The VAR Guy

Dear Firefox: It’s not me, it’s you. Our courtship began a little over four years ago when I realized that I was doing myself a disservice by limiting myself to the slow and bare-bones Microsoft Internet Explorer. There was a whole new world of open source for me to discover, and I thought I’d be happy installing extensions and opening tabs forever. After the last couple of releases, though, our relationship turned sour, and yesterday I had to break it off. Here’s what I hope the open source community learns from my unluckiness in love.

If you thought the market wasn’t crowed enough with Linux netbooks, here comes another contender: MSI is launching the first netbook to be shipped with Novell’s SUSE’s Moblin operating system. Moblin is designed to deliver a mobile computing experience that’s easier to use, and suitable for smaller screens. Here’s the deal.

Google had a heck of a 2009, kicking off with the launch of their authorized reseller program and wrapping up with the announcement that the City of Los Angeles was going to Google Apps. Last year also marked the launch of several new technologies under the Google banner, including Voice, Chrome — the browser and the OS — and Wave. Later today, I’m speaking with Jeff Ragusa, the Google Apps channel manager to get some perspective on what these technologies meant for resellers in 2009, and what VARs can expect in the year ahead. Here’s some of what I want to know more about.

Is Google mulling a more aggressive move into the hardware market with a range of partners? Could Google’s Chrome OS set the stage for a Google Netbook? Buzz about a potential Google Netbook seems to be growing. But will Google really make the move — and what are the implications for solutions providers?

At first glance, Google is making three moves that don’t impact VARs. But take a closer look and Google’s latest efforts could actually have some implications for channel partners. Here are the detals…

There’s a lot of buzz about Google Chrome and the impending Google Chrome OS. But something strange happened Oct. 28. Gizmodo briefly posted an article saying Chrome OS was out. But was the report true?

Novell Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon popped up in a surprising location this week. Dragoon, who also serves as Novell’s channel chief, wrote a column on Forbes.com. In it, Dragoon declares consumers will be the big winners in the operating system battles between Apple, Google, Microsoft and Linux. The column is an interesting read. And it begs the question: Is Novell prepping more SUSE Linux desktop and mobile moves? Here are some answers.

So, which Web browser has the most software bugs: Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox? uTest, a fast-growing marketplace for software testing, uncovered some rather intriguing answers. Here’s the scoop, from The VAR Guy.

Compiere, which specializes in open source ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, is building a reseller channel and jumping on the Google Chrome web browser bandwagon. Here’s how.

Here’s to the next generation IT channel. The VAR Guy’s readership continues to master new technologies. For instance, 3.99% of www.thevarguy.com visitors now run Google Chrome. Not bad for a one-week-old Web browser. Here’s a breakdown of the browsers readers use when visiting this site.