TECH NOTES

Ubuntu Wants a Bigger Piece of Desktops, Servers
Click title for source at EWeek.com…

By Darryl K. Taft
February 23, 2007

NEW YORK—The 2007 road map for the Ubuntu Linux operating system includes continuing its focus on the desktop, paying more attention to the server and garnering additional corporate support.

Speaking at Ubuntu user conference UbuCon here at Google’s New York complex on Feb. 16, Steve George, director of support and services at Canonical, said, “The view from the Ubuntu side is that Microsoft has too much of the market. We’re going to continue rolling out and making Ubuntu easy to use on the desktop and we’ll add increased focus on the server this year.” Canonical is the sponsor of the Ubuntu project and maintainer of the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

“Oracle made the wrong choice in going with Red Hat” for its Linux distribution, George said, noting that Oracle will have to patch Red Hat problems.
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Well its about time! Linux, like Solaris, is a perfectly capable OS that should be given its due with hardware vendors.

If DELL corrects both its customer service and Quality Control problems over the coming months, this potential move to sell more Linux based PCs may prove to be the saving of the company’s fortunes while giving Microsoft more headaches with its recent release of their Vista operating system.

Sort of explains why Steve Ballmer is once again on the warpath over Linux…

See the article below by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for details

Steve Naidamast
Black Falcon Software, Inc.

Feb. 20, 2007

Dell gives desktop Linux its full attention
Click title for source at DesktopLinux.com…

In an attempt to boost its sagging fortunes, Dell, one of the leading PC makers in America, recently launched the Dell Idea Storm website to solicit ideas on how to get Dell back to the top. The most popular idea so far? Desktops with pre-installed Linux.

That’s good news, but what’s better news is that Dell is taking it seriously. In a brief email exchange with Bob Pearson, Dell’s vice president of corporate group communications, said, “You’re right that Linux is one of the hottest topics on Idea Storm.”

Specifically, users wanted the top-three free Linuxes — Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE — offered as selections for the Dell desktop. The Linux option was almost twice as popular as the next option. That next option was, by the way, to have OpenOffice pre-installed instead of Microsoft Works or a trial version of Microsoft Office.

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Steve Ballmer can’t seem to give things a break!  Inside sources have been reported as saying that their is a feeling among the technical personnel that many would like to see Ray Ozzie take the helm who is far more in line with the mentality of technicians.

Maybe its the poor Vista sales that has Ballmer worried.  He has good reason to be…

See the article below by Richard Thurston of ZDNet…

Steve Naidamast
Black Falcon Software, Inc.

Ballmer repeats threats against Linux
Click title for source at ZDNet.com…

By Richard Thurston

Steve Ballmer has reissued Microsoft’s patent threat against Linux, warning open-source vendors that they must respect his company’s intellectual property.
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In a no-nonsense presentation to New York financial analysts last Thursday, Microsoft’s chief executive said the company’s partnership with Novell, which it signed in November 2006, “demonstrated clearly the value of intellectual property, even in the open-source world.”The cross-selling partnership means that Microsoft will recommend Suse Linux for customers who want an environment mix of Microsoft and open-source software. It also involves a “patent cooperation agreement,” under which Microsoft and Novell agreed not to sue each other for patent infringement.In a clear threat against open-source users, Ballmer repeated his earlier assertions that open source “is not free,” referring to the possibility that Microsoft may sue Linux sellers. Microsoft has suggested that the Linux operating system infringes some of its intellectual property, but it has never named the patents in question.“I would not anticipate that we make a huge additional revenue stream from our Novell deal, but I do think it clearly establishes that open source is not free, and open source will have to respect the intellectual-property rights of others, just as any other competitor will,” Ballmer said.“But I don’t want to eliminate in your minds the notions of risk of pricing that comes from competition with open source. We are higher-priced, but we bring greater value,” he added.Alongside the renewed threat over intellectual property, Ballmer was also bullish over winning large corporate accounts against Linux vendors.

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