These Things Matter to Me
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Sun buying Virtualbox-maker Innotek
(Screenshot of a Windows guest in a Mac OS X host, using VirtualBox)
Most Ubuntu users have long known about Virtualbox, the confusingly-versioned (they have an "open source" version, and a "full" (their word, not fine) version ) VMware Workstation-like tool. It's been in Ubuntu repositories for a while, and I like it quite a bit, though it's never displaced VMware Workstation in my life.
I've been especially excited about the fact that they have a beta version of VirtualBox for the Mac, making it so users on all major platforms can have a similar experience and trade virtual machines around.(Yeah, I know that VMware Fusion virtual machines are pretty much interchangeable with VMware Workstation/ VMware Player machines, but there is no free VMware product for Mac users, so I hate having to check ahead/download trials for users, etc).
In any case, Sun is buying Innotek, and I think it's great. Let's hope they don't pour Java into it! (just kidding. kind of.) One thing that I think has hurt Sun is that it doens't make consumer products. Something Microsoft benefits from, and now VMware, is that consumer behaviors drive corporate decisions. People achieve consumer comfort with a product, and extend the relationship at work. Sun's Scott McNealy would just rail against Microsoft quality. It's not always about quality! It's about not wanting to venture into the unknown. Sun having an easy to use desktop product like VirtualBox is actually pretty unique for them, and a really great change. (Apologies if they make all sorts of other consumer apps I don't know about.)
(Screenshot of a Windows guest in a Mac OS X host, using VirtualBox)Most Ubuntu users have long known about Virtualbox, the confusingly-versioned (they have an "open source" version, and a "full" (their word, not fine) version ) VMware Workstation-like tool. It's been in Ubuntu repositories for a while, and I like it quite a bit, though it's never displaced VMware Workstation in my life.
I've been especially excited about the fact that they have a beta version of VirtualBox for the Mac, making it so users on all major platforms can have a similar experience and trade virtual machines around.(Yeah, I know that VMware Fusion virtual machines are pretty much interchangeable with VMware Workstation/ VMware Player machines, but there is no free VMware product for Mac users, so I hate having to check ahead/download trials for users, etc).
In any case, Sun is buying Innotek, and I think it's great. Let's hope they don't pour Java into it! (just kidding. kind of.) One thing that I think has hurt Sun is that it doens't make consumer products. Something Microsoft benefits from, and now VMware, is that consumer behaviors drive corporate decisions. People achieve consumer comfort with a product, and extend the relationship at work. Sun's Scott McNealy would just rail against Microsoft quality. It's not always about quality! It's about not wanting to venture into the unknown. Sun having an easy to use desktop product like VirtualBox is actually pretty unique for them, and a really great change. (Apologies if they make all sorts of other consumer apps I don't know about.)
Labels: business, consumer, fusion, innotek, player, sun, ubuntu, virtualbox, virtualization, workstation
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
These Links Matter to You. Wednesday September 5, 2007
- I didn't intend on being the 5,000,000th person to talk about the iphone/ipod updates today, but I ran across this in a delicious feed:
Schadenfreude: iPhone Price Chopped Already, 8GB $200 Cheaper - Consumerist
Whatever. I was an iPhone-carrying rock star all summer and you know it
by werty to gadgets iphone ... saved by 1 other person ... 1 hour ago - An extremely interesting talk by Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz about emerging markets (video)
- Leetspeak: as legit as Kitty Pidgin
- Another big media company is using Drupal. This time LifetimeTV. (They join mtv, WarnerMusic, among others)
- You didn't hear it from me, but Google may announce a presentation program (PowerPoint-ish) and wiki to go along with GoogleDocs and Google Spreadsheet at the Office 2.0 conference this week
Labels: drupal, iphone, jonathan schwartz, leetspeak, sun
Monday, May 07, 2007
Separated at birth
Just loved.
Looking into my Apache logs tonight, I noticed for the first time, a bunch of Solaris users.
And hey! Requests/ refers from sun.com? For five seconds I got excited by the possibility that somebody from Sun was linking to me. It's no secret I dig Jonathan Schwartz and and many Sun activities. (But at the same time, I don't dig Sun's Java. )
So it was with heavy heart that I realized nobody from Sun was linking to me. They were just embeddeding a gif I have of Tim Oreilly and including it in their blog post. It seems that Tim O'Reilly with a beard reminds some people of actor Dennis Hopper. And this comparison was posted by a JavaOne attendee, which was then aggregated on the JavaOne blog page.
After consultation with an ethicist, I considered my options. Edit the graphic so that my URL would display? No, too stalkerazzi/tmz.com. Change it to a goatse? No, too crass. And besides, the blogger seems really nice, and has a good blog about grid stuff. And his embedding the graphic doesn't really hurt me. But I had to do just a lil something. So I made a little Javalasses joke on the image, and reuploaded the file.
I hope they keep the graphic up, though. We need more Tim O'Reilly. separated at birth memes! (I also heart Tim.)
PS. Javalasses.
Just loved.
Looking into my Apache logs tonight, I noticed for the first time, a bunch of Solaris users.
And hey! Requests/ refers from sun.com? For five seconds I got excited by the possibility that somebody from Sun was linking to me. It's no secret I dig Jonathan Schwartz and and many Sun activities. (But at the same time, I don't dig Sun's Java. )
So it was with heavy heart that I realized nobody from Sun was linking to me. They were just embeddeding a gif I have of Tim Oreilly and including it in their blog post. It seems that Tim O'Reilly with a beard reminds some people of actor Dennis Hopper. And this comparison was posted by a JavaOne attendee, which was then aggregated on the JavaOne blog page.
After consultation with an ethicist, I considered my options. Edit the graphic so that my URL would display? No, too stalkerazzi/tmz.com. Change it to a goatse? No, too crass. And besides, the blogger seems really nice, and has a good blog about grid stuff. And his embedding the graphic doesn't really hurt me. But I had to do just a lil something. So I made a little Javalasses joke on the image, and reuploaded the file.
I hope they keep the graphic up, though. We need more Tim O'Reilly. separated at birth memes! (I also heart Tim.)
PS. Javalasses.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Novell + Sun. Two ships passing in the night
Wowza... so much hub-bub yesterday about Sun open-sourcing Java. It almost drowned out this news:
Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz writes:
Using patents as competitive tools in the free software world is not acceptable. Novell, as a participant in numerous debates, discussions and conferences on the topic knew this to be the case. We call upon Novell to work with the Software Freedom Law Center to undo the patent agreement and acknowledge its obligations as a beneficiary of the Free Software community.And somehow this gets connected to the Sun Java announcement. Samba isn't the only one bugged by the Microsoft/ Novell arrangement. While Sun already had plans to open source Java, they had not decided on a license. It turns out that Sun decision to use the GPL is directly related to the Novell/ Microsoft agreement.
Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz writes:
... one of the strongest motivations to select the GPL was the announcement made last week by Novell and Microsoft, suggesting that free and open source software wasn't safe unless a royalty was being paid. As an executive from one of those companies said, "free has to have a price."That's nonsense.
Free software can be free of royalties, and free of impediments to broadscale, global adoption and deployment. Witness what we've done with Solaris, and now, what we've done with Java. Developers are free to pick up the code, and create derivatives. Without royalty or obligation.
Those that say open source software can't be safe for customers - or that commercially indemnified software can't foster community - are merely advancing their own agenda. Without any basis in fact.
They're also fighting a rising tide.
Related:
- Ubuntu to include Java, now that it's GPL'd
- Novell stock down after initial bump since Microsoft announcement (via CRN)
- David Berlind correctly predicted Java going GPL, before it happened
- Novell blog addresses open source community's negative reaction to Microsoft/ Novell agreement
- Sun's Tim Bray on the internal discourse and resistance and encouragement, of the open sourcing of Java
Labels: copyright, gpl, law, legal, license, microsoft, novell, patents, software, strategy, sun, technology
