Open Source "Winners"

Following up on my last entry on Open Source.

A few days ago I got an email saying a security survey found open source has fewer "leaks" then ever.

This got my attention because the last round I read claimed commercial and open source we're running dead even.

So overall, Open Source applications are now more secure than commerical.
And free.

A client packing quite a few brain cells asked me how do these authors make money? Do they make money?

A: Some yes. And not in the way you would think.

Working an open source project give the author a more visible "try me out" to any employer. In short, it is a resume/CV builder. So yes, in a way they do make money!

Today I came across the link in this blog. Really interesting collection of programs! My largest gripe is the Windows-centric nature. I'm not Anti-Windows! (I'm a MCSE too). And I'm old enough to know there is more to life than Windows.

However besides selecting the best of "free" (some are Not Open Source, just free), the site does and excellent job of noting any cross-platform features. Additionally, if an offering can be used without touching the registry, it is considered portable.

This is a really 'nice to know'. You have your favorite application on a USB key. No install required. Today I saw a really well made (and fast) 32 Gig USB key for $100. That's pretty impressive. You could walk around with a waterproof USB "hard drive" for $100.

Isn't technology wonderful?

What do we train on?

NetworkWorld has a little piece on getting certified on Win 2008 and "should you do it?" angle.

The short story is they say maybe not now, and it will certainly be in higher demand in the future.

So isn't that sorta like saying in the future the sun will rise in the east?

IMO there is a larger issue here. That is the rise in both respect and quality of open source software. Typically, most folks have a brain link that says Open Source = Linux. Try as I might, I don't see dramatic growth in Linux making being certified (on any level) in Windows 2008 being the next functional equal to being Netware certified today.

It appears the Open Source = Linux brain link to be so last century. This is where I see the old judgement as being, well, old.

This blog is about IT Training, and it is not labeled IT Certification. It appears time to update our mental shortcut that Open Source = Linux, and start IT training on Open Source tools. Let's look at some examples of the changes.

Open Office. This open source offering (with lots of $ponser$ip from Sun) is in beta on Version 3. IBM has released a stripped version of this.

Many pundits like to say Open Office isn't worth a damn because it cannot do X. I'm not disagreeing that currently OO.org cannot do X, Y or Z.

I *do* question from the standpoint of large body count, how many folks (percentage wise) actually need the features X, Y or Z? It appears Open Office already has Too Many features similar to MS Office for a percentage of daily users. Why else would IBM go to the trouble of stripping Open Office down?

On the other side of the coin, Open Office has something going for it (besides being free) that MS Office doesn''t. MS Office 2008 on the Mac doesn't have VB for a macro language. Makes sense since the source code for this was based on the PPC chips (pre-Intel/Apple days). The Mac MS Office users have howled enough that the next major release will have VB back, some time in the next decade.

The critics of course are going to say, Who cares? Mac has such a low market share (percentage wise).

Wait a minute. If the small % for the Mac - Office numbers don't count, why should the same small % of users who need the features in MS Office that are not in Open Office matter? That is just not using the same yard stick.

Lets take another example where Open Source is beating the pants off commercial offerings.

Audacity.

This is an Open Source offering for (almost) everything audio. Ok. Not everyone does audio. And a good number of us do, including me. I used to use a commercial offering. Now I can do everything in Audacity (release) I used to do with commercial stuff. The beta version is giving me features I couldn't buy. UTube video training on Audacity (also free) is leading me into audio areas I didn't dream of before.

There is a common thread here I want to pull together.

Open Office, Audacity, and others such as FileZilla have something in common besides being Open Source (and free).

They are available on OS platforms for 'the big three' (Win/OSX/Linux). No one platform has a big lag over the others. The offerings are available in multiple human language interfaces for the big three platforms.

Dividing by human interface (localization) AND by platform availibity, makes for servicing really small percentages of users, without creating a file format issue.

The best part is training for Open Office (or FileZilla or...) is except for Very Small differences, the same on the big 3 OS platforms.

The free part is just icing on the cake. (OK, a lot of icing).

About the only thing that seems the same is the drive to do more, with less, and do it faster.

The book, The Tipping Point takes a in depth look at change. Another book called The Innovators Dilemma takes on the issues of change facing large established companies. (The fact that the author uses the disk drive industry only make it eaiser for us in IT to follow along.) The second book, The Innovators Solution is not a path Microsoft (and many others) followed.

20 years ago, the buzz was that we're entering the third phase of civilization (The Information Age). Well it hasn't exactly gone as predicted, and we seem to be on course for the big picture.

From my chair, it looks like Open Source is moving from the expermential and early adopter phases and is preparing to enter the large percentage mass appeal phase. I only need to look at myself. Yes, I use MS Office. And I *also* use Open Office. I stopped paying for FTP software, and use FileZilla. The same is true with Audacity. I didn't select those to be a researcher. I just wanted to get something done. That these same products work on the big three means I'm not paying, 3 times.

To the trainer in me, this speaks volumes on what we need to prepare what we are going to be training on.

MCA's $25,000 USD question

Over at Infoworld, there asking if MCA is worth $25K bucks.

Yup. That is the price tag, pre-paid before starting down the path for Win 2008 and the new top level cert.

Personally, I don't think the 25K is going to be the big show stopper. It's the double-digit years at the top of the heap at the enterprise level that will keep the numbers low. I'm not pretending that 25K is chump change.

And this is certainly one cert that showing up at Prometric isn't going to cut it.

Nice review at Infoworld... Take a peek.

"The Brain"

Folks who have followed my thoughts for any length of time know that Gudrun and I are really excited to study and follow threads on getting "stuff" (facts, thoughts, etc) firmly rooted in the organic computer we call the brain.

Gudrun found a software entry in the category known as 'mind mapping'. This is not some voodoo trick. It has been around a while, just not really well known.

What makes this entry unique is the 'Personal Edition' is really free, not trialware. Sure its limited in the fact that you cannot tie a base thought to files on you drive. That takes the version that is $150. USD. And yes, multi-user versions have a higher price tag.

The part that got my attention is they offer Windows, OS X and Linux versions.

While the Personal Version (free) is limited to connecting web sites, anyone preparing to study in a particular area of study is probably searching the Internet. The first glance at this offering suggests it would be much more intuitive than bookmarks on the subject.

Maybe you want to give this method a shot. Check out the Personal Version of The Brain from http://www.TheBrain.com

If you have given it a try, please offer your thoughts here. Thanks. And thank you Gudrun for this great find.