Agileview

What a lovely surprise at the end of a hard days work

Checked the Novell website looking for some other information and behold! The SUSE 10 announcement is there on the home page, available now for free download - SUSE 10 Enterprise Server and Desktop. Woo hoo!

We should have the DVD ISO’s downloaded by tomorrow and will be handing them out to our clients and anyone else that wants them.

If you live in Canberra and within driving distance to our Mitchell office - Unit 17/160 Lysaght Street, then pop-in for a free DVD.

If you are based in Canberra or the surrounding regions, then I would like to invite you to join the inaugural meeting of the Business Linux User Group, Canberra. BLUG is a user group dedicated to discussing and supporting Linux and free software within a business context.

The meeting will be held on Friday, 4th of August at 1pm at Hotel Kurrajong in Barton
By the end of this meeting I would like to achieve at least the following:

1. Establish an initial user group committee. Ideally consisting of 3 to 4 people
2. Agree on when/where we will meet again

And of course, it will be a chance for everyone to meet and provide input on the overall objectives and structure of the user group.

I would appreciate an email RSVP if you intend on coming (justin [at] agileware DOT net). That way, I do not feel like an idiot if I’m the only one there!

Feel free to forward this invitation onto anyone else you believe may be interested in participating.

Hope to see you there!

Justin

About BLUG = Business Linux User Group
Business Linux Users Group or BLUG for short:

Linux and open source are deliverying serious business solutions today and this is happening everywhere.

Here’s the problem. No one is talking about it, raising the awareness or sharing these stories. Or if they are it is limited to within the confines of their own organisation. And if a solution is implemented for a particularly hard problem, again is this shared? And even if they wanted to share this knowledge where would they do it?

Business people (ie. people working in all sectors: Private, Government, Health, Education, Not For Profit etc. enterprises) need a regular forum where these type of topics can be discussed, where business problems and solutions can be discussed. And where the challenges of open source in business today can be thrashed out. It will be a open and *inclusive* forum for end users, implementors, ISVs, decision makers, developers, policy makers from all sectors. Basically, anyone that has an interest in the topic and being a part of a wider community.

Hence the idea of a BLUG = Business Linux User Group.

We already have a CLUG = Canberra Linux User Group. But that’s for sandals, board shorts, tank-tops and pizza. The grassroots guys.

BLUG is for business*

*Business being: Private, Government, Education, Health, Not For Profit etc. All possible enterprises where FOSS is used today. Non-exclusive membership. Inclusive.

For more details and some comments on the idea of forming a BLUG then please read the original BLUG post.

Well, it definitely *feels* like Christmas in July. There is no less than 3 major software releases I’ve been hanging out for which are scheduled for release this month, these include:

• VMWare server: released yesterday. Simply amazing software. I cannot recommend this software enough. Virtualise your server management, run multiple operating systems on the same server, simultaneously. Brilliant software and perhaps the most innovative software this decade?
• SUSE Enterprise Desktop 10 & SUSE Enterprise Server 10: due for release any day now. The beta has been out for a while now and is pretty solid. I’ve been KDE-man but with what Novell have done to the Gnome desktop, I may just switch! The great thing about Linux is that no matter what desktop environment I use - everything will just keep working.
• Lotus Notes for Linux running on Eclipse: this one was a complete surprise announcement. I’m still a bit stunned by the way IBM have kept this one quiet for so long and then announced the release date with only two weeks notice - July 24th is apparently the date that Lotus Notes will run on a Linux desktop. I’ve been hanging out for this for a long time and in fact I’d all but given up.

In other news, we’ve all been pretty busy at Agileware. We landed a number of big projects and new clients which have been occupying our time. Hence, we’ve been pretty quiet on the Blog, apologies but work demands y’know.

Our focus has been to deliver a range of open source solutions to our customers. This has been met with amazing success, huge cost-benefits to the customer and incredibly reduced time-to-delivery. Here are some of the FOSS we have been working with:

• Asterisk: VOIP PABX
• BackupPC: Backup software for Linux. Backup laptops, servers, desktops, remote servers etc. Diff backups, comparison, data restore, Web-UI.
• iFolder: Data synchronisation.
• LAMP: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP
• Zimbra: Enterprise-grade Email & Calendaring for Linux, Windows & Mac.
• SME Server: Point-click-go Linux services.
• Drupal: Web-based community framework & content management system. We’ve been deliverying training, public websites, custom web applications and Intranets. More about this later.
• Linux server rollouts. An equal mixture of replacing existing Linux servers, installing new servers or retiring Windows servers.
• Desktop Linux: Ubuntu, Kubuntu and OpenSUSE
• And of course, integrating combinations of the above to deliver some really kick-arse solutions!

As you can see this is a diverse range of software.

In the pipe-line we’ve got:

• A SUSE Enterprise Desktop 10 update coming up.The customer is already on SUSE Desktop 9. SUSE 10 will really kick butt. Windows Vista looks old and slow in comparison, my the tables have turned in such a short time.
• A few more Zimbra & iFolder roll-outs. This combination really suits mobile workers who just want there data to be accessible where-ever they are, no matter what desktop they are using.
• Probably a SUSE Enterprise Server 10 rollout replacing a group of Windows Servers.
• I expect we’ll be doing some custom Linux workshops for a few customers.
• Looks like Lotus Notes development is picking up again somewhat as a few of the local customers have finally upgraded to Domino R6.5 from Domino R5. It is however, also sad to note that a lot of the local industry has migrated off away from Lotus Notes. Oh well.
• Oh yeah, and of course lots more Drupal work. We love Drupal Seems that the IBM developerWorks team agrees too!

As part of our work with FOSS, we are increasingly giving back to the FOSS community. Although we are a pretty small team, our contributions, no matter how small will benefit someone, somewhere else in the world. And that’s the whole point.

So we have been contributing back Drupal patches and even a custom module - Signwriter. With further modules on the way, contributing to the overall value of the Drupal project.

In addition, we have been developing a Drupal Training Workshop for end users (strictly non-technical users). The workshop has been run 3 times now for our customers. Feedback from attendees has been positive and encouraging. Everyone leaves the workshop fired up about what they can do with their new Drupal system. So that’s great affirmation. There is a dire need for Drupal training materials for end users, so we will also contribute this back to the community soon too.

Podcasts (and Videocasts to some extent too) have really taken off at Agileware and we’ve been listening to a diverse range of sources. My personal favourites being:

• The Lullabot Drupal Podcast
• The Infamouse, LUG Radio
• Novell Open Audio

We plan on making some big changes to the public Agileware website and getting back into the groove of regular blogging. Our company has come a long way in the last 6 to 8 months, in fact almost a complete transformation. So as a consequence it will be time to change our website to do justice to our capabilities and talk more about what real solutions are being delivered using FOSS.

BLUG is firmly on my list of things to kick-off (OK, so it’s been 4 months from idea to action). There is a need and an interest in having a regular meet-up of BLUG-type people. So I’ll be sending emails and making calls to get this going soon. Can’t wait!

Signing off, Justin

Comparing OpenOffice 2 to Microsoft Office

Interesting interview on searchopensource.techtarget.com with Rob Miller. I particularly like this quote:

Miller: One [IT manager] I know told people: ‘This is the latest office update.’ He said no more than that and just put it on their computers. One day they came in, and they found it, and that was it. Nobody complained.

Miller compares OpenOffice 2.0 and Microsoft Office in this interview. He also calls for the open source community to come down from its IT ivory tower and deliver personable and usable training options for first-time OpenOffice and open source software users.

Review of KOffice 1.5

linux.com: KOffice is not rushing its development by trying to be all things to all users. Instead, KOffice seems to be gradually perfecting existing functions a little more with each release. This tactic is particularly evident in the steady improvement of the user interface. To many free software users, this approach will probably be reassuring, because in the long run it promises to produce a dependable suite of programs.It is definitely worth reading the first-look review of the KOffice to find out how good the alternatives are:

• KOffice 1.5 Part 1, The major applications
• KOffice 1.5 Part 2, The minor applications

Where Can I Download OpenOffice Templates?

The other complaint I’ve heard about OpenOffice is that there are not enough templates available. Well, if you are looking for OpenOffice Templates then you will be pleasantly surprised by the collection of templates available for OoO and Koffice on kde-files.org.

Where Can I Find Out More About Linux?

I found these great articles via the newly discovered linuxfilter news service, cool!

This press release from Novell’s Brainshare Conference 2006 caught my eye today. A great example of SUSE Linux and Lotus Domino in action.

The Ministry’s decision-making processes, correspondence and e-mail communications run through a central Lotus-based process management and documentation application. All correspondence is scanned into the application and initiatives are reviewed and approved through the system. Moving off an existing UNIX* deployment, the Ministry turned to a version of Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server specifically optimized for Lotus Domino* environments. The Ministry is also using SUSE Linux as the basis for the Ministry’s new Intranet portal, which holds key organizational information and workgroup applications such as facility reservation and notice boards for ministry employees.

Tom Francese, president, Novell EMEA. “Novell’s technology and its comprehensive service offering have enabled the Ministry of Defence to seamlessly migrate existing systems to Linux and smoothly and securely run critical applications on an open source platform.”

Read more of the press release @ novell.com/brainshare

The 5.10 release of Ubuntu and Kubuntu was delivered with the 1.195 release of the Open Office package, which was the final Beta before the 2.0 release. It works fine and is much more stable than many other commercial Beta software I’ve trialled from “reputable” vendors. There are been a number of point releases since OoO release 2 and these include some additional features/bug fixes (or “enhancements in Microsoft speak”) which are of benefit.

So how do you upgrade your Open Office in Ubuntu? There are two ways to do this, from the command line or using Adept or Synaptic. The entire process takes about 15 minutes to download and apply all the updates.

Updating Open Office

From the command line:

1. sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
2. Add the line: deb http://people.ubuntu.com/~doko/OOo2 ./
3. Save and close the file, ctrl-x and y to save changes.
4. sudo apt-get update
5. sudo apt-get upgrade

From theopensourceweblog and the Ubuntu Forums.

Using Adept:

1. Launch adept and enter your password when prompted
2. From the Adept menu, select Manage Repositories
3. In the new repository text box add the line: deb http://people.ubuntu.com/~doko/OOo2 ./
4. Click the Add button. You should now see that the people.ubuntu.com repository has been added
5. Click the Apply button
6. Note: On some systems (like mine) the repository will be added, but there will be some weird characters after the ./ in the Distribution column. If this happens on your system then just left-click on the ./ which should cause the column to go into edit mode and simply remove the weird characters. Click the Apply button.
7. Click the Close button
8. Click the Fetch Updates button (to get the new OoO packages)
9. Click the Full Upgrade button (to apply all of the available upgrades)
10. Click the Commit button to start downloading

Now go get a cup’o Tea as this may take a few minutes to update. After your cupper, you can happily launch OoO and if you check the About OoO box it should state release 2.0.1 (or higher).

How easy was that?

Performance Tip

There is also a tip posted in the Ubuntu Forums to enhance the overall performance of Open Office.

1. Goto Tools -> Options > Memory.
2. Increase graphics cache to 64 MB and memory per object to 8 MB.
3. Exit and restart OpenOffice a couple of times (it takes a few openings before it helps).

Andreas Pleschek, from IBM in Stuttgart, Germany, heads open source and Linux technical sales across North East Europe for IBM. Andreas was presenting at the Linux Forum 2006.

At the end of the presentation, Andreas Pleschek revealed that the laptop he used for the presentation was running a pre-release of their new platform, the Open Client. It is actually a Red Hat work station with IBM’s new Workplace Client, which is built in Java on top of Eclipse. Because of Eclipse, it runs on both Linux and Windows, and they have been able to reuse the C++ code in Lotus Notes for Windows to run it natively on Linux via Eclipse. Internally in IBM, for years, they have had a need to run Lotus Notes on Linux, and now they can. And they will offer it to their customers.

Workplace uses Lotus Notes for mail, calendar, etc. and Firefox as their browser. For an office suite, they use OpenOffice.org.

Andreas Pleschek also told that IBM has cancelled their contract with Microsoft as of October this year. That means that IBM will not use Windows Vista for their desktops. Beginning from July, IBM employees will begin using IBM Workplace on their new, Red Hat-based platform. Not all at once - some will keep using their present Windows versions for a while. But none will upgrade to Vista.

What can I say, This is *very good news* for Linux, Open Source advocates, Open Office and of course, Lotus Workplace. Way to go!

More information from Groklaw.net.

Via The OpenOffice Blog.

This is our first Show’n Tell Thursday posting (what a great idea Mr. B Balaban and Mr. R Oliver!) and even though today is actually Friday, it’s better to be late than never! So here goes.

Since our office entirely moved to a Linux desktop environment, we ceased using the Lotus Notes client for email as it does not run natively under Linux (well, not yet at least…).

Instead we use the Mozilla Thunderbird Email (just a standard SMTP, IMAP, POP3 mail client) using SMTP/IMAP and SSL to send/retrieve email. The switch has been almost completely painless, with a few minor gotchas:

1. Notes Mail has a unique feature whereby you can have a single email document in many Folders. This is not possible using IMAP.
2. Moving email documents between Folders causes the document to be deleted from the database and recreated.
3. Notes Mail uses Views for “All Documents”, “Sent” and “Drafts”. Using a IMAP client these are Folders and must be created separately. Which means that when you open your IMAP-enabled email using Lotus Notes you will have a “Sent” View as well as a “Sent” Folder.

Depending on your level of sophistication on using Lotus Notes these may or may not be major problems. For us these were really minor.

After using IMAP email for a few weeks, we noticed that all of the IMAP sent email appeared differently in the Lotus Notes mail client:

• First of all, the email was being displayed in our new “Sent” Folder but was not being displayed in the “Sent” View.
• Secondly, the “Who” column displayed the name of the Sender, not the recipient of the email. Which meant for me, that all of my sent email was addressed to “Justin Freeman”. Totally bizarre.

Some investigation revealed that the problem was caused by Domino stamping all IMAP sent email with a DeliveredDate field, which had the same value as the PostedDate.

Therefore, you would think that simply removing the DeliveredDate field from the IMAP sent email would solve the problem. Yes, this approach works when you know where the IMAP sent documents are all located, ie. the “Sent” Folder. Deleting the DeliveredDate field causes the document to be displayed in the “Sent” View and also display the correct value for “Who”.

But what happens when those documents are not in a known folder, how do you locate those? You need to search the Email database and locate all the IMAP documents, not a simple task.

So to identify a document created by a IMAP email client connecting directly to your Domino server, the following rules are used:

Document must not have the following fields set. As these indicate that the document was routed too, not created directly in the database.

• Received
• RouteServers

For Mozilla Thunderbird, document must have the following fields set:

• DeliveredDate
• PostedDate
• $SMTPNotFromNotes
• User_Agent

For Microsoft Outlook, document must have the following fields set:

• DeliveredDate
• PostedDate
• $SMTPNotFromNotes
• $Mailer

If the document meets the above criteria, then (I believe) it is a document created by a IMAP client. And the DeliveredDate can be removed.

You can then wrap this logic up into a simple scheduled Notes Agent that parses your email on a daily basis, fixing all of the IMAP sent email so that they display correctly within Lotus Notes. See below for an example.

Function to identify IMAP created documents

Function localImapSentDocument(docTarget As notesdocument) As Integer
'This function determines whether or not the target document was sent directly from a local IMAP client
'When this is performed Domino automatically assigns a delivereddate value which then interferes with the display of the "Who" column in the Inbox
localImapSentDocument = False
If Not docTarget.HasItem("Received") And Not docTarget.HasItem("RouteServers") And docTarget.HasItem("DeliveredDate") And docTarget.HasItem("PostedDate") And docTarget.HasItem("$SMTPNotFromNotes") then
'Check for email sent by Mozilla Thunderbird or Microsoft Outlook client
If docTarget.HasItem("User_Agent") or docTarget.HasItem("$Mailer") Then
localImapSentDocument = True
End If
End If
End Function

Example Agent code

Note: our internal system execution and error logging has been commented out:

Sub Initialize
'Dim syslog As New mylog(cAgent)
'sysLog.FunctionLocationA="Initialise"
'sysLog.FunctionDescription="Removes the delivereddate from imap documents"
'syslog.LogGeneral ("Starting")
On Error Goto errHdlr
Dim ns As New notessession
Dim dbCurrent As notesdatabase
Set dbCurrent = ns.currentdatabase
Dim colEmail As notesdocumentcollection
Set colEmail = dbCurrent.UnprocessedDocuments
Dim docEmail As NotesDocument
Set docEmail = colEmail.GetFirstDocument
Do While Not(docEmail Is Nothing)
'Check if this is a local IMAP document
If localImapSentDocument(docEmail) Then
'If so then remove the DeliveredDate
Call docEmail.RemoveItem("DeliveredDate")
Call docEmail.Save(True,False)
'syslog.LogGeneral ("Updated: " + docEmail.subject(0) + "; UNID: " + docEmail.UniversalID)
End If
Set docEmail = colEmail.GetnextDocument(docEmail)
Loop
'syslog.LogGeneral ("Completed")
Exit Sub
errhdlr:
'sysLog.ProcessError Err, Error$, PROCESSERROR_LOG
Exit Sub
End Sub

Technorati tags: lotus notes, show-n-tell thursday

Here’s a photo of a big Red Kangaroo relaxing in the afternoon heat. He was totally oblivious to the crowd of people around him and obviously didn’t have a care in the world.

From Whiteman Park in Perth, Western Australia. Photo courtesy of my brother in law.

And no, the Roo is not dead.

Found these demos on the IBM website which I thought were an excellent insight into where Workpace is now and the direction that Lotus Notes will follow in the very near “Hannover future” (2007 timeframe). Exciting times ahead!

IBM Workplace Managed Client delivers fully integrated, server-managed collaboration to the end user’s desktop. It provides flexibility and portability of client-side applications, combined with server-side control and cost savings traditionally associated with Web-based computing.

IBM Workplace Managed Client Demonstration

IBM Workplace Designer provides developers with an easy-to-use, yet powerful tool to build applications for the IBM Workplace environment.

1. Creating an application
2. Working with Views & the Schema Editor
3. Deploying an Application

This UK Guardian article derides Notes Client user interface for the counter-intuitive features: menus, smart icons, user prompts, layout etc. And quite frankly, I’d have to agree completely with this sentiment. The Notes user interface *is not intuitive* and is *hard to learn*. The Notes client uses concepts and metaphors simply not comparable in any other Windows application, presents a multitude of menus and options which overwhelms new users. The Notes client is a very unique and overly complex Dinosaur.

From UK Guardian:
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1705106,00.html

Dave Delay, who worked on Notes from 1996 to 2002, points out that it is one of the few products Microsoft has tried - and failed - to wipe out. “People dislike Notes because their expectations don’t jive with the intent of the product. At its core, Notes is a runtime environment for collaborative applications, but when people complain about Notes, they are usually not talking about core Notes. They are talking about the Notes Mail and Calendar applications” (http://tinyurl.com/9v94z).

Delay’s remarks brought one sharp user retort, who observed that “Notes’s backend functionality has no bearing on us 100m or so end-users. As far as we are concerned the GUI is the system. And boyo… is the GUI client a heap of ill-conceived, non-intuitive rubbish.”

There is also an interesting post-article discussion on the author’s blog, where he received 60+ comments.

So is it all doom and gloom for the Notes client? Up until recently I would have certainly thought so. But wait… change is coming with the next major release of the Lotus Notes client, code named “Hannover” or Lotus Notes 8 which is due 2nd half of 2007. Check out the picture below for a preview (click for a larger image)…

The Hannover announcements have been a refreshing change of direction in the user interface strategy. It appears that IBM/Lotus have indeed heard their consumers complaints about the Notes client usability and they are committed to doing something positive about it. Hannover should address these issues and propel Lotus Notes into the 21st century. Here are some of the features I am looking forward to in the upcoming “Hannover” release of Lotus Notes:

1. A reworked and user centric user interface
2. Based on the Eclipse framework
3. Extensible via Eclipse third party plug-ins
4. Native platform support for Windows and IMHO more importantly Linux (yes there will be a Mac OS X version too)
5. Domino server based provisioning (what this really means is that the Notes client can be downloaded / updated directly from the Domino server on demand - or something like that)
6. Portalised application interface and new Portal features integrated into the Domino server
7. An improved Notes Designer (developer) and Notes Administrator clients
8. New and exciting application widgets

The Notes community and Notes end users *want* Hannover to succeed and I believe the future is very bright indeed.

Other Hannover useful links:

1. Highlights from LotusSphere 2006 which includes more details and pictures of Hannover
2. Hannover Home Page
3. Hannover dicussion via Ed Brill
4. Hannover FAQ

A number of people have contacted me this week to support the idea of a BLUG. Which has answered my initial question, is there a real need for such a group? The answer is a resounding “YES!”.

I’ve also got a small collection of biz-cards from the talk on Monday (I’ll be emailing you guys!).

So please continue to support this concept by posting your comments, feedback and idea against the BLUG entry. Spread the word to your colleagues and friends.

Once there is sufficient numbers we’ll schedule a meeting and get things rolling.

We are currently on the look out for audio transcription software or similar for Linux. We have a customer who is in the process of moving to Linux on the desktop and this is currently a “bump in the road”.

On Windows, the customer uses Sony dictaphones which record audio in a proprietary format (not MP3, AAC or anything I’ve seen before). With the move to Linux the Sony’s were going to be replaced with MP3/OGG recorders. Unfortunately, these Sony devices *also* come with very user friendly software to aid in the transcribing of the audio into text.

Customer requires the following features (which Sony software provides):

• slowing speech whilst retaining pitch levels
• bookmarking timeline
• fast forward/reverse 15 secs
• skipping to the next long pause
• simply user interface
• has hot-keys for all the major functions
• and of course, be designed specifically to allow someone to transcribe hours of audio

We were considering writting a UI and back-end script to control XMMS as one possible solution. But I thought before we headed down that path, it was worth sending out the call to the community.

So if you know of some good audio transcription software for Linux please comment on this entry with details. Would like to know about both FOSS and commercial solutions for Linux.

Thanks!

An early morning start to Monday for Mike and I was well worth the effort to attend a 8am breakfast talk by Mark Shuttleworth (founder of the Ubuntu project, second space tourist and all round cool guy). In fact, I honestly felt priviledged at the opportunity to meet Mark in person and here his views on the world.

Mark started by introducing himself and the Ubuntu project. Explaining why the world needed Ubuntu and more importantly a Linux distribution which focuses on the end user experience and making desktop Linux a reality.

Mark also informed the group that the next release of Ubuntu, the Dapper Drake release would be an “enterprise ready” distro with ISV/Vendor certification from IBM, Oracle, VMWare to name a few. And most importantly, Mark was backing this release with a guarantee of 5 years of support and updates. $10 Million dollars had been specifically set aside to provide support over this period.

The next subsequent releases after Drake will revert back to 6 monthly release cycles and focus on integrating the “best of breed emerging” and stable technologies. That way, features will be made available to the end user providing a far superior experience and platform than the overly hyped “Microsoft Windows Vista”.

Mark challenged the group to consider changing from stale proprietary license models and to get on board with delivering support services, customisation and other value-added services for Linux and open source software. Proprietary software and licensing models are dead or dying.

A detailed discussion was held regarding open document standards, Open Office and the DRM features of Windows Vista / Office 12. Something I was not aware of, but apparently the Australian Government is having fits about the DRM techonologies in the new Microsoft software which will have a very real impact on government doing business with the “Bruce citizen” (ie. you & me) as well as permanent archival and retrieval. To cut a long story short: DRM bad. Open document format good double plus.

I asked Mark what he thought the opportunities were for ISV’s (like Agileware) with the release of Windows Vista. Hardware upgrades, user re-training, infrastructure upgrade roll-outs, license costs were but a few.

Office 12 has had substantial UI changes, since Microsoft is trying to distance themselves from the Open Office project. End result, users will require re-training. So which is easier? Re-train users in new Office 12? Or simply, start using Open Office which quite frankly looks just like MS Office today.

Attendance at the meeting was good, despite the short notice and was a mixture of government, contractors, ISV’s and SMB’s.

Thanks
A big thanks goes out to Pia Waugh and Linux Australia for organising the Mark Shuttleworth event. Hoo rah!

BLUG = Business Linux User Group
I took the opportunity to meet with the VP of Linux Australia - Pia Waugh. And we talked briefly about an idea that I’ve been kicking around for a while. That is, the formation of a Business Linux Users Group or BLUG for short. Very receptive to the idea as were a few others. So I’m hoping that I can get a few people on board and give the idea a spin, who knows where it may go.

So what the hell is BLUG I can hear you wondering. OK then, here’s the rough elevator pitch (imagine me waving my arms around fanatically as you read this):

Linux and open source are deliverying serious business solutions today and this is happening everywhere.

Here’s the problem. No one is talking about it, raising the awareness or sharing these stories. Or if they are it is limited to within the confines of their own organisation. And if a solution is implemented for a particularly hard problem, again is this shared? And even if they wanted to share this knowledge where would they do it?

Business people (ie. people working in all sectors: Private, Government, Health, Education, Not For Profit etc. enterprises) need a regular forum where these type of topics can be discussed, where business problems and solutions can be discussed. And where the challenges of open source in business today can be thrashed out. It will be a open and *inclusive* forum for end users, implementors, ISVs, decision makers, developers, policy makers from all sectors. Basically, anyone that has an interest in the topic and being a part of a wider community.

Hence the idea of a BLUG = Business Linux User Group.

We already have a CLUG = Canberra Linux User Group. But that’s for sandals, board shorts, tank-tops and pizza. The grassroots guys.

BLUG is for business*

*Business being: Private, Government, Education, Health, Not For Profit etc. All possible enterprises where FOSS is used today. Non-exclusive membership. Inclusive.

Anyway, that’s the current idea. I’m going to continue talking to people about it, thrashing it out, refining it and hopefully get enough people together (10 or so) so that we can start having meetings and form an initial group committee. And as Pia suggested on Monday, once the group is up and running after 6 months or so have elections for a new committee and the group will run itself.

Chandler 0.6 released… wow, talk about a sexy calendar. Features? How about this: iCalendar support, CalDav, Linux / Windows / Mac OS support, Calendar overlaying (multiple sources - single view). This looks like a really cool project to keep an eye on and those screenshots are awesome.

Chandler 0.6 delivers an experimentally usable calendar for individuals and small workgroups. It is a test release for collecting feedback based on real usage. In addition to basic calendaring, advanced features include: recurring events; time-zones; overlayed multiple calendars; and managing a single event across calendars.

0.6 offers innovative new capabilities in calendar sharing to support workgroup collaboration. Chandler sharing is server-based, works across platforms and supports multi-author editing.

0.6 continues to improve Chandler’s developer platform framework. A developer looking to extend Chandler should be able to create a simple forms-based parcel.

More info @ http://chandler.osafoundation.org/

Domino R7 is a great product. Stable and runs lightning fast on Linux, thanks to the 2.6 kernel optimisations. So as a IBM Business Partner, I want to get the message out there that Domino is here to stay and is one of the best collaboration suites on the market today (and *fingers crossed* soon to be available on the Linux desktop).

So I’m currently on the look out for Domino R7 marketing kits with glitz and some zing! Surely these must exist… somewhere. I’ve not been able to find them to date.

Last time I checked on IBM PartnerWorld which had only R6.54 information at the time. And even that info. only talked about why people should upgrade to Domino from Microsoft Exchange or from a previous version of Domino. But what about people who are using neither or nothing at all? I couldn’t find any information for first-time customers who want to find out more about this product called “Domino”. Well, not officially from IBM (bloggers are a great source). Isn’t that totally bizarre?

As a comparison, Novell have an entire marketing website devoted to helping partners promote and sell their products. Which includes up to date marketing kits, box shots, product images, lots of people smiling, mini-movies, pdf’s etc etc. It’s soooo easy to take it to market.

Lotus Domino? Half the battle is simply educating a customer as to the products (initial & continued) existence. Hopefully this will change soon.

Sending out the call - has anyone succesfully performed a Lotus Domino (the server bit) install on Ubuntu server (or desktop)? If so, I’d love to know how

The install process works OK, but exits with an error.

Error status: 32512 compat-libstdc++

Anyone got this sorted?

As a follow-up to my previous post, IBM Technical Support accepted a suggestion that they update the description for Tech Note Doc Number: 1087199 so that it applies to Domino R7 and also causes the “entry not found in index” error.

Now that’s a great outcome.

I’ve been struggling with this corker of a problem for over a month now and yesterday, I finally found the solution (completely by chance) to the problem which has caused iNotes 7 (or dwa7) to cease functioning on 4 Domino R7 Servers we support, and only return the generic error: entry not found in index - for every possible page request. Aaaarrrrggghhhh!!!!

So what causes this error? Well, you wouldn’t believe it…


Domino Directory - Server Document (or Internet Site document) - 'Maximum Lines Per View Page' change this value to 0 (zero).


Yep, that’s it! (cue the background manical laughter).

From the doco, this should enable unlimited views in Domino. But it also has the nasty side-affect of completely buggering your iNotes too! Useful to know.

And the fix? Easy! (cue more background manical laughter).


Domino Directory - Server Document (or Internet Site document) - 'Maximum Lines Per View Page' change this value to anything BUT 0 (zero).


I found this 2004 technote in the IBM Knowledge Base which is for a different error message that applies to Domino R5 and R6, but surprisingly the problem is still occuring in Domino R7. (Hint: Might be time to work on a fix for this one guys…)

iNotes Warning: “Application Exception - Couldn’t Find Design Note” in
iNotes Web Access

Product: Lotus Domino Web Access (iNotes) > Lotus Domino Web Access > Version 6.0, 5.0, 6.5
Platform(s): Windows, OS/400
Doc Number: 1087199
Published: 19/09/2004

Problem

When you attempt to view or create a message, or set User Preferences, etc. in Domino Web Access (a.k.a. iNotes Web Access), the following error message appears:

“iNotes Warning
Problem: Application Exception - Couldn’t find design note.
Solution: Click here to close this window and return to the main window.”

Content

This issue occurs if the ‘Set Maximum Lines Per View Page’ option in the Server Document (Internet Protocols - Domino Web Engine tab) of the iNotes Web Access server is set to “0″.

This issue has been reported to Lotus Software Quality Engineering. There are no current plans to address this issue in iNotes Web Access 5.x or 6.x.

Workaround:
The Notes/Domino Administrator should do the following:

1. Open the Domino Directory and open the Server document of the iNotes Web Access server.
2. Switch to the Internet Protocols tab and select the Domino Web Engine sub tab.
3. Go to the Conversion/Display section.
4. Change the ‘Image Conversion Format’ to “GIF”.
5. Change the ‘Default Lines Per View Page’ value to “1000″.
6. Change the ‘Maximum Lines Per View Page’ value to “1000″.
7. Save the Server document.

Well, this has wasted a lot of our time and caused serious grief. Domino R7 had just been deployed to a new customer wanting to access iNotes (and they couldn’t) and we could no longer access our schedules internally.

Not to mention the numerous phone calls and emails to IBM Support in India, who finally escalated the problem report (PMR) to severity 1 and the PAE team. This PMR was open for just over 4 weeks before I stumbled onto the answer.

So if anyone else out there is experiencing this same problem, I hope this entry saves you all the trouble I had in finding the solution.

And now to help Googlers find this solution:
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how to migrate lotus domino to novell groupwise

Well the year is almost at an end and it’s been a quite a huge one for us. 2005 has seen Linux and open source adoption continue to grow in our customer base. And as a result our services and solutions have expanded in response to the growing customer demands. All based on an exciting platform, which never ceases to amaze me with its versatility and capabilities.

I thought it worth sharing with you all, my selection of top 5 software applications for 2005, which has had a significant impact on our business (be it productivity, opportunities, income etc). These are listed in no particular order as follows. Feel free to comment on my selection and let me know what you would put into your own top 5 list.

1. Wiki: We implemented a Wiki trial using Media Wiki in the second quarter of this year and I was amazed out how quickly it grew and how much information was being captured. I halted the trial after about 3 weeks, as it was becoming apparent that there were some features we needed which were either: not available, or just hard to use. In addition, extending the system with our own customisation was not a trivial task. Nothing wrong with Media Wiki itself, just that it did not meet all of our specific requirements. A few months later and after much research (and information not being captured) we deployed PmWiki and have not looked back since. It has all the features we require, easily extensible and deployed. Truly a credit to Patrick R. Michaud and the community that contributes to PmWiki.

   Business impact: This software has enabled us to easily capture and maintain our knowledge base, as well as collaborate directly with our customers. We are achieving higher levels of knowledge capture and sharing than we have ever experienced before, enabling us to learn from our mistakes and develop flexible on-demand knowledge base.

2. VMWare: This is one huge paradigm shift. Run any operating system on your desktop. Run multiple operating systems at the sametime: Windows XP, Open SUSE, Novell Linux Desktop (I’ve done this on a 1GB RAM AMD2500 PC). Distribute entire server and desktop setups to other people, be they staff, partners, customers etc. Point-click-run. This software is just too amazing for words and well worth the license cost. I have not checked out the free VMWare player yet, but just the ability to distribute VMWare images and give these to use by non-licensed users is extremely exciting. I’ve got it on my To Do list to ask IBM Lotus if we can start distributing trials of Lotus Domino and other applications this way, as one of the biggest hurdles with Lotus Domino is getting the environment installed, server, client etc. With VMWare it would be possible to setup and deliver pre-setup trials of an entire working environment.

   Business impact: VMWare has saved us considerable time and cost, enabling us to be even more agile than we were previously capable. We now have access to a virtual lab of computers capable of running any operating system and application and without requiring additional hardware. The ROI was same day with this software.

3. Novell & SUSE Linux: Novell are a clever bunch of blokes. They understand open source and the opportunities it brings. If I’d been told 2 years ago that we would be partnering with Novell and supporting their products, I would have laughed out loud. Now Agileware are a Novell Gold Partner (hells bells!) and Novell have made open source and Linux a cornerstone of their overall strategy. SUSE Linux is a excellent enterpise software platform and equally so is the support that Novell provides to it’s partners and customers. Linux has never been so easy, nor looked so good. OpenSUSE is one of the fastest distro’s I have seen to date on the desktop and is bundled with killer apps. This is a platform that surpasses Windows in terms of performance, usability and stability. Installing new software has never been so easy and makes accessible the huge number of open source applications out there. SUSE Linux scales from the desktop right up to the data center.

   Business impact: The strength of the SUSE platform convinced us to partner with Novell, which enables us to offer enterprise ready software with enterprise level support.

4. Ubuntu Linux: Our move to a Linux desktop was complete with the adoption of this software. With an active and supportive community, 6 month upgrade cycle, a single CD install and user-friendly software library (ie. search, select, install, run). For me, Ubuntu has set the benchmark and has clearly marked 2005 as the year that Linux on the Desktop became a real and viable option for everyone. The next step is to start telling everyone!

   Business impact: My free desktop environment of choice.

5. Open Office 2: The Microsoft Office replacement which achieved the major and long awaited version 2 milestone this year. In my view, Open Office is a critical application that provides users with choice and freedom. Open standards enabling freedom of their information, and freedom of choice in terms of their operating system. Open Office continues to be a stable and viable alternative to Microsoft Office. And also provides software developers with a fantastic toolbox of tricks, for example: server-side document conversion (MS Word to HTML, MS Word to PDF, MS Word to XML, XML to MS Word etc).

   Business impact: No more Microsoft Office. An API that makes the proprietary Microsoft formats accessible from any platform.

Almost Top 5 List

Other software, services and stuff which I wanted to mention, but unfortunately due to mathematical constraints cannot fit into the top 5 are:

1. Skype: VOIP goes from ‘hype’ to a desktop application that everyone can use. Skype has enabled us to talk to our customers (Australia wide), business partners, friends and relatives (World wide), as well as keep in touch with each other (even when working just down the road). It is a fantastic application that has changed my voice communications paradigm forever. Using Skype we can now communicate with almost anyone in the World for minimal cost and setup. The world again, has become a smaller place.
2. Google Adwords: How do you reach your customers? One of the main methods most Australian businesses rely on is advertising in the Yellow Pages (a business phone directory). This can be very expensive ($AUD 30,000 for a colour page ad) to relatively cheap ($AUD 1,000). The downside of advertising on paper is that: you cannot change it, you do not know who has looked at your advert and you cannot start a new ad campaign until the next edition. This year I discovered Google Adwords and wow! What a fantastic service. Instant activation of advertising, unlimited campaigns, detailed reporting on usage and clicks and real results, that is people actually contacted or contracted us as a result of Google.
3. LDAP: An open standard that has enabled us to consolidate and re-use our Domino Directory to provide single sign-on capabilities across all of our internal and customer facing applications. LDAP is pivotal to our business.
4. Subversion: A refreshing change from the total lack of any free version control features available for the Lotus Domino development environment. Subversion is a developers best friend and entirely code agnostic. Code version comparisons with highlights, code check-in/check-out, operating system independent and with a collection of great client-side software including an Eclipse plug-in. Is quickly becoming our favourite dev.tool.
5. eBay: I re-discovered eBay this year and have struck many great deals. And of course, bought a collection of lemons as well. But what I really love about eBay is the power of the consumer. Consumer feedback is highly valued on eBay and sellers (reputable ones at least) will go to great lengths to ensure their ratings are always positive.
6. Eclipse: I like Eclipse. I like the strategy, the interface and the fact that I can use it to work on just about any programming language I require. I look forward to seeing what happens with this platform in 2006.
7. LUG Radio: This one is really hard to describe, but here goes. A group of brits. talking about Linux and open source, including great interviews with a wide range of people from Novell developers, Mark Shuttleworth to more recently Microsoft. Very funny and not for the faint hearted.

Looking Forward To 2006

Things I’d like to see magically appear in 2006.

1. IBM/Lotus to release their long awaited, much hyped and overdue Notes client for Linux (Notes 8 or whatever) or at least do something new and significant for the platform.
2. An application for Lotus Domino which enables import/export of iCal entries into the Notes calendar. So we can use iCal supported Calendar applications to access our Notes Calendar data. Maybe we’ll just have to write one. (I wonder if Workplace supports iCal, I certainly hope so).
3. Dell to start selling computers with the following choices:
• A pre-installed Linux distro (SUSE perhaps!)
• No operating system installed. They do this for their servers, so why not laptops and desktops. Well, actually I know why - peer pressure.
• AMD64 chipset. And here I’m talking about AMD64×2 (dual-cores). Available servers, desktop and laptop models.
• Laptops with a capacity for 4GB RAM+ for less than $AUD 4,000
4. A enterprise ready open source and open standards based email, calendar and directory (collaboration suite) for the Linux desktop and/or Web-based client.
5. KDE version 4, which should push the Linux desktop even further and funkier.
6. Someone to figure out how to install Lotus Domino on Ubuntu server. I had a crack at it and got stuck on deprecated C++ libraries.
7. And of course, for my current PMR with IBM Support (currently IBM India) re: iNotes 7 does not work on the Linux Domino Server, returning only ‘entry not found in index’, to be finally be resolved and fixed. This happens on 4 Linux servers that we manage and it is a right pain in the bum.

Wishing you all a happy and safe Christmas 2005 - Justin