The VAR Guy

During a phone chat today, a Web developer asked The VAR Guy if the US financial crisis would send more corporate customers running out to buy low-cost open source solutions. The VAR Guy’s surprising answer: No. Here’s why.

Stocks are tanking. Banks are closing. The polar ice cap is melting. The world is ending. In this time of crisis, Apple finally has a message for corporate CIOs: Buy some Macs. In fact, Apple is hosting online seminars to promote the Mac as the most secure desktop for today’s enterprises.

General crankiness with technology appears to be on the rise. Is it because of the stress in the US financial marketplace, are people in general just overworked? Are they getting what they were promised?  Were they promised something and didn’t get what was asked for? Here are five ways to prevent customer crankiness from spoiling your revenue stream.

One market that Ubuntu has yet to crack is that of the SoHo server. Millions of office workers all over the world send email via, print through and save documents to a Microsoft Windows Small Business Server. But is Ubuntu ready to compete head-on against SBS? The current answer may not thrill Ubuntu fans.

What is an OS? A way to make a collection of words, pictures, videos, content, show up on a screen? A way for us to take ideas out of our heads and put them into a form that is accessible by another? For me this is Ubuntu, and, as the saying goes, it just works.

The VAR Guy is an Apple fanboy. But that doesn’t mean he owns AAPL stock. Consider this: Apple stock has fallen from $179.32 on Aug. 14 to $128.24 today. Hmmm. That’s nearly a 30% drop in a scant six weeks. Financial analysts say there’s nothing wrong with Apple — other than major doubts that the company can maintain its torrid growth rate.

Julie Parrish does, indeed, plan to attend Symantec Partner Engage in Washington, D.C., this October, according to a company spokeswoman. Our resident blogger was curious yesterday when he noticed that Parrish wasn’t on the event agenda. But the spokeswoman assured The VAR Guy that Parrish, VP of Symantec’s Global Channel Office, will be in the house, and meeting with press during the event.

The VAR Guy intends to keep a close eye on Symantec Partner Engage — a channel event scheduled for Oct. 15 to 17 in Washington, D.C. The conference is an ideal setting for Symantec to break bread with any partners that are worried about the company’s channel commitment. However, here’s something curious: Julie Parrish, VP of Symantec’s Global Channel Office, is not listed as a guest speaker on the agenda.

Ubuntu’s objective of becoming the distribution that finally brings Linux to “human beings,” i.e. non-geeks, is certainly ambitious.  Its simultaneous (and thus far successful) pursuit of the server market, however, is perhaps yet more impressive.

Where is Canonical heading next with Ubuntu Server Edition? The answers could emerge in a new user survey that Canonical has launched. The survey, sent to my by one of WorksWithU’s readers (thank you, Vadim), seeks to:

• Improve future product releases
• Prioritize feature requests
• Guide partnerships to add technologies
• Drive the focus at the next Ubuntu Developer Summit in December 2008

Conventional wisdom says Ubuntu’s success is limited to desktops and notebooks. But that seems to be changing. Roughly 80 percent of readers participating in our WorksWithU 1000 survey say they are running Ubuntu Server Edition.

Microsoft expects to share Windows 7 alpha code during its Professional Developers Conference in October. That got The VAR Guy thinking: Does the old closed-source model of bug chasing and alpha, beta and gold product development releases still work?

Over the next few days, I will be testing ZaReason’s Breeze 3110 mini-tower PC. It has an Intel Atom processor and runs Ubuntu 8.04 desktop edition. I’m curious to see whether this system is truly consumer-ready. When I opened the shipping box, the included two-line directions said:

1. Plug it in
2. Turn it on

It sounds like the Breeze 3110 is too good to be true. But I’ll draw some clearer conclusions over the next few days.

A new research report sponsored by, ahem, Microsoft says Windows and Linux offer the same total cost of ownership in emerging markets. The VAR Guy wonders: Are emerging markets somehow getting a break from Microsoft pricing and security software costs that the rest of us don’t receive?

Kudos, Red Hat: You beat financial estimates for your current quarter. Wall Street was impressed. And customers are falling all over each other to sign long-term business deals with you. Still, The VAR Guy was disappointed will one key data point you shared this week.

A year ago, 15 percent of Alfresco’s sales involved channel partners. This year, the open source content management company will drive 60 percent of its sales through channel partners, The VAR Guy has learned. So, what can other open source companies learn from Alfresco’s channel strategy? Take a look.

I applaud Canonical for pushing Ubuntu beyond the desktop — up onto servers, and down onto mobile devices. But I’m starting to wonder:  Can Ubuntu really gain traction on Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs)?  Or put more bluntly: Does the world really need another mobile device operating system?

Millions of iPhone users download applications from Apple’s App Store. Now, Cisco Systems is considering a similar online App Store approach in the corporate market. Eventually, the networking giant may launch an online service or central repository to help you find Unified Communications applications and Widgets, The VAR Guy has learned. Here’s the scoop.

An update for all Works With U readers: More than 230 companies and individuals have now raised their hands to tell us they’re running Ubuntu on business servers, desktops and mobile systems. Our Works With U 1000 list will be updated this weekend to promote all of those Ubuntu deployments.

It’s time for The VAR Guy to eat a little crow. A few weeks ago, our resident blogger predicted that Google Android — the new mobile operating environment — would arrive late to market with reduced features. He was wrong on both accounts. The first Android device, called G1, ships soon. And early reviews are positive.

The VAR guy enjoyed reading a recent blog entry from Sean Phelan, a former Dell Direct evangelist who is now helping the PC giant to build its partner network. Here are some quick thoughts from Phelan.

Talk about ironic. Microsoft has launched a new chapter of its Windows Vista advertising campaign, branded around the line “I’m a PC.” I suspect Microsoft is trying to communicate that PCs have open architectures and have a far larger user population than Apple Macintoshes. Still, Microsoft overlooked one important fact in its “I’m a PC” ad campaign: The best part of open hardware involves the rising popularity of open software like Ubuntu Linux.

New Channel Chief Javier Colado has his eyes on multiple opportunities to bolster Novell’s partner program. In this quick email interview with The VAR Guy, Colado describes some of his executive experience, and some of his initial goals.

When it comes to coping with the US economic storm, VARs can run and hide — or they can strive to line up new IT projects even faster. If you’re the type who keeps pressing forward, spend a few minutes checking out the newly revamped OnForce marketplace, which allows VARs to outsource projects to each other across the US and Canada.