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Will Novell's Desktop Linux Catch On?
Laura writes "Novell says its newly released Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10(SLED) can replace Windows for the average office worker. But will enterprises embrace a widespread migration from Windows?" From the article: "The desktop market is a very mature market, and Microsoft has a very strong presence there, which makes it hard for customers to move off [...] However, Jeff Jaffe, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Novell, said at the SLED 10 launch Thursday he is fairly confident that if enterprises have a chance to kick the tires of the new desktop OS, mass migration from Windows is soon to follow."
For the FOSS Means Business event, it was suggested that we get Microsoft to take part and make a big controversial event (since Perens and Stallman would be the other keynoters).
We decided against because MS have it too easy. They don't have to prove their offering is better, they just have to raise enough FUD so that transitions to free software are delayed for one more year. Just like last year, and probably like next year. So we decided against, and instead of controversy we'll concentrate on showing the business value of free software, and why it is sustainable.
Please help publicise swpat.org - the software patents wiki
What with all the time we spend here proving P=NP and creating world peace, we've been neglecting idle speculation about Whether Linux Can Succeed On The Desktop!
Bloomington North High School is piloting about 120 linux machines in their school running NLD, Linspire and Edubuntu. 700 students are using them. The Bloomington Linux Users Group is helping them by providing support.
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It happened with WIN98 to 2000 and I've seen it with "interface issues" upgrading desktops from NT4 to XP.
Putting aside the REAL issues of a major migration, the answer to successful change is to not fight human nature.
Forget about pre-changeover sessions for enduser input and all that. Upgrades succeed in environments where
management doesn't let after-the-fact moaning and groaning be effective tools.
Everywhere else you selectively put shiny new computers (and OSes) on certain peoples desks and just wait.
One hour later when the inevitable jealousy and pettiness reach full force, the users are ready to realize they
can keep their old/slow/loud/ugly computers or be upgraded on schedule. Unfortunately, human nature rules.
Dell might be saying that they want only one "major" distribution is horse hockey. In many, many conversations with IBM and HP, both those vendors want the opposite. They want two major distributions that have full enterprise support. Novell/SUSE as one (see IBM investment in Novell) and Red Hat as the other. Why do they want this? Because they don't want another Microsoft. They want to encourage standards, competition, and hardware upgrades. They can't do this if everyone runs the OS of the year from Microsoft. They can do this if everyone runs either SUSE Linux, Red Hat Linux, or Microsoft. Doing that creates lots of churn for them to take advantage of when trying to sell boxes equipped with the latest bells and whistles.
As far as Umbuntu... I don't know what to tell you. Most of my customers (anywhere from 100 users in a local township to 30,000 users at a Fortune 100 company) won't install software X on OS Y on hardware Z unless it's 100% supported and certified by both vendors. Problem with Umbuntu is, as far as I know, no major software or hardware companies are doing that. That alone will put the screws to Umbuntu. At Novell/SUSE, our biggest challenge (and our biggest success) has been getting third party companies like Intel, Dell, HP, IBM, Oracle, PeopleSoft, BEA, etc. to certify our OS as a platform that they will support. Check to see if the app you want is supported here http://developer.novell.com/yessearch/Search.jsp. Without a company behind Umbuntu, getting that kind of support is going to be impossible. And, as we all know, without supported software, no one will use your distro.
That's just my opinion... I certainly could be wrong.
See... and you thought your sig was boring - TT