Sysadmins can easily be recognised: they’re the worried looking ones typing frantically on a KVM, although an alternative pose might be adopted – that backside sticking out from under your desk* normally belongs to your sysadmin.

Sysadmins realised they were special years ago and someone kindly wrote them their own manpage, which is reproduced below to make readers realise their unstinting efforts:

SYSADMIN (1) USER COMMANDS SYSADMIN (1)

NAME

sysadmin – responsible for everything imaginable that may or may not have to do with the system you’re using. Contraction of “system” and “administrator”

SYNOPSIS

sysadmin [-ab] [-cd] [-ef] etc……

DESCRIPTION

sysadmin takes care of everything, is generally harangued, must be supplied with coffee, chocolate, and alcohol in order to function properly, cannot be exposed to direct sun- light, and must not be allowed to have a life.

sysadmin is not intended as a user interface routine; other programs provide user-friendly front ends; sysadmin is used by everyone who can track him [her] down.

With no flags, sysadmin reads its standard input up to an EOF, or a line which sysadmin wishes to parse, and then proceeds to ignore it entirely and read news all day. When invoked with the -w option, sysadmin reads standard input and responds according to terms of job description.

OPTIONS

-bofh Go into Bastard Operator From Hell mode. This option causes sysadmin to use tools stored in the /usr/lib/bofh directory to parse the standard input and route user tasks appropriately.

-cd causes sysadmin to become caffeine-deprived, resulting in system slowdowns.

-b causes the sysadmin to function normally while augmenting the standard input with beer(5). Can be used with the -t option as well, depending upon which version of sysadmin you are running.

-t causes the sysadmin to smoke tobacco, which can result in significant performance improvement, provided you are running the correct version of sysadmin.

-Cfile Specify an alternate configuration file (sysadmin.cf is the standard).

-dX set debuggin value to X.

-fFullname Set the full name of the sysadmin.

-Bf Create the sysadmin.cf configuration freeze file.

-lname Sets the name of the “luser” person (that is, originator of a given request). -l can only be used by “trusted” users (who are listed in sysadmin.cf).

NOTES

The -t option should not be used with a version of sysadmin which is not capable of parsing tobacco input. Though the functionality of this command may seem similar to the -b option, it should not be confused with that or the related -c option.

Here at Bristol Wireless, we shall be particularly pleased to welcome callers to the lab if they come bearing tokens of appreciation (also known as gifts) for SysAdminDay. Our suggestions include:

• Artisan cider, fine wines and single malt whiskies;
• Tickets for luxury holidays far away from Bristol, preferably somewhere warm and with good connectivity;
• Gourmet foods, although pizza will be acceptable (as long as still hot!).
• The return of our missing kit (e.g. cable testers, decent Krone tools, etc. )

More information: SysAdminDay website.

* - The adoption of this posture is normally accompanied by expletives.

In June the specialist IT press was buzzing with an announcement from Dell that ‘Ubuntu is more secure than Windows’, whilst praising its ‘fast boot-up speeds and elegant design’, as well as giving a list of 10 reasons why users should consider Canonical’s offering over Redmond’s finest. A typical article of the period is this one from PC Pro.

However, over the weekend and this morning news has been circulating that Dell is now dropping sales of machines with pre-installed Ubuntu from its UK website, although the company told computer magazine PC Pro that it would continue to sell Ubuntu laptops and desktops via the telephone. The Telegraph has a surprisingly good piece on the story.

The reason given by Dell for dropping the machines from its website was that it had decided to remove the Ubuntu machines from its online sales channel because the platform was better suited to advanced users and computing enthusiasts.

Your scribe gets the impression that Dell doesn’t know its customers very well. After all, wouldn’t those ‘advanced users and computing enthusiasts’ be exactly the sort of people who would be more likely to purchase their kit online?

I think we should be told…

Many authorities have found themselves unintentionally locked into proprietary technology for decades. After a certain point that original choice becomes so ingrained that alternatives risk being systematically ignored, no matter what the potential benefits. This is a waste of public money that most public bodies can no longer afford.

Strong words, eh?

For those who work on the visual level too, here’s a picture clue for you…

Answers in the comments below please.

It refers to a recent decision by the Province of Bolzano-Bozen in northern Italy to spend € 2.2 mn. over the next 3 years renewing existing Microsoft proprietary licences and buying new ones. All this was done without a public invitation to tender, excluding the possibility for competing suppliers of similar software to submit bids of their own.

Indeed the FSFE has published an open letter to Provincial Government member Roberto Bizzo, who is responsible for Employment and Equal Opportunities, Innovation and Research, Finance and the Budget, Co-operative Development and IT, which we reproduce in full below.

Dear Minister Roberto Bizzo,

on 25 May 2010 the regional government authority of Bolzano decided to spend 2.2 million EUR over the next three years to renew software licenses from Microsoft Ireland, and to buy additional licenses. All this was done without a public call for tender, making it impossible for competing suppliers of similar software to make offers of their own.

We ask you to rethink this decision. It will influence your strategic position over a much longer time frame than the three years for which the licenses will last.

The European Commission’s vice president Neelie Kroes said on June 13 2010 in Brussels:

“Many authorities have found themselves unintentionally locked into proprietary technology for decades. After a certain point that original choice becomes so ingrained that alternatives risk being systematically ignored, no matter what the potential benefits. This is a waste of public money that most public bodies can no longer afford.”

With your decision to buy Microsoft Sharepoint and Microsoft Office communication server software without evaluating Free Software alternatives you will increase your organisation’s dependence on Microsoft. You will take your IT systems further down the one-way street of proprietary formats and proprietary software, locking in your organisation’s own data along with that of the citizens of Bolzano.

You are also running the risk of accusations about the improper handling about procurement processes. The protracted lawsuit against the Swiss Federal Administration, which is still ongoing, provides an example of the possible legal consequences.

The decisions you are making today will have an impact for the years to come. Breaking out of the lock-in will only become more expensive over time, as you risk turning more of your valuable data into digital toxic waste.

Rather than throw good money after bad, we ask you to step back from your deal with Microsoft, and issue a public call for tender open to all suppliers. When making a choice about the future solution for your organisation, we urge you to consider the strategic freedom which Free Software, Open Standards and open file formats provide, rather than deepening your dependence on a single vendor.

You might also wish to investigate the opportunities that such a strategy would provide for local businesses in the province of Bolzano-Bozen, which has successfully turned itself into a Free Software hub.

In the interest of the citizens of Bolzano-Bozen, we urge you to accept the offer of a dialogue extended to you by local Free Software experts at the GNU/Linux User Group Bolzano (LUGBZ) and the Free Software Foundation Europe. We stand ready to advise you on your strategic options in software procurement, and discuss the opportunities afforded by Free Software and Open Standards.

Sincerely,
Karsten Gerloff

President,
Free Software Foundation Europe
http://fsfe.org

Don’t you just hate the smell of vendor lock-in?

According to Canonical’s blog post:

Canonical and the Ubuntu UK community have joined forces to host and promote an ‘Ubuntu in Business‘ event in Brick Lane, London on July 13th – and it’s proving pretty popular. We sold out out initial allotment of 140 tickets but by rearranging things in the venue we can open up another 70 tickets. Tickets are free, but space is getting tight.

However, as stated previously, Ubuntu community members are asked to bring along colleagues, bosses or others to the event to learn about how Ubuntu can be a great solution for their business.

Read the full Canonical blog post.

Register for Ubuntu in Business here.

IFOSS L. Rev. is a collaborative legal publication aimed at increasing knowledge and understanding among lawyers about Free and Open Source Software issues. Topics covered include copyright, licence implementation, licence interpretation, software patents, open standards, case law and statutory changes.

Topics covered in the latest issue include:

• A BSD licence profile;
• Copyright in Open Source Software;
• Case law reports; and
• Book reviews.

Grab your copy of Volume 2, No. 1 (PDF).

The Debian release team recently announced the latest status of the next Debian release, codenamed Squeeze. The team just finished the work on some major parts, such as completing the changes to run init scripts in parallel, transition to eglibc into testing, GNOME 2.30 and KDE 4.4.3. The next big step is to make Python 2.6 the default python version for Sqeeeze; this could be finished sometime in late August and the release could then be frozen.

The freeze of Squeeze was originally planned for December 2009, meaning it’s already behind schedule. It appears that the Debian project is having difficulties switching to a fixed 2 year release (or freeze) cycle. This time the freeze was deferred due to the high number of critical bugs for a release freeze. Based on past experiences, at least 4 months will be required after the freeze to release the next stable version, meaning this could be available by the end of the year if all goes well, although the release date might be postponed until 2011.

Entitled ‘Open Source: The Capitalists’ Choice‘, Ben Bell, the author, first deals with the typical assumptions made about open source:

I often hear people referring to Open Source and Free Software advocates jokingly, or not so jokingly, as “communists” or “hippies”. After all, giving away your “intellectual property” for the greater good may be a nice theory in some ideal world, but it rather flies in the face of capitalism, doesn’t it?

Well, let’s see. That sounds fairly standard fare, as is borne out by this post, courtesy of Shelley the Republican (“freedom-hating red-communist Linux freetards”; now I do feel insulted. I’m an anarchist. Ed. )

Anyway, back to the Sirius blog post…The author then goes on to argue how it is closed, proprietary software that has got it all wrong, likening it to Britain’s bodged, Byzantine railway privatisation.

Proprietary software is akin to the privatisation of the railways. It pays lip-service to the perceived efficiency benefits but if you look at it closely, you realise that the fundamental motivation of competition is absent.

It ends by positing that open source has business right…

Open Source is good capitalism. It encourages competition, it allows small players easy entry to the market and it rewards genuine delivery of value to customers.

…and proprietary software is the real authoritarian, freedom-hating villain.

I recommend reading the original post.

As I finish writing, the post has now also appeared on ComputerworldUK.

Hat tip: Mark Turner

The following organisations were represented:

• John Sawbridge (City of Bristol),
• Jim Farrand (Bristol Wireless),
• Tim Browning (Bristol Libraries),
• Makala Campbell, Rachel Clarke & Martin Hanstead (all KWMC),
• Chris Pickering (TAO Business),
• Kim Spiring, Adult Learning Service (Bristol City Council),
• Sean Kenny (Voscur),
• Brian McCausland, Get Digital (Digital Unite).

Below are extracts from the meeting notes.

Discussion of actions:

1. Explore the possibility of obtaining contact details for hard-to-reach people who have computers but may not have the confidence to use them.
2. Building an online directory. Voscur has an ICT training provider directory and an ICT training directory. SBDN also have a list of training opportunities. These could be linked up.
3. Helping the Forum to keep in touch: it was suggested that we could set up a Google group.
4. Using other social media platforms: Voscur has a demand for social networking training and ran a course on RSS feeds. Sean Kenny and Kim to look into Facebook training sessions. Kim is setting up Facebook training courses; she will enquire whether an introductory session can be held for the members of the Forum.
5. Collaboration: the idea was raised that other training providers could hold sessions at KWMC. KWMC would provide space, outreach and promotion; trainers would provide skills.

Other issues discussed:

1. Presentation from Brian McCausland, Digital Unite. Get Digital works with people aged 50+ to improve digital literacy and increase levels of inclusion. Specific to sheltered housing schemes. The Get Digital initiative provides funding, training and support for sheltered housing schemes to develop digital literacy schemes. Looking for tutors in the area. Interested to know if other ICT Forums and organisations like KWMC exist in this country.
2. Sean brought Get Connected to the Forum’s attention: a project that provides grants for nursing homes, promoting digital inclusion and training staff (‘upgrading’).
3. Future meetings: organisations to take it in turns to host meetings. Makala suggested holding shorter catch-up meetings accompanied by training.
• Sean – Voscur may be able to host a meeting at the end of July at the Create Centre, with training of how to update your organisation’s website on the Voscur directory and using/setting up a Google group.
• Kim – A meeting at Stoke Lodge in October, with Facebook training.

ACTIONS

Invitations: Forum members to personally invite their contacts and the absent organisations that have been identified.

Online directories: SBDN to add a link to the Voscur directories and a section of useful training websites to their directory. All members of the Forum welcome to submit content and post replies on the SBDN Courses and Training section.

Consortium: to enquire about the possibility of joining a consortium bid (recycled computers).

Google group: Send the contact details of the Forum members to Sean Kenny to enable him to set up a Google group.

Social networking training: Kim and Sean to enquire about setting up courses in using Facebook for members of the Forum.

E-mail minutes to all attendees of today’s meeting and the previous meeting (as well as those who expressed interest but didn’t come)

CONCLUSION

A morning well spent exploring the collaboration between affiliated organisations providing ICT in the third sector and skills alignment and upgrading between the participants.

Over the last 5 years, Ubuntu for the desktop and server has made significant inroads into UK businesses, often driven by the enthusiasm of individuals who use Ubuntu at home and see the benefits it can bring to the workplace. This event gives those advocates an opportunity to introduce their colleagues to Ubuntu, Canonical, partners, community experts and their fellow IT professionals. Attendees will learn how Ubuntu is being deployed in the UK and discover how they can introduce or extend this technology safely and effectively within their organisation.

The programme is as follows:

1pm – Welcome
An introduction to Ubuntu and our community.

1.20 – Ubuntu in action
A couple of case studies of companies using Ubuntu to enhance their business.

Firstly, Chris Puttick, Chief Information Officer of Oxford Archaeology, will explain how one of the largest independent archaeology and heritage practices in Europe, with over 400 specialist staff, took the strategic decision to adopt an open source infrastructure with Ubuntu at the heart of it.

Secondly, Emphony Technologies, a start-up software company producing engineering project management and workflow tools, decided to deploy Ubuntu as its infrastructure; discover how they got on and their plans for the future.

1.40 – Open Mic session
Ubuntu partners and community members (perhaps including you!) tell us how they use Ubuntu in a business context. There will be 5 minute slots with strict timekeeping!

2.15 – Demonstrations, food and networking
Grab some nibbles and see a selection of demonstrations and hands on workshops featuring:

• Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (Amazon EC2 compatible cloud computing wherever you want it)
• Landscape Systems Management for Ubuntu
• Ubuntu Server Edition
• Social Media for the workplace with Wordpress and Ubuntu
• Quick, cheap, easy, low-risk and fun ways to get started with Ubuntu
• Ingres, an enterprise class open source database
• Alfresco document and content management

4.00 – Ubuntu Advantage
The new services from Canonical designed to give your business an edge in its open source strategy.

4.15 – Panel Discussion
A panel with members drawn from Canonical, partners and the community chaired by author and journalist Glyn Moody (yes, the man who wrote Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution. Ed.) and loosely following the theme of “The Benefits and Pitfalls of an Open Source Strategy”.

5.00 – Late
Attendees are encouraged to stay on, sample an Ubuntini at the bar, have a chat and enjoy the Brickhouse’s comedy night.

You can register for the event here.

All are welcome, but if you already count yourself as an Ubuntu user, please drag along a colleague who has yet to see the light! (Perhaps one of our friends from Connecting Bristol would like to come along. Ed.)