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IBM open-sources file system technology

Author: JT Smith

IBM announced Wednesday the Open Source contribution of a high-performance file system technology and talent to strengthen collaboration in the enterprise. The contribution of AFS Enterprise File System gives the community a remote file system with a proven track record that features high performance and scalability in rigorous computing environments. AFS is designed to protect data access by authenticating users, providing a very secure, easily managable working environment that supports a wide variety of operating platforms, including Linux. The full press release is on InternetWire.

Australian installfest betters expectations

Author: JT Smith

The Linux community in southern Australia welcomes a few hundred more users into the fold at the Adelaide Install Fest 2000, reports LinuxWorld.

Category:

  • Linux

Judge rejects MP3.com counter claim

Author: JT Smith

A judge on Wednesday rejected an accusation by MP3.com Inc. that Seagram Co.’s Universal Music Group was using its copyright infringement claim to put the online music company out of business.
The presiding U.S. District Court judge, Jed Rakoff, also ruled as irrelevant MP3.com’s allegation that Universal, the world’s largest record company, was unwilling to settle the suit out of court because of its own online strategy, Reuters reported.

Mac OS X Public Beta to be released Sept. 13

Author: JT Smith

At Apple Expo 2000 in Paris on September 13, Apple will finally release the much-anticipated Mac OS X Public Beta. Steve Jobs announced the news at his Seybold San Francisco keynote speech on Tuesday. We now have a concrete date for the emergence of Mac OS X from the development community and into the hands of early adopters and power users, MacWeek reports.

Interview with Matt Allen, founder of Linux Worx

Author: JT Smith

Linuxworld.com.au offers an interview with Matt Allen, founder of Linux Worx Pty Ltd, a company which “came about from years of frustration with a certain M$ operating System.”

Category:

  • Linux

Eazel: ‘World domination’ not far away

Author: JT Smith

By Grant Gross
Managing Editor

When Linux becomes easier to use than a Macintosh, the last barrier to “world domination” will have disappeared, says Andy Hertzfeld, designer of much of the original Mac system software. And Hertzfeld believes Linux’s day is not far away.

Hertzfeld is a co-founder of Eazel, a project designed to make Linux easier to use on the desktop, and he has little doubt his team will succeed.

“The ultimate goal is to make free software easier to use than the mainstream, proprietary systems,” he says. “Our goal is not to catch up to Macintosh, but to be the best thing, period.”

That day is two to three years away, Hertzfeld estimates, and with Linux’s current growth rates, it’s not hard to envision what Linux creator Linus Torvalds jokingly called “world domination.”

“If that growth rate continues for just a couple of years, I think we’ll see Linux in a very healthy market share,” says Hertzfeld, Eazel’s software wizard (Yes, that’s his title).

Closer still is Linux catching up to Windows in ease of use, he says. “In the next year, what Eazel is about is having [Linux GUIs] pass windows,” he adds, “which isn’t all that hard, because Windows is a mess.”

Good reviews

A man on a mission, Hertzfeld rapid-fires his vision for Eazel during a recent phone interview. The short version: Eazel was founded in August 1999 by Hertzfeld and two other members of the original Macintosh team, Mike Boich, Eazel’s CEO, and Bud Tribble, Eazel’s vice president of engineering. All three had gone on to work for some other high-gloss technology projects, and their decision to focus on Linux has generally met positive reviews.

From Upside: “When is a startup more than a startup? When that startup is kissed with the golden glow of success long before it retains a public relations firm … And once in a very long while, the founders might have the missionary zeal to want to change the world in very seminal ways. Eazel is one of those startups.”

ABC News.com, quoting Cormac Foster, technology analyst with Jupiter Communications: “But the Eazel programmers’ pedigree makes them a group to watch. The company could be a key figure in future competitive battles.”

And Forbes.com quoting Open Source evangelist Eric S. Raymond: “Andy Hertzfeld and his crew showed the world how to do GUIs right back in 1984, for them to bending their efforts to Linux now is probably the best possible news for Linux on the desktop.”

Eazel’s projects

A year after launching the company, the Eazel founders are touting two main development efforts. One is Nautilus, a desktop user interface built on the GNOME environment that will be included with the GNOME 1.4 release due out this fall.

Among other features, Nautilus will focus on file management, allowing for quick document scanning, “virtual folders” that free users from a strict file hierarchy, and file emblems and directory notes used to create a personalized file system. The Nautilus user interface will also allow multiple user levels for optimized interfaced for both novice and expert users, and files that can be represented by their content, such as image, text, or music.

The second major development effort is the subscription-based Eazel Services, where the company’s money-making business plan lies. It will include software update notification, system inventory management to help users maintain optimal performance, and integrated network storage, allowing file sharing across local and remote systems. Right now, it’s difficult for novice Linux users to install new software, and the system degrades as incompatibilities build up. “It becomes this version number soup that only a technically oriented person understands,” he says.

Eazel is a private company with venture funding from Accel Partners, and Hertzfeld says he doesn’t care about taking his company to almighty IPO. “That’s not on the foreseeable horizon,” he says. “What we want to do is create a great user experience, and if we do that, the finances will take care of themselves.”

Without fantasizing too much, Hertzfeld can envision a day when Linux “ends up in the tens to hundreds of millions of users. I don’t think that there’s any limits.”

He adds: “We can take it much farther than we could take any other platform, because there are no walls. Contrast that to developing on Windows or the Macintosh, where you can run into roadblocks, where people will say, ‘You don’t have the right to make changes.’ “

Category:

  • Linux

Gonna be in Melbourne Sept. 9? Check out the Installfest

Author: JT Smith

As part of Installfest 2000, the Linux Users of Victoria will be holding their fifth Linux Installfest on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2000. An Installfest is an event to which you bring your computer and we help you install Linux, or assist you with the configuration of your existing Linux system. The full announcement is at linuxtoday.com.au.

SCO Forum especially interesting this year

Author: JT Smith

ZDNet’s Linux Opinion column goes to the annual SCO Forum, finds a positive mood (and some uncertainty) in wake of SCO’s recent acquisition by Caldera.

Category:

  • Unix

Survey: new focus boosts online retail profits

Author: JT Smith

At ZDNet: story about new studies by Shop.org and Boston Consulting Group that say online retailers “moved closer to profitability” in the first six months of 2000.

Category:

  • Open Source

Safe passage for corporate e-mail

Author: JT Smith

idg.net article about large companies outsourcing email security to specialized service companies. (Open Source isn’t mentioned, but this could be a nice business opportunity based on Open Source software.)