Bend in the Weather

I think we can all attest to the phenomenon known as the Teddy Bear troubleshooting.

I think we all probably need our own Teddy Bears in each of our human office box cubicles or work desks.

So next time you need to do some serious troubleshooting or some heavy lifting when debugging - try pulling out the Teddy Bear.
Even better, you can hug something after it's solved!

OpenOffice 3.1 was recently released. It brings a range of new features and bugfixes.

Those of you on Ubuntu desktops who wish to upgrade can do so quite easily. It's been built for Jaunty, Intrepid and Hardy.

You can use the following apt repos to pick it up:

Jaunty:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Intrepid:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main

Hardy:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu hardy main

Once that's done, just add the signing key:
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com D2BB86E0EBD0F0A43D4DB3A760D11217247D1CFF

Now it's a case of just running an update and you'll automatically be upgraded from OO.org 3.0 to OO.org 3.1.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Happy Open-Officing!

The Australian Federal government announced the $12.2 billion Household Stimulus Package in the wake of the Worldwide Financial Downturn.

Payments are to have commenced during March, and the Tax Bonus for Working Australians in April. As yet I don't know anyone who has received them?

These payments are made up of:

• A Tax Bonus for Working Australians of up to $900 for eligible taxpayers, depending on income thresholds.
• A Single-Income Family Bonus of $900 to provide additional assistance for families that have one main income earner and may otherwise receive less assistance from the package than dual income families with similar household income.
• A Farmer's Hardship Bonus of $950 which will be paid to farmers and others receiving Exceptional Circumstances related income support.
• A Training and Learning Bonus of $950 to assist students, those returning to study or training, and some income support recipients.
• A Back to School Bonus of $950 per child to assist low- and middle-income families eligible for Family Tax Benefit A with school-age children.

Whether you are for or against them... they are coming.

Has anyone out there received their 'Bonus'?
From all reports they are to be staggered out... yet I don't know an individual yet that has received them.

Would be happy to hear from someone that has got that 'cheque in the mail' so to speak.

In December we moved into our new house.

Like any new house there are a million tasks that need to be undertaken to make that house into a home.
Slowly but surely Pauline and I are undertaking these tasks.

Whilst the majority of the house is now set up as we desire inside (albeit a few pieces of furniture and moving boxes that seem to continually appear!), the outside has been relatively untouched. Looking out on dirt, rubble and left over building materials wasn't too inspiring.

We laid down approximately 24 metres (yup 24 metres!) of top soil over the Australia Day weekend after removing most of the rubble from the yard. Six hours of bob-cat work and we had it laid out and levelled. Whilst the top soil provides a great foundation for lawns and gardens, it also is a wonderful way to introduce a massive amount of dust and dirt into the house. We also laid about 2 metres of gravel with the bob-cat laying it out for the commencement of a side driveway for us.

I took last week off on work to put in a front garden. This would provide a few solutions:

• Limit the amount of dust being brought in the front door.
• Provide us with some inspiration.
• 'Complete' the front of the house and making it much more appealing to the passing eye.

We started by drawing up a rough plan of what we were after. We wanted a low maintenance garden, but something that was pleasant to look at, but also something that attracted native birds. As the front yard can be seen from the bedroom and Pauline's study, we were also after something inspirational.

One item I did want was a 2nd driveway, to provide access to the rear of the property. We have a 2.5m side gate, and a gravel driveway would be ideal to separate the garden from vehicles and machinery needing to get around the back. I wasn't overly keen on having the garden being stomped on by earth moving equipment. In addition, we could put an area behind the gate to store our trailer.

So after many, many hours in the last week, we've produced a garden we are extremely proud of. It's our first attempt at any serious gardening (do growing herbs and potted plants count?), so we actually surprised ourselves.

Here is a run down on the various stages we undertook. It should also help provide some steps to those wishing to undertake something similar.

Stage 1 - Starting point We had previously had the bob-cat operator in a few weeks earlier. He had laid down and levelled the top soil and some crushed rock for us. This was our starting point.	Stage 2 - Preparing the area We started by laying some treated pine (H4) as a boundary between the side driveway and the proposed garden. 3 additional metres of gravel was then placed on the driveway, and we shoveled and raked this out by hand. (in hindsight -- using a bob-cat would be recommended) Moving this much by hand isn't advised! Weed mat was then applied and pegged down to cover the proposed garden area.
Stage 3 - Laying the chip bark We ordered in 3 metres of chip bark and raked it out. It's about 4-6 inches deep, which helps reduce water evaporation and also provides another barrier against weeds. Now the chip bark is down, the defined areas of the garden can be made out.	Stage 4 - Creating a feature point A feature point in a garden is important, as it draws the viewer in. We decided on a centre feature point to utilise the shape and area we had defined in the garden. ¼ a metre of 20mm tuscan pebbles and another ¼ of a metre of 40mm tuscan pebbles where mixed together to create variety and randomness. The ½ metre of pebbles was then laid out in a 'pond' style shape and curved to break many of the straight lines in the garden.
Stage 5 - Adding garden pieces Garden pieces add curiosity to a garden and often provide the charm. Whilst the plants are the main aspect of a garden, it is often a good idea to add non-plant items to a garden to break up the garden and generate some interest. As we were going for a native/bush garden we added some 'rustic' elements such as the tree stump and the log (a disused/broken old fence post). In addition we wanted to attract native birds to the area, so we added a bird bath to the garden. The tree stump is strategically located so curious birds can fly/land on the tree stump and survey the surrounding area before venturing in for a drink/splash.	Stage 6 - Planting Now that the base of the garden has been established, we planted the succulents, trees, shrubs and flowers. We were after a native bush style garden, so natives and drought tolerant plants were used. We were also mindful of colour, shape, texture and foliage of all the plants selected. Doing so meant that we didn't create a static looking garden but one with visual depth and appeal. Many of these plants when established will grow out to 1-2 metres in width and height. This will provide a rather populated garden and one rich in colour, foliage and shade. Due to so many native plantings, it's likely to also be a hit with local bird and animal life.

The garden is quite attractive from all angles:

Here is some close ups of some the plants we planted:

We're extremely happy with the results, particularly seeing this is our first real attempt at gardening. Whilst it's daunting starting out, there is so much information available on the Internet, in books and at hardware stores/nurseries that it really isn't hard to locate the information you require.

Pauline now has a beautiful view out of her office window, and we wake to a lovely garden each morning.
It's definitely not a weekend job, and it did take us the entire week to do. (Though a very warm summer and not being the fittest people going around probably dragged that out). In addition we had to go get supplies on a regular basis which ate into 'gardening time'.

So if you are wanting to put in a garden and remove that dead brown grass I highly recommend it. It's much more pleasant and lively to look out on, and will help attract native birds into your part of the world. Whilst we could have also paid a landscaper to come and do all the hard work for us, we ended up saving thousands and have a great sense of accomplishment. It's well worth the investment in labour and time. On the finance side, we hit just over $500 which is quite cost effective.

Finishing Touches
We are going to put in a pathway from the side gate to the front door. I'm picking up a bunch of red gum sleepers and will be cutting them in half and burying them into the chipbark to provide a nice rustic path via red gum steppers. Even better, I'll pick them up for free after a barter was undertaken (configure up a Samba server for him, and access to the sleepers I would like). Now that's using Linux in ya garden!

We have some garden lights that we may eventually run down the driveway/path to the front entrance. We do have a sensor light there, so I'm undecided at this stage if we need them out the front (we also have a street light opposite us, which provides a lot of night light). If I don't use them around the front, we will redeploy them around the backyard.

You may laugh at the subject, but after the Federal government introduces mandatory Internet blocking whilst the Victorian Police and State Government are introducing a 'timeout corner' I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the introduction of compulsory milk and after noon naps in the work place. Remember in Victoria this comes directly after the 2am lockout on hotels and clubs is reversed after being a failure.

Seriously, does anyone else feel like they are being treated like a child?

Enough of all the bullshit legislation and start making people accountable. This generational problem of 'it's not my fault' has grown tired.
Time for legal adults to start acting like adults. If you want the privilege of driving a motor vehicle and consuming alcohol these all come with responsibilities. Don't want the responsibility, then don't take on the privilege. It's that simple.

The current government mentality of mollycoddling irresponsible members of society shows the contempt it holds the general population in.

Parents control what your own children get up to. This includes out in public and on the Internet. You alone are responsible for your child, not your parents, not your neighbour, not your child's school/teacher and certainly not the government. This is your responsibility and privilege of raising a child.

You wouldn't sit your children them down in front of a TV with an open bookcase of adult movies in plain sight (well we hope you wouldn't), so why do you allow your children to sit unsupervised on the Internet?
These are the same parents who boldly claim they wouldn't let their child walk aimlessly through a multi-level shopping centre for fear of predators, yet are happy to let them run unaccompanied with a keyboard and mouse on the biggest shopping-centre there is.

To those who enjoy a drink, do so. But do so responsibly. The whole violence on the streets/in clubs on a Friday and Saturday night is appalling.
I see no 'fun' in binge drinking and then waking up in an emergency room (if lucky), or never waking and lying in a morgue.
Don't think it's that serious? Take a read through the emergency reports from the inner city hospitals after every weekend.

No-one is saying don't drink. However if your behaviour effects others maybe you shouldn't.

To the governments and police forces in this land. Grow some balls and prosecute those that behave in anti-social behaviour. The rash of stupid legislation has to stop. America had one crack-pot who will soon leave office. Do we need to oust officials at all levels here before some sensible laws are passed? As public officials you are there to represent the people. Is creating laws that affect/restrict everyone of their civil liberties, to stop a select few (ineffectively I might add) representing the people? I think not.

Enough is enough, the violence and stupidity has to stop. It's unacceptable and it has to be stamped out. Laws need to uphold the values of society; they shouldn't be introduced to protect the stupidity of a select few. Those acting anti-socially, have given up their right to be part of society. Start arresting, fining or imposing jail terms on these individuals, but don't lock up society instead.

Leave your IRC client set to away for a day, and then check your private chats later that night.

It's amazing some of the strange banter you get:

[someuser] hi..
[someuser] yesterday we completed the network config change in all servers, and now network part is clear
[someuser] ;P
[someuser] ;P
[someuser] :p
[someuser] please ignore above 3 lines

For the record, I was helping a fellow admin out with configuring a series of bonded interfaces for a server (7 connections - 3 bonded, one not).

I take it the first two lines of the message tells me it's been completed.
The next 3 lines were meant for someone else, whilst the last the user recognised what they had done.

The lesson for today: Check which window you're in before typing.

In a not to distant past Russell Coker wrote about RAID Issues and referred in part to a report containing data from 1,530,000 disks running at NetApp customer sites. (also available in PDF or Postscript)

Interesting reading, for sure - particularly if you run any large dataset and want to ensure it stays intact!

It prompted in the recesses of my memory a report compiled in February 2007 by Google. The report, 'Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population' was a report presented at the USENIX (FAST '07) Conference.

The Google report looked at actual hardware failures of disk Google saw over several years. The numbers were crunched (Is there anything else Google does besides crunch large datasets?). Some interesting results popped out:

• The disks studied where either SATA or PATA consumer-grade disks that were either 5400RPM or 7200RPM ranging in size from 80G to 400G and been commissioned from any time after 2001. - Interesting this is the same disks that many of us will find in our own machines. No Enterprise disks, SCSI or SAS disks in the study.
• HDDs had a higher tendancy to fail at the start of their life or anything beyond >3 years of use.
• Low or Heavy Utilization of the HDD resulted in greater loss then 'Medium use'.
• Disks that had surface scan errors had a greater result of failure over the next 60 days.
• HDDs in operating in cool temperature (15-30^oC) had much greater failure rate in the first 3 years. Whilst disks > 3 years had a greater failure rate with the higher the operating temperature. The ideal rate for running disks to minimise failure rate was 30-35^oC.
• A disk that spends more than 50% of it's powered on time > 40^oC is a good indication of a possible problem.
• SMART data analysis revealed that it is not a reliable way to determine if a disk is about to fail. 36% of all disk failure had no SMART errors. The disks that had SMART errors the majority where seek errors (~72%). So basically, expect to see seek errors, beyond that you appear to be running blind with SMART.

Looking at both the Google Report and the NetApp Storage Report some 'best practices' become apparent to ensure you minimise your data loss:

• HDDs are mechanical devices. Expect failure and plan for it.
• Attempt to operate disks in the 30 - 35^oC temperature range to extend their life.
• Monitor disk temperatures. Extended periods where a disk temperature rises unexpectedly (ie: not under any additional load than normal), is often an early sign that failure is close at hand.
• Attempt to purchase disks not from the same batch. This will avoid a common manufacturing fault taking your disks out at the same time. (Many storage companies will do that for you as part of their service.)
• HDD failure follows the Bathtub curve. The 'right side' of the bath kicks in around 3 years. Getting life out of your HDDs beyond that is a bonus, treat it as such!
• HDDs are cheap these days. Don't be cheap -- implement RAID-6 over RAID-5 as a matter of course. Ensure you use Double-parity on your RAID-6 implementation. You'll find most recent versions of RAID-6 implement double-parity as 'standard'. (NB: If using NetApp - it's coined as RAID-DP.) Some vendors even allow you to upgrade the storage firmware online if using RAID-6 with Double Parity (NetApp for example has this feature).
• Hot-Spares in your RAID-6 array is a very good idea. For the cost of the array consider it an insurance policy against the dreaded multiple disk failure which could potentially toast your array.
• How important is your data? Can you put a cost on it? If the cost of replacement is extreme, consider redundancy options. This could include: Implementing RAID-60 (or RAID-6+0), archive/backup solutions, or even a total Disaster Recovery (DR) solution.
• Air flow around an array unit is critical. Don't cram your arrays in a fully populated rack, as minimal air-flow will ensure. This will add to the HDD temperatures and general storage enclosure. Remember you're aiming to keep your disks at 30-35^oC.
• Keep a logbook of when each drive was added/replaced. You know that 18 month disk then is less likely to fail than that disk that has been whirring away for 5 years. Record size, manufacturer and model/run. You may see some 'patterns' emerge in your own failure rates that will help with additional purchase decisions (ie: particular makes/models to avoid!)
• Perform regular 'scans' or 'checks' of your HDD health, knowing the current state of disks allows you to plan for the inevitable failure.

Other tips I've picked up over the years looking after Enterprise systems attached to large storage arrays:

• There is a reason that the ASX demands that publicly listed companies with 'mission critical' services for the public (items such as water supply, electricity/gas, and telecommunications) MUST ensure their 'mission criticial' applications have full Disaster Recovery operation on hot-standy.
• Don't cut corners and not implement items like HotSpares and Double Parity. When you have a drive failure (not if), you'll be glade you spent that little bit extra on it.
• A well planned storage solution should have drive failures, it shouldn't have storage failures. (Don't tell Sun/Internode that!)
• Ensure you have clean-filtered power. Don't assume it. Power voltage fluctuations and disk writes don't play nicely.
• Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Bad things do happen (I won't mention Internode again). Spreading your data out over multiple storage arrays helps add another level of redundancy. This is a GoodThing^TM
• It's never a bad idea to have spare disks in storage waiting for that inevitable failure, rather than relying on a vendor to have your disk capacity/model available. Every day that dead disk isn't replaced you are putting your array at risk.
• Look after your disks and arrays, and they generally will look after you (ie: ensuring you don't spend countless hours in the early mornings attempting to recover the unrecoverable!)

Above all, may your next disk failure not be a complete failure.

I'm interested to hear others stories, experiences and ideas that they have put in place to keep their data nice and cosy and their HDDs whirring in a constant and reliable state. Feel free to drop me a comment.

As a side note: I've been putting RAID-1 in place on my desktop machines as disk prices are so cheap now over the past 18 months. For the price of a few hundred dollars why bother the stress of a hard-disk failure? Having said that, it's no replacement for backing up your 'important' information. RAID-1 is still susceptible to the dreaded multiple disk failure issue. Having said that, I've been lucky at that hasn't occurred. (Touch wood!)

Often life runs at the speed of light.

The modern lifestyle is so fast these days, it seems you never get time actually see the roses, let alone stop to smell the roses.
At times one needs to hit the pause or even the slow-mo button just to catch a breath.

I've discovered one way that works extremely well for me. I hope you too can find a way to recharge the batteries quickly in an often busy world.
Obviously getting away is the ultimate 'recharge', and that's not always possible, so I have found at times you need a 'quick fix'.

For me, it's a relatively easy one:

• Jump in my car.
• Take a short drive around my neighbourhood (at 50km/hr max -- so it's not overly fast).
• Stick on a Frank Sinatra CD.
• Listen to a few tracks of ol' blue eyes.
• Return home in 10-20 minutes time feeling much better.

It's amazing, throwing on his CDs, life appears to slow down... The sun seems shinier, people appear more friendly and I could swear people I pass and even the car I'm driving seems to only work at half speed. Instant stress relief.

Whilst Frank Sinatra won't be the answer for everyone, find something that relaxes and soothes you. Having an 'instant relax' method is a life-saver in the crazy busy world we call 'life'.

This week saw me head to the Victorian regional city of Ballarat for a few days to undertake some RHEL5 x86_64 builds for work.

Whilst it's not as exotic a destination as an unnamed colleague visited nor did it see me returning without my pants or shoes ( sorry Jon, I couldn't resist! ), it was a productive visit.

Traditionally we undertake builds remotely, however these servers are likely not to appear on our network or even administered by ourselves, so it made sense to go onsite to undertake the work.

I stayed in the Doherty Ballarat Hotel and Convention Centre which literally is on the opposite side of the road to Sovereign Hill (and no I didn't have time to go there!)

View Larger Map

Whilst I spent most of my time in the office battling with hardware that had been incorrectly ordered (ie: missing hardware and/or non-compatible hardware (ie: 3.5" SATA drives ordered instead of 2.5" SAS drives for the internal enclosure)), I did venture back to the hotel in the evenings for some R&R.

     

The hotel room was quite pleasant, and what something a corporate traveller expects. There was no surprises out of the ordinary (which you really don't need when travelling), though I did have two strange nights of sleep due to external factors:

1. 1^st night: Apparantly it's Koala mating season. Staying in a hotel room surrounded by forest is lovely to look at during the day, but it's also the playground for randy koalas of a night. So thumbs up to the 'big boy' who kept me up for several hours in the early hours whilst he ravaged the local female population. Koalas aren't dying out in this region whilst this bloke is still kicking! Seriously, I thought those types of noises I may have heard from other hotel rooms, not above my hotel room.


2. 2^nd night: Local Football season must have finished. Seems some of the local players didn't head over to Bali to celebrate but decided our hotel was a great place to party.
   
   In depth conversations at yelling level could be heard at around 3am. Answers to lifes biggest questions such as "Can you scull beer or bourbon faster?" were asked repeatedly. Finally after about an hour when it took that long for the gorillas to realise that they couldn't order a pizza to their room (and yes their was going to be surcharge for anything delivered to their room), the group of 6 decided that bundling into a car and heading down to the local McDonalds whilst tanked was the sensible thing to do.
   
   I passed out after that, though it appears they were successful (if not foolish) as their car was there in the morning without any visible signs of damage. It seems the drink and driving campaigns don't apply to footballers.
   
   I made sure I made enough noise as I passed their room at 7am heading off for breakfast, however in their drunken state the night previously, I doubt I would of woken them. It did bring me mild relief to my simmering frustration/anger from the previous nights interruption however.

The crazy and overpriced Internet costs in the room ($0.20/1MB with both uploads/downloads charged or $0.15/min) ensured I had a relatively Internet free week night. I really didn't miss being connected, though it did remind me how often I relied on just 'quickly looking up something'. Items like news, weather and even a TV guide via the Internet seems to have become the 'standard' method of information retrieval for me. It became more of an inconvenience than anything. I realised then that there was indeed a TV guide in the room. I gathered a quick round-up of news/weather using local radio. So this is what life was like prior to the Internet? (It seems so long ago now!)

Traditionally I use Google Reader to keep abreast of my feeds (as it allows me to bookmark, tag and share feeds easily), but being disconnected from the Internet was going to make that impossible.
I did however utilise a RSS reader, and was pleasantly surprised how easily it actually integrated into my Gnome desktop (particularly as it's a KDE app). The tray-icon and minimize/restore from tray all worked flawlessly (mostly due to the fact it's probably coded using FreeDesktop specs). I went with Akregator over Liferea after hearing reports that recent versions were prone to 100% CPU usage.

One thing I did notice, is that current RSS readers do allow for 'offline' mode - though it would be nice if it gave you the option of a 'full download' of certain feeds. Offline mode that only sucks down text is quite frustrating at times, as the associated image (being discussed in the article) isn't available. It feels like over-hearing a discussion you weren't meant to hear!

Whilst it's probably prudent allowing it to be set as a 'per feed' setting as I suspect many people may not want to download a full page for every article on every feed. (Particularly those feeds you only 'scan', and read a small amount of, or those that are overly heavy with graphics/flash, and embedded video.)

Since returning I did notice that Gnome also has the Straw Reader. Hopefully that comes along nicely as it appears to be in early development.
Ideally I would love to see an RSS reader that integrated WebKit with a good OPML import/export feature, as well as good support for RSS (0.91, 1.0 and 2.0), RDF as well as ATOM formats. Having a feature that allowed you to selectively do a full download of certain feeds for offline mode would be fantastic. I'll whack that down on my ever growing todo list (I think I'll need to live to 800 to ever complete it!)

One nice feature I discovered is the room had direct dial-in, and due to poor mobile reception in the room it was much more cost effective to have Pauline call me direct over VOIP. It also meant we could speak for much longer.

The staff I met at the Ballarat office were extremely friendly and actually quite enjoyable to be around. ( Sorry MrPointy, they were more cheery then you! ) They appreciated the effort I put in whilst down there (it's always nice to get some recognition) and appreciated the attention to detail. It was quite good timing as I will relocate offices to this one once I move into our new home (probably 4-6 weeks away). Heading into the Ballarat office is much closer than the Melbourne offices from Bannockburn. I've already made some good inroads into getting to know people there. I'll be the only member from my team at this office location, so it makes sense to build some bridges.

I did add two things to my 'travel-list' when travelling for work:

• A cheap mini 10/100 switch.
  This is invaluable when you're stuck in a room with one Ethernet port attempting multiple server builds, and also wishing to have your laptop online at the same time. I headed out the first day a picked up a cheapie TP-Link 5-port 10/100 Switch. Cost me $20 from a local computer store, but saved hours of frustration.


• A decent power board with surge protection
  In hindsight I should have also taken/purchased a decent power board. The room only had 4 power outlets which meant I could only have one server up at a time. It would have been nice that I could have multiple machines up at the same time, as these were identical builds (besides their hostnames), I could have used something like clusterssh to undertake the same tasks across all the machines at the same time -- ensuring I could have finished the job in a fraction of the time.

We live and learn.

I was appalled after reading the rather rash statements made by Jim Zemlin the Executive director of the Linux Foundation.

His rather bizarre statements against Sun (who is also a silver member of the Foundation) must have left many execs in Santa Clara scratching their heads and wanting some answers.
What's worse is the story originally ran in InfoWorld, then was picked up by the New York Times. Other notable online sites also ran with it, including Slashdot and LWN to mention just two.

Lets look at some of the statements the Exec Director of the Foundation made:

1. "The future is Linux and Microsoft Windows, it is not Unix or Solaris."


2. Solaris has almost no new deployments and is a legacy operating environment offered by a company with financial difficulties. Original equipment manufacturers also do not see a bright future for Solaris. This was paraphrased and not a direct quote.


3. Sun, he declared, should just move over to Linux.


4. "It's certainly true that Unix is on the decline." - Discussing IBM AIX and HP-UX


5. "The only people I hear talk about DTrace [Solaris's technology for assessing program and OS behaviours] and ZFS [the Zettabyte File System] as competitive features [are] Sun Microsystems sales representatives. It's not something I believe is impacting the market in any way."


6. "...With capabilities such as ZFS and DTrace, Sun is trying to compete based on minor features", Zemlin says. "That's literally like noticing the view from a third-story building as it burns to the ground."


7. Zemlin, on Sun's open-source Solaris as "too little, too late." He also goes on to claim that there is no real open source community around OpenSolaris, arguing that Sun still controls development


8. Open Solaris is no more than an attempt to expand the Solaris user base to drive customers to commercial Sun technology.

Seriously where does the guy get off?

Looking at his profile on the Linux Foundation it doesn't instil a level of confidence.
A former Exec at Free Standards Group (who with the OSDL merged to become the Linux Foundation). He was also VP of Marketing of Colavent Technologies (basically a crowd that sold commercial Apache support amongst other things). In 2000 he was a board member of Corio an ASP, that had an IPO then was sold off in chunks. IBM retains the http://www.corio.com/ URL.

So, from my reading he's got quite a bit of marketing/exec background for web-based application servers.... beyond that, I don't see any real technical prowless. He's a marketing suit that appears to shoot from the hip.

Let's review some of his "quick-draws":

• The future is Linux and Windows?
  
  WTF?! Did you take crack before taking the interview?
  
  Sure as the exec. director of The Linux Foundation we expect you to come out and say "Linux is the future" - but to throw Microsoft in the mix -- you have to be kidding me.
  
  Look at general stall that Microsoft has had with Vista. They have forced OEMs to install it, and even some of the larger ones now have kicked back and offer corporations and high-end consumer devices the option of Windows XP instead.



• No major deployments of Solaris... and disliked by the OEMS.
  
  That must be news to both IBM and Dell, who offer OpenSolaris on their x86 series servers.
  
  As for a company in 'financial trouble' this is an extract of the letter to shareholders attached to their latest Annual Report /10-K filing to the SEC (Read it online here).
  
  I've included a screenshot the opening paragraph of the letter:
  
  
  That doesn't sound like a company in 'financial trouble' to me.
  
  You can see this on their Consolidated Statements Of Operations



• The decline of Unix (Solaris, HP-UX, AIX).
  
  It's interesting to note that all of these make hardware as well as an operating system. These systems normally scale much larger than that of a traditional Linux server (excluding clusters). Take a look at Sun's M9000, IBM's p5 595 and HP's HP-9000 Superdome Server. These computers can replace dozens of Intel based servers and thus are not something companies run out and buy dozens of. (well normally!) Interestingly... both HP and IBM are also Platinum Members of the Linux Foundation. With a Platinum membership of $500,000USD each. How's that for biting the hand that feeds you (literally in Zemlin's case).
  
  The I/O throughput and disk-subsystems available for these machines normally far outstrip that of anything under Intel/Linux range.
  


• ZFS, Sun Zones/Containers and DTrace.
  
  Seriously you jest Mr Zemlin?
  
  Linux virtualization is still a mish-mash under heavy development. (take Xen, KVM, LVS and even Sun's VirtualBox)... I wouldn't class as enterprise ready. Hell, even VMWare that started in Linux roots, has moved over onto their own kernel. Zones and Containers under Solaris are much neater and better suited to an enterprise environment.
  
  As for ZFS -- Linux has no mainstream file-system that competes. The size of volumes and the ease of use leaves ext3 behind. Even the upcoming ext4 has no real claims over ZFS. For large scale filesystems, ZFS has it over native Linux filesystems.
  
  DTrace - ask any administrator of 100's of Linux servers if they think DTrace is a minor thing? Sure Systemtap is nice, but the comparison of Systemtap to DTrace still shows some deficiencies. Being able to trace safely on production systems is a requirement for something that can be used in the real world. Add to it the ability to trace user-space programs and DTrace does indeed have some features many SysAdmins discuss and would love to see under Linux.
  
  


• Sun's open source Solaris 'too little-too late'. No community, still controlled by Sun.
  
  Wow... I wonder if he would make the same statement if Microsoft released their OS as open-source? Open-Solaris is a community site, though Sun still controls it. There is nothing wrong with that. It's their baby, and they can do with it what they like.
  
  Sun is still a large OSS backer.... remember products like MySQL, Innotek/VirtualBox, and hey, they even OpenSourced Java.
  
  Sun have shareholders to consider, and they need to make a return on their investments / R&D. I don't really have anything bad to say about the CDDL. It makes sense for them... and hey something is better than nothing. What I find hilarious is that many Linux advocates will bag the CDDL, but love Mozilla. Wake up people... the CDDL is based on the MPL! The CDDL is also recognised as a license under the OSI.
  
  


• Open Solaris attempts to drive customers to commercial Sun technology
  
  Actually most of the people I've come across it are already using the commercial Solaris or wish to learn Solaris. OpenSolaris is a nice way they can install it at home and come familiar with the environment outside of work at their own pace. It makes sense that they can utilise the same operating system in their work-place and in the comforts of their own home.
  
  

For me, I'm a fan of Linux. I love the breadth of software available to me, the rich and colourful community around it. I have grown up watching Linux (I first compiled up an 0.54 kernel on a lowly 286). My servers and desktops/laptops all run Linux.

Having said that, I learnt *NIX on SunOS and later Solaris. It has it's place, even in today's world.
I agree, the low-end UNIX servers are often replaced by Linux servers, yet there is nothing really in the Linux space that competes with the high-end UNIX environments.

A lot of what we see in Linux has it's roots in commercial UNIX. (Hell, who has networked file systems in their environment that doesn't use Sun's NFS?)

So take some advice from a Linux admin at the coal face. Linux co-exists well in a heterogeneous environment, sharing the space with commercial UNIXes and even those annoying Windows servers.

If you need to beat up a 'Server OS' next time Zemlin, try attacking Microsoft (Hint: they are not a member of the Linux Foundation).

Linux servers have probably dented more Windows server sales then that of commercial UNIX. Samba has played a large role in that.

Exchange is probably the last bastion of Microsoft dominance. With the amount of Exchange 'replacements' now on the go that run under Linux (ie: PostPath, Zafara, OpenGroupWare, Scalix and Open-Xchange to name just a small fraction of those available. ) It's likely more inroads into the proprietary walls of Microsoft are now showing cracks in many corporations. Many IT managers are struggling to justify the outrageous price they get slugged for Microsoft Exchange, and these cheaper and feature-rich alternatives are often fractions of the cost if not free.

So next time you attempt to speak for the 'Linux Community' Jim Zemlin, try actually speaking to some Linux administrators that live in the Fortune 500 world. We aren't all hippies yelling 'free OS love'. In fact we happily co-exist with commercial *NIX and sometimes even Windows servers (much to our disgust).

Leave your "Us vs Them" mentality at your door, it's not a view held by a large proportion of the Linux community. Indeed many Linux administrators actually also administer other commercial *NIX machines in their day-to-day jobs. There are more similarities between the commercial *NIX flavours and Linux than not.

We do realise it's part of the Foundation's role to 'promote Linux', but keep the mud-slinging and crap out of it. Let Linux stand on it's own technical merits and not at the detriment of dragging another 'cousin' down in the process. We see enough of this style of 'marketing' from Microsoft that we don't need to stoop to the same levels.

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_{Disclaimer:
• I work commercially as a Linux System Administrator at a Fortune-500 company.
• I have however administered a large range of *NIX based operating systems over the years... including Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Tru64, and IRIX just to mention a few of the more 'known' variants.
• My home desktop and all my servers run Linux. Many that know me think I'm a one-eyed Linux zealot!
• I have no affiliations with Sun Microsystems at all.
• The views and opinions expressed by some members of The Linux Foundation are not mine.}