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Collanos update

by | Oct 17, 2006 | Technology, Uncategorized

I’ve been using the Collanos Workplace for a few weeks now – and it’s frustrating and promising at the same time.

The beta is currently at version 1.0.0.6 – so things are moving forward; however there are still fundamental problems with the basic functionality.

I’m seeing that sync of data and workspaces is really hit and miss. I’ve been working with the team at Collanos – and it seems like ‘large object’ sync – i.e. documents – has timeout issues.

There are some additional issues with sharing workspaces; the invitation mechanism is clunky – requiring people to be online; the sync of the workspace suffers from the large object sync above (namespace first, then data perhaps?); the permissions model is a little too simplistic.

On the positive side – the product looks good for a beta. Cross platform support is as touted; Windows, Mac, Linux. The peer-to-peer model (when it works) is great; no data lives on a central server and the sync time is generally “almost instant”. The integration of documents, chat, tasks and notes is a real breakthough.

I’ll post another update in a few weeks; hopefully the sync and invitation issues will be ironed out.

ZENworks for Networks

by | Oct 12, 2006 | coolblogs, Uncategorized, ZENworks

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So I got inundated with email from inside and outside Novell when I posted that ‘ZENworks for Networks’ was still available for download.

For those that don’t have long memories – ZENworks for Networks was released in 2000 as a directory enabled Quality of Service and Firewall solution. Part of it was from a Novell acquisition of Ukiah in mid-1999.

So why don’t you see ZENworks for Networks anymore? Simple – it was end-of-lifed within a few months.

The market for ‘directory enabled QOS’ disappeared rapidly when pretty much every switch and router vendor added support for LDAP directories within their products. Far better to get native LDAP support (and use eDirectory) than to build a product that competes with the switch vendors.

So where can you find ZENworks for Networks? Have a hunt around the Novell Support site. At a meagre 30MB the product is tiny! The documentation is still around too.

Thanks to all those that asked – for me another gentle wander down memory lane.

Written at: Salt Lake City, UT

ZENworks Next Generation – part 1

by | Oct 11, 2006 | coolblogs, Uncategorized, ZENworks

In an earlier Cool Blogs post I set out my plan to describe the Next Generation of ZENworks. This is the first in that series – the History of ZENworks.

I have written this series of blog posts using my experience of describing the Next Generation of ZENworks to customers and partners. These are slightly longer posts than normal – I apologise in advance. I hope the content is informative and useful. I look forward to your comments and questions.

Written at: Waltham, MA

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ZENworks Next Generation .. a teaser

by | Sep 28, 2006 | coolblogs, Uncategorized, ZENworks

I’ve written a little about the Next Generation of ZENworks – it’s time to write some blog posts about what we are planning during 2007.

I planned the structure of this series while visiting customers in Europe; during that tour I was describing our roadmap, strategy and vision – all under Non-Disclosure. My challenge is to share much of that in a public blog, without requiring every one of you to sign a ‘virtual non-disclosure’, and yet keeping the content interesting and useful.

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Vista design guidelines

by | Sep 25, 2006 | evilzenscientist, Technology, Uncategorized

Another good post from the development team for Vista – Vista User Experience Guidelines. The summary are the ‘Vista User Experience – Top Rules‘

I think it’s important that Microsoft are flagging the ‘visual treat’ that will be Vista. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 has great visuals – it’s good that this is being flagged across all desktop OS.

Rule 12: Reserve development time for “fit and finish”!

To deliver high-quality fit and finish, build in time to attend to UI details. Scheduling time for a visual clean-up at pixel level, layout corrections (alignment, spacing), and other visual “fit and finish” is as important as it is to schedule time for bug fixing and other types of quality control.

Perception is reality, and if your customers don’t experience quality in your product throughout, they may conclude there is lack of quality everywhere. A visual bug seen by all your customers might do more damage to your program’s reputation than a rarely occurring crashing bug.