A Conservative Techie

Ubuntu and take your device to work

Jonathan — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:55:42 +0000

This week I attended through work a presentation about Endpoint Management with a focus around the whole “bring your device to work” megatrend the experts are talking about. In case you haven’t heard this discussion is all about allowing an end user to purchase or use their own device instead of a corporate device. Examples given in this presentation are large New York City based banks encouraging people to use their own devices (usually a Mac) as a recruiting tool to help attract top talent. The presentation focused on how will IT manage these devices (patch, deliver software, track inventory, etc) on a non-corporate device. In the past someone in IT decided what version of desktop/laptop (either a Dell or an HP) and then decided on an operating system (Microsoft and still for a lot of shops XP). Now we are seeing a growth of whatever type of device the end user wants (anyone have this at their work?).

The interesting part about the discussion was the focus on Mac and how companies are managing them. Macs in the corporate environment are growing and growing (heck I moved to one) and companies have to figure out what to do w/ them. Thankfully the product I consult around (Altiris Client Management Suite) has perhaps the best Mac management outside of Apple. When asked about where the expers see Linux in the corporate world the expert replied it still exists within the walls of the datacenter (whether on premises or off premises in some form of cloud) and it really doesn’t exist in the corporate desktop (at least in the US).

This is a large frustration I have with Ubuntu is that it could focus on the corporate environment and potentially increase market share but instead chooses to focus on TVs and potentially mobile devices. Canonical could partner with the various Endpoint Management software vendors (Microsoft, IBM, CA, Symantec, Dell, etc.) to support Ubuntu.

When I show up w/ my own laptop running Ubuntu there are certain things I’m required to have or report on including up to date with patches, has up to date antivirus and definitions and is able to be managed by the corporate management solution. So Canonical, fire up those partnership agreements or whatever is needed and get your operating system supported by more vendors so the corporate desktop market share can grow

Still confused about Ubuntu Phone and Ubuntu TV

Jonathan — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:42:46 +0000

Can someone explain to the reason Canonical is pushing into the phone and television market so much? At the latest UDS this was perhaps the biggest announcement… Ubuntu was going to make a phone and a tv and I still don’t understand the point.

On the TV side one of the worlds largest computer companies Google has tried to do a TV. The Logitech Google TV tanked causing the company to loose MILLIONS of dollars betting on the device and yet Canonical is trying to make a TV? Why? Can someone explain the point of having Ubuntu on a TV, in fact can someone explain to me why I want my TV to become a computer, complete with apps etc? I don’t want to play Angry Birds on my TV, or tweet while watching some show from some complex keyboard. If I want Angry Birds I’ll do it from my phone or iPad, or I can tweet from my phone, my iPad and my laptop. Do I want to have a discussion over IRC on my TV? Nope I’ll use my laptop do that… The goal might be to watch Youtube on my TV? But I can do that from my Boxee box and even play all kinds of media on that device. What is the goal?

Onto the phone… Ubuntu phone will be dead in the water in the States w/o 2 things. #1 being a major carrier like AT&T or Verizon pushing the sales of it (Verizon already doesn’t push Windows Phone 7 devices hence the scarcity of the them, so Ubuntu phone will be just another phone not to sell). The second thing is out of the box Exchange Active Sync. People want a smartphone they can get their work email on and it seems most people use Exchange at work.

Without having a major carrier and Exchange support out of the box the phone will be dead in the US. It will have less of a market share than RIM or Windows Phone 7 does. Sorry Canonical, still not understanding the desire to be there.

Also w/ WebOS now open source does this all matter?

Becoming a user in the community instead of a contributer

Jonathan — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:40:45 +0000

In a blog post from UDS, Charles Profitt writes about how the Ubuntu community is evolving and changing as it grows more popular and becomes perhaps “mainstream.” He talks about how “new members of our community come from a different culture; they are used to faceless corporations ignoring them unless they act rude and obnoxious.” And I would like to disagree with him on this.

I think more and more people are using Ubuntu who just want to use Ubuntu and don’t really care about giving back to the project. In fact I am quickly becoming one of those members of the community. When I first joined the Ubuntu project during the Warty Warthog release it was because I was looking for a way to give back to a project. I spent my days as the computer guy for a private company doing everything from password resets and unjamming printers to more technical things like server administration. I was looking for a way to challenge myself and learn something new during the evening hours and to give back some how to a community of people.

I have found over the releases that more and more I just want to use a piece of technology that just works and meets my needs without having to tinker with the little bits and pieces. The GREAT news is that 90% of the time Ubuntu works for my personal computing needs. Granted professionally I have had some problems using Ubuntu in my day to day needs but that’s a whole different story.

Soon I maybe joining the group of “users” who don’t contribute back to the community as much as others do, but it’s not because I’m used to corporations ignoring me, its because I’ve finally found a way to get things done the way I want to get them done.

Google Flight Search = Full of #fail

Jonathan — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:00:22 +0000

I saw recently that Google Flight Search (which I assume came as a part of the of ITA acquisition) has launched so I was eager to give it a try. I fly quite regularly (this year though I have driven more) and was excited to see what cool things Google would bring to flight search.

NOTE: I don’t see any “beta” tag or “preview” tab in anything here so I’m assuming it is a full product

I live in Grand Rapids, MI and have to make a connection anywhere I go, makes getting status on hops/segments pretty easy and there are no flights available between Grand Rapids and anywhere

That’s right no flights available. I played with the “Any number of stops” section, “Any Airline” portion, “Any Connection”, etc and still nothing. Next try was a location that flies directly from Grand Rapids: Chicago, Detroit, Dallas/Ft. Worth, etc. and nothing. No flights available at all. Maybe I was looking at the wrong date? Tried changing dates and no flights.

However I live in a big city (hub?) there are plenty of options and the system looks great.

I really enjoy how quickly it seems to respond and I like the different options.

However I will probably never use Google Flight for booking my travels. Sorry you loose

Resources for learning Linux Admin in large organizations

Jonathan — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:16:23 +0000

A little background here: I’ve been doing administration of Windows networks and enterprises and now have been consulting for a long time setting up enterprise management systems, mostly focusing on Windows (client and server). I’ve been running Linux desktops for a long time at home.

Rambling intro to get into the point of this post but what I am really looking for are some good resources (books, web pages, examples) on learning about administration at an enterprise level.

Customers that use Linux in the Enterprise have more experience than I do and I want to learn. How do you create and manage local repositories? How do you do scripted OS installs for multiple computers? What other tips, tricks, ideas, do I need to learn?

Good books?

Thanks in advance

The Bible App I’m looking for

Jonathan — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:40:15 +0000

I’ve been looking long and hard for a Bible app to take notes offline with. I have several devices that I am constantly switching between, my iPad (wireless only), Android, and several laptops.

Knowing how much I like to take notes in the sermon or when I do my devotions my wife bought me for my birthday several years ago (more than 5 know) a wide margin Bible to allow me to take notes, jot things down, etc.

I’ve been looking for the same thing electronically. I’ve been a big fan of Youversion, but there is no way to take notes offline. My church doesn’t provide wireless and there are also many other places I might not have web connection. Youversion seems to provide the most version of the Bible include my primary version, the English Standard Version. Youversion allows me to download a local copy of the Bible but no offline sync. Great that it is on Android, Web and iOS.

I thought Olive Tree+ would be a pretty cool thing as it labels itself as “an amazing way to read & study" the Bible.” It allows one to take notes and then sync w/ my phone/iPAD, etc and doesn’t require a constant internet connection. Great idea, however the ESV from Olive Tree+ is about $40 which seems a bit crazy. Olive++ is also not cross platform enough for me, need on Android

The other app I’ve tried is Bible.is, which is a site and app I’ve never heard of. An interesting point here is there is an “app” for it on the Chrome store. However the additional versions cost money. The app itself is very slow to load, but has the benefit of allowing offline note taking.

To sum things up, if Youversion had the ability to make notes offline I would love it and use it all the time. As it stands I will continue making notes in my Bible. But please oh please can you add offline note taking?

Focus on working w/ Partners, not inventing your own product

Jonathan — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:42:36 +0000

On a recent post to Planet Ubuntu, Dustin Kirkland announced he is moving on from the Server Team to the Systems Integration Team with Canonical and also talks about a new product called “Ubuntu Orchestra” a new product that is “a collection of the best free software services useful in provisioning, deploying, hosting, managing and orchestrating enterprise data center infrastructure services…” He then goes on to talking about “the brave new world of Management and System Integration." Will this new product work with Landscape or is it just another product?

I’m trying to understand why Canonical is spending time and money on Yet Another Product and Not Invented Here so it must not be good instead of working with the existing System Management providers to help move Ubuntu further and further into the enterprise.

Landscape is already defined as an easy-to-use management service how is this different from Orchestra?

Here’s my frustration, with Canonical we have a company that is investing in two products for Systems Management, when there are companies that do this for a living they could partner with and get support.

Can someone please explain both the difference in the projects and why Canonical is not working with other vendors for systems management?

Microsoft & CentOS, now we need Ubuntu +???

Jonathan — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:48:31 +0000

A recent news story that has been all over the web these days is CentOS will now be a 1st class citizen on Microsoft Hyper-V and some hints that CentOS will be supported in System Center. Having Microsoft support a FLOSS system natively on CentOS is an awesome fact and a cause for great excitement.

However I’m left wondering where is Ubuntu? The biggest concern for me would be if CentOS became supported on System Center. Canonical has spent a lot of time working on Landscape and the cloud but very little support on the enterprise and enterprise support.

Imagine if Ubuntu became a 1st class citizen on Hyper-V? I think the internets would explode with different conspiracy theories etc

Configuring the Symantec Asset Management Workflows

Jonathan — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:38:40 +0000

This document covers the Symantec Asset Management Workflows that ship with Asset Management 7.1. There are three workflows out of the box: Hardware Request, Software Request, and Ownership Validation. This document will cover configuring the workflows and assume the following:

Symantec Management Platform 7.1 is installed
Asset Management Solution 7.1 is installed
CMDB 7.1 Solution Installed
Workflow Solution 7.1 installed with access to ProcessManager and the ProcessManager Database
Accounts in the CMDB with the following:
- Manager relationship configured
- Email address
- Ownership of a computer

Finding the Workflows

The workflows reside on the Symantec Management Platform that has Asset Management Solution installed. In this example, my workflow server and my SMP are different systems. I will need to publish the workflows on my workflow server.

The workflows are found in the directory that Altiris is installed in, in this case it is d:\program files\Altiris\AssetManagementWorkflows\WorkflowsPacks. These directory looks like the following:

Publishing the Workflows

These steps need to be repeated; in this document we will only cover publishing one of those workflows. To publish a workflow follow these steps:

Double click the workflow to unpackage the workflow, when prompted (as per the following screenshot)
In Symantec Workflow Designer select “Publish Project” and the following screen appears:
Select the SMP server and select Next until the workflow project is published
Repeat these steps for each workflow in the directory

Configuring the Workflows

In the 7.0 version of these workflows there was an MSI that installed, published and launched the PostInstall setup wizard to perform the confirgurations needed. We will launch the wizard manually.

Open up Internet Explorer and browse to the Postinstall Wizard found at: http://servername/AM.InstallationPostInstallWizard/default.aspx and you should see the following page:
Login w/ an account that is an Administrator in ProcessManager.
Start the configuration by providing the address of the Process Manager, Contact information and Symantec Management Platform information which will look like the following:
After hitting continue select Next and fill out the email information
There are several variables that need to be filled out in this step of the workflow. These are used in different parts of the workflow
1. Process Managers: Any errors generated by the workflow will be sent here
2. Purchase Managers: Any successful approval will be sent to this email
3. Asset Managers: When an item that is outside of the Catalog is added this email address will be notified. If something outside of one of the catalogs is created, the Asset Manager needs to add to the catalog before the purchase order can be created
4. HR Managers: This email address is used when an asset is no longer owned
5. Security Managers: This email address is used when an asset is no longer owned

Once you have filled out those email address and select more information will be filled out:

The next step is to provide the different reasons for a new purchase and any additional reasons for change in ownership of an asset which looks like the following:
Upon selecting continue the setup process will create the application properties needed for the workflow to work

Using the workflows

The workflows are created under a new Service Category called Asset Management and look like the following:

Using these workflows will be covered in a video or an additional article

Call for Help: Tips and Tricks in the Kubuntu Chapter

Jonathan — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 02:18:06 +0000

I have been writing the Kubuntu chapter for The Official Ubuntu Book ever since it came out and now I can barely believe we are on the 6th Edition of the book. In the chapter there is a section of the chapter titled “Tips and Tricks” which need some serious updating.

What would you add or change in this section? What is your favorite Tip and Trick Kubuntu related?

Please drop me a comment here and I will try or change that section in the book, all changes due by March 15.

Thanks,

jonathan