ZDNet blogtracks for 9/1/05
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, here are some links and most importantly, how to help.
Sans Institute guidelines for hurricane preparation
Online scams emerge in Katrina's wake
My post "Commercial open source, a misnomer?" stirred up a hornet's nest, concerning SugarCRM, one of many companies mixing open source with semi-open or proprietary software. If a company basing its application on an open source core includes features that are accessible only if you pay, is it still open source, or shareware or teaseware?
Phil Wainewright added his perspective--"Outwitted by its own ecosystem"--taking a cue from Dana Blankenhorn's incisive posts on the SugarCRM/commercial open source (it's shareware) topic here and here.
JBoss CEO Marc Fleury adds his comments, as do many readers. Here's a few choice samples:
'Any software based on open source should be free.'
'As author of the source code, they have the right to do anything else they want to with it.'
'SugarCRM is nothing more than crippleware or teaseware.'
'OSS is not FOSS'
David has some questions for Microsoft, now that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has proposed to phase out productivity applications that don't support 'open' standards.
Phil Wainewright says that large enterprises are just as interested in on-demand applications as smaller companies, but not in the same packaging.
Dana Gardner peeks at the underbelly of wirelessly connected embedded systems--security vulnerabilities. It's one thing to get a virus attached to an email, but what if your car gets one while you're cruising at 70 mph?
George Ou is alarmed at the ineffectiveness of U.S. cyber intelligence policy. George also exposes the myth of the cyber-meltdown.
Paul Murphy contends that trying to imitate Windows is the wrong way to make the Linux desktop succeed.
Steve Gillmor talks to Rafat Ali of paidcontent.org, which keeps daily track of what's really going on in the digital media industry. Richard MacManus weighs in...