Open Source

10 questions for Imperva CTO Amichai Shulman

Name: Amichai Shulman

By Nancy Weil | 24 May, 2012 14:11

Tags: Amichai Shulman, data protection, security, it management, software, Imperva

Open source identity: Bitcoin technical lead Gavin Andresen

Originally from Melbourne, Australia but now living in the US, Gavin Andresen is the technical lead of the Bitcoin virtual currency system. Started by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, Bitcoin is a digital currency system consisting of an open source client and P2P network. The aim of the Bitcoin project is a decentralised, secure peer-to-peer currency system that does not rely on banks or central transaction processing authorities. To generate “Bitcoins” people on the network use a cross-platform, open source client developed in C++. In addition to the open source aspect of Bitcoin, there is now an emerging market in services around the cryptocurrency such as exchange portals and virtual clearing houses. Previously, the Open Source Identity series has featured interviews with Ruby on Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson, Linux’s Linus Torvalds, Jan Schneider of Horde, Mark Spencer of Asterisk fame, Spine CMS creator Hendrick van Belleghem, Free Telephony Project founder David Rowe, and PulseAudio creator Lennart Poettering. This time we talk to Gavin Andresen about the new, decentralised approach to money – Bitcoin.

By Rodney Gedda | 21 March, 2011 14:29

Tags: Bitcoin, currency, e-commerce, encryption, Gavin Andresen, internet banking, money, open source, open source identity, P2P

Q&A: Inverse CEO on building an open source Exchange alternative

Use of open source e-mail groupware systems in the enterprise has been lacklustre with most organisations opting for products from Microsoft, IBM or cloud providers like Google. The market is ripe for competition and Canadian company Inverse is set to provide another option by integrating the OpenChange project’s Microsoft Outlook compatibility software into the SOGo open source groupware suite. With a complete Exchange server replacement scheduled for release early next year, we spoke with Inverse president and CEO Ludovic Marcotte about open source groupware development, native Microsoft Exchange interoperability and data integration standards.

By Rodney Gedda | 26 October, 2010 14:13

Tags: groupware, Inverse, Microsoft, microsoft exchange, openchange, SOGo

Q&A with Richard Stallman

Free software is a different beast from gratis software. Free software activist, Richard Stallman, discusses the importance of freedom across all modes of computing.

By Renai LeMay | 11 August, 2010 11:32

Tags: Android, Free Software Foundation, gnu, internet filtering, Richard Stallman, smartphones

KDE innovation still brewing amid stable 4.5 release

With KDE Software Compilation (SC) 4.5 released this week, the open source project has made another stepping stone towards its goal of providing a modern, free desktop people can adapt to their needs. TechWorld caught up with KDE developer and spokesperson for the project, Sebastian Kugler, about what was achieved with this latest release and how KDE SC can be more innovative.

By Rodney Gedda | 11 August, 2010 05:50

Tags: desktop linux, innovation, kde, kde4, open source, software development

The A-Z of programming languages: Groovy

Groovy’s Project Manager, Guillaume Laforge, tells the development story behind this language and why he thinks it is grooving its way into enterprises around the world.

By Dahna McConnachie | 14 September, 2009 12:13

Tags: a-z of programming languages, groovy

The A-Z of Programming Languages: Erlang

Our series on the most popular programming languages continues as we chat to Erlang creator Joe Armstrong

By Kathryn Edwards | 16 June, 2009 15:03

Tags: a-z of programming languages, erlang

KOffice on version 2.0, extensions, and being like Firefox

The idea of an application that supports third-party extensions and add-ons users can download and install in one click may be more applicable to Web browsers than office suites, but the developers at the open source KOffice project have developed such an architecture where all components are modular. TechWorld interviews the marketing coordinator for KOffice, Inge Wallin, to find out where this lesser-known of the open source office suites is headed now version 2.0.0 has arrived and what excites its developers. Building an easy, intuitive, cross-platform, and extensible platform like Firefox is high on the agenda.

By Rodney Gedda | 28 May, 2009 16:05

Tags: firefox, kde, kde4, KOffice, odf, ooxml, openoffice

The A-Z of Programming Languages: Falcon

Computerworld's investigations into the most widely-used programming languages continues as we chat with Giancarlo Niccolai the creator of the Falcon programming language.

By Kathryn Edwards | 09 April, 2009 11:10

Tags: a-z of programming languages, C, Falcon, open source, programming, scripting language

Open source identity: Spine CMS creator Hendrik Van Belleghem

Looking for a Web-based content management system that uses Perl instead of PHP? Want to serve dynamic and static content with PostgreSQL, not MySQL? What started out as a hobby project by Hendrik Van Belleghem, based in Bazel, Belgium, has grown into Spine – a Perl Web content system for Apache on Unix systems. With so many LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) content systems available, Spine offers a refreshing alternative with the tried and tested Perl language and is database independent. Open Source Identity interviews Van Belleghem about Spine, a lesser-known alternative to the popular Web CMSs.

By Rodney Gedda | 04 March, 2009 11:02

Tags: cms, lamp, mysql, open source identity, perl, postgresql

Wikia co-founder on the good, the bad and the ugly of collaboration

Wikis could take a trick or two from Facebook and social networking sites in order to draw more contributors in the new year, says co-founder of Wikia, Angela Beesley, one of the keynote speakers at the upcoming linux.conf.au. She shares her thoughts on wikia, wikis and wikipedia as well as their place in the enterprise with Computerworld.

By Dahna McConnachie | 13 January, 2009 07:42

Tags: wikia

Open source identity: Asterisk founder and Digium CTO Mark Spencer

Imagine an IP voice and unified communications system that can be integrated into any application and customised to meet business needs. Sounds great, right? Well that project is the Asterisk IP-PBX and it's free to use and you get the source code. A far cry from proprietary PBX systems perhaps, but Asterisk has a vibrant ecosystem and is replacing systems from more established telephony vendors. Following interviews with the leaders of the Horde and Free Telephony projects, the Open Source Identity series talked to Asterisk founder and Digium CTO Mark Spencer about how one application can have such a profound effect on businesses and how open source can be a tough competitive landscape.

By Rodney Gedda | 26 November, 2008 16:11

Tags: asterisk, digium, ip-pabx, office communication server, open source identity, unified communications, VoIP

Flying high with open source

To say Sabre Holdings is a believer in open source technology is an understatement. Its IT department supports the Travelocity Web site, the Sabre Travel Network and Sabre Airline Solutions, and the company has been using open source tools for some 10 years, according to CTO Robert Wiseman. Cost certainly factors into the reason, but it's Sabre's ability to control its own destiny by making whatever changes it deems necessary that's the real motivation. Along with Kevin Bomar, Sabre's senior principal of middleware services, Wiseman explains how open source software and the community that supports it help Sabre deliver solutions that meet its demanding uptime requirements.

By Paul Desmond | 11 November, 2008 11:30

Tags: open source, travelocity

Open source identity: Free Telephony Project founder David Rowe

Move over proprietary telephony systems. Australian engineer David Rowe started the Free Telephony Project three years ago to build an affordable IP-PABX system out of free hardware and software. That’s right, the design of the Free Telephony Project IP-PABX is open for any interested person to review and improve. With the first Free Telephony Project products now available and in use world-wide, Rowe hopes it will go along way to improving the availability of voice services in developing nations. In this edition of Open Source Identity, TechWorld interviews Rowe to uncover the burgeoning business of open product development.

By Rodney Gedda | 23 October, 2008 12:06

Tags: asterisk, codec, ip-pabx, opensource, open source identity, telephony, uclinux

Microsoft exec touts mixed source ventures

Microsoft has been making moves on the licensing front and accommodations with open source, such as its controversial 2006 agreement with Novell pertaining to Suse Linux. Looking to elaborate on Microsoft's activities, Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel for Intellectual Property and Licensing, met last week with Paul Krill in San Francisco. Companies today, Gutierrez said, have become "mixed source" ventures rather than the world being divided up between open source and proprietary.

By Paul Krill | 21 October, 2008 07:54

Tags: open source, software applications

Solaris exec touts Unix platform's strengths

Solaris has been Sun Microsystems's bread-and-butter Unix system since 1992. While Unix platforms such as Solaris now are up against the open source Linux juggernaut, Sun maintains it has the technological advantages and accommodations for open source to keep Solaris in the game. The company also cites important customer wins as evidence of the platform's continued strength. To hash out the state of Solaris in today's marketplace, InfoWorld editor at large Paul Krill recently met with Jim McHugh, vice president of Solaris marketing at Sun, at the company's California campus.

By Paul Krill | 14 October, 2008 09:38

Tags: Linux, solaris, unix

Torvalds talks about his brand new blog

We tend to think that everybody who's anybody in the tech world has a blog, right? Well, Linus Torvalds didn't have a blog, at least not until dipping his toe into the waters with this one -- "Linus' Blog" -- which launched last Thursday.

By Paul McNamara | 09 October, 2008 09:25

Tags: torvalds

At 10, Google reiterates commitment to CIOs

Google, which celebrates 10 years of its incorporation this month, remains strongly committed to its Enterprise unit and to the customers it serves, including IT and business managers and CIOs, although most of the company's revenue comes from online advertising.

By Juan Carlos Perez | 08 September, 2008 08:36

Tags: Google

Red Hat VP readies virtualisation roadmap

Paul Cormier is Red Hat's executive VP and head of Red Hat products and technologies divisions. His experienced thumb is firmly planted in many Red Hat pies; including engineering, product management and product marketing. The company credits the introduction of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to Cormier's leadership and experience in enterprise technology. Cormier has returned Down Under on another visit to Red Hat's research and development team in Brisbane, and took some time out to chat with Computerworld about the anticipated boom in virtualisation, cloud computing, Microsoft's open source initiatives, CentOS, JBoss Application Server 5.0, how open source software can aid the current economic downturn, and of course, the growing role of Linux and RHEL in the enterprise.

Facebook seeks trusted relationships on the 'Net

While perhaps best known as a major social networking site in the Web 2.0 vein, Facebook is becoming a popular place to interface with potential customers, similar to what companies such as Scribe and iLike have done. Facebook also is being viewed as a place for enterprise collaboration, with Serena Software leveraging the site for this purpose. To get perspective on Facebook, InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill recently spoke with Aditya Agarwal, Facebook director of engineering. Agarwal formerly worked in the Oracle server technologies division.