Comments on: Canonical: Profiting From Google Chrome OS?

By: Vadim P.

Vadim P. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:56:44 +0000

ChromeOS is competing where Ubuntu Netbook Remix is. A field with already a lot of competition. Whenever they’ll solve the marketing problems other Linuxes have, I’m not sure – but I don’t see anything helpful coming out for Ubuntu out of it.

By: Jef Spaleta

Jef Spaleta — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:09:03 +0000

Leo:
I think the MS voucher revenue primarily dried out 2 financial quarters ago…if I understand how Novell accounted for the voucher revenue..they sort of spread it out like it was subscription revenue even though it was a lump sum paid by Microsoft. I think the last quarterly results are sans voucher revenue. I may be wrong about that, but the last Red Hat financial quarterly meeting transcript sort of backs up my understanding. Red Hat noted that a major customer came back to Red Hat after their voucher period expired. The only want to understand the impact of the vouchers on Novell’s business is to watch and see how many voucher customers they can convert into paying subscription customers.

I don’t think you can really count Novell out of the game. They are doing good interesting work with both Studio and Moblin…both initiatives which are completely unassociated with the patent problems inherent in their relationship with MS.

-jef

By: Leo

Leo — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:41:54 +0000

Jef: you may be right, and this may be wishful thinking on my side, because, as you noted, they did hurt the community/ecosystem at large.

What I read was that they have a temporary cash revenue from those vouchers which is bound to dry out. So, these results you are mentioning are largely temporary. And what I do know is that alienating the community is not the way to make money out of free software, everyone who tried failed. If they want to abuse free software, they should do what apple does (and even MS to some extent) and steal, I mean use BSD code, which is open to abuse.

Oh well, I realize I am being opinionated, but these are my thoughts. I am convinced SuSE will be deemed irrelevant in a five year time span, and I am patiently waiting

By: Jef Spaleta

Jef Spaleta — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:39:21 +0000

Leo:

Actually… you take a really good look at Novell’s quarter statements and read the transcripts from the quarterly conference and they are actually doing better linux revenue numbers now than before the deal. They aren’t keeping all the customers that switched by using vouchers once they expired..but they are clearly keeping some. Novell is a big company, with many different distinct software divisions. There linux division is actually a profit generator and is growing… while other parts of the company are seeing shrinking revenue. I don’t think its clear that the MS deal hurt Novell as a business. Its hurt the opensuse community and its hurt the wider linux ecosystem…but its not clear that its hurt Novell as a business.

-jef

By: Leo

Leo — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:12:45 +0000

Yes, I think Casey has a valid point. Actually, the “cooperation” agreement in the free software world tend to go sour when someone tries something dirty, like the MS-Novell agreement to “protect” SUSE customers, in effect a bribe from MS to Novell that intends to legitimate MS claim that Linux use jeopardizes Linux users from a legal stand point.

That went sour for Novell. They got some cash, but they kicked themselves out of the game, with RedHat stronger than ever and Canonical starting to grow in several different fronts, while Novell is laying people off and slowly fading …

By: Casey

Casey — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:55:04 +0000

While I think you produce a valid point with os/2 and the mess that occurred there, I think the big difference here is the very nature of “open source” vs. closed source. While both companies this time are ‘for profit’, they are working in an arena VERY different than the example of IBM vs. Microsoft.

That and Canonical IS diversifying its revenue and focus tells me that this could be a VERY good partnership over the long run regardless of marketshare between one OS and the other.
My 2 cents anyway.

By: Leo

Leo — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:03:46 +0000

I wonder what will happen to gOS, because the overlap with Chrome is way too obvious:

http://www.thinkgos.com/company/index.html

By: cryptozoologist

cryptozoologist — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:57:52 +0000

the beauty of chrome for linux users is that we will be able to open a window and it will contain the 100% bestest chrome experience available, plus the great gnome/kde/enlightenment/xfce/windowmaker etc. experience we know and love.

some will opt for chrome by itself which is great, but until it is a viable and desirable replacement for the rest of the linux experience we will be able to have our cake and eat it too.