Novell Headed To Linux Enterprise Desktop In Asia 145
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."
I was wondering when Novell would get into (Score:5, Interesting)
Any Novell execs listening, open-source Openexchange [suse.com] and break the demon's back!
Americas and Europe next? (Score:4, Interesting)
The War Is Over (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:just maybe (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:More to embrace than meets the eye (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sitting here with a mingled Office XP / 97 environment because of the huge compatibility problems between Access 97 and 2000. Since when does Microsoft give a flying frip about sharing information between its own products, much less anyone else's? Do you really think they'll give a damn even if they lose market dominance?
Re:Asian Markets... (Score:2, Interesting)
Say what you will about Windows but it is intuitive. My professor who now lives in China teaches children that have never even seen a computer. He sits them down in front of MS Word and they go off writing quite well. They even manage to find other features like clipart and can create presentations. Obviously it takes some time but it only takes some finger pointing for the kid to get to where he wants, I'd say thats pretty simple.
That said Linux most definitely has a place as it represents a path to international legitimacy. A company running Linux will find it much easier to get contracts from other countries than a company known for running pirated software.I'd say all the tech exposure is just plain great. Pretty much no matter what OS they end up running U.S. and European countries will have a chance to sell products to a much larger market.
It's 2004... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Apps for Linux desktop (Score:1, Interesting)
As for "What's the Linux equivalent of RealPlayer?", you nearly made my head explode. That's like "What's the Linux equivalent of Acrobat Reader or the Flash plugin". Ack. RealPlayer for Linux *exists*. Yes, it's crap, but if you want an equivalent to the Windows crapware, there's Linux crapware from the same source. Please note that development releases of Helix Player for Linux seem to have already surpassed RealPlayer--as in, they're actually pretty good, and will probably be very good when finished (both the Linux and Windows version).
Some would say OpenOffice is equivalent to MS Office. Some would not. This is all irrelevant because MS Office works GREAT on Linux via Wine, or Crossover Office if you don't feel like doing the work.
I agree with you about the tax software though. There's clearly a need for a tax app on Linux, native or emulated. (yes, Wine is not an emulator wah wah wah)
Re:The War Is Over (Score:3, Interesting)
* MS execs are starting to warn about the growth of the company slowing
* The 'Linux discount' is spreading like mad across the globe
* Longhorn is getting pushed farther back
* The virus/security situation actually seems to be getting worse every week
* MS has nothing to replace their desktop and monopoly revenues
* MS shareholders are getting pissed at not getting much bigger dividends
* They've lost the server war
* MS execs have been doing nothing but selling for the past three years
* The possiblity of insane product liablility class action lawsuits are rising for the virus/security nightmare over the past ten years
I could go on all day.
There wasn't anyone particular point, but somewhere in the last six months the entire computing world, minus MS and SCO, collectively went "Fuck it, I'm switching to Linux"
No, MS isn't unfortuenately going to just dissapear tomorrow, but the amazing thing about the growth of Linux is not the velocity, but the acceleration.
Re:Apps for Linux desktop (Score:4, Interesting)
Ever heard of Firestarter [sourceforge.net]? That's one GUI firewall I can think off the top of my head. Let's see here, how about fwall [freshmeat.net]?
As far as your corporate firewall question, you might check into PF [openbsd.org] and OpenBSD OpenBSD [google.com] As far as Smoothwall did you try the corporate [smoothwall.net] version or just a free download? Googling, lookg what I found as far as your remark about outgoing ports and Smoothwall [smoothwall.org].
Haven't seen such a blatantly uninformed post in a long while.
Re:In Capitalism, man exploits man...[*] (Score:3, Interesting)
I dislike the policy, but its still a hell of a lot better than what IBM does. They like to increase the salaries of their management, fire their employees and hire Indians to do the work cheaper.
Out of curiosity, how far does your "scope of worthiness" extend? Obviously you think Indians don't deserve jobs even if they can do the work cheaper, but what if those jobs moved to Canada? Would IBM still be evil? What if they only jumped state? Or maybe stayed in-state but moved to a different urban centre? Or just out to the suburbs where real estate is cheaper? Welcome to capitalism man, it's called competition. If you can't compete you're removed from the market.
Re:The War Is Over (Score:3, Interesting)