Forgot your password?

Close
typodupeerror

+ - Open Source piracy?

Submitted by mjhuot
mjhuot writes "I've been involved with open source software for more than a decade, and most of that time I've been an active member of a project called OpenNMS. OpenNMS is a network management application platform that I use at my job, and although I contribute a lot of my time toward the project I do not get directly paid for it. I do it because I enjoy it, and I believe in the goals of free and open source software.

Today I was introduced to a product called RuggedNMS that is obviously a rebranded version of our own project. I can find no mention of OpenNMS let alone GPL licensing. Do I have a right to be angry when I see a company that looks like they are exploiting our work? I give my work freely to the community. The OpenNMS community's vitality is very important to me. I can imagine some within our community feeling betrayed if someone takes our work, does not contribute back, and no longer distributes it freely.

I talked with one of the OpenNMS admins, Tarus Balog, who blogged about the situation, and he stated that while at this time they might be in violation of the license, it will take some effort to know for sure.

I want to ask: while there is the letter of the law concerning a software license that must be obeyed, has anyone formalized the etiquette around when someone wants to use an open source project inside a commercial one? Has anyone working on a project been approached by a company saying "hey, heads up, we love what you're doing and plan to use it in our software"?

I think I would feel less angry if RuggedCom had contacted the community and let us know what they were planning to do with OpenNMS. If they were very open about it and demonstrated some knowledge of the GPL, I wouldn't be sitting here thinking the worst."
Windows

+ - How Linux Saved a Fast Food Giant->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "I am a Windows guy. I have always used Windows at home, work, school, everywhere with the exception of my phone (iPhone now Nexus One) and one Linux class at FIU. I have an A+ and MCTS in Windows Vista. Soon I will have my MCITP. I drink the kool-aid. But Linux saved me and the company I sub contract to, a large fast food giant, from near-total disaster. Last month McAfee posted a virus definition update that flagged SVCHOST.EXE as a virus. This is my story of what happened."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Well.. (Score 1) 37

by Ranger Rick (#31692842) Attached to: OpenNMS Celebrates 10 Years

I don't do the books, so I don't know the revenue numbers, but I know we're profitable, and so far profit is always turned around into more growth -- generally developers or support.

As for our prices, we don't charge for software licenses at all, so we're infinitely less expensive than the big guys in that regard. ;)

When it comes to support, ours is insanely cheap compared to HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli, or any of the other big players we compete with, especially when you scale up. Of course, you can't comparison shop because HP and IBM and their like hide their (per-node) licensing and support prices behind channel partners and "have a salesperson call you," generally billing small customers with no clout a multiple per license what they charge for large customers for "volume discounts," despite the fact that it doesn't matter to the software itself how many nodes there are.

If you don't need support, OpenNMS is free, and always will be. Many people don't need it; there's a healthy community who can help. But the people who work for the .com side of things have been in network management for years, and if you want help on how to solve a particular monitoring problem, or want someone to call for help if something goes wrong, that's how we continue to be able to pay people full-time to make OpenNMS better.

+ - Gartner Issues Smackdown on Open Core->

Submitted by
Sortova
Sortova writes "Those of us who are concerned about the growing prevalence of the open core (or fauxpen source) business model are often ignored when those VC-backed companies have much more to spend on marketing, as well as the few but profitable acquisitions accomplished by VCs such as Benchmark. We're often labelled as open source "zealots" and enterprises are told to ignore us.

However, enterprises tend not to ignore the advice of Gartner, one of the most respected analyst organizations out there. Today, Brian Prentice posted Open-Core: The Emperor's New Clothes which is a scathing critique of the business model, not as a road to VC riches, but as a solution that enterprises should consider.

There are way too many good quotes to pick just one, but he sums things up with "You see, when you start peeling back some of the value propositions being attached to open core business models what starts to appear is a picture of a bog standard software provider trying to use the latest phraseology to cut through the noise of a crowded marketplace".

In a similar blog post back in 2008 I wrote "The emperor is naked, folks." It is nice to see someone with influence agreeing with me."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Well.. (Score 4, Informative) 37

by Ranger Rick (#31680494) Attached to: OpenNMS Celebrates 10 Years

(Disclaimer: I'm one of the OpenNMS developers.)

Depends on what you do in your enterprise. OpenNMS does a lot of useful stuff out of the box, but is a platform first, and an application second. OpenNMS's biggest strength is the breadth of ways to integrate it with other tools, and huge scalability (we have installations collecting millions of data points every 5 minutes, and monitoring devices with 50k interfaces each without breaking a sweat, replacing failing OpenView installations in large telcos). New features are new features, and we're pretty conservative in the scope of features that get put into the even (stable) releases. If you're running unstable, well, they're new features, and sometimes there are bugs... All a part of developing in the fish bowl.

And you don't need an account manager at the other end to yell at when you can get immediate support from someone with intimate knowledge of the system, that's how we've survived as a company while remaining true to being 100% open source software. No BS, just support which is all "level 3." Not that we typically have things that just cease to function without provocation, but without a bug report it's hard to answer that particular comment. ;)

Open Source

OpenNMS Celebrates 10 Years 37

Posted by timothy
from the aged-in-oak-barrels dept.
mjhuot writes "Quite often is it claimed that pure open source projects can't survive, much less grow and create robust code. One counter example of this is OpenNMS, the world's first enterprise-grade network management application platform developed under the open source model. Registered on 30 March 2000 as project 4141 on Sourceforge, today the gang threw a little party, with members virtually attending from around the world. With the right business savvy and a great community, it is possible to both remain 100% free and open source while creating enough value to make a good living at it."
Technology

+ - OpenNMS celebrates 10 years!->

Submitted by mjhuot
mjhuot writes "Quite often is it claimed that pure open source projects can't survive, much less grow and create robust code. One counter example of this is OpenNMS, the world first enterprise grade network management application platform developed under the open source model.

Registered on 30 March 2000 on Sourceforge as project 4141, today the gang threw a little party, with members virtually attending from around the world.

With the right business savvy and a great community, it is possible to both remain 100% free and open source while creating enough value to make a good living at it."
Link to Original Source
Microsoft

Microsoft, Amazon Ink Kindle and Linux Patent Deal 161

Posted by Soulskill
from the not-a-random-headline-generator dept.
theodp writes "Microsoft says it has reached a wide-ranging IP agreement with Amazon in which each company has granted the other a license to its patent portfolio. Microsoft says the agreement covers technologies in products such as Amazon's Kindle — including open-source and proprietary technologies used in the e-reader — in addition to the use of Linux-based servers. Microsoft issued a news release celebrating the accord, while Amazon declined to comment. 'We are pleased to have entered into this patent license agreement with Amazon.com,' said Microsoft's deputy general counsel. 'Microsoft's patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the software industry, and this agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to IP issues regardless of whether proprietary or open source software is involved.' A Microsoft representative declined to say which of its products are covered by the deal."
Microsoft

+ - Microsoft, Amazon Ink Kindle and Linux Patent Deal

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes "Microsoft says it has reached a wide-ranging IP agreement with Amazon in which each company has granted the other a license to its patent portfolio. Microsoft says the agreement covers technologies in products including Amazon's Kindle — including open-source and proprietary technologies used in the e-reader — in addition to the use of Linux-based servers. Microsoft issued a news release celebrating the accord, while Amazon declined to comment. 'We are pleased to have entered into this patent license agreement with Amazon.com,' said Microsoft's deputy general counsel.. 'Microsoft's patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the software industry, and this agreement demonstrates our mutual respect for intellectual property as well as our ability to reach pragmatic solutions to IP issues regardless of whether proprietary or open source software is involved.' A Microsoft representative declined to say which of its products are covered by the deal."
Open Source

+ - How to make an Open Source Business->

Submitted by mjhuot
mjhuot writes "Many of us love working in open source software, but few of us have figured out how to do it full time or to make a career out of it. At this weekend's Southern California Linux Expo, keynote speaker Tarus Balog presented an inspiring talk on how he has been able to create a successful services company supporting the open source network management application platform OpenNMS. If you were unable to make the conference, the talk is available online and is worth checking out."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Pick and Choose the best (Score 1) 113

by Ranger Rick (#28668547) Attached to: How Do You Create Config Files Automatically?

The unstable version (what will be come stable 1.8) does have a RESTful API for adding nodes. Additionally, 1.6.x and higher have an API for specifying your nodes manually, which can be called from external tools. This feature has been enhanced in what will be 1.8 to still scan interfaces on the nodes you specified, and such.

Q: What do you say to a Puerto Rican in a three-piece suit? A: Will the defendant please rise?

Close