The VAR Guy

Only hours after Valentine’s Day in the United States, Hewlett-Packard is showing Canonical’s Ubuntu Server Edition some love. Specifically, HP plans to certify its ProLiant servers to run Ubuntu Server Edition. Here’s the scoop, along with the implications for solutions providers.

It’s one small step for Hewlett-Packard, and one giant leap for Ubuntu Server Edition and Canonical. Specifically, HP and Canonical are working to certify HP ProLiant servers to run Ubuntu Server Edition, Canonical marketing manager Gerry Carr has confirmed to WorksWithU. Here are the preliminary details, and its implications for customers.

GroundWork Open Source says nearly one-third of its newest customers are deploying its network management software on Ubuntu. Here are the early details.

As most Linux followers know, Wine allows you to run many Windows programs on Linux. But how does Wine work with Ubuntu and where is it heading? Our quest for answers led us to Ubuntu community developer and Wine expert Scott Ritchie, known by many peers as YokoZar. Here’s our interview with him.

The VAR Guy previously bashed Microsoft for building training partnerships with lame retail chains like CompUSA. Now, it’s time to give Microsoft some credit — even if the company is once again following Apple’s lead, this time into the retail store market. Here are five reasons the Microsoft Store concept could work.

Despite the Linux and Ubuntu netbook craze, I think there is a simple reason why Linux is not a mainstream solution for most users — yet. Let me explain.

MSPmentor (The VAR Guy’s sister site) has unveiled its latest MSPmentor 100 report. The free 2008-2009 report identifies the world’s 100 most progressive managed service providers and also pinpoints key trends in the managed services market. Feel free to take a look.

Let’s face it: The only real reason for having partners is to drive greater amounts of revenue less expensively that doing it yourself. So why are so many channel partner programs generating mediocre results? You can certainly blame your partners’ inability to execute. But here are the three key issues you really need to address.

Sometimes I don’t see eye to eye with the Ubuntu user community. For instance, I think Ubuntu Server Edition should be Canonical’s top priority for 2009. But only 8 percent of WorksWithU’s readers agree with me, according to a recent online poll we ran. Here’s why I’m right and 92 percent of WorksWithU’s readers are wrong.

The VAR Guy spoke earlier today with Craig Muzilla (pictured), Red Hat’s VP of middleware. Our resident blogger asked Muzilla the same question multiple times: When will Red Hat’s fast-growing JBoss middleware business be larger than Red Hat’s Linux business? Muzilla politely danced around the question but offered these  anecdotes.

Open-Xchange, which positions itself as an open source alternative to Microsoft Exchange, has a message for solutions providers: Yes, you can make money by blending open source applications with software as a service (SaaS). In fact, Open-Xchange is nearing 10 million paid users, and the company has a few surprises in store for 2009. Here’s the scoop.

Time for The VAR Guy to eat a little crow. In a post last week, our resident blogger told readers Microsoft was invading Digium AsteriskWorld, an open source IP PBX conference in Miami. There was only one problem with the blog entry: The VAR Guy was wrong. Here’s how he goofed.

When it comes to building secure IT solutions, who can you trust? CompTIA (the Computing Technology Industry Association) is striving to define the answer. The IT association (best known for its A+ and Network+ certifications) appears to be gaining traction with its Security Trustmark accreditation. Here’s the scoop.

The VAR Guy is smiling. Another of his predictions is coming true: The emerging open source IT channel is converging with cloud services. To wit, OpenBI — a business intelligence solutions provider — is deploying applications in Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for a health care company. Here’s the scoop.

Generally, a fresh installation of Ubuntu is pretty usable out-of-the-box.  But some aspects of the default configuration seem pretty silly to me.  Here are the ones I’d change first if I were in charge of Ubuntu.

File-system privileges

By default, almost every file on an Ubuntu system is readable by everyone.   This means that, under a non-privileged account, I can read system configuration files that normal users have no reason to view, and which might be exploited by a malicious user to gain root access to the system.

Sometimes The VAR Guy is a little slow. Red Hat has achieved two important company milestones, according to CEO Jim Whitehurst (pictured), that The VAR Guy nearly overlooked. It took some time for our resident blogger to realize the significance of Whitehurst’s statement. Take a look for yourself.

Sometimes The VAR Guy amazes even himself. About a year ago, he told readers to check out BroadSign International, which develops digital signage married to SaaS (software as a service). Now, Ingram Micro and BroadSign have unveiled a digital signage kit for North American VARs. The VAR Guy is hardly surprised. Here’s the scoop.

Lenovo skeptics think the company is heading back to China. In reality, there’s growing evidence the ThinkPad maker is planning new North American initiatives — including a new partner portal as well as a major managed services push, The VAR Guy has learned.

As Uncle Sam prepares to write economic stimulus checks, IBM hopes to help Business Partners cash them. With that goal in mind, Big Blue has unveiled the Dynamic Infrastructure Specialty Program, which provides partners with sales, marketing and technical assistance and as much as $100,000 in business development funds.

When it comes to Ubuntu, we have the flash, we have the solid operating system, we have major suppliers — but now we need even more users. Are those users going to come because of Dell or Hewlett-Packard offering Ubuntu pre-loads? Nope. Here’s what Ubuntu (and Kubuntu) really need to go mainstream.

Seeking to be known as more than the SUSE Linux company, Novell today shed more light on its evolving partner program — which blankets the company’s complete product portfolio. The announcements tie together many of the clues Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon provided to The VAR Guy back in January. Here’s a quick look at the news.

As the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) prepares to kick-off February 20 in Los Angeles, The VAR Guy did some preliminary poking around. He wanted to see if there were any key trends worth nothing for open source solutions providers. The result? Take a look at these three anticipated trends and themes from SCALE.

The VAR Guy is distracted with a few deadlines, but wanted to alert readers about some new financing and leasing programs from Tech Data and its partners. Take a look but be sure to note one key correction: Symantec is not providing 60-day terms and should not have been included in the press release, according to a Tech Data spokesman.