Latest News from Open Source AJAX

Open Source Alternatives to LiveCycle Data Services

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:15:00 EDT

Development of enterprise Flex/Java rich Internet applications benefits from using automated data integration solutions and productivity tools. Currently Adobe offers LiveCycle Data Services ES2 (LCDS) and open source BlazeDS 3. While LCDS is certainly a great piece of software for those who are looking to support thousands concurrent users via the most efficient communication protocols, its high licensing cost makes LCDS not affordable for the vast majority of the enterprise applications let alone small businesses and startups.

OpenNebula Cloud Computing Topic Launched on Ulitzer

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST

OpenNebula, which was was born as a research project in 2005 by Dr. Rubén S. Montero, Dr. Ignacio M. Llorente, is an open and flexible tool that fits into existing data center environments to build any type of Cloud deployment. OpenNebula can be primarily used as a virtualization tool to manage your virtual infrastructure in the data-center or cluster, which is usually referred as Private Cloud. OpenNebula supports Hybrid Cloud to combine local infrastructure with public cloud-based infrastructure, enabling highly scalable hosting environments. OpenNebula also supports Public Clouds by providing Cloud interfaces to expose its functionality for virtual machine, storage and network management.

Given 250,000 Tools on the Shelf, How Do You Manage Them?

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Although I haven’t seen a thoroughly researched study, I figure there must be at least 250,000 FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) tools available to every systems administrator on the planet (230,000 at SourceForge + 15,000 at Launchpad + 12,000 at CodePlex + 5,000 at Google Code and that doesn’t count the Linux kernel or any of the myriad other self-hosted projects). These 250,000+ resources comprise the full “toolbox” that admins can use for building solutions with FOSS; they represent the FOSS equivalent of COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf). Of course, if you add open source but non-free or commercial tools, the problem explodes combinatorially.

MySQL Marks a Milestone

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 13:45:00 EST

The MySQL developer community has announced "a Milestone release", 5.5.0 of the popular open source, relational database software. The release it says are of beta quality but leaves scope for more frequent subsets releases of tested functionality akin to JBoss and OpenSuse who follow a similar release model. Users are encouraged to test the MySQL Server 5.5.0-m2, code-named "Betony" but are also cautioned that MySQL Server 5.5-M2 isn't production ready yet .

15 Million Now Using Open-Xchange Open Source Collaboration

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:45:00 EST

The results come from deals with software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers including Versatel (Germany's third-largest telecommunications provider with 1.3 million e-mail accounts), Dotster (among the world's largest domain name registrars servicing hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide), NameCheap (a leader in domain name registration and web hosting with 1 million domains), Nexen-Alterway Hosting (the French leader in open source web hosting) and NTS (a leading distributor in the Asian market). With the exception of NTS - the first distributor moving into the SaaS market in Asia - all the others have replaced their web mail with Open-Xchange and are selling additional groupware and mobility capabilities - providing additional benefits along with revenue opportunities for the SaaS providers.

Mozilla Might Be Ready to Step Out of Google’s Shadow

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:00:00 EST

Mozilla has been going toe to toe with Microsoft on the browser front standing solidly behind the European Union‘s stance against the software giant over monopoly abuse for tying the Internet Explorer browser to the Windows operating system. Mozilla, is also rapidly digging a hole in Internet Explorer‘s dominating market share. So it just does not make any sense that Mozilla would now promote Microsoft for anything. Or does it? It has been widely reported today that Mozilla's Director of Community Development Asa Dotzler stated in his personal blog that Microsoft does a better job to Google when it comes to protecting end user privacy. He even went so far as to recommend that users take to Bing in lieu of Google.

Open Source Software

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST

For small and mid-sized businesses, there often is a question about whether to stick with tried and true software providers such as Microsoft for your servers, e-mail and business applications or consider adoption of open-source products such as Linux. I've witnessed in this region some hesitation toward adoption of open-source products. I believe it's important to be able to make a rational evaluation of the two paths so you can make the best decisions.

Sun Updates VirtualBox Cross-Platform Virtualization Software

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST

Sun has released VirtualBox 3.1.0, it's cross-platform virtualisation software to include support for 2D video acceleration for Windows guests. Virtual Box is available in two versions.The open source edition is available under the GPL, but is only available from Sun as source code. The full version is also available free of charge, but under a personal use and evaluation license that requires you to " use the Product on the same Host Computer where you installed it yourself and that no more than one client connect to that Host Computer at a time for the purpose of displaying Guest Computers remotely."

Intel Opens Up Atom SDK to Promote Apps for Next Year’s Netbooks

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:45:00 EST

Intel has released the first beta of the software developer kit (SDK) of the Intel Atom Developer Program Software Development Kit (SDK) available for Microsoft Windows and Moblin* operating systems developers. The Atom SDK covers Atom use in Windows (C and C++) and Intel's own open-source Moblin platform. The kit helps software companies and individuals design and submit applications for Intel-based netbooks to ultimately sell at stores opening next year.

Crossroads in FOSS Projects: Some Business Considerations

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:45:00 EST

At our Seminar last month, Managing FOSS to Lower Costs and Achieve Business Results, several participants asked about the dynamics of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) projects that reach a crossroads (a failure, a merger, loss of key personnel, etc). I had not expected that concern because with commercial software, it seems to [...]

Open Source Content Management Software Company New CEO

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:15:00 EST

eZ Systems, the world´s largest open source content management software company, announced today that former IBM and BEA executive Christoph Rau will join the company as CEO, effective immediately.

Likewise Simplifies Upgrade Path for Open Source Authentication Software

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST

Likewise announced that it is offering three starter packs that combine its Likewise Enterprise software with support and training services. The starter packs are designed to help customers move from its open source software to Likewise Enterprise. Likewise Enterprise makes it easy for IT managers to authenticate users, control access to applications and data, centrally manage settings with group policies and create reports for regulatory audits. Likewise Enterprise is also the only solution to provide 100 percent native support for Apple’s Workgroup Manager application.

Contributing to FOSS: A Business Perspective

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:30:00 EDT

Although my presentation focused on individual contributions, these lessons also apply to how businesses benefit by contributing to FOSS. When a business approaches a project they should attempt to build a symbiotic relationship with the community. Such a relationship involves following the established community procedures so that your contributions can be easily adopted by the project. Useful scripts and code developments made within the company that can be useful to the greater public should be contributed back and packaging of popular software within the company can be submitted for inclusion and use by the greater community. Testing and bug reporting based on experience using FOSS on their production (or development) systems can provide important information for FOSS developers about the health and status of their projects.

Welcome to The Managing FOSS for Business Results Blog

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:15:00 EDT

This blog is part of a new educational initiative to foster a deeper understanding of the capabilities and issues involved with administering FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) to deliver concrete business benefits. Although our subject will sometimes become technical, we will strive to address the business benefits at the beginning of each and every post. Therefore, we are confident that this blog will prove interesting and understandable to a broad variety of leaders, managers, and technicians.

Echo3 HelloWorld

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:15:00 EDT

Here’s a Echo3 application in 3 steps

Stoneware, Inc. Announces SAML Provisioning for Cloud Computing

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:45:00 EDT

SAML Provisioning is just another step in strengthening the union between the private cloud and public cloud providers. Provisioning identity information from the private cloud to the public provider simplifies management and strengthens integration resulting in cost savings for both the customer and public cloud provider. "Stoneware continues to lead the industry in uniting the public and private clouds" states Ken Quinton, VP of Strategic Relations - Stoneware, Inc. "Our goal is simple. Let the customer build a private cloud that enables them to determine where the applications will reside while providing the user with a single Virtual Web Desktop interface".

Cloud Computing Journal: Adobe to Deliver ColdFusion in the Cloud

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:30:00 EDT

Alagad announced it is collaborating with Adobe Systems to help develop a Cloud-based implementation of the Adobe ColdFusion software. The collaboration will enable customers to rapidly deploy and test ColdFusion 9 without installing or configuring the software on-premise. ColdFusion 9 is the latest release of the development technology for building dynamic websites and Internet applications. Alagad’s team worked with Adobe to create a private beta of ColdFusion 9 that can be deployed in minutes via Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).

Open Source Mobile Cloud Sync and Push Email

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EDT

Funambol, the leading provider of open source mobile cloud sync and push email for billions of phones, today announced that its new version 8 software is generally available. Funambol v8 makes it easy to keep the data and content on billions of mobile phones in sync with social networks, email systems and personal computers via the Internet cloud. Funambol v8 has a completely redesigned AJAX web portal. The portal's striking interface makes it simple for users to access mobile data and rich media in the cloud, using any modern browser

Brad Windecker Launches "Open Source for Small Business" Topic on Ulitzer

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EDT

Brad Windecker launched today "Open Source for Small Business" topic on Ulitzer. A topic for open source software specific to the small business marketplace. Small and midsize companies can today take advantage of the maturity in open source applications. This topic will collect stories that relate to both the open source community and small business.

And Then Came the Browser-in-a-Browser

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:00:00 EDT

Google, whose Chrome can claim all of 2.8% of the browser market, has come up with an open source plug-in that runs Chrome inside Microsoft's still dominant Internet Explorer. How's that for brass. It calls the thing Chrome Frame and says it works with IE6, 7 and 8 on Vista and XP SP2, but it's really supposedly targeted at the eight-year-old IE6 mandated by many companies.

My Top Seven Wishes From Adobe MAX 2009

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EDT

In ten days I’ll be sitting at the general session at Adobe MAX 09 in LA. People from Adobe will come up on stage one after another delivering the latest news on the products we all use daily. Here’s my short wish list of the news I’d like to hear. I’m sure people who are using Creative Studio 4 see some room for improvement too, but this is not my cup of tea and I can’t come up with additional items for my wish list that would please the graphic and Web designers. But if my seven wishes become a reality, I’ll openly admit that Flash platform is a killer.

Zimbra on Ulitzer Topic Launched

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:00:00 EDT

Zimbra is open source server software for email and collaboration - email, group calendar, contacts, instant messaging, file storage and web document management. The Zimbra email and calendar server is available for Linux, Mac OS X and virtualization platforms. Zimbra syncs to smartphones (iPhone, BlackBerry) and desktop clients like Outlook and Thunderbird. Zimbra also features archiving and discovery for compliance. Zimbra can be deployed on-premise or as a hosted email solution.

Bridging to Open Ajax

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:45:00 EDT

The Open Ajax Alliance is a standards organization with the mission of ensuring interoperability within Web based Ajaxified applications. One of their standards relates to intercomponent communication - the ability to subscribe and publish messages which can then be picked up by code written by other authors. Please note that if you don't have an interest in Open Ajax, this post may not be especially illuminating - I've talked about the addOnEvent function before, even recently.

Innovation with Open Source

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:57:00 EDT

Companies deploy open source software on the grounds of quality and flexibility, not only because it is cheaper than proprietary products.

Widget Wars: OpenSocial vs. OpenAjax vs. W3C Widgets

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:15:00 EDT

The popularity of widgets these days has brought to attention the need for interoperability, i.e. for widgets developed for one site or platform to be able to run in other sites and widgets developed by different people to be able to work with each other. So much so that I know of at least 3 somewhat competing specifications for widgets. There's the gadget portion of the OpenSocial specs which was adopted from the Google Gadgets work. Then there's OpenAjax which is more broadly focused on Ajax interoperability but has a lot of pieces geared towards widget interoperability.

Open-Xchange Brings Sociability to Collaboration

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:00:00 EDT

With its latest software update, open source groupware innovator Open-Xchange is previewing the ability to integrate social network information. For example, adding LinkedIn contacts into the Open-Xchange address book.

Free Software Foundation Waves Developers Off Mono & C#

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:45:00 EDT

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) doesn’t like Microsoft, doesn’t like software patents, it especially doesn’t like Microsoft’s patents, and it doesn’t trust the two of them in the same room together. It’s convinced that Microsoft is eventually going to sue any open source developer who uses Mono, the Novell-supported open source version of Microsoft’s .NET widgetry, or who writes open source programs in C#, the Microsoft development language. It’s warning off developers now because Microsoft has added both C# and Mono – or rather the ECMA 334 and 335 standards that embrace them – to its two-year-old irrevocable, legally binding Community Promise not to sue. (See www.microsoft.com/interop/cp/default.mspx.)

Adobe Open Sources Flash Initiatives

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:45:00 EDT

Adobe Tuesday aimed two new open source Flash initiatives at media companies and other publishers. The Open Source Media Framework (OSMF), part of the Strobe project, is meant for building Flash-optimized media players. The Text Layout Framework (TLF) is supposed to bring sophisticated typography to web applications. Both are governed by the Mozilla Public License.

SproutCore Website Built With SproutCore

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:45:00 EDT

The coding portion of SproutCore 1.0 is nearly complete, so it’s time to start work on some of the non-code parts of the SproutCore project. Today I just push a brand new version of the SproutCore website. The design is very simple, but unifies the wiki, blog, and main site so that they finally feel like they belong together. We still have a lot more to do with the site before 1.0. (More on that later) But, the really interesting thing about the site is how it was built.

JSF Mojarra Extension Tags Validation and Focus

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:30:00 EDT

Here is something you may or may not know. JSF Mojarra comes with a small extension tag library with three tags: regular expression validator, credit card validator, and focus setting tag. They are available since JSF version 1.2_09, but maybe even earlier (I didn’t check). Page setup Before using any of the tags, add this xml [...]

Direct RIA + Google App Engine = Simplicity + Scalability

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:00:00 EDT

Direct RIA is a robust and comprehensive rich Internet applications engine which turns any client (web browser, mobile device) into an efficient and engaging environment. Direct RIA maximizes developer productivity by direct access of user interface, database, and web services. Direct RIA minimizes the development cost by transparent and automatic synchronization between client and server.

Building RIAs with a Direct RIA Solution

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:15:00 EDT

With the Direct AJAX programming model, Web applications can access data model and back-end integration directly. No more asynchronous communication between client and server, neither the security of sending the business logic to the client.

Using ZK Calendars Component to Create RIA Apps

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:00:00 EDT

ZK have announced a new AJAX component called ZK Calendar for Java applications. It is a fully featured web-based calendar boasting a similar feature set to Google’s calendar application.

Converting Excel Spreadsheets Into Enterprise AJAX Apps

Tue, 12 May 2009 06:00:00 EDT

ZK Spreadsheet enables AJAX applications to deliver the rich functionality of Excel to browsers in pure Java. With embeddable Excel functionality in pure Java, developers can create collaborative and dynamic enterprise applications like never before.

Intuive MVC Pattern for AJAX Applications

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:00:00 EDT

The main focus of ZK 3.6.1 was on bug-fixing, with over 47 bugs fixed. In addition to the host of bugs eradicated 20 new features have been added, including a debug mode for unit-testing and MVC enhancement!

No More Excel! Access AJAX Spreadsheet Today!

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:45:00 EDT

ZK Spreadsheet enables Ajax applications to deliver the rich functionality of ExcelR to browsers in pure Java. With embeddable Excel functionality in pure Java, developers can create collaborative and dynamic enterprise applications like never before.