Latest News from Paul Nowak

Plone and Drupal: Different Approaches, Different Results

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:15:00 EST

Plone and Drupal are two leading open source Content Management Systems (CMS). Both were recognized in the 2009 Open Source CMS awards, run by Packt Publishing. Both also have large installed bases and large developer communities. This is made evident by some quick searching on Google: A search for LinkedIn profiles that mention Plone (search for 'plone site:linkedin.com/pub/') turns up 1350 pages—a large increase from 500 results in 2006.

After Ubuntu, Windows Looks Increasingly Bad, Increasingly Archaic, Increasingly Unfriendly

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 07:00:00 EST

My recent switch to a single-boot Ubuntu setup on my Thinkpad T60 simply floors me on a regular basis. Most recently it's had to do with the experience of maintaining the software. Fresh from a very long Windows 2000 experience and a four-month Windows XP experience along with a long-time Linux sys admin role puts me in a great position to assess Ubuntu. Three prior attempts over the years at using Linux as my daily desktop OS had me primed for failure. Well, Ubuntu takes Linux where I've long hoped it would go - easy to use, reliable, dependable, great applications too but more on that later. It has some elegance to it - bet you never heard that about a Linux desktop before.

Will Enterprise Open Source Scale the Walled Gardens of the Cellular Network Providers?

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:45:00 EDT

I recently wrapped up an 18-month stint on the business subcomittee of the Wireless Washtenaw Initiaitive, a project to bring wireless broadband to the citizens of Washtenaw County, Michigan. It's part of a growing movement by local government to help citizens participate in today's high-speed data networks.

Am I Seeing Python Everywhere?

Mon, 07 May 2007 11:00:00 EDT

I've been a long-time Python fan. It's a language that's so easy to program with that I end up turning to it for a great many things and I find myself wishing for a Python interface in pretty much any application that moves or plays with data in anyway. I also give Python-based products a good hard look when comparing alternatives. We've adopted the Python-based Plone as the content management system for our Website (I know - Drupal has major momentum but Plone is a very solid product also) and it's been a very good experience for the sector we serve.

Opinion: Linux May Be the Main Life Support for Intel's Itanium

Thu, 19 May 2005 23:00:00 EDT

It's probably not likely that Itanium has much of a future unless Linux makes massive gains in market share over the next 5 years. 'If Intel truly believes in Itanium,' writes Paul Nowak, 'then they have to do away with Windows. Windows is not coming to Itanium. While killing off Windows is probably a pipe dream, even for a company with the resources of Intel, that's what would need to happen to bring the industry to the point where Itanium is running the most widely used code base.'

Bruce Perens on UserLinux

Tue, 16 Mar 2004 00:00:00 EST

Bruce Perens, cofounder of the Open Source Initiative and long-time leader of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution, announced plans at the November 2003 Desktop Linux Consortium event in Boston to start a project called UserLinux. UserLinux is to be a Linux distribution based on a subset of Debian that will target large and small business desktops and servers. Bruce is currently continuing negotiations with his customers while also beginning to put the first broad brush strokes on UserLinux as a technology.

Microsoft's Source Code Leak - A Different Perspective

Fri, 13 Feb 2004 00:00:00 EST

Microsoft needs to consider a partial open source model for code development if it hopes to survive the coming open source onslaught, says Paul Nowak. That's why, he argues, the reported source code leak of portions of the Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems today 'has the potential to be the best thing that ever happened to Microsoft technically.'

Red Hat Is "Growing Up"

Mon, 03 Nov 2003 00:00:00 EST

The Linux world has a variety of alternatives when it comes to distros...but it?s looking less and less as if one of them will any longer be Red Hat, writes Paul Nowak in response to today's developments.

The Powerful Economic Underpinnings of OSS

Fri, 17 Oct 2003 00:00:00 EDT

Open source software (OSS) development and use, as described by the General Public License (GPL) and other similar licenses, creates tremendous gains in the quality and volume of software development and use, says Paul Nowak - in a new application of Garret Hardin's seminal 1968 Science Magazine paper, 'The Tragedy of the Commons.'

501 Things You Wanted to Know About Switching to OpenOffice.org from Microsoft Office

Tue, 16 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

OpenOffice.org (OOo) is an open source replacement for the Microsoft Office suite. From all accounts, OOo is gaining significant momentum with over 16 million downloads recorded and countless installations from CD-ROM according to the OOo Web site. It's also the subject of a recent book entitled, OOo Switch: 501 Things You Wanted to Know About Switching to OpenOffice.org from Microsoft Office, reviewed here by Paul Nowak.

SCO Admits To Not Knowing Own Code History in Recent Q&A

Sat, 13 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

From the start, questions have surrounded the process and people SCO used to determine the alleged code violations in Linux, from the phantom MIT mathematics department team which MIT itself can’t identify to SCO saying this week that it has no idea what the history of a particular snippet of code might be – even a high profile snippet like the one SCO highlighted at SCO Forum.

Only Linux Can Get Us From Here to There

Thu, 28 Aug 2003 00:00:00 EDT

The Hollywood animation studio ILM admits they couldn't have done some of the really tough load balancing code used in their render farms without being able to modify the task scheduler code in Linux. With greater frequency, we are now seeing stories that have some mention of how a particular problem was solved only through Linux and its openness.

Desktop Linux: 'By the Users, For the Users...'

Tue, 19 Aug 2003 00:00:00 EDT

The business world has never seen anything like the Linux ecosystem before. Within the context of the business and social phenomenon that is OSS, this article discusses why there exists a natural niche for a non-profit member organization to be front and center in the move to OSS on the Desktop.

Why Revealing Any Infringing Source Code is 'Game-Over' for SCO

Thu, 07 Aug 2003 00:00:00 EDT

SCO's legal challenges over alleged source code infringements in the Linux code base are making all kinds of twists and turns these days. SCO continues to embolden its attack of Linux users, developers and distributors and, with Red Hat and SUSE's actions this week, the attacked are starting to make strong counter claims in response to SCO's allegations and damaging tactics. This article describes why it is 'game-over' for SCO's licensing program as soon as SCO reveals the allegedly infringing code and why, for various reasons, SCO will probably never reveal any code.