The VAR Guy

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.

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.

Ever wonder why Red Hat spends so much time focused on the JBoss middleware market and so little time trying to make Linux a desktop standard? The answer involves some simple but startling open source math. Check out this little piece of Red Hat financial info, uncovered by The VAR Guy.

So, how high will Red Hat’s partner sales climb this year? The VAR Guy spoke with Red Hat VP Mark Enzweiler on June 9, noted some facts and figures, and then did some quick math. Take a look at the results.

Some folks say VARs are dead. After checking his own pulse and web site traffic, The VAR Guy disagrees. Instead, he believes channel pros are reinventing themselves via managed services and new software stacks. In fact, a new survey by Channel Insider suggests that Red Hat Linux is now the most popular platform among VARs.