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Join Alan Renouf to Talk about Open Source, APIs, SDKs & CLIs at VMworld

Are you interested in open source at VMware, software development kits (SDKs), vSphere PowerCLI or vSphere APIs? Come join Alan Renouf and his colleagues at these top VMworld open source sessions in the U.S. and Europe to learn more from the experts!

Alan Renouf is a Senior Product Line Manager at VMware focusing on APIs, SDKs, and CLIs. He is responsible for providing the architects and operators of private and public cloud infrastructure with the tool kits, frameworks and command-line interfaces they require to build a fully automated software-defined data center.

Here are Alan’s top VMworld open source sessions on APIs, SDKs & CLIs: Continue reading →

The Hillview Open Source Project: Big Data for the 99% of Enterprises

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As its motto says, the Hillview open source project is “big data for the 99% of enterprises.” And with the torrential influx of “things” entering businesses and homes everywhere, toolsets for big data exploration are in high demand. Fortunately for your IT and operations teams, Hillview can handle datasets with a billion rows—interactively.

Click over to the VMware OCTO Blog to read the full story, which dives into how Hillview accomplishes this amazing feat of big-data browsing with:

Simplified point-and-click interface.
Data visualization at the highest and deepest levels.
Fast response times, thanks to cloud-based availability.

“Hillview is still an early prototype, but we are excited by its capabilities. We decided to keep this as an open-source project, to make it readily accessible to the maximum number of users and contributors.”

—VMware Research Group on the VMware OCTO Blog

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How PostgreSQL Became an Overnight Success 30 Years in the Making

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451Research recently estimated that around 30 percent of technology companies use PostgreSQL for core applications. This object-relational, open source database system for enterprises is known for its power, reliability and scalability. VMware engineers Peter Geoghegan, Kevin Grittner and Michael Paquier are some of the bright minds behind the growing success of PostgreSQL.

These three members of VMware’s PostgreSQL engineering team have a storied history with the project. Peter contributed sorting improvements, group commits and the UPSERT patch, which allows someone to automatically insert a row or update an existing one. Kevin added materialized views to PostgreSQL and works on contributions around SSI. Michael works on commitfest management, code reviews and bug fixes.

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Spork! An Open Source Fork Utensil

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Recently at the Open Source Summit in Tokyo, I was on the kernel panel where someone asked us, “Why hasn’t Linux forked?” The entire panel looked at each other, sorta laughed and we all said the same thing:

“What do you mean? It has forked several times, and it is still forking!”

A Little History

The term “fork” in software is similar to a fork in the road: one base and two branches with that common base. Back in the ’80s, Unix was a popular alternative to the mainframe. Unix has its roots back to research done by MIT, Bell Labs and General Electric. In the 70s and 80s, Unix was used by several universities and was sold off to different commercial startups (AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, Xenix and more). Eventually, Unix had several different proprietary flavors. All were able to do mostly the same operations, but each had their own flavor and were not totally compatible with the other.

Eventually the different flavors (forks) of Unix created its downfall. Continue reading →

The Inspiration Behind Open Source Project Harbor

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A few years ago, we created Project Harbor, an open source enterprise-class registry. Much to my surprise and pleasure, many people adopted Project Harbor for its utility, cultivating its own community. Today, I wanted to share more about how Project Harbor started.

Meet the Project Harbor Team!

Project Harbor

Project Harbor is an enterprise-class registry server that stores and distributes Docker images. Harbor extends the open source Docker Distribution by adding the functionalities usually required by an enterprise, such as security, identity and replication.

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Meet the Team: VMware Open Source Technology Center

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The fastest way to innovation is through collaboration. The VMware Open Source Technology Center team is an integral part of fostering that collaboration within VMware and the broader tech community. From the inside out and back again, we are excited to introduce you to our team of open source experts—all of whom pack a wealth of experience and a passion for collaboration and contribution.

Darren Hart, Director, Open Source Architect

Darren has worked “in and around the Linux kernel” throughout his career, andhe is the Linux kernel maintainer for x86 platform drivers. At VMware, Darren continues his open source contributions to the Linux kernel and other projects, while also working with internal teams on open source development methodologies and best practices. Darren is an expert speaker at conferences across the globe on topics ranging from PREEMPT_RT to Embedded Linux and Functional Safety.

Before joining the VMware team, Darren served as the MinnowBoard program architect at Intel and led IBM’s Real-Time Linux development team. He also worked on embedded Linux-build systems, where he contributed to board support packages, kernel configuration management, driver development and the ACPI specification.

Follow Darren on Twitter @dvhart_ and on Google+ +DarrenHart. Continue reading →

Learn More About Open Source at VMworld 2017!

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Interested in learning more about VMware’s involvement in open source? VMworld 2017, the biggest IT event of the year, is quickly approaching in Las Vegas and Barcelona and will offer you plenty of opportunities to hear about open source. From new open source projects like Clarity, to open source compliance and its impact on IT, you will have plenty to choose from.

Here’s a brief look at some of the many sessions offered.

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Looking Back at LinuxCon + ContainerCon + CloudOpen in China

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LinuxCon + ContainerCon + CloudOpen (LC3) came to China for the first time last week at the China National Convention Center in Beijing.

LC3 enables attendees to collaborate, share information and learn about the newest and most interesting open source technologies, including Linux, containers, cloud technologies, networking, microservices and more. The events also provide insight into how to navigate and lead in the open source community.

Expert speakers from VMware shared their open source insights and technical knowledge at the event.

Dirk Hohndel, VMware Chief Open Source Officer, had an interview with Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux and Git. According to Linus, the advantage of participating in open source is more opportunities to interact and share with people in this field and try something that you had always been interested in. Read this great recap of their interview via Linux.com: Linus Torvalds Explains How Linux Still Surprises and Motivates Him.
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Open Source Projects at LinuxCon + ContainerCon + CloudOpen China

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LinuxCon + ContainerCon + CloudOpen China (LC3) will take place in Beijing next week, June 19-20. The event offers attendees the opportunity to collaborate, share information and learn about new and interesting open source technologies. Attendees to this year’s conference can examine how Linux, containers, the cloud, networking, and microservices can work with open sources technology. Attendees will also learn how to navigate and lead in the open source community.

We’re excited to be part of this great open source event, with experts from our technical teams contributing to four unique sessions and our open source team from the Harbor project onsite at the VMware booth. The team will be showcasing Harbor, Admiral and Clarity – stop by and learn how to become part of our thriving open source community.

Here’s what’s on our agenda:

The Open vSwitch and OVN Projects
When: Monday, June 19 at 13:35 – 14:05
Experience level: Beginner
Who: Justin Pettit, Lead Developer, Open vSwitch & OVN, VMware and Ben Pfaff, Principal Engineer, VMware Continue reading →

If IT Automation Is the Future, Open Source Is the Path

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I’m lazy, and I write software. But you see, I actually view this as efficiency. Usually, this is not fancy, high-profile code. It is usually glue code—code intended to help me automate someone else’s code.

I’ve been writing code for the past two decades, give or take a few years. Throughout my career, I’ve been an operations guy and a software developer guy. I’ve worked a lot in embedded devices. Because of this, I find myself dabbling within the open source community. When you find a fix or need a fix, I’m of the mindset that others should not have to reinvent the wheel. Continue reading →