I was running one of the Novell booths at the exhibition hall, and I was busy all week with people who seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say-- and I can tell the difference between spiff-hunters and real leads.
My preferred metaphor is the girl next door that you used to like, but ignored all through high school, and she shows up at the dance in a new dress and suddenly you have to look at her again. Novell's more than Netware-- did you know ZEN management runs on Windows and Linux too?-- and it's about time you noticed.
Novell Linux Desktop is the business-oriented product. It is designed to be the desktop-side counterpart to SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server. Same kernel, same system core, but one's got an office suite and one has a web server. There's an SDK for both, although it's not installed by default-- but you can download it free from novell.com.
SUSE LINUX Professional is the enthusiast product-- it's got bells and whistles, but isn't exactly supported and gets outdated pretty quickly since there's a new release every six months. It has both server and desktop components. And developer tools. And contrib stuff. And everything else. Consider it a look at what might come into the more restrained business products later on down the line.
Novell is NOT, I repeat, NOT killing the end-user SUSE LINUX OS product, nor will it turn into a "Fedora-style" project. It is and will continue to be a complete product.
Currently the Novell Linux OS product line looks like this:
For business servers: SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9
For business desktops: Novell Linux Desktop 9 (both have the same system core).
For hackers, community, enthusiasts, students, anybody who reads Slashdot: SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2
SUSE LINUX Professional includes all the latest goodies, server & desktop, devel and user. It has a similar audience to Fedora, but it is not a "fedora-style distro" -- it's a full-on product, with a release schedule and so forth.
The "Personal edition" which was like 1-2 CDs and didn't have a lot of goodies, is not currently being offered. "Professional," however, is aimed at the same market.
Don't fear. Novell is not abandoning you.
Before this, Evolution was already available on OS X in the past (Install X11, then use Fink to get Evolution).
To complete it, just build yourself a Connector package.
It's been tested internally at Ximian and Novell in the past, although it was determined it wouldn't be worthwhile to release it as a product. But now that it's free, you can do it.
There is no Evolution/Win32 client, and Novell is *not* working on such a thing. Individuals may of course attempt it, but they'd need to port all of GNOME, and it would probably take years.
Remember the episode when the Cosby Show was cancelled, because Cosby said he wanted to quit while the show was still good?
Bart's response was "If I had a TV show, I'd want to run it into the ground."
They will. But I still like it-- it gets more and more bizarre, but the entire universe of Simpsons-ness still exists out there to draw on, and I just don't get tired of it.
XD2, even without the Professional edition, does an excellent job of importing complex Word documents. I've done it and tested it-- eight page forms, weird spreadsheets, long presentations, whatever.
The Ximian art team put together a bullet-point font just for OOO/Word integration to match the bullet points.
The Professional Edition comes with Agfa fonts that are the same size/shape and translate from the MS fonts, so you don't even lose page length or pagination.
Ximian Desktop 2 is not a complete distro. It's software for a variety of operating systems.
It is (or will be, upon release) available for download free-of-charge. Source is/will be available for all open/free components. Patches are being and will be submitted upstream to maintainers.
Purchasers ($99) get extras including 3rd party (proprietary) software, PLUS 30 days support, PLUS a year's Red Carpet Express high-speed updates.
Well, given that you don't actually lose the data, it's reassuring.
Since.doc ends up being the underlying file format, the dialog is just needlessly alarming, and they just took it out.
Re:Just wondering about these desktop screenshots.
on
Ximian's Back
·
· Score: 1
Mostly, it's because you end up use GIMP for screenshots, or even if you don't (PrintScreen for fullscreen and Alt-Printscreen for window shots works fine) you end up opening GIMP to resize, convert, or crop the images.
I usually try & hide it because it's not the point. But it shows up because it's in use at the time.
Yes. Out-of-the-box CUPS with gimp-print, foomatic, ghostscript, a wizard to add new printers (all gui, using gtk-usermode), and lots of drivers.
All the apps are set up to use the gnome-print/CUPS tools, so you just have to set a printer up once.
You can browse your printers in Nautilus and edit the queues there, and your active print jobs show up in the Panel Notification Applet.
Re:Ximian Connector ?
on
Ximian's Back
·
· Score: 2, Informative
This is correct.
Theoretically you can speak MAPI if you have access to MAPI.DLL, which is part of Windows, and so not having that is sort of the point.
Other options would be to reverse-engineer the protocol, which would have been really really scary, or building a Windows proxy to speak MAPI to the Exchange server and something else (XML/RPC?) to the Linux clients, which would add latency and cost.
They've changed the pricing on the internet access: it's $150 per system connected. Including systems which connect to your wireless network. So no open wireless, or someone will come by, check their email, and bill you $150.
Joe User is able to handle UNIX, sure. But Joe User also has other things to do, like his job. Learning takes time.
Joe User isn't looking to learn about rpm databases and filesystem variations and network connections. Joe User wants his word processor to work so he can write a report, and he wants his email to work so he can send it out and land the Nicholson account and get that raise.
Remember: For most people, it's a tool, not a toy. They'll have to learn how to use it, and it's the developer's job to make that process quick.
If we want people to use product B (Linux) instead of product A (Win), we *definitely* need to persuade people that switching is easy to do.
OK, here's how this works. English, like most western languages, runs from left to right. Left and back are equivalents in web browsers (think of the arrows), side-scrolling video games, and, yes, Cancel buttons.
Many languages, such as, oh, arabic, hebrew, chinese, etc. run from right to left. Yes.
The clutch pedal is neither back nor forward. It's used by the left foot because the right foot is busy doing something else.
And as to the main thread of the conversation, you can still use MC, so why are you upset about the fact that other software has features you don't need? I don't need the features of, say, Access, or MySQL, and I'm perfectly content to let those applications go their merry ways while I stick with flat files, because I don't actually keep track of large amounts of data. I don't flame their mailing lists complaining about increased complexity or slowness for small data volumes.
Please, people. Let's be reasonable here.
Re:GNOME Hijacked to Make Way for Real Users^TM
on
The Captains of Nautilus
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I guess I'm not surprised by the vitriol here, but I'm really disappointed.
GNOME is still every bit as flexible as it used to be, for the expert user. All the config files are editable, all the gconf keys are available in gconftool, and you can hack your own prefs/themes/etc. You can choose not to run Nautilus easily enough by editing your session files.
If you're an expert, none of the defaults should bother you. Are you merely complaining about this because you don't want to go back to editing config files? Maybe the intermediate user loses a few options, but they can learn, or content themselves with themes and actually getting things done.
The GNOME 2 development process has been going on for quite some time, in the open, on public lists. If you're suddenly upset about the direction of GNOME development, you haven't been paying attention.
And "The GNOME Board and all the developers" isn't exactly a small cabal. These development decisions have been made by large teams of developers after a lot of heartfelt and sincere discussion. Yes, they worried about alienating current users, including developers. Lots of developers like viewports and edge-flipping. Lots of developers want wonky customization.
But they also want stabiltiy, and they want not to have wierd Bonobo bugs that only occur with particular Sawfish settings and are impossible to replicate or fix with any regularity.
What the GNOME 2 development team has done is put in a simple set of defaults that don't confuse the living daylights out of new users. The customization fiends are always going to customize, no matter what, so there's not much point in guessing what customizations they're going to want.
For the expert who knows the difference between one window manager and another, it's relatively simple to switch-- just pop open a terminal and kill one and start the other. But most of us don't care. Really. And after three days of using the new desktop, you won't care either, because it's faster and has fewer bugs and doesn't peg your CPU when you switch desktops.
In other words, get over yourself. GNOME 2 is good and getting better, and you're whining about the way the scene has changed like some hipster who's upset that the rest of the world is now playing your White Stripes records.
Re:Why _do_ people buy Ximian?
on
Inside Ximian
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Ximian GNOME has a number of advantages over the standard desktop GNOME that comes with your distro.
For the desktop itself, we put a lot of effort into making sure it's more attractive, easier to use, and better updated. We focus on the desktop, we're desktop experts, and it shows.
* If you're using it in a large company, it's cheaper because it's the same on more than one platform: this consistency makes both UNIX and Linux systems less expensive to support. (This portion, by the way, is free).
* People buy Ximian Connector because they want to be able to connect to Exchange 2000 systems without having to use Outlook Web Access and without having to use a Windows box. Especially in large corporations where engineering is a Linux/UNIX installed base, it's important to be able to schedule with the management and use the shared address books and so forth; if you can't, you might as well not exist.
* People use the Red Carpet CorporateConnect service in order to have a stable, cross-platform way to ship their own software, plus operating system and desktop software from multiple vendors. They need to manage software installation sets and updates across multiple platforms, without vendor lock-in.
* Companies like HP and Sun pay us to perform custom development work, including accessibility improvements and platform ports.
* Individuals like you sign up for Red Carpet Express to get faster downloads.
* Linux ISVs can ship software through Red Carpet or Red Carpet Express. This isn't a really big business now, but it has potential.
Is that a reasonable enough answer?
For more information about Ximian desktop software and other products and services, feel free to visit http://ximian.com, write to us, or fill out the information request form at ximian.com/about_us/contact/information.html.
Exchange IMAP doesn't do any of the groupware features...
Outlook thru WINE is slow and unreliable
VMWare works but is slow and expensive (not as expensive as a second PC, but still expensive)
Dual-booting means rebooting to check mail, and you still need the Windows and Office licenses.
You may be surprised, but a lot of companies with UNIX workstations end up with their engineers having at least two boxen per desk: A Windows system for Office tasks A UNIX (often Solaris) system for CAD and other engineering tasks often a second Solaris or Linux box for a server/devel/testing environment.
It sounds absurd, but first the executives require the Windows box for the office tasks, then they try to get rid of the Solaris boxes because there are too many computers, and the Solaris ones are more expensive....
Another item-- he claims not to be able to move the menu panel. The menu panel is always at the top. That's what it does. If he wants a panel on the side, he create a new "edge panel" on the side, and remove the menu panel (it's easy: right-click, select "Remove this panel").
Most of the other criticisms presented in the review were both misspelled and untrue.
The only one that was at all accurate was that GNOME2 has fewer options, which is actually (in most cases) deliberate. The insane number of options in GNOME 1.4 were a frequent cause of confusion and in many cases caused difficult debugging for real problems.
Anyway, I would suggest that people interested in GNOME 2 find a second opinion, or better yet, test it out for themselves (Ximian ships snapshots through Red Carpet).
Another thing is to remind them "You have to set a good example for the students by not wasting this resource."
But basically, if you don't have an acceptable use policy anywhere, and if you don't have the authority to implement one, you can still take initiative: DRAFT a policy, then take it to whoever DOES have authority and say "here, we need this, can you sign it?" They will then have no excuse not to do it. Plus you'll look GREAT in the eyes of the higher-ups for taking that kind of initiative and being a real go-getter.
Then, send that out to everyone, students and teachers alike. Send a special note to teachers reminding them that you count on them especially to be aware of the rules and to enforce them if needed.
Ximian offers discounts to educational, nonprofit, or religious institutions. Contact sales@ximian.com for more information.
The benefit of Ximian Connector over Outlook isn't that it's cheaper than Outlook, but that it's cheaper than Windows + Office + Outlook.
In addition, it's MUCH cheaper than the "2 machine option" where you have an additional machine or VMWare, plus Windows, Office, and Outlook. This sort of solution is mostly found in UNIX-using engineering locations, rather than in academic settings like the one you're describing.
Another thing you can do to lower TCO is use Ximian Red Carpet CorporateConnect, which makes software maintenance and updating easier.
Slashdot Mirror
I was running one of the Novell booths at the exhibition hall, and I was busy all week with people who seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say-- and I can tell the difference between spiff-hunters and real leads.
My preferred metaphor is the girl next door that you used to like, but ignored all through high school, and she shows up at the dance in a new dress and suddenly you have to look at her again. Novell's more than Netware-- did you know ZEN management runs on Windows and Linux too?-- and it's about time you noticed.
Novell Linux Desktop is the business-oriented product. It is designed to be the desktop-side counterpart to SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server. Same kernel, same system core, but one's got an office suite and one has a web server. There's an SDK for both, although it's not installed by default-- but you can download it free from novell.com.
SUSE LINUX Professional is the enthusiast product-- it's got bells and whistles, but isn't exactly supported and gets outdated pretty quickly since there's a new release every six months. It has both server and desktop components. And developer tools. And contrib stuff. And everything else. Consider it a look at what might come into the more restrained business products later on down the line.
For business servers: SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9
For business desktops: Novell Linux Desktop 9 (both have the same system core).
For hackers, community, enthusiasts, students, anybody who reads Slashdot: SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2 SUSE LINUX Professional includes all the latest goodies, server & desktop, devel and user. It has a similar audience to Fedora, but it is not a "fedora-style distro" -- it's a full-on product, with a release schedule and so forth. The "Personal edition" which was like 1-2 CDs and didn't have a lot of goodies, is not currently being offered. "Professional," however, is aimed at the same market. Don't fear. Novell is not abandoning you.
As long as you don't use P/Invoke or too many of the Windows.Forms items, it should do fine. That's part of the whole point.
:)
The other thing you can do is run Gtk# on Windows for your xplatform GUI.
Before this, Evolution was already available on OS X in the past (Install X11, then use Fink to get Evolution).
To complete it, just build yourself a Connector package.
It's been tested internally at Ximian and Novell in the past, although it was determined it wouldn't be worthwhile to release it as a product. But now that it's free, you can do it.
a.
I think this was a typo in the article.
There is no Evolution/Win32 client, and Novell is *not* working on such a thing. Individuals may of course attempt it, but they'd need to port all of GNOME, and it would probably take years.
Evolution supports a variety of formats as a local message store, but defaults to mbox.
Remember the episode when the Cosby Show was cancelled, because Cosby said he wanted to quit while the show was still good?
Bart's response was "If I had a TV show, I'd want to run it into the ground."
They will. But I still like it-- it gets more and more bizarre, but the entire universe of Simpsons-ness still exists out there to draw on, and I just don't get tired of it.
Dear Troll:
XD2, even without the Professional edition, does an excellent job of importing complex Word documents. I've done it and tested it-- eight page forms, weird spreadsheets, long presentations, whatever.
The Ximian art team put together a bullet-point font just for OOO/Word integration to match the bullet points.
The Professional Edition comes with Agfa fonts that are the same size/shape and translate from the MS fonts, so you don't even lose page length or pagination.
Nice try.
a.
That's been fixed. It was related to using Mozilla's SSL libraries.
Ximian Desktop 2 is not a complete distro. It's software for a variety of operating systems.
It is (or will be, upon release) available for download free-of-charge. Source is/will be available for all open/free components. Patches are being and will be submitted upstream to maintainers.
Purchasers ($99) get extras including 3rd party (proprietary) software, PLUS 30 days support, PLUS a year's Red Carpet Express high-speed updates.
a.
Well, given that you don't actually lose the data, it's reassuring.
.doc ends up being the underlying file format, the dialog is just needlessly alarming, and they just took it out.
Since
Mostly, it's because you end up use GIMP for screenshots, or even if you don't (PrintScreen for fullscreen and Alt-Printscreen for window shots works fine) you end up opening GIMP to resize, convert, or crop the images.
I usually try & hide it because it's not the point. But it shows up because it's in use at the time.
Yes. Out-of-the-box CUPS with gimp-print, foomatic, ghostscript, a wizard to add new printers (all gui, using gtk-usermode), and lots of drivers.
All the apps are set up to use the gnome-print/CUPS tools, so you just have to set a printer up once.
You can browse your printers in Nautilus and edit the queues there, and your active print jobs show up in the Panel Notification Applet.
This is correct.
Theoretically you can speak MAPI if you have access to MAPI.DLL, which is part of Windows, and so not having that is sort of the point.
Other options would be to reverse-engineer the protocol, which would have been really really scary, or building a Windows proxy to speak MAPI to the Exchange server and something else (XML/RPC?) to the Linux clients, which would add latency and cost.
They've changed the pricing on the internet access: it's $150 per system connected. Including systems which connect to your wireless network. So no open wireless, or someone will come by, check their email, and bill you $150.
It's called Red Carpet Enterprise, it works on the more common Linux variants, and it does everything you need.
Joe User is able to handle UNIX, sure. But Joe User also has other things to do, like his job. Learning takes time.
Joe User isn't looking to learn about rpm databases and filesystem variations and network connections. Joe User wants his word processor to work so he can write a report, and he wants his email to work so he can send it out and land the Nicholson account and get that raise.
Remember: For most people, it's a tool, not a toy. They'll have to learn how to use it, and it's the developer's job to make that process quick.
If we want people to use product B (Linux) instead of product A (Win), we *definitely* need to persuade people that switching is easy to do.
a.
OK, here's how this works.
English, like most western languages, runs from left to right. Left and back are equivalents in web browsers (think of the arrows), side-scrolling video games, and, yes, Cancel buttons.
Many languages, such as, oh, arabic, hebrew, chinese, etc. run from right to left. Yes.
The clutch pedal is neither back nor forward. It's used by the left foot because the right foot is busy doing something else.
And as to the main thread of the conversation,
you can still use MC, so why are you upset about the fact that other software has features you don't need? I don't need the features of, say, Access, or MySQL, and I'm perfectly content to let those applications go their merry ways while I stick with flat files, because I don't actually keep track of large amounts of data. I don't flame their mailing lists complaining about increased complexity or slowness for small data volumes.
Please, people. Let's be reasonable here.
I guess I'm not surprised by the vitriol here, but I'm really disappointed.
GNOME is still every bit as flexible as it used to be, for the expert user. All the config files are editable, all the gconf keys are available in gconftool, and you can hack your own prefs/themes/etc. You can choose not to run Nautilus easily enough by editing your session files.
If you're an expert, none of the defaults should bother you. Are you merely complaining about this because you don't want to go back to editing config files? Maybe the intermediate user loses a few options, but they can learn, or content themselves with themes and actually getting things done.
The GNOME 2 development process has been going on for quite some time, in the open, on public lists. If you're suddenly upset about the direction of GNOME development, you haven't been paying attention.
And "The GNOME Board and all the developers" isn't exactly a small cabal. These development decisions have been made by large teams of developers after a lot of heartfelt and sincere discussion. Yes, they worried about alienating current users, including developers. Lots of developers like viewports and edge-flipping. Lots of developers want wonky customization.
But they also want stabiltiy, and they want not to have wierd Bonobo bugs that only occur with particular Sawfish settings and are impossible to replicate or fix with any regularity.
What the GNOME 2 development team has done is put in a simple set of defaults that don't confuse the living daylights out of new users. The customization fiends are always going to customize, no matter what, so there's not much point in guessing what customizations they're going to want.
For the expert who knows the difference between one window manager and another, it's relatively simple to switch-- just pop open a terminal and kill one and start the other. But most of us don't care. Really. And after three days of using the new desktop, you won't care either, because it's faster and has fewer bugs and doesn't peg your CPU when you switch desktops.
In other words, get over yourself. GNOME 2 is good and getting better, and you're whining about the way the scene has changed like some hipster who's upset that the rest of the world is now playing your White Stripes records.
Ximian GNOME has a number of advantages over the standard desktop GNOME that comes with your distro.
For the desktop itself, we put a lot of effort into making sure it's more attractive, easier to use, and better updated. We focus on the desktop, we're desktop experts, and it shows.
* If you're using it in a large company, it's cheaper because it's the same on more than one platform: this consistency makes both UNIX and Linux systems less expensive to support. (This portion, by the way, is free).
* People buy Ximian Connector because they want to be able to connect to Exchange 2000 systems without having to use Outlook Web Access and without having to use a Windows box. Especially in large corporations where engineering is a Linux/UNIX installed base, it's important to be able to schedule with the management and use the shared address books and so forth; if you can't, you might as well not exist.
* People use the Red Carpet CorporateConnect service in order to have a stable, cross-platform way to ship their own software, plus operating system and desktop software from multiple vendors. They need to manage software installation sets and updates across multiple platforms, without vendor lock-in.
* Companies like HP and Sun pay us to perform custom development work, including accessibility improvements and platform ports.
* Individuals like you sign up for Red Carpet Express to get faster downloads.
* Linux ISVs can ship software through Red Carpet or Red Carpet Express. This isn't a really big business now, but it has potential.
Is that a reasonable enough answer?
For more information about Ximian desktop software and other products and services, feel free to visit http://ximian.com, write to us, or fill out the information request form at ximian.com/about_us/contact/information.html.
Yours,
Aaron Weber
Ximian, Inc.
The disadvantages of the methods you list are:
Exchange IMAP doesn't do any of the groupware features...
Outlook thru WINE is slow and unreliable
VMWare works but is slow and expensive (not as expensive as a second PC, but still expensive)
Dual-booting means rebooting to check mail, and you still need the Windows and Office licenses.
You may be surprised, but a lot of companies with UNIX workstations end up with their engineers having at least two boxen per desk:
A Windows system for Office tasks
A UNIX (often Solaris) system for CAD and other engineering tasks
often a second Solaris or Linux box for a server/devel/testing environment.
It sounds absurd, but first the executives require the Windows box for the office tasks, then they try to get rid of the Solaris boxes because there are too many computers, and the Solaris ones are more expensive....
It's not a pretty sight.
Another item-- he claims not to be able to move the menu panel. The menu panel is always at the top. That's what it does. If he wants a panel on the side, he create a new "edge panel" on the side, and remove the menu panel (it's easy: right-click, select "Remove this panel").
Most of the other criticisms presented in the review were both misspelled and untrue.
The only one that was at all accurate was that GNOME2 has fewer options, which is actually (in most cases) deliberate. The insane number of options in GNOME 1.4 were a frequent cause of confusion and in many cases caused difficult debugging for real problems.
Anyway, I would suggest that people interested in GNOME 2 find a second opinion, or better yet, test it out for themselves (Ximian ships snapshots through Red Carpet).
a.
Another thing is to remind them "You have to set a good example for the students by not wasting this resource."
But basically, if you don't have an acceptable use policy anywhere, and if you don't have the authority to implement one, you can still take initiative: DRAFT a policy, then take it to whoever DOES have authority and say "here, we need this, can you sign it?" They will then have no excuse not to do it. Plus you'll look GREAT in the eyes of the higher-ups for taking that kind of initiative and being a real go-getter.
Then, send that out to everyone, students and teachers alike. Send a special note to teachers reminding them that you count on them especially to be aware of the rules and to enforce them if needed.
And yeah, firewall rules too.
Ximian offers discounts to educational, nonprofit, or religious institutions. Contact sales@ximian.com for more information.
The benefit of Ximian Connector over Outlook isn't that it's cheaper than Outlook, but that it's cheaper than Windows + Office + Outlook.
In addition, it's MUCH cheaper than the "2 machine option" where you have an additional machine or VMWare, plus Windows, Office, and Outlook. This sort of solution is mostly found in UNIX-using engineering locations, rather than in academic settings like the one you're describing.
Another thing you can do to lower TCO is use Ximian Red Carpet CorporateConnect, which makes software maintenance and updating easier.
Aaron Weber
Ximian, Inc.