Matt Asay (not pictured), the man behind CNet’s Open Road blog, speculates that Oracle could go shopping for Red Hat because Red Hat shares are trading near a 52-week low. Alas, The VAR Guy agrees: Oracle has deep pockets and Red Hat would be a good buy for the company. But The VAR Guy hopes it doesn’t happen. Here’s why.
During a phone chat today, a Web developer asked The VAR Guy if the US financial crisis would send more corporate customers running out to buy low-cost open source solutions. The VAR Guy’s surprising answer: No. Here’s why.
New Channel Chief Javier Colado has his eyes on multiple opportunities to bolster Novell’s partner program. In this quick email interview with The VAR Guy, Colado describes some of his executive experience, and some of his initial goals.
Back in August, The VAR Guy reported that Lenovo was preparing to launch its first servers. Our resident blogger expected the operating system options to include Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Novell SUSE Linux. Turns out, Red Hat wasn’t invited to the Lenovo server party — at least not initially.
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Javier Colado, Novell’s new channel chief (pictured), faces some clear challenges. Many pundits say Colado has to strengthen Novell’s SUSE Linux partner ranks. But in reality, The VAR Guy believes, Colado has to build a bridge between vastly different software islands. Here’s why.
Lenovo and Novell next week are set to announce joint work on Lenovo’s new Think servers. However, the Linux faithful are distracted this week by reports that Lenovo has stopped selling SUSE Linux on certain PCs. Now, both Lenovo and Novell are weighing in with responses.
More >Sure, Windows is expected to run on 1 billion devices by 2010. But a loud minority is making its voice heard by moving to Ubuntu Linux. In fact, Canonical’s marketing materials state that Ubuntu now has more than 8 million users.
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Novell is losing money in the desktop Linux market, but those desktop deals are driving big wins in the server arena, according to Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon. A case in point: Novell’s desktop Linux relationship with Lenovo — the big PC maker — will extend to servers this September, confirms Dragoon.
It’s another small step for consumer Linux, and another giant win for Novell SUSE Linux. The VAR Guy was strolling through his local BJs Wholesale Club over the holiday weekend, when he spotted a Hewlett-Packard 2133 Mini-Note PC (pictured) with Novell SUSE Linux preloaded. Sweet … but not perfect. Here’s why.
Lots of open source fans booed when Novell jumped into bed with Microsoft. But perhaps sleeping with Microsoft really is good for Novell’s health. Anecdotal evidence is starting to suggest that CIOs (chief information officers) actually like seeing Novell and Microsoft arm in arm.
