Slashdot Mirror
Novell Headed To Linux Enterprise Desktop In Asia
Bill Kendrick writes "Novell's Asia-Pacific division is working on Linux desktop trials in Hong Kong and Malaysia, with the expectation that Linux's adoption on enterprise desktops will continue to grow. They expect many more companies to start embracing it within the next 12 months." A spokesperson from Novell comments: "I don't see it as a watershed where everybody's running Linux desktops, but you'll start to see the emergence of some examples of companies that have embraced Linux and are going down that path."
...can be found at AsiaOSC.
They've got good info on each country - i.e., here's the page on Malaysia. They also serve as a mirror for Open Office, various BSDs, multiple RedHat releases, and so forth, so they're doing more than just gathering news. No banner ads, either.
The Army reading list
This is only because they couldn't get the paper clip to speak Chinese.
The more that an open desktop is embraced the more that open standards are embraced stopping big companies like M$ from having closed standards.
Can't do business if you can't share information.
Evolution or ID?
This raises the possibilty that Novell will partner with some Chinese software firm in order to pass China's impending domestic software content laws. I'm sure that the Chinese government would give Novell a nice domestic content seal of approval if Novell brings some IP and perhaps $$$ to the Chinese table.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
I think this is Novell's biggest Linux move since buying SuSE, seemingly putting some weight behind it. I'd be interested to see how they fare out in the asian countries.
China will love them, what with the red colour scheme and all...
the market. They have the software, the knowhow, and the capital. Their reputation, although a bit outdated, is a bit of a boon as well.
Any Novell execs listening, open-source Openexchange and break the demon's back!
The east is a great place to start. They are embracing technology over there greatly. The newest cell phones and other technology are going on there. Plus the east (including china and india) has 1/3 of the worlds population. Pretty smart place to start.
Evolution or ID?
Asian Markets work very much off of a piracy basis for their software, the large amount of software not being paid for or used within the context of a western office environment.
This appears to me to be another part of the trend of companies salivating over the numbers...(Ooohh, 500 Quadrillion-Billion-Monillion people in China, thats a lot more than America!)
Post apocalyptic gaming goodness
I'd love to see that here. I think a Linux desktop would make a lot of people happy, the users for having linux and the managers for saving money. Maybe if it takes off there, Novell and others will try it elsewhere.
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
I've been following the rise of Linux for the some time now. I don't run it, I run OS X and don't give a damn about the GPL.
However, all the MS people I talk to have had a dramatic change of heart with the recent annoucements like this one. Nothing they've said explicitly, but the tone has changed from denial to they are finally coming to terms with the fact that Linux 'will' take over at some point. It's now only a question of how fast.
The US will probably lag behind the rest of the world, but it's only a matter of time now.
Here's the list of the best-selling software titles for 2003 (by quantity sold, not dollars fetched):
1. TurboTax 2002 Deluxe
2. Norton Antivirus 2003
3. Turbo Tax 2002
4. Norton Antivirus 2004
5. TurboTax 2002 Multi State 45
6. Taxcut 2002 Deluxe Block
7. Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade
8. Microsoft Office XP Student and Teacher Edition
9. Taxcut 2002 State Block
10. Norton Internet Security 2003
You can see that tax software is huge thing for a bunch of people to have on their desktop. Office suite is another. Internet security (not just antivirus, but user-friendly firewall, port manager and other utilities).
Office is pretty much covered with OpenOffice, so that's done. As for Internet security tools, I am not sure which ones exist for the end user, but perhaps industry could come up with some.
Tax software. Is there a good tax package for Linux, allowing those millions of accountants, small business owners and middle-class Joe's like you and me file their taxes?
Out of free (of charge) software that is getting huge market share of desktop, what would the Linux equivalent of:
- Kazaa
- Real Player
- ICQ/AIM (ok, Gaim is a good alternative)
A step at a time, first networks, then the desktop. The domination by Linux will not happen overnight. How long did it take M$ to get where it is? Look at where they are now, with all the mistakes(Win 3.0, 95, Me, Bob), that get repeated, over and over and ...... and they are still the biggest gorilla on the planet. Don't think the Linux world won't make a few, but we are (hopefully) smarter and have learned from the mistakes of others and won't repeat them.
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
Do you know where your Linux desktop is?
The headline to this story should read "what took so long?" I consider the fact that Linux HASN'T made a major entry into the enterprise OR consumer desktop to be a MAJOR failing. Linux should, by now, be on 15-20% of desktops. What's the problem? Consider:
-Hardware isn't a problem. Linux pretty much supports just as much hardware as Windows does. And, if you are a desktop vendor, it really isn't a problem to write your own drivers.
-Applications aren't a problem. Linux has perfectly functional word processors, spreadsheets, web browsers, instant messengers, and email/calendar/groupware. Plus, they're free!
-File exchange isn't a problem. Any major file format that Windows/Mac users read/write and be read/written in Linux.
-With the proliferation of sub-$500 computers, Windows and 3rd party software becomes a major portion of the price tag. Linux makes economic sense here.
And this has been the case for AT LEAST FOUR YEARS! I think by now we have to start asking hard questions about who's to blame for this. I can think of a few. I would start with the desktop environments, KDE and GNOME. They continue to present an environment that is far too complicated for the computer novice, and fail to cover up the weirdness of X. I would also blame the distributions, who could have, in turn, covered up the weirdness of KDE and GNOME. Application install/uninstall is still a nightmare for users who are skiddish of a command line. I should be able to download a program installer, open up a file browser and browse to where I put it, double click to do a graphical installation, and then find the program in an add/remove programs system contol, and click delete to get rid of it.
Finally, I blame the elitism of the Linux community, who continue to regard the OS as belonging to computing guru, and would much rather bring the user to Linux than Linux to the user. Making easy tasks easy does not "dumb down" Linux.
Sorry, mod me down if you want, but every so often I feel the need to rant about this. It's 2004, and there should be thousands of grandmas out there emailing and IMing on Linux. The fact that there aren't is a really sad thing.
I think the major failure is getting the word out to people that linux is just like windows in terms of usability with environments like KDE and Gnome; now we just need the application and driver vendors supporting linux like they support windows.
It's all in the marketing man. Marketing is key. It has nothing to do with this supposed "elitism" you speak of. Elitism is a thing of the 90s. I don't see vendors like Mandrake, Xandros, Lin---s, etc. being "elitist" towards their users.
We need someone with a lot of money, and we need to get the word out in as many places as possible.
Aye, there's the rub! We need money to advertise, and yet, money is only made once the operating system is quite popular (i.e. on support, etc.). So, someone is going to have to invest in it; and with the recent bursting of the bubble, investment has gone wayyy down, RIGHT when linux became really viable on the desktop!
Just great, eh? Oh well, I'm hopeful that with IBM's efforts and others, things will come around eventually.
It's ok man, and remember, market dominance isn't everything.