From TFA:
Messman argued that Linux, having somewhat less desktop functionality, is a bonus for businesses as it discourages staff from wasting time engaging in non-productive activities, such as web browsing.

What is exactly less functional? I agree that removing the browser can increase productivity, but the fact that it can be removed doesn't mean linux has inherent less functional, but quite the opposite.

see mono [mono-project.com], it's .NET for Linux. There is always java [sun.com] too.

As great as this may seem, some companies may find this difficult. There would be a lot of proprietary software that would need to be ported.

I know, I know.. There's WINE and other similar software packages, but I highly doubt companies would want to resort to that.

One good example I can tell you of is an enviromental software package that my dad has to use at Eli Lilly, it's written in FoxPRO, and already they're having problems porting it to WinXP.

You have no idea how good it is already. ZENworks for Desktops has been doing this for Windows for years now. And when Novell bought up Ximian, they got Red Carpet. That involved into ZENworks Linux Management [novell.com], which has a web interface for management, VNC remote control to the managed machines, Linux imaging (ext2 and ext3 currently, ReiserFS support in the works), etc.

The cool thing is that you can demo pretty much anything Novell has to offer for 90 days, so give it all a whirl. The documentation is top notch, as is the knowledgebase and the user communities. If you get stuck, you can certainly find help.

To be fair, there *are* a hell of a lot of Linux distros out there, and not every one of them interoperate. Red Hat split their development version, Fedora, off from the main trunk of their "Red Hat Enterprise," and there is a "CentOS" repackaging of "Red Hat Enterprise" because Red Hat will not allow people to use their brand name on a Free release of their product. There are other forks of Red Hat, most famous being Mandriva which was originally called Mandrake.

At least the Debian people are trying to bring together all the distros based on Debian and using apt/dpkg in one way or another. The Debian Common Core Alliance [wikipedia.org] (DCCA [dccalliance.org])consists of just about every Debian-based distro out there save for Ubuntu. (Ubuntu is quite conspicuous in its absence in the DCCA, in my opinion!)

The idea is not to pull together a single Uber-distro, but make sure that apps packaged for one Debian-based distro will work on all others. Some people like plain old Debian. (like me.) Some people like GNU/LinEx because it's so pure. (like Richard Stallman.) Some people, like MEPIS because it's so easy and because SimplyMEPIS fits on one CD. (like my buddy in SFVLUG, Kurt.) And some people, Goddess help them, like Linspire. It takes all kinds.

It's too bad that Ubuntu won't join the DCCA. Ubuntu right now is pretty hot, they have a big fan base, and Kubuntu allows KDE people to join the fun too. I suppose the reason is that Ubuntu seems bent on forking Debian almost to where it's unrecognizable as Debian. To each their own, I suppose. It would be nice for all the "biggie" Debian-based distros to be able to work together.

However, there is a reason why Mandrake forked from Red Hat, and it wasn't entirely because of Red Hat's insistence on its trademark rights. Mandrake, if I remember correctly, forked over a desire for Pentium-optimized binaries. There is probably a very good reason for Ubuntu to stay out of this. I can't think of one. Only Mark Shuttleworth knows for sure, and I don't think he's made a public comment on his reasons.

Won't happen on corporate desktops until installing packages becomes something my mother can do.

Most corporate desktops are locked down to 1: prevent installation of pirated/unlicensed software, 2: prevent installation of software not audited by the company, 3: prevent security threats from user operations.

Linux is fine for a locked down, centrally updated system.

It's fairy easy to setup an cron job on a gentoo system that runs emerge -u world and have all the updates as binaries, managed by the centrally by the company. That's just the kind of thing business wants.

The main problem I can see it that all of the office suites I've tried for linux aren't up to scratch yet, and many companies run bespoke software, often written in VB.

Instead of DOS??
NetWare NEVER ran on top of DOS. It used DOS to boot strap itself, in the same way that Linux used GRUB or LILO to boot. This is a HUGE myth that has no fundament.
As for Novell Services running on a Linux kernel instead of a NetWare kernel, it's done: Open Server. As for GroupWise, there's a Linux frontend....Evolution.

Since the article indicates this was mentionned during a meeting of some sort and there is no mention of this "strategy" on the Novell site, it would seem that this "news" is "non-news" and the information was released by a PR firm to press bureaus to get their client some coverage.

Anyways, corporate desktops have a lot of custom apps. Simply switching to Linux doesn't make sense. If the apps are tested and work with Windows, why change? I could see if they buy new machines, and are forced to get Vista, but I don't see why Windows 2000 or XP should not be a problem. In the next year or two, there shouldn't be any radical technology changes that can't have a 2k or XP driver made for it.

Microsoft's roadmap shows Win2K currently in the 'extended' support phase, which means that they won't be adding new functionality, but will continue to offer paid support, and release bug fixes. Support will be dropped altogether 10 years after the initial launch. (Microsoft's current support roadmap & timelines were in part released due to the backlash after their intial rather short notice that Win98 would be end-of-lifed. They then extended support for it a bit, and released a roadmap so people knew what to expect for their other product lines.) Their current standard policy is 5 years mainstream support, 5 years extended support, then you're on your own.

For easy GUI programing in Linux get wxWindows for C++. It is an Open Source and cross-platform GUI library. The cool thing about wxWindows is that you write GUI code once and it works in Linux and Windows.

WTF did that even come from? Vista runs on any decently modern system, PERIOD.

If you want disk encryption, you need the TPM module.

If you want the fancy 3D effects, you will need a 64MB video card with DirectX 9 support.

If you want to play videos protected with Secure Video Path at high resolution, you need a "trusted" monitor. Fortunately, "trusted monitors" don't exist yet, so content won't be requiring them for a good long time.

Stop spreading bullshit.

If the apps are tested and work with Windows, why change?

I agree this is just PR fluff, but that is one of the key bits. If the apps - often internally developed - don't just work in Vista, Novell has an opening. The SuSE/Crossover combo seems to work remarkably well for older VB stuff. If Microsoft 'end of life's' Win2K (usually by not releasing security fixes anymore ala NT4) and apps just don't work in the new OS, IT folks will be looking for solution. I know I've felt a bit of pain just going to XP-64 because many of my older programs did not handle parenthesis in the program file directories...

Holy shit, people, who modded this "informative"?

IT"S A JOKE!

As are the research and TCO "studies" that Microsoft buys.

But a lot will depend on how Novell can package desktop management.

Take a look yourself how they do it. http://opensuse.org/ [opensuse.org] where RC 1 is available. There also are several 1 CD versions in development.

I have tried the Groupwise 7 client for Linux, several of our clients have been testing it for awhile, and a few have it running live. It's out of beta now. It's a step in the right direction, but is missing a few critical features like notifications. It also has problems with rules, and some other minor issues.

Novell told us the rules problems and other minor issues would be fixed with the first support pack, however the notifications are "on the radar" to be included in the future.

Its a pretty good product, but not good enough on the linux side yet. Hopefully they will get it at the same level as their Windows client soon.

Your partialy corect.

While microsoft does make great strides to give schools a break, not all schools are getting these breaks. Yours maybebut not all.

I recently did some work for a catholic school in my neiborhood and found their computers comprising of almost all used and donated equiptment. No school licensing at all because the computer already had somethign installed. Also not long ago there was a news story about just this. Some school was audited by the BSA and fine ungodly amounts of money for not having thier licenses in order wich mostly can be attributed to donated computers and students swiping things. I didn't follow it enough to find out what eventuly cam from it but it was an issue and did cost money in legal representation.

In an ideal world, you would probably be corect. In an ideal world, schools wouldn't have to worry about this or even having to relie on donated computers. sadley, this isn't an ideal world.

Your confusing corperation with consumers.

Any company of size will have at least one software vendor who will shift development to vista only and retire older versions. Every software upgrade I had to do was because of this. I had one company consisting of about 30 users and 4 servers recently replace all thier desktops and 2 servers because some crm vendor claimed they wouldn't support the older (win98-2000) systems any more. Of course thier product still runs on it but your on your own if somethign happenes.

Another company i do business with had an app they wanted to use (some slick salesman told them it would trippe profits or something) We had to upgrade 65 units to XPSP2 in order to run it right after sp2 was released. Not only did this create a nightmare with glitches, half of the printers we replaced have since become "compatible" agian meaning we replace several high dollar units for no reason.

Corperations don't upgrade because they can, they do it because one of thier vendors makes them. The companies interact with others and need to keep thier systems compatible with each others. They need to continue running the programs thier staff have been trained on and need to keep support option availible for them. thats why they upgrade to the latest operating systems.

It's too bad that Ubuntu won't join the DCCA. Ubuntu right now is pretty hot, they have a big fan base, and Kubuntu allows KDE people to join the fun too. I suppose the reason is that Ubuntu seems bent on forking Debian almost to where it's unrecognizable as Debian.

As a moderator for the Ubuntu Forums, I feel compelled to give you the correct information.

Ubuntu does not consider joining the DCCA because part of the purpose of that group is to keep things compatible with Debian Sarge. The group intends to rally around the newly released Debian stable and remain compatible with it. Ubuntu cannot and will not do this, because Ubuntu uses packages from Sid to form its distro.

I quote a member of the Ubuntu's Community Council governance board:

"I don't think Ubuntu is a "fork" of Debian, at least not in the traditional sense. A fork suggests that at some point we go our separate way from Debian and then occasionally merge in changes as we carry on down our own path. Our model is quite different; every six months we take a snapshot of Debian's unstable distribution, apply any outstanding patches from our last release to it and spend a couple of months testing and bug-fixing it." [mako.cc]

Therefore Ubuntu could not even join the DCCA even if it wanted to, because using Sarge (even testing) as a base instead of Sid would break the development model. Ubuntu will stay as compatible with Sarge as Sid does, maybe less.

Have a nice day.

As for running Linux and Novell software, why not replace the entire Windows system and use eDirectory instead of Active Directory? It runs on Linux.

http://www.novell.com/products/edirectory/ [novell.com]

And use Novell Desktop Linux on all of the workstations. Seems like Novell realizes that they have the entire system already. Why not look into it? I've worked with Novell's eDirectory on Red Hat (Fedora) in the lab and it's fun. It also beats Active Directory hands down. Novell's desktop product deserves a cost analysis and review. The Novell client license costs par with Microsoft's and beats it in some situations. Novell is poised to offer an entire solution with limited and cheap licensing.

They are working on management - checkout Zenworks [novell.com]. They are currently developing it to be as fully featured as the Windows version.

One forced upgrade path that I have seen where I work was to do with Viruses.

We were all running 2000 quite happily, then a virus got loose. We contacted our anti-virus vendor, and they told us that that virus would not be removed by the 2k version of their product, and we needed to migrate to XP to be protected.

Sometimes the upgrade path is forced upon you by outside vendors.

The amount large companies spend on support contracts dwarf what they spend on actual licenses. When your running Windows you can get a contract which will guarantee a support time of under two hours.

You can contract support from Novell. (Or several other companies.)

    Things like ActiveDirectory, which are a pain in the ass, but they provide one complete, integrated location to go to for managing everything.

ActiveDirectory is an NDS wannabe. NDS wrote the book on "one complete, integrated" management systems.

    Linux needs reliable support from big names, Novell is stepping up here, but they still aren't IBM.

Novell owns Suse. The original story was about Novell positioning Suse. IBM supports Suse.

    As for the management system, I have no idea, I have yet to find a system that will handle users, desktop lockdown, applications management/deployment/permissions, etc. from one, central, automated location.

You admit that you have no idea. Why don't you take some time and browse novell.com. You might go crazy about eDirectory [novell.com], and ZenWorks [novell.com].

What if Novell could integrate your IT Authentication and Authorization with HR [novell.com]? What if they embraced open standards like the Liberty Alliance [novell.com], instead of locking you into only what they imagine themselves? What if you could deploy entire workstations, from OS to Apps to managed network connectivity, all from one central management console?

What if they could manage Windows, Mac, Linux, and more?

What if Novell really can offer some amazing things? What if they did all this, and nobody noticed?