The VAR Guy

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.

A year ago, 15 percent of Alfresco’s sales involved channel partners. This year, the open source content management company will drive 60 percent of its sales through channel partners, The VAR Guy has learned. So, what can other open source companies learn from Alfresco’s channel strategy? Take a look.

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.

Two small Linux companies are merging. What does it mean to Linux market leaders like Red Hat, Novell and Ubuntu — and Linux customers? Here are some clues from The VAR Guy.

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.

Matt Asay, a leading voice in the open source community and a top blogger at CNet, claims he has met The VAR Guy — and The VAR Guy’s beautiful wife. Asay’s yarn makes for an interesting read. But is it true — did he really meet our resident blogger? Weigh the following facts before deciding for yourself.