Mozilla has released the Firefox 3 Beta 2 for download, solely for developers and testers.
Firefox 3 Beta 2 claims to include 900 improvements over the previous beta, such as fixes for- stability, performance and memory usage, and platform- and user interface- enhancements. Mozilla claims the improvements are based on community feedback received from the testing of beta 1 that was released in November.
Improved security features in Beta 2 promise protection from cross-site JSON data leaks, tighter restrictions on site-specific content using effective TLD service, better presentation of Web site identity and security, malware protection, more strict SSL error pages, anti-virus integration in the download manager, and version checking for insecure plug-ins.
Overall, Beta 2 promises further ease of use through better password management, easier add-on installation, download manager with resumable downloading, full page zoom, animated tab strip, and better integration with Windows Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux.
Refurbished customization tools, enhanced text and graphics rendering, and support for offline browsing along with Web-based protocol handlers are among other improvements in this beta.
Mozilla claims Linux users will appreciate the improved theme, which makes Firefox look more like a native GNOME application, and makes use of GTK+ icons where available.
Meanwhile, developers and testers can download the Firefox 3 Beta 2 at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html (available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in different languages).
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Firefox 3 Beta 2 for Developers
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
SugarCRM Adds Ajax E-Mail to 5.0 Beta Release
Sugar 5.0 will be SugarCRM's first rollout on the GNU General Public License version 3, which, coupled with the module builder, could lead to an explosion of module creation -- and sharing. "A developer can create new applications and then also share that package with anyone on the planet with an Internet connection," remarked John Roberts, CEO of SugarCRM. "It is truly an open system."
SugarCRM has released a beta version of Sugar 5.0, a platform upgrade that provides new development tools and a new Ajax e-mail client, and is based on a new so-called multi-instance on-demand architecture.
"This is the largest release in the history of the company's open source project since we founded it three and a half years ago," John Roberts, CEO of SugarCRM, told CRM Buyer. "It represents the end of the first generation of code we developed, in a way."
Platform Enhancements
Many of the enhancements were developed with an eye to customers' requests for greater customization functionality, Roberts said.
For instance, the Module Builder, one of the features of the new platform, allows users to build custom modules from scratch or to combine existing custom objects into a brand new customer relationship management module.
A mortgage broker, for example, might create such a module by combining local listings with its current client list and a list of mortgage brokers active in a certain submarket. Or a financial planner could build its own client database to accommodate all the quirky facts about its clients -- say, who has to have that hundred-dollar bottle of wine to be fulfilled -- that make their way into a financial planning session.
These custom modules interoperate with Reporting, Workflow and Sugar Studio tools. Another new feature in the platform, a metadata-driven user interface, stores customizations in a metadata repository. That means users will be able to upgrade their customized modules fairly painlessly.
The platform also offers improved access control to better support team hierarchies and access control functions.
Architectural Support
Supporting these changes is the application's new multi-instance architecture, which takes advantage of horizontal scale-out capabilities of open source software platforms. The result, according to the company, is a significant increase in processing power of commodity hardware and systems management software developed by SugarCRM, which eliminates the tradeoffs between deep customization and easy upgrades.
The benefits to users include better security , flexibility and control. Also, customers can be automatically upgraded to new versions of Sugar, or control when to upgrade. Users will be able to develop new functionality on test servers and then move into production in a multi-instance environment, as well as move between Sugar On-Site and Sugar On-Demand at will.
New CRM Functionality
New CRM features in 5.0 include an Ajax e-mail client integrated with Sugar's sales force automation functionality. Its design includes drag-and-drop capabilities, search, keyboard shortcuts and a rules wizard, as well as support for folders, contacts and personal in-boxes. It also interoperates with all e-mail servers, which means the client can either complement or replace existing e-mail clients.
The dashboard is also enhanced with new charting capabilities, including support for funnel, pie charts, line and bar graphs and performance gauge chart objects. A new feature also provides for multiple dashboards, which allowa users to access prebuilt or custom dashboards from their homepage.
Future Functionality
Previous upgrades of SugarCRM have focused on multichannel marketing, project management, knowledge base, and customer self-service portal functionality. Future releases, Roberts said, will look at building out unstructured content so users can create blogs and wikis, as well as real-time capabilities such as chat. "We will be basing those development decisions, though, on the feedback we get from users about 5.0," he said.
Users are likely to clamor for such developments, Bernard Golden, CEO of Navica Software and author of Succeeding with Open Source, told CRM Buyer. "SugarCRM is doing very well, and the reason is that it is already so easy to customize. It is the perfect example of open source capability marrying a business strategy."
5.0 will be made generally available in October, Roberts said. When it is, it will be SugarCRM's first rollout on the GNU General Public License version 3, which the company announced it was adopting about a month ago. The GPLv3 license coupled with the module builder could lead to an explosion of module creation -- and sharing -- Roberts said.
"A developer can create new applications and then also share that package with anyone on the planet with an Internet connection," he remarked. "It is truly an open system."
Parallels Serves Up Desktop Beta 2
With Beta 2, Parallels has improved the software's Coherence technology so that now Mac users can minimize any Windows screen to the dock as they would with any normal Mac-based application screen. Other Coherence enhancements include support for Exposé and Transparent Windows and the ability to silently boot into Coherence mode.
Parallels has launched the latest beta for its Parallels Desktop for Mac software, an application that allows Intel-based Mac users to run a Windows operating system (OS) simultaneously on their Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) computers.
Beta 2 of the Parallels Desktop 3.0 update focuses on features that allow Mac owners to automatically share movies, pictures, music, documents and even desktops between Windows operating systems and Apple's OS X due to a tighter integration between the two OSes.
"This beta adds two cool new features that make working with a virtual machine easier than ever before," said Benjamin Rudolph, Director of Corporate Communications at Parallels.
The beta is available for download at the company's Web site. Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac, priced at US$79.99, is available as well.
Share and Share Alike
With Beta 2, Parallels has improved the software's Coherence technology so that now Mac users can minimize any Windows screen to the dock as they would with any normal Mac-based application screen. Other Coherence enhancements include support for Exposé and Transparent Windows and the ability to silently boot into Coherence mode.
"This is very handy if you're a OS X power user who's dependent on the cool GUI (graphical user interface) stuff that OS X has to offer, Rudolph explained. "It's another way that we're making the experience of work with the applications from different OSes completely seamless."
The company's software designers have also given a boost to the application's Shared Folder tool, which now displays the My Documents folder and all subfolders, such as My Movies, My Pictures and My Music, and their contents, as a Mac home folder. This enables users to access their most frequently used and critical files from either OS, without going through the process of dragging and dropping the files or moving them using a traditional shared folder or copying the file, the company said.
The software also now has the ability to automatically map and access the Shared Folders using the Windows drive.
"What is especially cool is that the new Shared Folder tool provides direct access to the files/folders original location (i.e. it doesn't duplicate anything)," Rudolph continued, "so you don't have to worry about running out of disk space."
Beta 2 also provides Mac users with Linux PC and virtual machine migration to a Mac using the Transporter tool as well as the ability to change their Virtual Machine's disk format with the Parallels Image Tool. Users can change their sound devices on the fly with the new beta and also connect to their iPhone with Windows-based iTunes.
Other changes include better central processing unit usage and overall performance, as well as memory management.
Virtual Computing
When Parallels launched its Desktop for Mac virtualization software in 2006, it was touted as the first solution of its kind to allow users to run Windows-based operating systems simultaneously in no-called isolated virtual machines directly on an Apple Intel-based system running Mac OS X. At the time, analysts predicted that the software would motivate Mac users to cart their Apple laptops to the office and reduce the need for more than one computer. This would give Apple a larger share of the computer market as PC-users who had always wanted a Mac went out and bought one.
However, that prediction has not fully come to pass -- office workers still largely tote PCs. Parallels is a consumer offering compared with VMware Fusion, Natalie Lambert, a Forrester Research analyst, told MacNewsWorld. While it can be used by corporate users, it does not have a centrally managed component.
"It makes it more friendly for Mac users in the office, but that really isn't what it is designed for," she explained. "Desktop virtualization technologies in general are increasing the number of users buying Macs. Why? Because application incompatibilities are a large reason why Apple has had a hard time gaining market share. I think these technologies are a great step forward for Apple."
The new beta serves two purposes for Parallels following increased competition from VMWare, Michael Silver, an analyst at Gartner (NYSE: IT) , told MacNewsWorld. In June, Parallels' rival launched VMware Player 2, which gives users the ability to run 32-bit and 64-bit applications and operating systems on Windows or Linux-based machines, as well as VMWare Fusion for Mac, which allows Mac owners to run Mac, Windows, Linux, NetWare and Solaris-based applications at the same time.
"The big change that's really occurring here is VMWare's entry into the market, and Parallels need to make sure they are competing effectively with them," he said.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Projity Launches Beta of OpenProj, the Open Source Replacement of Microsoft Project
Projity, a leader in on-demand software for the enterprise, SME and SMB markets announced today that the public beta of OpenProj, a complete open source desktop replacement of Microsoft Project, is now being beta tested in over 400 customer sites comprising over 5000 seats. OpenProj, an important component to the open source ecosystem, takes the risk away for customers and allows them to use the product as needed, on demand.
San Mateo, CA (PRWEB) August 8, 2007 -- Projity, a leader in on-demand software for the enterprise, SME and SMB markets announced today that the public beta of OpenProj, a complete open source desktop replacement of Microsoft Project, is now being beta tested in over 400 customer sites comprising over 5000 seats. OpenProj, an important component to the open source ecosystem, is a complete replacement of Microsoft Project and available on Linux, Unix, Mac or Windows.
Since over 28 million users have Microsoft Project installed on their computers, OpenProj offers another opportunity for project managers and anyone trying to manage any type of project. Instead of a $1,000 license fee for Microsoft Project, Projity customers can download OpenProj for free and available on multiple platforms. "The Projity team has received tremendous feedback from key industry leaders, who are already using OpenProj to satisfy their desktop needs," said Marc O'Brien, CEO, Projity. "We have been working on this launch for a while. The Proijty team is excited to provide worldwide usage of a free and open source project management solution that is a complete replacement of Microsoft Project and other desktop solutions. OpenProj's familiar user interface and ability to open existing native Microsoft files makes migrating both free and seamless"
"OpenProj is an exciting addition to the range of professional desktop applications that are available on the free software desktop today. It's increasingly possible to run your business on an entirely open Linux platform, with full compatibility across free software applications and your legacy documents. Congratulations to the Projity team for this milestone release!" said Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu CEO
OpenProj builds upon Projity's SaaS release, Project-ON-Demand. OpenProj offers a seamless migration for Microsoft Project files which open easily, and features a simple user interface. OpenProj's value for the Linux, Unix, Mac, Windows and open source communities is compelling.
"Projity's release of OpenProj is an important addition to the open source marketplace. The project management area now has a full equivalent to the commercial software market. OpenProj is a terrific addition for users of OpenOffice and other open source solutions," said Larry Augustin, SourceForge founder and venture capitalist. Free downloads are also available at http://www.projity.com/openproj
About Projity:
Projity is a Silicon Valley and French company with offices in San Mateo, Paris and India. The company founders have been instrumental in the development of the project management software industry, dating to the mainframe and DOS solutions. Projity was founded with a mission of providing SaaS and open source alternatives to existing legacy solutions. Projity currently has three solutions: Project-ON-Demand (SaaS), Projity Enterprise and OpenProj (open source). There are currently over 100 companies using Project-ON-Demand to manage their projects. There has been tremendous worldwide interest with users in China, Russia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, India, Korea, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Honduras, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, South Africa in addition to the many U.S. and European companies.
Projity, OpenProj and Project-ON-Demand are trademarks of Projity Incorporated. Other names used may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Industry Testimonials
"Projity's release of OpenProj is an important addition to the open source marketplace. The project management area now has a full equivalent to the commercial software market. OpenProj is a terrific addition for users of OpenOffice and other open source solutions"
Larry Augustin, Sorceforge Founder and venture capitalist
"OpenProj is an exciting addition to the range of professional desktop applications that are available on the free software desktop today. It's increasingly possible to run your business on an entirely open Linux platform, with full compatibility across free software applications and your legacy documents. Congratulations to the Projity team for this milestone release!"
Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu CEO
"We are very excited by the OpenProj software: it clearly fills a gap and we are glad there is now a robust and complete solution for project management from the open source community, we look forward to incorporate it in our distro and make it available to our users"
Francois Bancilhon, CEO Mandriva
"Novell supports all community efforts to bring more applications to the Linux desktop," said Justin Steinman, director of marketing for Linux and Open Platform Solutions at Novell. "OpenProj addresses an important customer need -- the availability of an open source application for project management. As more users migrate to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and OpenOffice.org, these users will be seeking tools like OpenProj to help them complete their daily business tasks."
Justin Steinman, director of marketing for Linux and Open Platform Solutions at Novell
"OpenProj is one of the applications that IT Professionals, Project Managers and every other Open Source businesses all around the World would want. Freedom to share, freedom to deploy, freedom to use. This is what Market wants. Every day a new brick towards the Open Source platform completeness is put, and this is a big one."
Fabio Erculiani, CEO Sabayon Linux
"OpenProj looks very promising. I have no doubt it will soon seduce people and we'll see individuals and companies switch to OpenProj the same way they previously switched to projects like Firefox or OpenOffice."
Clement Lefebvre, LinuxMint
"Project managers now have a high quality, cross-platform project management solution available with an open source business model. Projity's OpenPROJ is not only compatible with the format used by the most widely used project management tool, but also offers an easy migration path for those who want to explore its features with their existing project data."
Tony Wasserman,
Director, Software Management Program, Carnegie Mellon West
The openSUSE Project Turns Two with Improved Build Service and 10.3 Beta
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- LinuxWorld Conference & Expo -- On the second anniversary of the creation of the openSUSE(TM) project, the community program this week marked two new milestones -- the availability of the first beta of openSUSE 10.3 and the continued growth of the openSUSE Build Service.
"We appreciate all the contributions the community has made to the openSUSE project during the past two years," said Michael Loeffler, openSUSE product manager at Novell. "The goal of the openSUSE project is to promote the use of Linux everywhere, and our strong community of developers, testers, writers, translators, artists and users have been instrumental in creating one of the world's best Linux distributions. And as we seek to streamline and improve collaboration between all Linux developers, the openSUSE Build Service has changed the way packages have been built. The build service is quickly becoming a center for building any Linux distribution."
OpenSUSE Build Service Momentum
Now with more than 700 projects and 20,000 software packages, the openSUSE Build Service is an innovative framework that provides an infrastructure for software developers to easily create and compile packages for multiple Linux* distributions. The development team today released the first version of the end-user interface for the build service, with which users of any openSUSE, SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu or Mandriva distribution can easily search and browse new software for their distribution. Users of the upcoming openSUSE 10.3 can install their software with one click directly from the Web interface. In the past four months, more than 13 million packages have been downloaded from the openSUSE Build Service as developers build packages for various distributions using the tool.
AMD has helped sponsor the progress of the openSUSE Build Service with leading-edge hardware and development expertise. "AMD is helping to ensure that the openSUSE Build Service continues to be an important collaboration and development platform for developers of all distributions," said Terri Hall, AMD vice president of Commercial Systems Marketing. "AMD recognizes the value of the open source development model, and by providing hardware for the openSUSE Build Service, we are able to actively participate in the continued innovation for which the open source community is known."
Developers who want to provide their software to a broader audience of Linux users are often hampered when packages built for one distribution will not work on other distributions. The openSUSE Build Service is the only open source build system that helps developers provide packages with the same high quality for multiple distributions from the same source code. With the system imaging tool KIWI, open source developers can more quickly build a Linux distribution that meets their needs, rigorously test it to ensure product quality, and easily package it for quick installation.
The openSUSE Build Service is completely open source, giving developers and users free and full access to build their choice of Linux packages, whether based on openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu or other projects. An essential part of the openSUSE project, the openSUSE Build Service is available at http://www.opensuse.org/Build_Service. The new end- user interface can be found at http://software.opensuse.org.
First Beta of openSUSE 10.3
OpenSUSE 10.3 offers a state-of-the-art operating system based on Linux kernel 2.6.22 with a large variety of the latest open source applications for desktops, servers and application development. The first beta of openSUSE 10.3 is now available at http://www.opensuse.org/download.
About Novell
Novell, Inc. delivers infrastructure software for the Open Enterprise. Novell is a leader in enterprise-wide operating systems based on Linux and open source and provides the enterprise management services required to operate mixed IT environments. Novell helps customers minimize cost, complexity and risk, allowing them to focus on innovation and growth. For more information, visit http://www.novell.com.
Novell and SUSE are registered trademarks and openSUSE is a trademark of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. *Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
What If Joost Were a Web App?
An independent developer has built a Flash version of Joost that runs in any browser. Sure, he doesn’t have access to any of the Joost content, but what he’s built is basically a proof-of-concept using Joost graphics and improving on the UI, using publicly available video from sites like YouTube and Veoh.
Longtime Flash developer Paul Yanez told us Friday he started playing around with building a Joost app for about a month now, but just started emailing people about it last night (click on the thumbnail at left to see a screenshot). A Joost beta tester, he was frustrated with having to download a new version of the application every time it was updated. “It seemed to me like it should have been built in Flash in the first place,” he said.
Yanez’s web app looks just like Joost — when in full-screen mode, it’s hard to tell a difference. It also includes a number of improvements: first of all, accessibility on different platforms — but also better resizing of windows, webcam chat, and right-click functionality. It lacks P2P-aided high-quality video and all the content Joost has spent months licensing.
Of course, Yanez lacks permission from Joost to use its graphics, its licensed content, or its name. But what Joost should really do is hire him to develop a web version. Yanez, an independent developer based in San Diego, says he’s just playing — next week he’ll release Wii, Apple TV, and other skins for watching web video. Joost is “making a real business; a Chime.tv [see our review from earlier this week] or what I’m doing is just utilizing web 2.0 and RSS feeds. They’re signing deals and they’re making it more like TV. Keeping a closed platform could benefit them.”
We’ve noticed a trend of outside developers filling in gaps that Joost has left in its product. For instance, New York-based programmer Hal Schechner noticed that Joost did a poor job of telling users when it added new content. So he started OnTheToob, where he publishes links and RSS feeds of fresh content, using software he wrote to routinely scour Joost. He told us earlier this week that since starting the site he’s been contacted by people at Joost, who are helping him improve what he’s doing.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Absoft Developing New IDE, Seeks Beta Testers
Absoft announced on Thursday that their development IDE, currently included with Pro Fortran products for Windows and Mac, is being updated. The release of the new IDE is scheduled for Fall 2007 and will be available with Absoft v10 products for Windows, MacOS/Intel and new for Linux. Beta testers are being sought.
Absoft Pro Fortran v10 is a well-known Fortran solution for Mac OS/Intel. It installs and runs on either Tiger or Leopard and works in both 32-bit and 64-bit mode. Included with the products is a complete Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with programmer's editor, auto-make, graphical debugger, MRWE application framework, math libraries, graphics and free support.
The new IDE will be cross-platform, according to Wood Lotz, President of Absoft. The advantages are:
Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use. Excellent for small or large projects.
Native look and feel on Windows, Linux and Mac.
Based on a single code base which means better support, faster bug fixes and easier addition of new features for all platforms.
Productivity boost because there is only one learning curve for all platforms.
Mr. Lotz said that interested and qualified users who wish to beta test should send an e-mail to beta@absoft.com with contact details including qualifications, system platform (Windows, MacOS/Intel, Linux), OS (XP, Tiger, RedHat etc.) and environment (32-bit and/or 64-bit).
Movable Type 4.0 Beta
The free version of this powerful blogging tool is now open-source, and thus much more customizable.
Six Apart's Movable Type is widely recognized as the powerhouse of blogging tools because of its extensive management features and customizability. But if you don't need professional support and multiple licenses, the free version may be all you need. I tested the personal license version of Movable Type 4.0 Beta, which includes some powerful editing tools and significantly improves on the previous free offering.
The final version of the software will be open-source, though the beta is not. With access to the code, Movable Type users will be able to modify the platform extensively; but even so, the most important improvement may be the long-overdue addition of a WYSIWYG editor. Enhancing that upgrade is an HTML/WYSIWYG toggle that lets you quickly switch back and forth between the editing screens--a feature that users of the competing Wordpress service have enjoyed for quite a while.
Getting your blog up and running is simple. As with Wordpress, the software's client and server components take only minutes to install. If you don't host your own blog, you upload the server portion of the software to your host's server. To set up the blogging portion of your site, surf to a specified page on your site and let the platform do the rest.
The clearest improvement to Movable Type is the ability to customize how your site looks. In the new beta, editing themes is as simple as modifying HTML. At least at first, however, only a few themes will be available; in contrast, thousands of themes are available for Wordpress. The interface in Movable Type is more awkward than the ones in Wordpress and Blogger. For example, when you're editing your blog's design in Movable Type, you have no simple way of switching back and forth between template sections, such as the header and the footer. Also, changing the look of these sections can take time if you don't know your way around the template editor. Movable Type's page design is cleaner and more elegant-looking than the alternatives, however.
One feature that eclipses any other platform's comparable offering is the graphical statistics display on the dashboard, which lets you see which of your posts are most popular. Graphs and charts help you visualize your site's traffic, offering up-to-date information so you don't have to surf to a hit-counter site like onestatfree.com to figure it out. A new community tool allows readers to become members of your site and post text, audio, and video.
Movable Type 4.0 represents a significant step forward for a platform that has been losing its competitive edge to free, less sophisticated alternatives that continue to improve. The full-featured Movable Type 4.0 Beta is a fine alternative to Wordpress or Blogger. Developers and bloggers who want to create a unique platform will like this GPL-licensed open-source version, though the awkward interface still makes it less than ideal for inexperienced Web publishers.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Beta testers ready to upgrade to Oracle 11g
Several Oracle Corp. database users this week said they expect their companies to quickly upgrade to the new 11g version, which includes new security, testing and management features.
Oracle 11g, unveiled Wednesday at an event in New York, is the successor product to Releases 1 and 2 of the 10g database that first shipped in February 2004. Beta testing for 11g began in September, but the company had been close-mouthed on a launch date until about a month ago.
"Oracle was a little bit more cautious, wanting to make sure they got the product right," said Ari Kaplan, president of the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) and a senior consultant at Datalink Corp., a database consulting firm in Chanhassen, Minn. User group members were heavily involved in the 11g beta testing program, Kaplan said.
Kaplan said improved integration of 11g with Oracle's Audit Vault and Database Vault software is an important upgrade in the new database. The update will help prevent database administrators from making unwanted changes to data, he noted.
"There's a key flaw with all databases," he said. "If they're smart, a DBA can modify data and cover their tracks." The technologies in Oracle's vaulting software make that impossible, since every action a DBA executes effectively "goes into a lockbox that they are powerless to modify," Kaplan added.
Wachovia Corp., based in Charlotte, N.C., hopes to certify 11g for use within the organization by the end of the year and to have its migration efforts well under way in 2008, according to Ed Mulheren, senior database administrator.
Mulheren said he expects that that the improved security features in 11g will help Wachovia meet ever-increasing regulatory demands on financial services companies. Mulheren said that updates like 11g's support of case-sensitive passwords bring the database's security capabilities more in line with Wachovia's Windows desktop security policies. The feature also means that users have to remember fewer passwords, he added.
Arup Nanda, senior director of database engineering and architecture at Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. in White Plains, N.Y., said he expects that his organization will migrate to Oracle 11g in 2008. The hotel chain didn't participate in the beta program because the software doesn't yet run on the HP-UX operating system, which Starwood uses.
"We will have to settle for the production release later this year and then at least six months of testing after that," he wrote in an e-mail. Starwood uses Oracle's database for almost all of its business processes, including reservations, check-in and check-out, and guest loyalty programs, he said.
Nanda listed the Database Replay and SQL Performance Analyzer features as key new features in 11g. On the other hand, he added that the new offering continues to lack key capabilities such as the ability to make a tablespace read only when there are active transactions in the database on different tablespaces.
Mike Amble, senior vice president of operations and engineering at Fidelity National Information Services Inc. in Jacksonville, Fla., expects that 11g's new Fast Files feature will be particularly useful to his organization, a provider of software and services to the financial services and mortgage industries.
"We tend to deal with a lot of odd forms of information," he said. For instance, when a house is sold, all the documents related to the sale including appraisals and title documents are sent back to the mortgage company in paper form and then scanned and stored. Fast Files will allow users to store large objects like images in the 11g database as fast as storing such unstructured information in traditional file systems, Amble said.
Amble added that the new Real Application Testing feature, which promises to help users effectively record a segment of their database operations and then use and replay that recording as a testing environment instead of having to spend months creating a testbed, should also be helpful to many users.
Amble noted that incorporating Oracle's Data Guard disaster recovery tool set into 11g will allow users to offload workloads from their production database to a standby system set up using the software. Fidelity already uses the disaster recovery software, he noted.
Amble said he hopes that Fidelity can migrate to 11g in 2008. "In the beta testing, we've not found a lot of issues, it should be a very easy transition," he said. Amble added that he hopes Oracle will add the ability to manage of multiple encryption tools, from both Oracle and third-party vendors, in future versions of the database.
Andy Mendelsohn, senior vice president of database server technologies at Oracle, estimated that more than 1,500 Oracle developers and technicians have worked on 11g. The company engaged in a "huge amount of testing," he said, running the beta software on Oracle's server farm of more than 2,000 processors.
The company already has a parallel development project under way to work on 11g Release 2. Mendelsohn did concede that 11g lacks extensive support for grid computing, even though the "g" in both 10g and 11g refer to grid technology. "We're doing a lot of work in grid technologies for the next release, which will make grid infrastructure even easier to adopt," Mendelsohn said.
Mendelsohn also confirmed earlier reports that Oracle doesn't plan to immediately ship 11g implementation for its free Express Edition (XE) database. The new version will likely come with the release of 11g Release 2, he said.
According to Gartner Inc.'s latest figures, released in June, Oracle was the worldwide market leader in the relational database management system market with a 47.1% share, trailed by IBM, in second place with 21.1% of the market, and Microsoft Corp., with 17.4%. In April, Framingham, Mass.-based IDC's initial 2006 figures painted much the same picture.
"We don't really worry about the competition," said Charles Phillips, Oracle's president. "We have such a lead." Oracle's challenge is how fast it can meet its customers' needs, he added. He dismissed IBM, saying it derives 90% of its database revenue from mainframe, and described Microsoft as being "regulated to Windows." Oracle offers its database on a number of operating systems, including Linux.
Kaplan said a good chunk of IOUG members plan to upgrade to 11g relatively quickly. In recent poll of members, 35% said they plan to upgrade to 11g within a year of its release, and an another 53% said they plan to adopt the new database in the next few years, according to Kaplan.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Newest Firefox 3.0 Preview Sets Stage for Beta
Mozilla Corp. Monday unveiled the last planned alpha update to Firefox 3.0 before it brings the new browser into the daylight of beta testing.
Alpha 6 of Firefox 3.0, a.k.a. Gran Paradiso, includes an upgraded SQLite engine, the database that serves as the back end storage house for Places, a new history and bookmark manager. Other Alpha 6 upgrades include improved cookie performance; support for site-specific preferences, such as text size; and enhancements of the add-on and download tools.
As usual, Mozilla waved off casual users. "Gran Paradiso Alpha 6 is intended for Web developers and the Mozilla testing community only, with regular end users strongly advised to stick with the stable Firefox 2 for now," the company-hosted mozillaZine site said.
Mozilla plans to release the first public version of Firefox 3.0 Beta 1 on July 31. According to the updated rollout schedule, Beta 2 will appear in September, and the final release is due sometime before the end of the year.
In other Firefox news, Mozilla's upgrade offer to users of Version 1.5 has resulted in more than 3 million downloads of Firefox 2.0 since last Thursday. Upgrades topped out at around 30 per second but have settled down at about 13 per second, Mozilla said. Users are asked to choose whether to update to 2.0, delay the update or permanently reject it. Mozilla is trying to get all users to upgrade to the current browser because support for Firefox 1.5 ended in May. That same fate will befall Firefox 2.0 six months after Version 3.0 launches.
Alpha 6 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux at the Mozilla.org site.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
My Life with the Dolled Up Lotus Notes 8 Beta
A couple of months ago, Lotus released the second beta of their upcoming Lotus Notes 8 software. I've been using it exclusively as my email client since then, and after nearly two months (and a refresh to Beta 3) the software is approaching the finish line. I'll take you inside the features and design you can expect to see released later this summer.
A New Look
Notes used to be your smart, albeit ugly, date. Microsoft Outlook always looked better on your arm while hitting the club, and while Outlook was pretty, she wasn't relatively deep (not to mention her penchant for viruses.) On the other hand, Notes was the smart, reliable girl you could marry, but were embarrassed to tell your friends about.
The Notes 8 client.
For years, critics of Notes pointed to the interface as stale, clunky, and unintuitive. This is a perception that Lotus has set out to destroy. The first thing you'll notice about the new Notes client is that it's undergone an extreme makeover: Pastel colors, rounded edges, new icons and an overall cleaner feel. It has a very Web 2.0 vibe to it, and is now on par with the user interface of Microsoft Outlook.
Simplicity and Standards
The Notes design team really set out to make Notes easier to use and more intuitive. They've reduced clicks whenever possible, combined preferences, removed redundancies, and made finding items pretty easy.
An Open button sits in the top left of Notes at all times. Clicking the button sprouts a menu with choices for creating new documents or opening up your most used features. Right next to the open button is a Show Thumbnails button which shows all of your open tabs in a window for quick switching. It's very reminiscent of Expose in Mac OSX and a great way to find something at a glance.
A ubiquitous search button rests in the top right of the screen. You can use it to search Mail, Contacts, your Calendar or even for particular applications. It can also search Yahoo and Google.
Lotus has also done some things to conform to the way people use standard applications. For example, you can now Control or Shift-click on items in views to choose them. In the past, those keyboard shortcuts didn't work in Notes, but that has now been remedied.
For brand new users and Outlook converts, all of the above changes will make it much easier for those users to get familiar with Notes. For the old pros that have used Notes for years, certain conventions will take some getting used to. Make sure to have some training ready