Month: February 2003

Linux Uprising

That Linux is hitting mainstream is indicated by the cover story in the latest issue of Business Week:

The computer realm may never be the same. Imagine the havoc in the energy business if some newcomer started giving away gasoline. Linux is bringing on a convulsion of that magnitude in tech. Practically every tech company is being forced to figure out how to take advantage of Linux–or to avoid being swept aside by it. And don’t be fooled by Linux’ harmless-looking penguin mascot, Tux: This stuff is shaking up the balance of power in the computer industry. It poses the biggest threat to Microsoft’s hegemony since the Netscape browser in 1995.

How did Linux make the jump into the mainstream? A trio of powerful forces converged. First, credit the rotten economy. Corporations under intense pressure to reduce their computing bills began casting about for low-cost alternatives. Second, Intel Corp., the dominant maker of processors for PCs, loosened its tight links with Microsoft and started making chips for Linux. This made it possible for corporations to get all the computing power they wanted at a fraction of the price. The third ingredient was widespread resentment of Microsoft and fear that the company was on the verge of gaining a stranglehold on corporate customers.

[As] the Linux movement continues to push its freeware into the world, a delicate balance is forming. Its success hinges on keeping the peace between two extremes: the volunteer programmers who pull all-nighters writing code to change the world, and the commercial types who use the software to save money. It’s a weird twist on capitalism. But it just might work.

– Slashdot thread

Cover stories in two of the magazines which were delivered yesterday were on Linux (Business Week) and WiFi (Far Eastern Economic Review). One is open-source, the other is open-spectrum. Both are causing great upheaveals in the existing status quo.

Vivato’s WiFi Switch

Vivato has launched its “Wi-Fi phased-array antenna/switch, an indoor office system that can serve up to 150 users at 11 Mbps at distances up to 300 meters for about $9,000.” Analyses Glenn Fleishmann:

The Vivato unit is a switch not an access point.

Let that sink in, and you’ll realize what it means: each user has the potential through steered and focused beams to receive a full Wi-Fi speed connection without interfering with other users.

for many kinds of installations, primarily large venue hot spot and enterprise-scale campus or building projects, Vivato radically changes the deployment and maintenance costs and complexity, while so dramatically increasing network throughput on a per-client basis that it practically cannot be compared to any other product currently on the market.

Continue reading Vivato’s WiFi Switch

Microsoft’s Connectix Deal

Connectix is a virtual machine software company, much like VMware. Microsoft acquired a part of their business which, according to Adds News.com, makes “software that lets a single computer perform like several independent computers running their own operating systems. It makes client software that permits Windows to run on a Macintosh, and server software that has yet to be released.” This is important because Microsoft will soon end support for Windows 95, 98 and NT4. Writes News.com:

The ability to consolidate Windows NT 4 servers is “a pretty powerful concept,” said Al Gillen, an analyst with IDC. “This scenario is that customers can run their NT 4 applications on modern hardware, and not be saddled with the support of older systems. Microsoft has for some time been talking about how Windows Server 2003 will be such a good platform for moving NT 4 customers. The fact that (Microsoft is) talking about that confirms that they are having a hard time moving these customers.”

Web Services Evolution

Writes Eric Newcomer (News.com):

Today we sit at a fork in the road of Web services evolution. There are two paths that the industry can take, with each path leading to a distinct and different future. One road leads to a truly standardized world where corporations fully reap the benefits of Web services by untangling the “spaghetti mess” of IT systems. The second road leads back to yesteryear, where proprietary systems ruled the day, maximizing vendor service and maintenance revenue, and killing end-user flexibility and return on investment.

The path we take to the future may well depend upon the outcome of the current standoff around intellectual property rights in two key areas: orchestration and reliable messaging.

Bill Gates Interview

PC Magazine has an interview with Gates. A few quotes:

The common thread for everything I do is this idea of a Web-services architecture. What does that mean? It means taking components of software and systems and having them be self-describing, so that you can aim them, ask them what their capabilities are, and communicate with them using a standard protocol.

I use a tablet all the time. All my notes are on the tablet. The tablet is an incredible thing. I didn’t used to wear a watch. Now I have a SPOT watch, which I wear all the time. The watch is just a little thing to wear. Because it has my calendar, it knows when I’m going home and it knows that at that time there are about four pieces of traffic data that I care a lot about receiving. I can also check the Sonics and Trailblazer basketball scores by just clicking to see them…The effect of “glanceability” is very important with these watches. With a handheld today, you have to initiate a connection and you have huge latency.

[The consumer software market isn’t doing that well.] If you benchmark it by evaluating the number of apps that you buy per PC or that you use per PC, it hasn’t grown for many years. It grew in absolute terms because PCs went up, but that per-PC number is an issue.

Brazil’s Hopes

The Economist has a survey on Brazil.

The gap between Brazilians’ dreams and their reality is enormous. Although by international definitions Brazil is a middle-income rather than a poor country, its glaringly unequal income distribution means that the poorest 50% account for 10% of national income – and so do the richest 1%. Brazil’s educational performance has, until very recently, been dismal. Despite recent improvements in environmental health standards, 19% of households still lack running water. Poor communities on the peripheries of Brazil’s cities suffer from a plague of violent crimes.

Much of the hope for a new and prosperous future lies on Brazil’s new president, Lula da Silva.

TECH TALK: The Rs 5,000 PC Ecosystem: Moreover

The markets for the Rs 5,000 PC (5KPC) are not limited to the ones we discussed schools, colleges, government, bank branches, SMEs, telecentres and homes. The 5KPC opens up new markets which hitherto would have been inconceivable given the costs hotel rooms (why lug a laptop), hospital rooms (why be deprived of connectivity when one is unwell), factory floors (so that even the blue-collar workers can now be connected), point-of-sale terminals (for lotteries or merchandise) are some examples. The 5KPC enables a computer wherever it can be imagined. Think of the 5KPC as a disruptive innovation it opens up new markets where it can delight users, and then over time, it can target even mainstream users.

In fact, the opportunity for the 5KPC is not just limited to the developing countries. There is an interesting discontinuity in the worlds existing markets. As organisations in countries like the US seek to upgrade three- or four-old PCs, the USD 100 PC can be a very interesting alternative to minimise support costs and get off the treadmill of enforced obsolescence. In fact, the upgrades may be forced upon tens of millions of users as Microsoft seeks to end support for its older Windows operating systems in June. As CIOs consider alternatives, theyd do well to look at the USD 100 PC and open-source software.

By themselves, the 5KPC and many of the ideas discussed in the past columns are not new. Whats new is the markets that need to be targeted, and the focus on value-added aggregation putting together whole solutions for different verticals. In a sense, the markets need an iMode-like solution with hardware (the 5KPC), software (open-source components) and network connectivity (via WiFi, cable, dial-up or LAN) integrated together. In fact, much like iMode, the additional services that can be layered on top will be the key.

For emerging markets, the 5KPC offers an opportunity to leapfrog in terms of computing and a connected citizenry. It is very difficult to imagine the impact of making technology available to whole nations in a very short period of time. In fact, in countries like India, the two revolutions of computing and communications could run in parallel making available suddenly voice and data services to the masses in their homes and offices. By making technology a utility, the 5KPC can herald the creation of a New World Order.

The 5KPC is an idea whose time has come. It is an idea which by itself will not bridge the digital divide, increase growth rates or eliminate poverty. But for the worlds poorest countries, the 5KPC can be an equaliser. It can open up new vistas and fire up peoples imaginations. After that, it is to the individuals and the enterprises to convert these openings into dramatically better futures. It is up to this generation of entrepreneurs to go and build out the 5KPC Ecosystem. The Next 90% is waiting.

Continue reading TECH TALK: The Rs 5,000 PC Ecosystem: Moreover

Groupware

ServerWatch has a nice round-up of the state of Groupware and Collaboration. “Groupware and collaboration is an extremely elastic category. The terms, in essence, refer to anything electronic that helps people work together efficiently. The space can include e-mail, calendaring, instant messaging, audio and video conferencing, document repositories of different types, content management, bulletin boards, and voice services.”

Microsoft and IBM control 60% of the market. Microsoft will be launching Titanium later this year, while IBM has its Notes/Doomino platform.

A summary of the trends as mentioned in the article:

Early adopters in the small and midsize business space are starting to move away from Exchange server to products such as VirtualTek’s Joydesk and Bynari.

Software vendors generally associated with e-mail servers are entering the space more fully. Generally, the idea is that there will be a market for products “thinner” than Exchange and Domino that focus on the two key applications: e-mail and calendaring.

Since e-mail is the single dominant application, anything that impacts e-mail has a profound effect on groupware and collaboration. The ongoing struggle against viruses and the explosion of spam will have a big impact on how servers will be configured and protected. For example, servers must be able to accommodate rapidly changing third-party antispam software.

The usage patterns of groupware and collaboration are changing in three important ways. 1) Users will be more mobile, 2) real-time audio and video will become more prevalent, and 3) instant messaging will continue to grow as a corporate tool. Corporate IM may, in fact, prove the big story in 2003 because its deployment demands significant infrastructure adjustments. “IM … at a consumer, teenage level is kind of ephemeral,” said David Marshak, a senior vice president at the Patricia Seybold Group. “But doing it in a business context means it has to be stored. You have to prove you made the offer, gave this advice to this client, etc. It has a big impact on storage, and on search and retrieval capabilities.”

There is an increasing demarcation between users served by an enterprise that need full-featured collaborative applications and those that need only e-mail and calendaring. This is best illustrated by the example of a college campus that has a mix of permanent staff and faculty — some of whom are heavily involved in research that cries out for collaboration — and students who are typically there for four years. The students may be more aptly served by lightweight servers supporting Web-mail-based e-mail, while the permanent employees would ideally have an entirely different and deeper system. This type of bifurcated environment is not uncommon.

Messaging is a space we are in, too – with our MailServ solution. It does not yet have groupware and collaboration features, but its something we are working on.