Somewhat buried in a press release today, Hewlett-Packard announced a new desktop Linux PC as well as an ongoing effort with Novell to push desktop Linux into schools. Will solutions providers move Novell’s SUSE Linux to the head of the class? Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.
First, the pure hardware news: The HP Compaq dc5850 desktop PC, slated to launch December 15 in North America at a U.S. street price of $519, will come with Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop preinstalled. That’s a nice start, but the Novell-HP desktop Linux work doesn’t end there.
According to the press release:
“For education customers, HP is working with Novell to develop and maintain a repository of more than 40 applications, including math, art and word games, to improve student learning. In addition, applications for school administration and instruction will be available for teachers and administrators.”
Another nice start, Novell. But The VAR Guy wants names: If Novell starts promoting specific vertical market applications for K-12 schools and colleges, the move could help to generate more customer and channel partner pull for SUSE Linux.
Sounding Smarter
In the meantime, Novell deserves some credit on two fronts. First, the company hasn’t bowed to Ubuntu Linux, widely considered the most popular mainstream consumer Linux desktop distribution. In addition to the HP desktop win, Novell SUSE Linux also is available for Lenovo’s ideaPad Netbooks, which target students.
Second, Novell’s internal marketing and product managers are going viral with company news. That’s quite a change from Novell’s old corporate DNA. A decade ago, Novell’s PR team spent far too much time shielding the press from Novell managers. But these days, Novell insiders are finally lowering their guard, leapfrogging PR and reaching out directly to the IT media — and even anonymous bloggers like The VAR Guy.
It’s a calculated risk: Portions of the blogosphere tend to slam Novell regardless of the company’s message. But in the case of promoting Linux news, Novell is wise to open its mouth more regularly.
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If Novell hope to continue with traditional OEM channels in the way that Windows is put on PCs and charging a ‘fee’ then they simply don’t have a hope. Distributions like Ubuntu have taught us that open source software usage is fluid – you let people download an ISO from the internet, let its usage spread and work with OEMs within that sphere. Increased usage increases an OEM’s interest in what OS they put on their machines.
In addition, competing against a truly incumbent system like Windows within traditional OEM channels is going to fail as it has done on countless occasions in the past. Getting an ISO into the hands of as many people as possible is the only way to increase usage and make what you sell attractive whilst getting around OEM channel limitations, and that’s what Microsoft has been afraid of.
The ISO installation is for geeks still. Most people do not install an OS. OEMs do that for them. Good move HP and Novell.
Segedunum… I agree with you to a point. But I think that customers who want SLED in their organizations are also people who have had an OpenSuSE ISO in their hands already. They see the value of a full supported OS from Novell. Way to go Novell. I’m happy to see they are on the right track to expand Linux
Actually I’d say the OEM installation is the way to go. Few people want to mess around with the bits that go boom. Both Novell and Canonical have the right idea. But they need to be more aggressive pushing their platforms to OEMs and software developers.
OpenSuSE has always been a good distro. The fact that Novell are going to be working on the software repository means schools can avoid the RPM hell SuSE can sometimes suffer from.
“The ISO installation is for geeks still. Most people do not install an OS. OEMs do that for them. Good move HP and Novell.”
Wrong, because you don’t address the base point as no one does. What motivates OEMs to install an OS and feel confident about installing it on everything? Usage. The size of the potential market. How do you get to that stage? Increase usage. You need to balance that equation.
The internet and the ISO image has provided a means where the usage of an OS can be increased dramatically and freely to the point where OEMs would actually take notice of it. You even get small OEMs downloading an ISO themselves and installing a Linux variant for people.
Novell has had OEM agreements for some years with regard to SLED, and unfortunately, it has not boosted its usage one iota. The above is why.
“They see the value of a full supported OS from Novell.”
Do they? How many people do you think use SLED in the world versus Open Suse?
Our school district has tested SLED/OpenOffice. If we were a client-server network, then SLED would be the way to go. As it is we have about 30 Windows Terminal Servers pushing desktop and apps to approx 2000 Linux thin clients. We’ve become reliant on MS as the underpinnings of desktop and application delivery. However, despite our reliance on MS and MS compatible apps, Novell sets at our core.
Even though all you read about Novell lately is the negativity that swirls around its agreement with MS, you should know that Novell gives away the store to education. Through the Novell SLA we get unlimited SUSE or OES installs for .50 a student. GroupWise for .50 a student. ZENworks for .50 a student. You get the idea. As a mixed network taking a “best of breed and price” approach we welcome interoperability mixed with competition.
If in our environment, if we were to roll out Linux desktops, we would configure it ourselves, most likely removing a OEM installed OS. In this case I welcome vendors selling systems with no OS at a reduced price as opposed to packaging and OS that we will remove entirely or modify heavily.
Mike St. Jean: Thanks for the perspective. The VAR Guy wishes Novell would get serious about GroupWise again and perhaps even open source it…
We offer solutions to the SLED marketspace with most of them using Netware/Suse due to the inexpensive pricing for education.
The challenge we face: where do we find the talented traditional Netware engineers that also have the Suse skills we want to hire? We’ve engaged recruiters, Dice & Monster postings and word of mouth for months with limited results.
Any direction on how to find these people would be most helpful.
Thank You.
Brenda,one place you might try is the job board on Novell’s communities sites: http://www.novell.com/communities/jobs
The kinds of people you are looking for tend to participate in Novell’s Cool Solutions Community and many of the job’s that are posted in that forum seem to get a lot of reads.
Scott, Brenda: Happy to see you’re able to make the connection here on TheVARguy.com.
Brenda: Please let us know about any projects you win, SUSE deployments, etc. The VAR Guy always like to hear about case studies and customer trends.