Tuesday, May 27, 2008

CiaoTalk ready for paid, free coming

CiaoTalk

CiaoTalk paid services have launched now at www.ciaotalk.com to be followed by the free. This is mainly for consumer, but the lines are business quality and the same as the business lines actually using XO, Level 3 and MCI Gold for the transport. Starting at $9.95 per month your home users can now have quality phone service with their broadband connection. What's also great about this service is the ability to use standard SIP devices. We've completed this with Vitelity and you may have seen the press releases last week also.

BYOD

CiaoTalk is a Bring Your Own Device service, which means people don't need to sign annual contracts or even purchase equipment from us. A PAP or other Analog to Digital device is easily used with CiaoTalk and you can find that people can purchase SIP phones such as Linksys, Polycom, 3Com, Aastra or Grandstream. Using a PAP device, of course, allows people to use their existing analog telephone they probably already have at home.

By allowing people to BYOD and not forcing them into long-term contracts, we believe you'll find it an easy to use service.

HIATLANTIS community edition

We have released our HIATLANTIS community edition, which is a rewrite of our full edition, using PHP and PostgreSQL. If you would like, we suggest you download a version of our application to test and then use the full version.

As you are aware, we've dropped MySQL and have moved to PostgreSQL and some of you may have read my interview in Information Week regarding the move.

If you have any questions about the free version of HIATLANTIS running on PostgreSQL, please contact your representative for more information. Under our license you are able to sell and support this version without ramification. You may not however create any derivative works from this product. We've closed sourced the application and it is not released under the GPL any longer and is licensed under the BSD license and Creative Commons no derivative works license for the documentation.

Pioneer Basic 3.5 being readied

We are completing our Repository setup for the new version of Pioneer 3.5. Since we're supporting the 3 series for another 5 years, we've created the updates to the system now. These should be completed by Wednesday of this week allowing you to run your updates. We've decided to get everyone up to the next release before releasing and finalizing our 3.5 builds.

Of course we'll continue to support your KDE release you are currently running, but the 3.5 release will be moving to GNOME. You can change your current KDE desktop to GNOME when we complete the repository builds.

GNOME presents a better desktop today without the problems that have become inherent in KDE, which was not the case previously. GNOME will be provided on both the desktop and server, with the server as before being stripped for server functionality.

Pioneer Stagecoach

Pioneer Stagecoach will be the same as previously with both the server and desktop being preinstalled. It's still used in education and by smaller companies and workgroups. We will continue to support the KDE version along with providing the GNOME on the new 3.5 release.

All Linux is the same and a religion fallacy

A person once told me that all Linux is the same and that it's a religion almost and wouldn't discuss what the differences were between the different versions. I've now heard this from other people as they tell me the same thing that all distributions are pretty much the same. They aren't the same and Linux is basically a kernel and you build on. I thought I'd address this since we're hearing it more and more, probably a propagation by some Windows folks and educators who don't understand what Linux is and they either intentional or unintentionally confuse the industry even more. All Linux distros are currently installing everything they want and forcing users to uninstall what they don't want instead of installing the applications they do want.

We've tested the latest Ubuntu here deciding on our directions and seeing what people like. Well, I must say if I wanted that much bloat I would install Vista. We're trying to build different versions for people with specific functionality to meet the needs of the individual, companies and enterprises. Keeping our products unbloated will maintain a pleasant experience for our users.

Pioneer Warrior BSD

Pioneer Warrior is moving to BSD, with specific hardware support. You'll still be able to build your own systems if selling Warrior and it is not meant to be a replacement for our Linux offering but only as use for those wanting a computing platform for development and servers. As many of you who have been with us since 2002 know, we used to run BSD servers until the pressure from outside sources had us move to Linux. BSD for developers makes sense and will be a clean install with the required tools.

Warrior BSD Desktop (Developers and Enterprise)

The desktop will be unfamiliar to many of you as it will be completely void of the fluff that many see in Pioneer Linux. There have been several articles you may have read lately about me saying that Linux is becoming as bloated as Windows and OS/X, both which I believe are pitiful examples of a computing environment while Linux hasn't reached that stage yet although may be reaching it to meet consumer demands. We're keeping our commitments on the Linux side and using BSD for serious computing requirements.

Desktop environment

The desktop will have only tools for business and will be void of any games. The delivery of applications will be via a GIT server to install applications and updates. The desktop also does not include a start menu and you reach your applications via right-clicking on the desktop to get your application running. As you can see below, a picture of our BSD system with the desktop and icons. Although this is only a pilot, or a pre pre-alpha, I do enjoy my experience with the operating system.

Back to the future

When I went into coding in 1974 having learned assembler with assistance from the guys I worked with way back then when I was an operator on a mainframe, I was efficient and effective with my code. I've seen Visual Basic followed by Visual Studio and Microsoft releasing .NET Framework. I always wonder why people would release products like that with so much ineffectiveness that it blows my mind. When I say back to the future I'm saying it's time to keep your investment in your hardware and program effectively and efficiently so you can run your applications for some years instead of the throw-away projects we've become accustomed to.

The enterprise workstation and developer workstations are meant to provide an operating system that will last the life of the hardware. With Warrior, you can even run developers and workstations on older PIII systems.

The Warrior developer workstation is meant for real programmers. If you like to code, please check out our new Warrior developer and enterprise workstations coming soon. The enterprise workstation is meant for companies who need to have people perform their jobs and maintain the hardware for some years without having to move to the latest and greatest platforms just because they exist. It's now time to go back to the future.

Server environment

The server environment is meant to be just a server that provides no desktop. Our second release of VoIPTelCaster will be running on Warrior BSD Server with no frills and SSH access. There will be no desktop included with the BSD server, but you can install the limited desktop if you wish.

If you'd like to be involved in the testing, please let us know.