Novell News

Today, the openSUSE team released the latest version of the openSUSE Build Service, a tool that provides software developers with the ability to create and release software for SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE and other Linux distributions, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu. The openSUSE Build Service allows developers to create packages, software stacks or even a whole distribution as well as use and integrate them with other open source components.

Key features of the 1.7 release include:

• A new attribute system – A flexible system that stores information related to projects or packages. This gives a good overview and enables teams or individuals to use the openSUSE Build Service as a database for their information.

• Faster build speeds – The SAT Solver speeds up the dependency calculation by a factor of 1,000X, which means a package change submitted to the build service starts building in seconds instead of minutes.

• Customized branding – For local instances of the openSUSE Build Service, this release offers the ability to add custom branding and the Web user interface (UI) now supports individual themes.

• An openSUSE Build Service server appliance – Built as hard disk image, this appliance allows users to run the system from a USB stick and just replace it with a new version on update without losing the data they have submitted to the server.

• In addition to bug fixes, other improvements include a request system that now offers a review mechanism, improved status information (package build dependencies, repository status, etc.), and improved merge handling of sources for automated conflict resolution.

For more information and to download the openSUSE Build Service 1.7, go here.

Novell and VMware are making it easier for independent software vendors (ISVs) to optimize their applications for SUSE Linux Enterprise and VMware ESX. Novell is the first operating system vendor to offer Unified Certification for ISVs with VMware.

Unified Certification status means that applications tested and certified on SUSE Linux Enterprise within a virtual machine are automatically certified to run in a VMware virtualized environment with no modifications. Participating ISVs will be able to utilize each company’s partner programs, meaning expanded market opportunities through these extensive ecosystems. This offering complements Novell’s VMware Ready status–a certification that ensures optimal performance for virtual appliances built through the SUSE Appliance Program, the fastest and easiest way for ISVs to create and manage software appliances–and deployed within the VMware virtualized environment.

Last week, another ISV announced a software appliance built as part of the SUSE Appliance Program from Novell. ROC Software has released the ROC EasySpooler SUSE-powered appliance, based on the company’s ROC EasySpooler core technology and a fully-supported version of SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell. ROC Software joins the ranks of GroundWork Open Source and Zmanda, ISVs who also recently announced SUSE-powered appliances.

Paul A. Scripko, ROC’s VP Business Development, said, “Joining the SUSE Appliance Program and having access to the SUSE Studio appliance building tools and marketing support from Novell helped ROC reduce development time to a matter of weeks and release product to market at a fraction of the usual time required.”

SC Magazine has just published its review of ZENworks Patch Management. Backed by Novell’s strong support organization and ZENworks Patch Management’s centralized Web-based administration and ability to scale for any size environment, the review notes, “… we found that Novell’s solution represents a great value for many different-sized enterprises.” SC Magazine gave ZENworks Patch Management five stars in each category and also named its recommended product this month.

Check out the five-star product rating here and learn more about ZENworks Patch Management here.

“Twitter is so lame”

So says one particular 15 year old quoted in a February 4, 2010 USA Today article outlining how teens and young adults are using social media these days. Apparently, teenagers, who have a history of being early adopters on nearly every online activity are not so keen on Twitter.

It’s my job to explore all avenues for marketing effectiveness and the world of social media is perhaps the hottest area for exploration among the Chief Marketing Officers I know. But this survey, with particular emphasis on the less than enthusiastic uptake on Twitter with tomorrow’s decision makers, is giving me reason to pause and ask “Is Twitter the CB Radio of social media?” Perhaps an explanation is in order.

CB Radio. I suspect I date myself. Come back to the 1970’s when CB (closed band) radio was all the rage. CB radio was a way to connect with complete strangers or friends with a reasonable investment and no variable cost to participation. And like Twitter, the value of CB radio was exponential to the number of devices in use. CB radio aficionados were enthusiastic defenders of the medium. Heck they even had their own language, lingo and “handles”. Handles – names they called themselves that protected their anonymity (in a time when protecting one’s privacy seemed to matter – but that’s another blog). CB ”handles” were the equivalent of Twitter ids. The point is there was a period in the 70’s that if you didn’t have a CB radio, you weren’t part of the conversation. But alas, CB radio never reached the promise or potential of its supporters and today it’s a pop culture item and answer to a trivial pursuit question.

Is Twitter heading in the same direction as CB radio? If teenagers have anything to say about it I suspect so. In truth, I’m not yet convinced that Twitter is going to make it either. I may take some criticism for that but from my seat the most prolific users of Twitter today are egotists or marketers – sometimes these are the same people. Yes I use Twitter and encourage my team and company to use it as well. But unless the use broadens and companies begin to understand the linkage between using Twitter (and other social media avenues for that matter) and delivering a better customer experience, I suspect we’ll all move on to the next big thing. After all, who wants to be using something that today’s youth view as “lame”.

John

Guest post – Brian Singer, Security Solutions Manager, Novell

Security folks have been saying for some time now  that organizations need to take a long, hard look at how they think about information security. Now that intellectual property is the target of attacks, the stakes are higher. Organizations must start from the assumption that no endpoint is secure and build their security programs around that hypothesis. In this world, authentication is not enough—the underlying activities could still be malicious.

In this podcast, I discuss with Novell security specialist, Ben Goodman, how the Aurora breach has shined a spotlight on the failure of the traditional perimeter security model. The response to these threats must be multi-faceted. Ultimately, we believe the solution may lie in systems that tie together all the information available within an enterprise. Mining that wealth of information for inconsistencies, and putting a lens to the fine-grained activities that are taking place will lead organizations to broad-based user-activity monitoring. Any time a valuable asset is accessed, systems will check to see if that access is consistent with what’s expected – anything out of the ordinary will trigger alarms or could shut down access completely.

What are your thoughts on the Aurora breach? Post your comments and let’s start a discussion.

 

 Novell on Aurora Breach - new threats to watch [10:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Late last October I wrote a guest column for Forbes.com on “The Battle of the OS Titans” in which I described the complex and evolving landscape of operating system battles and how ultimately, we as consumers would be the real winners.  Apple’s much anticipated and highly hyped launch of their latest computing form factor – the Apple iPad, serves as the latest example of what it will truly take to win the Operating System battle.

As I wrote last October, “applications and usability drive operating system selection”.  And so it appears with the iPad.  This is a formula Apple understand all too well.  Clearly leveraging the success of the iPhone and iTouch, iPad (with uneven technical reviews at best) wants to be your next must have computing device because it offers a superior user experience and has every application you could ever possible want, if not need.   We’ll have to wait and see (perhaps not too long) to assess whether Apple has yet another hit on their hands.  In the meantime, if the formula for operating systems success is so simple:  Usability + Applications = Really successful Operating System, why don’t more vendors get it and more specifically, what does it portend for the future of Linux – particularly on the desktop.  The answer to the first part of the question is “because It’s hard”.   I remain more optimistic about the second part of the question.

In the wake of Apple’s iPad announcement, Brett Waldman, an IDC research analyst, wrote an interesting note titled “Could the Success of the Apple iPad Finally Lead to the Growth of Linux on the Desktop?”  Copyright restrictions don’t allow me to link to the actual January 29, 2010 article.   Brett submits that for “…Linux to gain market share in the newly revitalized tablet market, it will have to learn the lessons of Apple and go after it with a mobile UI, like the ones found on Google’s Android or the Moblin project.”  He also suggests Linux will have to overcome one more obstacle: applications.   I agree with Brett on both points and think Linux is making decent strides, with the help of many vendors and open source contributors, to both.  The question is can Linux proceed fast enough and with enough broad market support and adoption to be the force it can and should be.  To some, time is running out

There’s been tremendous improvement in the last twelve months alone on user interfaces (see Android and Moblin).  We must continue to win the hearts and minds of developers and independent software vendors so that Linux has an equally compelling applications story.  Novell’s SUSE Studio and recently announced SUSE Appliance Toolkit are squarely aimed at helping solve this application issue.

I believe Linux is the ideal operating system for creating and delivering  the “Platform Specific User Experience”.  The market, however, is moving rapidly and we must focus on the magic formula for success if reality is to match the vision.

John

On Wednesday, I posted that Novell will be supporting iPad application  development. I noted in the post that an updated version of MonoTouch was currently in development for the iPad and would be released soon. I’m happy to report that alpha support for new iPad features is now available in MonoTouch.

The MonoTouch alpha upgrade features:
- Support for all the new APIs introduced for the iPad
- Updated API to support iPad projects, including debugging support, iPad project templates, and support for dual iPad and iPhone applications

You can read more about these updates in Mono project Founder and Novell Developer Platform Vice President Miguel de Icaza’s blog. The updated version of MonoTouch with iPad support is available here.

A few hours ago, Apple announced the availability of the iPad touchscreen tablet. The iPad can run iPhone apps and video games, play music and movies, is an eBook reader and can access the Web.

Along with all the consumers lining up to buy the iPad there will be legions of developers lining up to create applications for the iPad. However, many of these developers who use the industry’s most popular development framework—Microsoft .NET—won’t be able to easily develop applications for the iPad. This is because the iPad developer program and license limits the languages that application developers can use to less common and more complex program languages.

Enter MonoTouch. MonoTouch is a software development kit that will enable iPad developers to utilize code and libraries written for the .NET development framework and easier-to-use programming languages such as C#. Microsoft .NET developers will be able to use MonoTouch while fully complying with Apple’s license terms.

MonoTouch is currently used to develop applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Since its Sept. 2009 release, MonoTouch has been embraced by the development community, with more than 11,000 downloads of the evaluation version. There are already several MonoTouch built applications available today in the Apple App Store, including Knight’s Frenzy, Congress111, ProdRecall, Little Gamer, Simon, Tennis Finder and Section Control.

Since, iPhone and iPod application development is already supported with the current version of MonoTouch, .NET developers can run their existing iPhone and iPod Touch applications on the iPad. With an updated version of MonoTouch (currently in development for the iPad and scheduled to be released soon), .NET developers will be able to create applications using a software development kit updated for iPad, allowing them to take advantage of the new features of the iPad, such as the larger screen.

So when you finally get that iPad and load up your favorite game, we hope you’ll remember that Novell played a small part in helping you defeat the evil sorcerer.

Yesterday, Novell announced the availability of the SUSE Appliance Toolkit, a suite of tools that enables ISVs and enterprises to build, test and manage software appliance appliances. See some coverage of this announcement here, here and here.

Matt Richards, director of Emerging Technology at Novell, posted a blog on why the Toolkit matters to enterprises. Hint: it allows IT managers to sleep better! Check out the blog here.