Sunday, August 26, 2007
Next Major PC Company to Go Linux Will Be HP
First, Dell successfully broke the Windows-only wall when it added Ubuntu Linux 7.04 to three systems in its consumer line in May. You don't start offering Ubuntu on another brand-new laptop line and announce that you'll soon be selling Ubuntu to SMBs (small to midsize businesses) and internationally unless you're making money from it. Expanding the Linux offering means Dell must actually be selling units.
The other PC companies aren't idiots. Many of them, like Lenovo, have been toying with desktop Linux for years.
10 reasons to get open source software
Acer says Ubuntu loaded notebooks are Singapore-only for now
While we didn't really expect to hear that Acer would offer its Aspire 5710Z notebook running Ubuntu Linux outside of Singapore anytime soon, we can't say that it didn't sting a bit when we discovered that our pessimism was well-placed.
According to ZDNet, an Acer spokesperson says the company has no plans to sell PCs pre-loaded with Linux in the UK anytime soon. And DailyTech confirms that the same goes for the US.
The surprising thing is that Acer seems to be basing this decision on lack of demand for consumer PCs running Linux. But Dell reports that it's received quite a positive response to its PCs running Ubuntu. In fact, there's a rumor going around that Dell plans to offer several more computer models with Linux in the future.
We guess Acer's decision (and the decision by pretty much every other major computer maker) to stick with Windows is their loss and Dell's gain. You know, when it comes to selling computers to a select group of enthusiasts or bargain hunters.
Dell to expand Linux PC offerings, partner says
Dell Inc will soon offer more personal computers that use the Linux operating system instead of Microsoft Corp's Windows, said the founder of a company that offers Linux support services.
Mark Shuttleworth, who created a version of Linux software named Ubuntu, said Dell is happy with the demand it has seen for Linux PCs that were introduced in May.
Dell, the world's second-largest PC maker after Hewlett-Packard Co, now offers three consumer PCs that run Ubuntu Linux.
"What's been announced to date is not the full extent of what we will see over the next couple of weeks and months," Shuttleworth said an interview late on Wednesday.
She added that Dell was pleased with customer response to its Linux PCs. She said Dell believed the bulk of the machines were sold to open-source software enthusiasts, while some first-time Linux users have purchased them as well.
Open-source software refers to computer programs, generally available over the Internet at no cost, that users can download, modify and redistribute.
The Linux operating system is seen as the biggest threat to Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Shuttleworth said sales of the three Dell Ubuntu PC models were on track to meet the sales projections of Dell and Canonical.
There are dozens of versions of Linux, available for all sorts of computers from PCs to mainframes and tiny mobile devices.
The other three top PC makers are Lenovo Group Ltd, Acer Inc and Toshiba Corp.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle)
BOSTON (Reuters)
When I first saw the list for the eWEEK slide show, Ten Reasons Not to Buy Open Source, I couldn't believe what I was reading.
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So here are my answers to the "reasons" not to buy open-source software. Microsoft is the safe choice Safe? Safe!? Come on. Microsoft's products are infamous for not being safe. Vista was supposed to be soooo much more secure than earlier versions of Windows. I said that was nonsense when Vista was first coming out. And what do we now see? Why, this month alone, we see that there are critical flaws. Three of the flaws could let information slip out if users visit malicious pages using IE, and with the fourth vulnerability, all you have to do is view a malicious e-mail with Windows Mail, and ta-da, you've just been hijacked. I hope you enjoy your PC being part of a botnet. Richer set of application development tools Really? The last I knew your choices were Visual Studio and ... ah ... Visual Studio. That said, Visual Studio is a heck of a development environment, but you are locked in to one vendor for all your development needs. If you want to pick and choose your development tools there's Eclipse, IBM Rational's Jazz.net, Red Hat's JBoss, or, heck, if you insist on Microsoft .NET compatibility, give Mono a try. Larger number of packaged applications available You can have any application you want so long as it's from Microsoft. There are a few exceptions: Intuit's Quicken, Adobe's imaging and pre-press software and 20 different freeware programs to compress and decompress files. But Windows stopped being about software choice a long, long time ago. If anything, the Linux and the open-source world has an embarrassment of software riches. You name the functionality, there's probably half-a-dozen different programs that can deliver it. Desktop Linux Is Immature and Perhaps Unnecessary Excuse me? Then why did Dell just start offering Ubuntu on three of its consumer systems? Have you looked at Novell's SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) 10? What about MEPIS 6.5? If you're serious about your desktop, then you need to take a long, serious look at today's Linux desktops. Technical Support Costs Are Actually Higher than Microsoft.Net I call FUD. I've yet to see a serious study that has proven this contention. I'll simply note however that Windows desktop must be patched every month and have its anti-virus software updated essentially daily for it to be safe. I can leave a Linux desktop alone for months and it will be as safe as houses. You tell me which costs more to maintain. Richer Layer for Application and Business Process Integration Middleware Could have fooled me. Why then is it that the last I checked, JEE (Java Enterprise Edition), in both its official Sun version and the open-source versions like JBoss, is still owning the application server space? And, funny isn't it, how all the talk about Web 2.0 development seems to focus on AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) and not on anything out of Microsoft? More Focused Commercial Technical Support from Microsoft I don't see how. Yes, if you pick a hodgepodge of open-source development tools—one from column A, two from column B—you'll have more trouble getting support. If you stick with say, Interface21's Spring Framework, Sun's Java family of tools, or Red Hat's JBoss, what makes you think they're not going to support you? Microsoft.Net Creates End-to-End Framework That Offers Lower TCO Again with this? What's Java and JEE? Chopped liver? If you want an end-to-end framework for lower TCO, lots of companies will give it to you while trying their darnest to beat Microsoft's prices. Microsoft Will Try to Convince Your CEO that You're an Idiot If You Do Of course they will. It's what Microsoft does. But this is 2007, not 2001. Your CEO—really much more likely your chief financial officer or CIO these days—may not be able to tell Apache from Zimbra, but he probably already knows that open source is a viable contender for almost any IT job. In fact, chances are your company is already using Linux, at the very least, in your servers. Marshall your argument for the software you think is best for your company and make your best pitch. If you do, you've got a decent shot of winning no matter what Microsoft tries to pull. |
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