The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy arrived in Portland, Oregon, last night to attend OSCON (Open Source Conference) 2008. He’s heading to the show now and will be providing updates (with an emphasis on Canonical and Ubuntu) throughout the day.

The VAR Guy smiled a bit when he read Matt Asay’s blog entry about media folks who pretend they’re unbiased. Asay says he prefers media and blogs that disclose their biases about tech products, companies, investments, etc. The VAR Guy certainly agrees. So here are some of his biases.

A few weeks ago, Dell gave The VAR Guy an open invitation to write a guest entry on the Dell Channel Blog. The VAR Guy has been a bit distracted — and perhaps a bit perplexed — so he never took Dell up on the offer. Now, Dell is extending the offer far more broadly — inviting partners to submit a guest post on the Dell Channel Blog. Wow. This could get interesting. Here’s why.

The VAR Guy spotted this rather interesting blog entry from the Microsoft Exchange Server team. The blog shows what the iPhone looks like from an Exchange administrator’s perspective. Take a look.

Canonical CEO and Ubuntu Linux backer Mark Shuttleworth will step into the spotlight July 22, when he keynotes OSCON (Open Source Convention) in Portland, Oregon. It will be a critical moment for Shuttleworth and the Ubuntu movement. Here’s why.

The news isn’t all bad at Symantec this week. The company has been working overtime to address controversial channel comments from COO Enrique Salem. But on the other hand, there’s some promising developments involving Symantec Protection Network, the company’s software as a service platform. Here’s the scoop from our sister site, MSPmentor.

Microsoft’s stock dropped sharply today because the company’s latest quarterly profits didn’t quite meet Wall Street’s expectations. Meanwhile, The VAR Guy and other open source bloggers continue to hype Red Hat and Linux as growing threats to Microsoft. But before you suggest open source will destroy Microsoft’s profits, take a look at these stagging financial figures.

It’s finally official. Dell’s Ubuntu Linux PCs now come with the latest build of the operating system, version 8.04. That may not seem like news, but it’s actually a significant move by Dell. Here’s why.

Memo to Symantec: It’s time to change your channel PR strategy. Right now. On the one hand, Symantec was smart to address a swirling controversy around its channel program (as covered by CRN and ChannelWeb). But on the other hand, the more Symantec says about the situation the more CRN and ChannelWeb use Symantec’s own words against the software company. Here’s how Symantec PR should handle damage control going forward.

Have you ever adjusted your message based on your audience? Consider the situation at Symantec: Channel VP Julie Parrish (left) needs to engage partners while COO Enrique Salem (right) needs to engage Wall Street analysts. Their words serve separate audiences. But without careful coordination, their upbeat messages to one audience can wind up alienating the other audience.