The VAR Guy

Dell today sent a letter to managed service providers. The dispatch provides MSPs with an update on Dell’s partner strategy. Give it a read by visiting our sister site, MSPmentor.

The VAR Guy met a bunch of other bloggers this weekend at a small convention in Dallas. While there, he somehow got locked in a fun debate with another attendee. The topic … Which system ruled the home PC market in the early 1980s: The Atari 800 or the Commodore 64?

One of The VAR Guy’s favorite web sites is IdeaStorm, a Dell-run forum where readers share business and technology ideas, vote for their favorite reader concepts, and interact with Dell. IdeaStorm has been a huge hit with Dell customers and critics alike. Now, Dell may build a similar site for partners, solutions providers and managed service providers, The VAR Guy has learned.

The VAR Guy just got off the phone with Dell Channel Chief Greg Davis. Our resident blogger and Dell’s top partner executive discussed the company’s partner program, which launched in December 2007. So, how are things going so far? Here are some quick clues.

The following blog entry is not intended to criticize those who are overweight. Rather, it’s meant as an open letter to all of America: If the portly among us don’t start losing some weight (The VAR Guy included), we may wind up grounding our airlines. Here’s why.

Red Hat’s annual revenues now top $520 million, according to financial results released today, and the company is charting a course to $1 billion. Sounds wonderful. But there’s a bigger story here: Red Hat’s financial momentum will pave the way for more open source IPOs.

Healthy competition is good for technology companies — and good for their customers. But The VAR Guy is starting to wonder if Dell is too obsessed with Hewlett-Packard. Let him explain.

The VAR Guy wasn’t looking for love, but he found it during a trip to his local CostCo last night. There, he spotted the $299 Eee PC from Asus. It’s built on Linux — but CostCo’s in-store promotional materials for the device barely mention Linux. That may be a smart move. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy is packing up and heading to Austin, Texas, to meet with Dell’s channel chief on March 28. During the chat with  Greg Davis, VP of commercial channels, our resident blogger plans to raise numerous questions. But here are the top 5 on his mind.

Sometimes good isn’t good enough. Profits are up at Oracle. And so are software sales. But the improvements fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, which has The VAR Guy worried. He turned off his laptop to escape from depressing online chatter — only to find the latest InformationWeek on his kitchen table. The cover story: “Recession and You.” Ouch.

After recently installing Ubuntu 8.04 Beta, I have seen numerous improvements that will bring welcome change to users in the near future. Now in beta stage, Ubuntu is stable enough for me or anyone else who is interesting in testing the new version. While I have not seen any problems, it is not recommended for use on production machines. Here are some highlights.

So, we’re in a recession. At least, that’s what the media keeps telling The VAR Guy. Still, some areas of the economy remain healthier than others. In order to move forward with your own business plans, take a look at these five anecdotal pieces of info.

CIOs have already been betrayed by the economy. Next, will they face financial mutiny by their own boardrooms? Instead of waiting to find out, now is the time for smart CIOs and their trusted IT partners to reduce costs before the big budget cuts happen. Here are seven ways for CIOs to get started.

These are strange times at 3Com. Gloom-and-doom press reports focus on the company’s failed plans to go private. And more recently, 3Com has dissolved (i.e., shot) its worldwide channel organization. Business must be pretty darn bad at the networking company, right? Actually, that’s not entirely the case.

Sun Microsystems’ MySQL is the database to beat in the open source market. But another option — EnterpriseDB — has caught the attention of several investors — including IBM. Here’s the scoop for potential partners.

The VAR Guy is in the market for a small office printer that supports Ubuntu Linux, Mac OS X and Windows XP. Alas, most PC companies do a lousy job describing which of their printers work with Ubuntu. Which means they’re leaving easy money on the table. Here’s our resident blogger’s sad story so far.

I’m seeking to purchase a Hewlett-Packard all-in-one device (printer, scanner, copier, fax) that is network-enabled and works with Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04. It must also print color and black-and-white. I realize there is an Ubuntu WiKi listing compatible printers (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport/) but I’d like to hear from Ubuntu users directly.

Generally speaking, The VAR Guy loves reading The Wall Street Journal. He welcomes longer in-depth reporting and investigative pieces. But he was recently shocked to read a misleading blog entry about Hewlett-Packard and Telepresence on The Journal’s Web site. The piece is a disservice to everyone — vendors, resellers and customers — who are evaluating Telepresence systems at the moment. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy didn’t attend Novell BrainShare. Or did he? Somehow, our resident blogger apparently crashed the Collective Soul concert hosted by Novell.

The looming Google Android vs. Apple iPhone battle could wind up looking a lot like the old Windows vs. Mac OS war from more than a decade ago. Here’s why.

It’s time for The VAR Guy to brush up on poker. He just received his invite to Juniper’s J-Partner Summit, scheduled for April 27-29 in Las Vegas.

Leonardo da Vinci once said: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Too bad we haven’t been true to those words with enterprise IT. For some reason we have allowed ourselves to become enamored of these incredibly complex methodologies. We fool ourselves into believing that everything needs to be complicated because we live in a complicated world, or because our business must be complicated. It’s all nonsense.

Many small business professionals toss and turn in the middle of the night, losing valuable hours of much needed sleep worrying about making a key decision. So, what can the average small business IT pro do to make better decisions at a faster pace? Here are some recommendations.