More bad news to commercial software

AST week I decided to explore performance issues with MySQL, which is a ubiquitous system over a large specrum of Web sites. In particular, I wanted to look at comparisons and benchmarks involving PostgreSQL, which is yet another FOSS database system. I came up with the following two links, which indicate that a comparison would be hard to conduct and assess:

• Benchmarking MySQL and PostgreSQL
• Benchmark Results For Postgresql, Mysql, Firebird

Then, just a short while ago, I came to discover an even wider-scape benchmark. It suggests that MySQL is superior to databases from Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft. Without a doubt, applications that are based on LAMP technology gain tremendous strength and popularity. They have become mainstream, as a matter of fact, and WordPress is a model example.

Let us wait for a heavily-invested FUD campaign is launched to avoid deterrence among companies that use commercial databases. My Steve Ballmer/FUD comes to mind.

As a side note, what worries me most is MySQL’s partnership with SCO, who are of course a sworn enemy of Linux.

Milestone reached: Firefox to be pre-installed rather than downloaded

ARLIER this week I mentioned Blake Ross; The context: the demise of the Windows brand name. Apart from this thought-inspiring quote from Blake, I now come to discover that Hewlett-Packard began bundling Netscape. More recently it was confirmed that Dell pre-install Firefox in the UK.

Next milstone: OpenOffice bundling with all desktops and laptops. This would enable users to work on documents and spreadsheets ‘out of the box’.

EARING in mind that humour should not be taken as reflectant of true views, here are a couple of sexist jokes that crossed my mind recently. [smile] I feel as though I need to unburden myself, getting them off memory and onto (non-volatile) text:

• Last week I was approached by a girl with a SuSE laptop. Attractive one even (true story actually). I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her… machine.
• If she had run a set of servers, I’d say she has a nice rack.

It would have be easier to use somebody else’s jokes, but that would be pointless. Surely, such humour becomes a deterrent to women in the IT industry. I believe it to be quite derogatory, so I was honestly on the verge of retracting the post. To borrow somebody else’s joke (Linønut from nntp://comp.os.linux.advocacy):

 
Windows is like an asshole. You need to wipe it quite often.
 

WordPress 2.0: coming to a blog near you by Christmas?

recently mentioned rigorous testing of WordPress 2.0. There are still odd bugs here and there; And yet, only hours ago came out a word of gossip. It suggests that WordPress 2.0 will be officially released just before Christmas. I wonder if it is rushed merely because of the important date. There is a typical download rush throughout the holiday. People have time to spare, so they upgrade software or hop on the blogging wagon. Christmas last year was the time of heavy WordPress 1.2 downloads.

Moving on to a different subject, after lengthy use and experience with WordPress, I decided to join the support forums and make contributions on rare occasions. I participated in the mailing lists for a long time (roughly 1 year), but never in the support forums. My first post was addressing to the problem below.

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ALM have intended, for quite some time in fact, to ditch Palm OS in favour of the Linux kernel.Then again, there are independent efforts by individuals to boot and run Linux on Palm devices, regardless of Palm’s mainstream initiatives.

Two new examples:

• The Palm LifeDrive
• The Palm Tungsten T3

Related (older) items: Linux on the Tungsten E

“Joy O’ Joy. You got mail. 10,000 of it…”

S if hijacked Windows boxes were not enough to attribute spam to Windows, have a look at the following story. As it comes from The Register, it is not reluctant to point out that mail floods were initiated by a Microsoft Small Business Server:

The problem was attributed to an improper server configuration, causing five servers to send out more than half a million emails to Dublin solicitors. The deluge of mail originated with a publishing company’s email marketing message, which was sent to solicitors. When some solicitors attempted to reply to the mail, a fault in the solicitors’ configuration of Microsoft Small Business Server sent the original email to their entire email database tens of thousands of times.

Putting the factors above together, Microsoft can no longer deny the fact that spam sometimes originates in their improperly-built operating system. The Windows advocates would argue that the server was configured badly, but should it not be intuitive and protect the users from themselves? Fortunately, there is no doubt in my mind that Dublin lawyers all use Windows, which makes it a dog-eat-dog situation.

Let us hope that the sysadmins have learned their lesson and realised that mail should not be administered by ‘Toy O/S‘. Other companies have learned that mail is better handled by Linux.

[HP’s] Schulz said that HP’s entire email infrastructure… is run on Linux and delivers in the region of three terrabytes [sic] of mail annually.

Isolate yourself from noise and life will get easier

UIET in a technical context is a scenario where users require little or no support. Yes again, the principles described in this post apply to most things in life. Some time ago in the Palm newsgroups, somebody raised a question and then made the observation that few people ever mention Tungsten E devices. The Tungsten E is a modern, lower-end PDA, which is certainly popular, so how could its quiet existence be explained?

The discussion groups tend to have a troubleshooting, technical nature, so fault are usually reported while praises are deemed irrelevant and almost frowned upon. Should a person assume that the Tungsten E does not sell well? No. The very few mentionings of it simply imply that the model is reliable and nobody complains about it. Quiet, you see, is often a sign of success. It means that people carry on with their work and never bother to complain. Noise, on the other hand, is an indication of failure. To use a popular example, if Windows hits the headlines very often, it is in the context of security exploits. If people speak to their friends and colleagues about their computer, even while in the pub, this often involves a rant or a request for advice — a cry for help perhaps.

Better Palm PDA’s can be compared to a power plant. Linux servers likewise. We do not hear about Linux success stories quite so often despite the fact that many organisations happily use it. Google and Hewlett Packard are almost shy to admit that they use Open Source for their operations. We rarely hear about server problems that involve Linux because mail servers running Linux can go on for many years without even requiring a reboot. All they do is collect dust and often be forgotten about. The independence of a workstation often leads to forgetting the value of stability and low maintenance requirements.

As we hear about large migrations to Linux across schools in Macedonia, one wonders if the story will ever be used as a case study. When all operations succeed, nobody will bother to say a word. Nobody can fund or promote media commotion either because Linux is not directly bound to a profit-making organisation. Only when matters go out of hand, enemies are able to grab the opportunity and amplify the story of failure. With large budgets, a certain company can also fund and echo deceiving facts — a ‘disinformation’ perhaps — which can only be described as falsified propaganda.

The bottom line: be aware that information (or conversely misinformation) can receive varying levels of amplitude, which is sometimes affected by financial incentives in companies. Also remember that when problems are not echoed, the implication is that work carries on smoothly. People are good at making a fuss when things go wrong, but choose to remain focused and isolated when no problems crop up.