go get some pricing for a Mac Book Pro. (wow uncanny, as I'm writing this, the Apple commercial - PC vs Mac just came on the TV - Prime Time).
I've ordered a 17" Mac Book Pro with the higher resolution screen, 4 GB of memory and the 7200 RPM 200GB hard drive (got a good price). I've also purchased the Apple Time Capsule, which acts as a back up drive and a WiFi router. Information on your notebook is so valuable, and this in conjunction with the Time Machine capability of Mac OS X, seemed to address the worry that crossed my mind previously.
Through my investigations into who is using Mac OS X based machines, I have found that within certain circles of associates, that I know, I will be the last person to acquire a Mac Book Pro. Now this surprised me, as normally I try and be at the leading edge. I'm not normally known as being a laggard.
Did I fire up the Windows XP Notebook over the last couple of weeks and use it through the external monitor? Yes, a couple of times, to retrieve some data that I had not copied off and also to gather some user ids and passwords for some sites stored in Mozilla Firefox. However, I performed the actual work activity on the Linux machine.
So after two weeks, I have been able to work without Microsoft software to perform my normal business activities. I've had some teething problems, but have always been able to solve the problem myself or gain assistance to find a resolution.
I'm looking forward to using the Mac OS X on the Mac Book Pro, it should be a little more productive then the OpenSuSE Linux Desktop. Next status report will be on my experiences with Apple.
Tags status+report microsoft productivity apple work linux | Comments 3
