The VAR Guy

Greg Davis, Dell’s North American channel chief, is moving up to a global post, according to the folks at ChannelInsider. Hmmm. That should silence conspiracy theorists who think Dell’s surprise New Year’s Eve reorganization could put the company’s PartnerDirect channel program at risk.

Pssst: Hey Greg Davis (pictured). You’ve just been named Dell’s global channel chief — in charge of the PC giant’s worldwide partner strategy. What are you going to do next? Here’s one suggestion: Offer some Ubuntu PCs to solutions providers. Here’s why.

Welcome to The VAR Guy Live: Podcast Edition. In this episode, Novell Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon responds to five key questions about the company’s SUSE Linux strategies, broader software efforts and partner initiatives.

The VAR Guy Live: Podcast 001, Novell's John Dragoon [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

As you may have heard, Cisco Systems is offering $100,000 in prize money to Linux application developers that help the networking giant defeat Microsoft in the unified communications market. Update: Now for a new twist. International Linux developers have flooded Cisco with inquiries about the contest — forcing the networking giant to push back a competition deadline. Here’s the scoop.

Matt Asay, author of The Open Road — a popular blog on CNet — suggests two reasons why Dell should acquire Red Hat. Alas, The VAR Guy strongly disagrees with Mr. Asay. Here are seven reasons why Dell will never acquire Red Hat.

There’s some reason to believe that Empathy is the next big thing in instant-messaging on the Ubuntu desktop.  There have been passionate calls for its adoption in Ubuntu 9.04 as a replacement for Pidgin, and the Gnome people seem to be pushing it (not surprisingly, since it’s developed under their auspices) for future releases–note the big green dot next to Mary Poppins’ name in the conceptualization images of the new Gnome desktop.  Give all this hype, I decided to try it for myself.

Most folks are focusing on Cisco Systems’ consumer electronics push this week. But The VAR Guy is keeping one eye on the data center — where Cisco apparently is preparing to launch blade servers. If true, our resident blogger wonders: How soon will Cisco speed dial Red Hat, MySQL, Novell, SugarCRM and other open source application providers?

Poor Microsoft. Windows 7 isn’t even shipping yet and there’s already buzz about who loves — and who hates — the forthcoming successor to Windows Vista. Apparently, ZDnet’s Jason Perlow isn’t a fan of Windows 7. But Perlow’s ZDNet colleague Ed Bott offers a more balanced perspective on Windows 7.

Sure, the headline is a bit over the top. But so was recent trade press and blogosphere speculation about Steve Jobs’ health. Today, Jobs issued a letter to the Apple community explaining his recent weight loss (it involves a hormone imbalance), anticipated recovery and continued focus as Apple’s CEO.

The VAR Guy’s crystal ball is a little fuzzy today. Perhaps a trip to Starbucks will open his eyes a little wider. In the meantime, if you’re looking for some predictions about the Software as a Service (SaaS) and Managed Services markets check out these thoughts from Think Strategies’ Jeff Kaplan and Kaseya’s Dan Shapero, respectively.

There’s been some discussion lately about promoting Linux as a gaming platform in order to win the struggle against proprietary operating systems.  It’s an interesting idea, but I don’t think it meshes well with reality.  Here’s why.

We are making some enhancements to TheVARguy.com today (Sunday, January 4).  We don’t expect site visitors to experience any major problems. But you may spot a few minor imperfections as we upgrade our systems. Thanks for your understanding today and Happy New Year.

We are making some enhancements to WorksWithU.com today (Sunday, January 4).  We don’t expect site visitors to experience any major problems. But you may spot a few minor imperfections as we upgrade our systems. Thanks for your understanding today and Happy New Year.

2008 was a great year.  The United States got a new president.  I got a college degree, complete with the associated crushing personal debt (a nice complement to the crushing national debt incurred by my country).  More importantly, however, new features were introduced to Ubuntu and Linux.  Although it comes a bit belatedly (today being the first day of 2009), here’s a list of my favorite innovations in 2008: