The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy checked out Juniper’s J-Partner Summit in Las Vegas on Monday. He was impressed. Instead of making lots of vision statements, Juniper executives unveiled new specialization and services initiatives to more than 440 partners.

The VAR Guy is heading back to Las Vegas on May 21 for the big Interop show. He’ll be traveling with his corporate American Express card, dining with clients … and goofing off. Here’s a look at five potential items on his expense report.

It’s now or never for Juniper Networks. In a savvy move, the networking company scheduled its partner event in Las Vegas — the same week as the big Interop show. That’s a smart move, but Juniper will also face its share of challenges during the week.

The VAR Guy is nearly ready to buy a new PC. And it sounds like Dell is nearly ready to sell him one with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled. Dell plans to officially announce its Ubuntu Linux PCs via an email to prospective buyers within the next few days or weeks, according to All About Ubuntu, a blog that tracks the open source operating system.

Before all you Cisco loyalists flame The VAR Guy, let’s make one thing clear: He believes Cisco’s momentum is accelerating. Heading into next week’s Interop conference in Las Vegas, Cisco appears unstoppable. But that’s usually when something completely unanticipated goes wrong. So, what — if anything — could give Cisco fits in the years ahead?

Please forgive The VAR Guy for dragging a bit today. He’s on his second cup of coffee after spending most of last night at Shea Stadium in New York … suffering through a three hour rain delay before the umpire said “Play Ball.” During the delay, The VAR Guy downed two burgers and a Carvel sundae before reading up on a new stadium the Mets plan to open in 2009. Just like every other big stadium, it will feature state-of-the-art wireless capabilities.

The VAR Guy isn’t accusing Microsoft of creative accounting. He knows Bill Gates isn’t like former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow. But The VAR Guy scratched his head when Gates said Vista sales now exceed 40 million copies. Hmmm. Let’s take a closer look at the facts.

If you read The VAR Guy regularly (doesn’t everyone?), you know that he isn’t exactly bullish on Novell. However, he has to give Novell some praise today for bolstering the company’s relationship with SAP.

The other shoe has finally dropped. When Apple transitioned its hardware to Intel processors, many pundits wondered when Macintoshes would come pre-loaded with Windows. Well, Apple still isn’t ready to make that move. But a big IT distributor is.

Microsoft claims open source software violates more than 200 of its patents, according to an article in Fortune. The online world is now buzzing about that article… wondering if Microsoft will pursue royalties from open source companies and their customers. Hmmm. The VAR Guy was just about to buy a Dell PC with Ubuntu Linux. Will he wind up paying a royalty to Microsoft?