The VAR Guy

As major PC makers prepare to introduce Windows 7 systems on Oct. 22, upstarts like System76 are maintaining their focus on the Ubuntu market and preparing to preload Ubuntu 9.10 on a range of PCs starting Oct. 29. Here’s a preview of what’s to come.

Two prominent open source applications providers — Open-Xchange and SugarCRM — are partnering to integrate their collaboration and customer relationship management software. The move comes as Open-Xchange recruits SaaS partners and on-premise channel partners to battle Microsoft Exchange. Here’s the scoop.

At first glance, Microsoft’s world is converging this week around the Oct. 22 Windows 7 launch. But take a closer look and you’ll discover Microsoft promoting another big opportunity for VARs — this on involving SharePoint. Here’s the scoop.

The rumors (spread by The VAR Guy, of course) are true: Cisco Systems VP Luanne Tierney (pictured) has confirmed plans to hold a Partner Velocity marketing conference in Paris, Nov. 10-12. The networking giant will avoid the temptation to pitch its own products at the event. Instead, Cisco plans to help solutions providers build their own marketing programs. Here’s the scoop.

It’s the rumor Oracle can’t quite confirm or deny until the Sun Microsystems deal is completed: During the Oracle OpenWorld conference (Oct. 11-15, San Francisco), speculation mounted that Oracle was preparing an Unbreakable Linux offering that features the MySQL database — and targets Microsoft’s Windows Server-SQL Server combo. Here’s more about the Oracle-MySQL chatter.

NetworkManager, the default wired- and wireless-connection client in Ubuntu, has received a substantial aesthetic makeover for Ubuntu 9.10.  Here’s a look.

What does the future hold for Cisco Systems? The VAR Guy spotted Cisco opportunities and challenges this week in Arizona during two small but strategic conferences: Astricon and N-able Partner Summit. Here’s the scoop.

The Canadian government continues to review Avaya’s Nortel Enterprise buyout. But that hasn’t stopped Avaya from laying the groundwork for Nortel channel partners to join the Avaya ecosystem.

After 18 months of working to bring a global cohesiveness to its myriad channel programs, Avaya thinks it has found a magic formula for partners. The VARGuy hopes the networking giant is right — especially as Avaya works to complete the Nortel Enterprise business unit acquisition. Here are some key thoughts.

Ho, ho, ho. HP has an early holiday present for anyone building SaaS and cloud applications. The PC giant has unveiled Elastic Test, an on-demand cloud-based web server load testing service, aimed at helping e-commerce sites prepare for massive traffic spikes as the holiday shopping season approaches. Here’s the scoop.

As Windows 7′s October 22 launch date approaches, Microsoft has started describing why its server counterpart — Windows Server 2008 R2 — could also be a hit with customers. Here’s a quick look at what’s coming in R2, and why VARs should care.

Digium CEO Danny Windham has a message for networking VARs seeking a new opportunity in the IT channel: Digium — the provider of Asterisk, the open source IP PBX — is profitable, growing and seeking talented solutions providers. Here are more thoughts from Windham and the Digium executive team.

Has Google embraced Digium’s Asterisk, the open source IP PBX? Google Open Source Programs Manager Chris DiBona (pictured) provides some answers during the AstriCon conference in Glendale, Ariz. The VAR Guy captured DiBona’s thoughts in this FastChat video…

For those of you still scratching your head over Avaya’s decision to acquire Nortel Networks’ enterprise assets, Avaya President and CEO Kevin Kennedy (pictured) laid out the deets in his general session today at Avaya’s 2010 Global Sales and Americas Partner Conference. Here’s what Kennedy had to say…

The channel rules Avaya – that’s the message at the 2010 Global Sales and Americas Partner Conference, being held this week in Nashville. Here are some observations live from the conference.

At the Astricon conference in Arizona, Digium announced the AsteriskExchange application store, an overhauled Asterisk.org community site and AsteriskForge for software developers. The three moves potentially solidify Asterisk and Digium as a disruptive force in the IP PBX market and the channel. Digium Founder and CTO Mark Spencer explained the strategy to The VAR Guy.

Compiere, a small open source ERP software provider, is on track to grow its business 50 percent this year, driving 80 percent of company revenues through the channel. Next up, Compiere is striving to attract roughly 40 new VARs and integrators into the company’s channel partner program — which includes SaaS and on-premise approaches. Here’s the scoop.

Do you think that free software is important to cloud computing? I personally think it is crucial, and here is why.

Asterisk, the open source IP PBX, is turning 10 years old. And Digium, the fast-growing provider of commercial Asterisk solutions, is hosting the Astricon conference this week. All sounds well. But The VAR Guy will raise seven key questions when he speaks with Digium officials later today. Here they are.

And now a brief break from business-oriented coverage on WorksWithU. As a history Ph.D. student by day and free-software geek by night, I find that my poles of interest rarely converge.  That’s why I was so excited when the real-time historical strategy game 0 A.D. was switched to an open-source license in July.  I’ve been meaning since then to give it a try, and finally found the time and hardware necessary to do that.  Here are the results.

Set in antiquity and designed with historical accuracy as a priority, 0 A.D. is a real-time strategy game that supports Linux, Windows and OS X. The developers, Wildfire Games, originally intended to distribute it as freeware, but decided to open-source the code last summer in hopes that it would speed the development process.

The game is not yet really playable, but it runs.  Here are some screenshots:

And here are some more interesting shots courtesy of the game’s Wikipedia article (it was not playable enough on my computer to get any very exciting scenes):

Why it’s great

0 A.D. is probably the only open-source RTS game besides Glest that attempts to bring to Linux users a gaming experience otherwise available only on Windows (or through wine, sometimes).  Other strategy games for Linux exist, some of them decent enough to provide a few hours’ entertainment, but they’re mostly half-baked and lack the professional quality of their commercially developed betters, especially when it comes to art and gameplay.

That’s no surprise, since the free-software community is short on the kind of talent required to create good games.  Coders are available in abundance, but finding experienced artists, designers and writers willing to contribute to open-source projects can be difficult, especially when cash is tight.

Despite these odds, 0 A.D. has clearly managed to assemble some impressive non-coding talent, as the artwork above attests to.  If the game receives the necessary support from the community to put out a successful product, it will set an important precedent demonstrating that quality games can be developed on the open-source model.  It will also send a message to vendors that Linux users care about games, which may help expand the dismal range of offerings currently available for Ubuntu.

Appendix: installing 0 A.D. on Ubuntu

The game is still highly unstable, but packages are available from getdeb.  To install the game from that repository, just type:

echo "deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu jaunty-getdeb-testing apps games" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/getdeb-testing.list
wget -O- http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install 0ad

Note that the getdeb packages were built in July, and are missing all of the improvements implemented since then.

The truly adventurous can try compiling from source using the latest subversion code.  The instructions in this Ubuntu Forums post worked for me on 64-bit Jaunty.  Unfortunately, although the code compiled without a problem and the application launched, it crashed when I tried to start a new single-player game.  But I may simply have checked out a bad svn snapshot.

Don’t tell Stephen Hall there’s no money in Windows 7 deployments. The CEO of District Computers LLC, a Microsoft Gold Partner, says his team is booked solid with Windows 7 deployments every weekend (except holidays) through January 2010. Why is Hall seeing so much demand for Microsoft’s new operating system — even before Windows 7 ships on Oct. 22? Here’s the scoop.

At Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco, Channel Chief Judson Althoff unveiled the Oracle PartnerNetwork Specialized program — which strives to connect customers with partners that have deep expertise in specific technologies and market segments. Here’s the scoop, plus a FastChat video with Althoff.

Oracle is taking coopetition to the max at the company’s OpenWorld conference in San Francisco. Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Dell all are major sponsors of the event. But Oracle CEO Larry Ellison apparently will share the stage with Sun Microsystems Co-founder Scott McNealy tonight during a keynote that starts shortly. Here’s the scoop.