Open Source Subnet: An independent Open Source community

Today's Top Pick

RackSpace's well-coordinated public announcement of OpenStack last week was a refreshing, if not surprising, bit of news. Since the open source movement gained momentum, there has regularly been a viable free alternative in most important software sectors. The industry was just begging for an honest-to-goodness open source presence in the IaaS space, and OpenStack seems prepared to deliver. But what, exactly, will it have to offer? Ben Whaley ponders the answer.

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Essential Open Source
Community Open Source vs Commercial Open Source in the Cloud: Will CentOS beat RHEL? by Kim Weins
There has been a lot of debate about the role open source will play in the cloud. Many of the debates are focused on open standards. Another big issue is licensing and pricing of open source in the cloud. In the last few weeks I've talked with several customers who are using CentOS in a public cloud. These companies are Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) customers, but they chose CentOS for the cloud because of the lack of RHEL offerings with an affordable cloud licensing model. ...

Open Source Fact and Fiction
An Insiders Look At The Open Source IDS Spat by Alan Shimel
Over the last couple of weeks I have been following all of the Snort-Suricata, Roesch-Jonkmann back and forth. If you are not familiar with the particulars of this latest incident you can read about them in Ellen Messmer's article and my fellow open source subnet blogger, Ben Whaley's column. I know both Marty and Matt pretty well and have been involved in the open source IDS world for years. This recent flare up has actually been brewing and is a long time coming. I am going to give you my own... 5

Logical Expression
How to check your open source project for signs of life by Eric Gries
I am a firm believer in the power and value of open source, just as I'm a believer in understanding the nature of the community, how to discover and choose the code that's right for your application needs, and how to minimize risk and get the most benefit for your organization.According to Wikipedia , as of February 2009 there were 230,000 open source projects listed and more than two million registered users on Sourceforge , making it the largest collection of open source tools and... 1

Source Seeker
Even SAP is using more open source by Julie Bort
Yesterday SAP took another step into the open source world by signing on to use the Black Duck Suite. The suite is a collection of tools that helps a company find open source projects. It also confirms that developers are using the code securely, in compliance with its license and not violating the company's internal policies (i.e. not exposing code they don't want to release as open source). What's interesting about this news is that SAP's relationship to open source is an odd one. On the one...

Open Source Exposed
What's in a License? by Stephen Spector'
Most people never take the time to read an End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) when installing or updating their software. For example, here is a link to the Microsoft Vista EULA that you probably skipped right over and a great article on how the EULA prevents people from using their purchased Windows operating system the way they wish. In fact, would you buy a car with a list of rules that tell you when and how you can use it? In comparison, here is the most common open souce software license,... 2

Open Source Fact and Fiction
Rapid7 Expects Big Payoff by Sponsoring Open Source w3af by Alan Shimel
For the second time in a little over a year vulnerability management firm Rapid7 has made a significant investment in open source security tools. This time they have announced a sponsorship of the w3af (web application attack and audit framework). An open source project that is a leader in the web application vulnerability testing space.The driving force behind w3af, Andres Riancho joins the Rapid7 team as director of Web security and Rapid7 will be opening a Worldwide Center of...

Pragmatic open source
Dell has not abandoned Ubuntu by Amy Vernon
Know this: Ubuntu is still for sale on Dell's website. In fact, a new desktop is available via Dell's Ubuntu sales site, loaded with Ubuntu 10.04. I've watched for the past few days as reports whizzed back and forth that Dell was removing Ubuntu from its websites in the U.S. and U.K. It would still sell it, but only via phone - which is, as some rightly pointed out, somewhat ridiculous, as Ubuntu users tend to be rather computer-centric and are more likely to shop online than via phone. ... 5

Open Source Fact and Fiction
An Open Recipe For A Better Security Conference - BSides by Alan Shimel
Today I want to tell you about a different kind of open source security conference. No, the conference is not about open source security (though there may be some of that), it is an open source modeled event on security. I am talking about the BSides series of security conferences. They have taken the Bar Camp approach towards creating a new kind of gathering. Lots of people are taking notice and it is really picking up steam.I first became aware of the Security BSides conference with the...

Source Seeker
U.S. military adopts more open source: is that secure enough for you? by Julie Bort
The U.S. military and researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are putting their heads together to help the military adopt more open source software. The military wants in on the cost savings, speed and flexibility which OSS offers to users, as opposed to being stuck waiting on proprietary software vendors to modify their tools when changes are needed. If the open source model can be secured enough for the military, surely it can be secured enough for the enterprise.Specifically,... 12

Open Source Fact and Fiction
Shimel's 10 Commandments For Open Core by Alan Shimel
There has been a lot of discussion recently over so called "open core" business models. Many people don't like the term, but the underlying principles whether called commercial open source, open core or something else are still valid. Here are my 10 Commandments for a successful open core / commercial open source business: Do not hide behind open source. Acknowledge the commercial nature of your company and the fact that the commercial version or commercial... 12