Latest News from Ibrahim Haddad

Open Source Compliance: Getting Started Guide

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:45:00 EST

This article discusses Open Source compliance and the challenges faced when establishing a compliance program, provides an overview of best practices, and offers recommendations on how to deal with compliance inquiries.

The Unofficial How-To of Open Sourcing

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:00:00 EST

Open source software is shifting the software industry into a new paradigm, moving from developing proprietary code behind closed doors to developing code that can be shared, modified and redistributed openly. Key benefits associated with this shift is reducing development cost and software components complexity, developing re-usable common-off-the-shelf software assets, while increasing flexibility and using common enablers. Organizations that embrace the open source model and follow it when it influences positively their ways of building software, will increase their chances to retain their competitive advantage.

Good and Bad Reasons to Open Source Your Software

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:00:00 EDT

A company's decision to contribute to open source projects is usually business-driven. This article offers a review of the top reasons that can influence your company to contribute source code to open source or to start new open source projects.

Is the Open Source Development Model Right for Your Organization?

Tue, 01 May 2007 13:30:00 EDT

The open source development model has unique characteristics that make it in some instances a superior model for developing software compared to the traditional software engineering cascade model. As with other practices, the open source development model had its advantages and inconveniences. Will adopting the open source development model improve the way your corporate developers work and produce software? What are the best practices from the open source development model that we can use in a corporate environment?

Adopting an Open Source Approach to Software Development, Distribution, and Licensing

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:15:00 EST

Since the beginning of the software industry, nearly every software company in the world has followed the same business model: its own employees develop the software, which is closely held intellectual property, the software is delivered to clients in binary form, and users run the licensed software on their own computers. Today, this model has been challenged by a new paradigm: open source. Developed and maintained by volunteers across the world, distributed to users at no cost, and available as source code, open source software is radically different from its proprietary counterpart. Each of the new characteristics of open source software forces organizations to develop new ways of thinking about how they procure, implement, test, and deploy it.

D@TA Protection and the Linux Environment

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 19:15:00 EST

Organizations that gather and store critical information have to protect it. While there are tried and true techniques for data protection, there are also new and innovative ones. These new practices and tools greatly enhance an organization's ability to protect mission-critical data. Linux and Open Source users are specially challenged when trying to take advantage of much of this new technology.

"Secure Coding in C and C++" A Linux.SYS-CON.com Interview With Robert Seacord

Sat, 24 Dec 2005 14:15:00 EST

Robert C. Seacord, a senior vulnerability analyst at the CERT/Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University, has just published the book Secure Coding in C and C++ (Addison-Wesley, 2005). I sat down with him to discuss software security in the Linux environment and elsewhere.

At Last, You Have Alternatives: Switch to Firefox and Thunderbird

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 16:45:00 EDT

Firefox and Thunderbird are Open Source products that are made available by the Mozilla Foundation. Open Source development lets anyone who wants to to examine the source code, or if they wish, to modify it. There are a number of advantages to Open Source development, including the fact that many people look at the code every day, which results in better responsiveness as bugs are uncovered. This dynamic development community is able to provide continual feedback to make the product better, paving the way for a better browsing and e-mail experience for everyone.

Carrier Grade Linux

Fri, 08 Jul 2005 16:00:00 EDT

This article provides an update of the Carrier Grade Linux initiative, the CGL specification, distributions, platforms and deployments.

Can Linux Clusters Move into Mainstream Information Technology?

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST

The emergence of commodity supercomputing has driven clusters based on the Linux operating system into engineering and scientific research organizations that couldn't afford their own supercomputing resources before. But Linux clusters have the potential to become a hot topic in traditional information technology circles as well. The coming year may well be the technology tipping point when Linux cluster technology escapes its current home in research organizations and inhabits the traditional data center.

OSDL's Data Center Linux

Fri, 29 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EDT

Data Center Linux (DCL), one of four OSDL initiatives, has the goal to accelerate Linux adoption in corporate data centers. DCL provides a center of gravity for developers, users, vendors, and the open source community to work together to improve Linux capabilities and feature requirements, accelerating the development and adoption of Linux in the data center.

Defend I.T.

Mon, 27 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EDT

The battle between IT professionals and those who use the Internet for destructive purposes is raging - and there's no end in sight. Reports of computer crime and incidents from the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University more than double each year and are expected to rise.

Moving to the Linux Business Desktop

Mon, 27 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EDT

Marcel Gagné is probably best known for his three-time award-winning monthly column called 'Cooking with Linux,' where he impersonates a French chef serving up fine Linux fare and (naturellement) wine. Here he shares his views on the Linux Desktop.

Know Your Enemy - Introducing "Honeynets"

Tue, 31 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EDT

One of most exciting areas to emerge in information security has been honeynets. These networks are designed to be compromised in order to capture all the tools and activities of the attackers. We had the opportunity to talk with members of the Honeynet Project, a nonprofit security research organization, and the group's founder, Lance Spitzner, about their latest book, Know Your Enemy: Learning About Security Threats, Second Edition (Addison-Wesley). We asked many questions and discovered some surprising truths about security. Read on for the rest of the story.

Interview with Mark G. Sobell

Tue, 31 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EDT

For this issue, I'm going to talk with long-time Linux author Mark Sobell. Mark's first Linux book came out in 1996, when Linux was in its infancy. In this interview Mark discusses Red Hat's Fedora Core 2 version of Linux and his experiences writing Linux books.

Getting Started with Red Hat Linux

Tue, 15 Jun 2004 00:00:00 EDT

This article provides a glimpse into Red Hat: The Complete Reference Enterprise Linux and Fedora Edition (with DVD), published by McGraw-Hill/Osborne. It covers what you need to get started with Red Hat Linux - including the overall design of Linux, Linux distributions, and online resources.

Server Features in the Linux Kernel

Tue, 15 Jun 2004 00:00:00 EDT

There is a lot of ongoing work to make the Linux kernel a viable operating system option for platforms running mission-critical applications. However, there is still some work to be done with respect to supporting new features. This article addresses some needed features and mechanisms in the Linux kernel - features that are necessary in server nodes operating in mission-critical environments.

OSDL and Carrier Grade Linux: The Full Story

Tue, 15 Jun 2004 00:00:00 EDT

In previous LWM articles, we have discussed the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), Carrier Grade Linux (CGL), and the momentum Linux is gaining in telecom. We have also covered the current technological trend of companies moving away from proprietary technologies towards open and standardized platform components (hardware, operating system, and middleware).

HA: What Does It Take?

Tue, 18 May 2004 00:00:00 EDT

Providing continuous service availability is a crucial factor for many industries, especially in the telecommunication sector. For instance, people always expect to hear a dial tone when they pick up their phones, and they always do. This is the level of reliability and service availability that is needed in the newly converged mobile phones IP networks.

Moving Toward Open Platforms

Mon, 19 Apr 2004 00:00:00 EDT

This article explores the recent trend toward open telecom platform solutions as proposed by three key industry consortia - PICMG, OSDL, and the SA Forum - working in the areas of highly available hardware, middleware, and carrier grade operating systems.

Linux Gains Momentum in Telecom

Mon, 19 Apr 2004 00:00:00 EDT

OSDL's Carrier Grade Linux working group is hard at work on an open source platform for the telecom industry. This article describes the goals, structure, and working groups of CGL; presents the CGL architecture; and provides an overview of the CGL 2.0 requirements.

Toward Highly Available Linux Clusters

Wed, 18 Feb 2004 00:00:00 EST

This article describes the HA-OSCAR architecture and features, and demonstrates how to set up a highly available Linux cluster using the first beta release of HA-OSCAR version 1.0.

The Future of IP Is Now!

Mon, 19 Jan 2004 00:00:00 EST

IPv6 is the next-generation Internet protocol designed by the IETF as a replacement for IPv4. Most of today's Internet uses IPv4, which has been remarkably resilient in spite of its age; however, it is beginning to have problems in various features areas.

Toward Carrier Grade Linux Platforms

Mon, 22 Dec 2003 00:00:00 EST

In this article, Ibrahim Haddad presents on the Open Source Development Labs Carrier Grade Linux Requirements and Ericsson's contributions in this area.