The VAR Guy

Time for The VAR Guy to eat a little crow. A few days ago our resident blogger reported that open source IP PBXes — and Asterisk — would have a low profile at the VoiceCon Orlando conference this week in Orlando. But Digium and Fonality sent a wake-up call to The VAR Guy. Here’s a scoop.

Zeacom, which specializes in contact center and unified communications software, is launching an ROI Calculator for Zeacom’s VARs and channel partners. Watch for details today (March 30) on the company’s Web site and at VoiceCon.

The VAR Guy is gearing up for a busy week in the Orlando, Florida, area. He’ll be stopping by VoiceCon on April 1 and Ingram Micro VTN on April 2. But here’s the big question: If The VAR Guy finds a few hours to sneak to an area theme park — which one should he visit? Before you answer, consider these world-class options.

Forgive The VAR Guy if he’s a little confused. Gartner just released a “Cool Vendors in Unified Communications, 2009″ report. Ummm. When did CIOs start looking for cool vendors? And when did Gartner replace Arthur Fonzarelli as the ultimate judge of cool?

Red Hat’s CEO, Jim Whitehurst, spoke out strongly recently against the possibility of Linux ever taking over the desktop computers of the world.  His comments may reflect Red Hat’s increasing distance from reality, but I don’t think they’re grounded in facts.  Here’s why.

Until a few years ago, Erik Lagerway was a self-described open source and Apple Macintosh fan who avoided Microsoft’s famed “blue screen of death” at all costs. Now he has a new title, a new focus and a growing managed services business (called SMBphone) built around Microsoft ResponsePoint. Why did Lagerway dial up Microsoft’s VoIP system for small businesses? Here’s the scoop.

You know how little things happen all around you and you’re not really sure what it all means or how/if they are connected?  And then one day the pieces all fall together and you have that OMG moment? That happened to me when reading about the MIX09 conference. I suddenly realize that Microsoft is finding ways to make closed source and open source live in harmony. Here’s how.

Want to generate some buzz for an upcoming conference? Steal a page from Robin Robins. Some pundits give away iPods at conferences. Other marketing leaders give away netbooks. But Robins is driving in a different direction and going viral to promote a managed services event. Hint: Somebody’s going to win a Jaguar. Here’s the scoop and the viral video to prove it.

Multiple open source software companies are pumping the same message into The VAR Guy’s email inbox. From Compiere to Pentaho, small open source application providers are calling on VARs to deploy business software in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Will VARs answer the call? Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

When The VAR Guy descends April 1 on VoiceCon Orlando 2009, he’ll meet multiple unified communications (UC) thought leaders. Our resident blogger has plenty of questions, and he’ll be seeking answers during meetings with Avaya, Cisco Systems, IBM and Siemens Enterprise Communications. Here are the top 7 questions The VAR Guy will be asking.

If you are still paying your sales staff based on commissions you may want to reconsider. There’s another compensation method that will not only help them sell more but it will deliver greater profits to your bottom line.  Here’s how.

If you’re a solutions provider trying to understand how to profit from Amazon Web Services, Google Apps and software as a service (SaaS), then please join us for The VAR Guy Live, a webcast scheduled for April 15 at 2:00pm eastern. Here are the details.

I like to run the latest software, so every 6 months when a new Ubuntu debuts I upgrade my system. To keep everything running smoothly I like to start with a clean install, but I always find myself repeating the same modifications. Some of these modifications are essential to get certain features to work, one of them is something I couldn’t do without. Here are my five essential Ubuntu modifications.

When VoiceCon 2009 kicks off March 30 in Orlando, The VAR Guy wonders: Will Microsoft arrive solo to this latest unified communications dance, or will it still have Nortel Networks on its arm? Here are some clues.

When Canonical this May launches an online training course for Ubuntu Server Edition, the virtual classroom will include a special guest speaker: Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth. Here’s the scoop, and how to attend if you’re interested.

Ingram Micro and Tech Data have agreed to distribute selected Dell Vostro small business desktops and laptops, select Dell monitors and extended limited hardware warranties. Impressive. But The VAR Guy wonders: When  will Dell servers enter the distribution mix?

Novell officially shipped SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 today. The really interesting part of the story involves two related projects — called Mono and Just enough Operating System (JeOS). Indeed, Mono and JeOS could give SUSE Linux 11 a lift with software developers, Microsoft .Net customers and partners, The VAR Guy believes. Here’s the scoop.

For three years, I’ve been a happy Gnome user. I’m still a happy Gnome user, but I’ve heard some buzz about KDE 4 lately and figured I’d give it a try.

When I made the jump to the Linux world by installing Mandriva 2006 a few years ago, KDE 3 was the desktop environment in which I took my first steps.  After moving to Fedora a few months later, however, I began using Gnome, mostly because it was the default environment and at that time I didn’t know how to install anything else.

Since switching to Ubuntu beginning with the 7.04 release, I’ve stuck with Gnome and haven’t looked back–until yesterday, when I installed KDE 4 on my Ubuntu 8.10 system using the kubuntu-desktop package.

Now that I’ve spent a day using KDE, I thought I’d make a list of what I like and dislike so far.

The Good

Maybe it’s only because of its novelty, but KDE 4 looks nice to me–and it’s definitely better than KDE 3, which seemed aesthetically dated even in 2006.  I wouldn’t call it gorgeous, but it’s not bad.  The splash screen, with its fade-in effects, is especially impressive.

I am also impressed by the search feature in the main menu.  In order to find an application, I can type its name or a description and it will automatically appear:

This is a pretty cool feature, and one that Gnome would do well to emulate.

Another nice move on the part of KDE developers was the creation of system-configuration utilities that don’t exist in Gnome, at least by default.  For instance, KDE comes with a graphical editor for the grub menu, something lacking in regular Ubuntu for quite a while.  Stuff like this is simple, but can be a real help to users who are afraid of hand-editing configuration files.

Finally, although it sort of reminds me of Microsoft’s efforts to make Windows revolve around Internet Explorer, I think I like how KDE’s web browser, Konqueror, can be used not only to browse Web pages, but to launch applications and manage files as well.  It’s nice to have everything in one place.

The Bad

I’ve spent the day using KMail, KDE’s default mail client, and have been less than impressed.  My chief grievances include:

1. it only works with Gmail if I set it to remember my password, which I would prefer not to do
2. no support for HTML messages (at least, I haven’t yet discovered how to enable it)
3. no calendar integration

Maybe I’ll learn to like KMail more if I use it a bit longer, but right now, I’m struggling to keep myself from going back to Evolution.

While Konqueror’s ability to manage files and launch applications is nice, it’s only barely cutting it as a web browser.  Sites that use a lot of JavaScript are very slow, and the WordPress composer is badly broken.  These might be problems that I could fix with a little work, but for the time being, I’m using Firefox for browsing the Internet.

KDE 4 also seems to have bastardized the concept of a desktop as it has existed in every major GUI-equipped operating system since the 1980s. Desktop icons can be placed only on part of the screen, in a sort of folder through which I have to scroll in order to see all the contents .  Although this might be a nice way of encouraging users to keep their desktops clean, it’s a pretty silly idea.  What were the developers really hoping to achieve by taking away the desktop?

Conclusions

At this point, I’ve yet to reach a verdict on whether or not I like KDE 4.  It has some nice features, but I’m having a hard time getting over KMail’s lackluster performance and the absence of a normal desktop.  I’ve made a commitment to continue using KDE until the end of the week, however, at which time I’ll write an update containing a more thorough outline of my experience.

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Word on the street says carriers are showing little interest in Dell’s concept smart phones. The VAR Guy is hardly surprised. Developing a me-too handset that runs Google Android or Windows Mobile isn’t all that exciting. Dell either needs to differentiate through software — or move into a different market. The VAR Guy recommends the latter. Here’s why.

Some high-tech companies have canceled their partner summits amid the recession. Juniper, however, confirms that it’s moving ahead with the annual J-Partner Summit. It’s scheduled for May 18-19 in Las Vegas, and CEO Kevin Johnson will be on hand to share his vision.

When Cisco Systems ships Unified Computing solutions this summer, BlueWater Communications intends to make a splash. The New York-based solutions provider will attend Cisco training seminars in April and May, and expects to receive Cisco’s first Unified Computing solutions in June or July. But that’s not all. During a TelePresence meeting with The VAR Guy on March 20, Cisco and BlueWater executives pulled back the curtain a bit further on Unified Computing.

The Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization created in 2007 to promote Linux, recently assumed control of the linux.com domain.  This is a good move, as it helps consolidate the image of Linux, making it easier for new users to find and understand the operating system–in other words, it brings greater centralization to Linux, which is badly needed if free software is to become ubiquitous on the desktops of the world.

The Cisco Unified Computing strategy is grabbing headlines. But are the products here today? Is this more than a server strategy? And what’s in it for partners? John Growdon, senior director, Go-to-Market Group, Cisco Worldwide Channels, provides some answers.

Podcast: Cisco Unified Computing's Implications for Channel Partners [ 13:32 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download