Saturday, August 13, 2005

Linux on USB Key

I finally picked up another USB key for storing my documents on. I figured on using the older key (128M) to hold a bootable Linux distribution. I use a number of bootable CD distros, but, I really like DSL as it is quite small, recognizes all of the hardware I have here and the default settings and applications fit what I need it to do.

I booted my main box using the DSL CD and followed the instructions to create an USB version. When I rebooted the machine it didn't boot to DSL. I neeeded to change the boot options of my box to recognize USB-HDD as the option. Once I made that change it booted to the DSL USB device without a problem.

It is a nice tool for an emergency if the CD drive is not working and you need to boot an unusable machine. I will need to explore the options available for backup/restore and eventually look at customising the USB drive. I have a few packages that I prefer that are not on the distro and others I don't want.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Linux v SCO OpenServer 6

Normally I don't reply to open letters, but, with what SCO has been trying to do to Linux and the GPL I will indulge myself in going through Darl McBride's 'open letter' and doing my responses to a number of statements that he has made. You can find his 'open letter' at SCO.COM and read for yourself.


Statement:
We work and live in a competitive environment, as do most companies.

Reply:

Unlike Pepsi, Coke, GM, Ford, Boing, Airbus, Red Sox or Yankees they don't sue their customers for using the product. Most companies compete against each other using their products and features of their products.

Statement:
OpenServer 6 Costs Less

Reply:
Compared to what?
  1. Here in Canada I can buy MS Server 2003 Standard edition w/5 CAL for 929 (Canadian).
  2. Using Mandriva as an example I can purchase the 10.1 with powerpack for 199 Euros. That works out to approximately $431 Canadian. While I didn't dig for the support cost it is mentioned up-front on the page '5 year product maintenance'.
  3. Novell SUSE - Enterprise server (2 cpu) is $349 per year (U.S.). Relatively up-front on their costs too.
  4. You point out the support costs, what is the cost for SCO over five years?
When people talk about 'free' in Linux they usually are not talking about price they are talking about the ability to freely modify the code to fit their needs.

Statement:
SCO Has a superior Kernel.

Reply:
Why do you show the things that SCO does and not do a direct feature-to-feature compare? HMMM?

Let me do a quick summary of some of the features you mention.








FeatureSCO Openserver 6Linux Kernel 2.6
Processors3232
Memory supported64GB64GB
File sizesterabyteterabyte

The features that you mention in your open letter have been available to Linux since 2004.


Statement:
OpenServer Has Better Security

Reply:
Your choice of MI2G leaves a lot to be desired for the security. Others much more qualified than myself have a more definitive analyis of this. Why did you ignore the SANS institute and their security analysis? I place much more weight on the experts at the SANS institute than than MI2G and I would assume many experts would agree with my opinion.

On the TCO what was the methodolgy used to come up with 'TCO'. Anyone can come up with 'TCO', but please let us know how you measure it so we can do a meaningful compare.


Statement:
SCO Has a Customer-Driven Roadmap

Reply:
So do your competitors. Redhat, SUSE, Mandrake to name just three, you can easily find their roadmaps on where they are going.

You talk about methodology, please tell us what methodology SCO follows for software development and maintenance? Most companies working in the IT field who are successful are using a methodology of some sort, they must. It allows a group of people
  1. To work together as a team developing a product that will work as spec.
  2. Allows for a repeatable process to deliver a product on time with minimal defects.
  3. Allows for a roadmap to be build that the team works for.
  4. Allows for people to join and drop out with minimal impact to the project and the timeline.

Statement:
OpenServer 6 is Backward Compatible

Reply:
To a large extent so is Linux. If there is something that is not available or does not work there is usually a community for that product that will take on the project and develop a solution.

By the way, part of the products in OpenServer are GPL products so who are the people really doing the fixes for any compatibility problems?


Statement:
SCO Allows You to Focus on Your Core Competency

Reply:
Software is a tool and a good tool allows a company to focus more time and effort on their job. The current Linux distros are literally put in a CD, answer a few questions and the machine is running. You don't need to patch the kernel, compile binaries or check version dependencies, it has been done for the user already by the distro.


Statement:
SCO Owns and Warrantees its Products

Reply:
Only so far as you own what code you have written and put into place. There is a dispute at this time with Novell on the fact of if you even own the copyright to the source code. This also does not include the fact that you don't 'own' any of the third party code. Just remember part of your code may be GPL and you must follow the GPL in order to distribute.


Statement:
SCO is Unifying its Code Base

Reply:
That depends on how you look at it. In a mono-culture there is one and only one way of doing things, the result, well look at MS Windows. In Linux if a group do not like the direction a software package is taking the community is free to take the code in a new and wonderful direction. A point in this case is XORG. Look at Novell, IBM and Mandriva and the fact that they can live, work and profit from the GPL.


Statement:
CO UNIX: Legendary Reliability

Reply:
How much do your customers trust you when you sue your customers for using your product? I would assume that Autozone is less than trusting at this point in time.


Statement:
SCO Has an award winning support team

Reply:
How is this different from IBM, Redhat, Novell, SUSE? They have teams of experts who know the products too. That and if the product question is a third party GPL product who do you think the third party will support a bit better, a company that tried to repudiate the GPL and sue their own users or companies to embrace and respect the GPL?