"In a rationale for why businesses should consider open sourcing software..."

I guess they mean businesses other the HP, certainly they wouldn't consider
open sourcing MPE.

-Craig


July 10, 2003
HP: Open Source Here to Stay


By  Peter Galli


PORTLAND—Open-source software has significantly affected Hewlett-Packard's
business, with its open source review board looking at between two and 10 new
open-source and Linux products a week, Stormy Peters, who runs HP's open source
program office, said in her keynote address here on Thursday.
In a talk titled "The Business of Open Source in the Enterprise" at the
O'Reilly Open Source Convention (Oscon) here, Peters said open-source software
is here to stay, evidenced by the growth of Linux in the server market.

Open source is not successful because it is free, as the software component
comprises a small part of total costs to an enterprise, but because it is
effective, she said.

In a rationale for why businesses should consider open sourcing software,
Peters said it could commoditize a market they did not control; could make a
product or technology pervasive; could lower the product's overall cost; and
could promote hardware or other value-add components.

Open sourcing could also create a custom solution for customers that would then
allow companies to provide profitable services in relation to that product; it
could also allow vendors to exit a business by giving the code to the
community; and could allow businesses to leverage resources from others.

But there are instances when open sourcing technologies is not a good idea,
particularly if the product is a control point for a company, such as
Microsoft's Windows domination of the desktop market, she said.

"The cost of open sourcing some products also does not justify the benefit,
particularly if it involves the misdirection and refocusing of resources and if
the intellectual property risk cannot be justified.

"HP does not allow any software to be open sourced if it cannot be proved that
the rights to that code belongs to us. You also shouldn't open source a product
if it competes against other products in the open-source community and doesn't
add value or differentiate itself in any way," she said.

Customers should use open-source technologies if they want to promote an
existing standard or if there is an existing, pervasive technology, she said,
adding that there are also some cases where open-source technologies should not
be used.

These include instances where the technology's direction does not match the
company's strategic goals; if the product's chief architect does not agree with
the proposal; and if the time-to-market is critical and that product does not
currently have all the features needed, she said.

HP's internal open source policy was designed to ensure legal compliance, honor
open source licenses, prevent unintentional "copylefting," establish proper
business controls based on a clear understanding of open source, and have a
place where all open-source projects are understood, Peters said.

Open source customers also need to understand what they are using and the
license governing it. Support levels also differ and are often not included
with open-source products.

Documentation is sometimes not available or as comprehensive as with
proprietary products, and indemnification and warranties can also be different
from a piece of proprietary software.

Customers, especially governments, also want to know who is contributing the
code, and are concerned about possible issues around ownership of that code,
she said.






Copyright (c) 2003 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.
--- Dennis Hassell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This is just theory talking, but over a VPN, a non-routable protocol
> should work, since all the addresses inside the VPN should already be
> non-routable (e.g. 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x, etc.) The IP part (OSI layer
> 3) of TCP/IP should still work - just the TCP part (OSI layer 4) would
> be AFCP.
>
> The VPN would need to be completely transparent I suspect, and some VPN
> implementations have screening, authentication, etc., so maybe not for
> all VPN's.
>
> Just theoretical ...
>
> Dennis Hassell
> Dennis Hassell and Associates
> (941) 746-4919
> (941) 224-3981 - cell
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Wirt Atmar
> Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 12:35 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] DTC's over VPN?
>
> Mark writes:
>
> > We are looking to set up a VPN between our main office and a remote
> >  office.  The remote office happens to have about 50 dumb terminals
> hooked
> >  to a DTC, which currently uses a bridge over a dedicated line.  Has
> anyone
> >  been able to use a DTC through a VPN?  I understand that DTC's use
> AFCP
> >  which is not routeable.
>
> It's true that DTC's use AFCP and that AFCP is not routeable, but HP did
> provide a solution that allowed two remote DTC's to talk to one another
> over a
> process called "routeable AFCP."
>
> I've never personally used it so the entire process is no more than
> theory
> with me, but talk to your CE about it the next he or she drops by and
> see what
> he has to say. It should be doable.
>
> Wirt Atmar
>
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