Comments on: Red Hat Dismisses Consumer Desktop Linux (Again)

By: Jef Spaleta

Jef Spaleta — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:45:34 +0000

@aikiwolfie

Yes lets talk about virtualized desktops. and that sweetheart deal between IBM, Canonical and Virtual Bridges.

The announced product from IBM in December was really a veiled announcement for the Virtual Bridges VERDE VDI technology.
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26230.wss

IBM injected a cut down version of lotus suite (occs) into that offering at no-cost as a value add. The bulk of the per-user pricetag, $49, went to virtual bridges. $10 went to Canonical for support. That’s a pretty sweet deal for Canonical and for Virtual Bridges. But that was december. Is that product offer still on the table at the price from virtual bridges?

I look at virtual bridges website today and I see a $125 per user with a minimum of 10 users:
http://vbridges.com/wp/?page_id=108
okay actually its a little less than that for the first 10 users.. just under $1k
http://vbridges.com/wp/?page_id=96

I guess you have to contact virtual bridges sales and make a direct inquiry with regard to that special $59 per user deal from December. If that Ubuntu based VDL solution was really getting strong support and interest, you’d think they’d have it placed prominently on their product page. As it stands it sounds like that price point was a limited time promotional offer from virtual bridges. Maybe someone here at workswithu can contact virtual bridges and ask them why the $59 per user price point from the december announcement isn’t listed in their online store. Is Canonical still getting a cut of the $125 price? Or are consumers going to have to contract with Canonical separately for support?

You’ll also note that Virtual Bridges extended VERDE to work with RHEL as well:
http://vbridges.com/wp/?p=86

Maybe that’s because Red Hat is still recognized as the established leader in virtualization:
http://press.redhat.com/2009/03/24/red-hat-enterprise-linux-collects-industry-awards-for-leadership-in-virtualization-green-it-and-overall-platform-value/

So what about IBM? IBM has historically tried to support multiple linux vendors at that same time. They do not want to make the mistake of creating another Microsoft by just supporting one linux vendor. And it is a smart move on their part. But don’t mistake IBM’s support of Canonical as a more than it is…it is market place competition maintenance. IBM keeps the door open for Canonical to find its feet, just like they keep the door open for Novell to find its feet…but its sure not an exclusive love fest. IBM isn’t going to get stuck in an exclusive deal with anyone. They are not going to pick a defacto winner. They are going to continue to throw vendors into the ring and let them fight. Look at this page:
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/openclient/
links for Red Hat, Ubuntu and Novell all listed as occs partners. Here’s a press clipping that summaries IBM multi-vendor support for occs:
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/080805/0422227.html

Maybe you want to compare and contrast these two pages:
http://www.redhat.com/partners/partnerspotlight/ibm/lotus/
http://www.ubuntu.com/partners/occs
Anything significantly different between the two?

-jef

By: aikiwolfie

aikiwolfie — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:39:12 +0000

Red Hat need to make contributions to keep their army of Fedora testers happy. Without the Fedora community Red Hat would have to do an awful lot more in house testing which would obviously hurt. And lets face it, there’s little point in being an open source company if you’re doing it all your self. So it’s give and take just the way FOSS should be. Everybody goes home happy.

If Red Hat don’t want to push out a desktop specific OS that’s fine. They have a strong server OS business with the services to back it up. What I don’t like are the lame excuses.

Where Red Hat will lose out is in visualised desktops designed to work with thin clients and netbooks (think mobile thin clients booting over a VPN). IBM are already doing something similar with Ubuntu.

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:32:34 +0000

My position on this keeps changing. I think Red Hat is in danger of missing the boat on desktop Linux. But many readers have pointed out that Red Hat contributes quite a lot to the desktop FOSS effort without necessarily targeting consumer Linux pre-installs.

By: aikiwolfie

aikiwolfie — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:36:27 +0000

“We have an extraordinary brand, and the last thing I want is for someone to take a computer home and find something is not working,”

There’s the open source spirit. Everybody pitching in to make it work.

Frankly I think that’s a lame excuse. Never was it written than an OS had to work with absolutely every single piece of kit out there know to man and beast and earthworm. In fact I can’t name a single OS which does work flawlessly with every single device. Even in the consumer space.

The approach Linux distribution developers should be taking to desktop Linux is exactly the approach Canonical has taken with Ubuntu. Get involved with a few top tier hardware vendors and guess what? People start to make their stuff work with your stuff! It’s like magic!

By: wilq

wilq — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:57:49 +0000

RedHat aims to the unix replacement market… its clear strategy which make that small company successful (in terms of global market)…

Product line covering consumer desktop operation system is Very Expensive in development and especially service…

Red Hat lacks such resources needed to make it profitable right now however it doesn’t mean they have no plan for the future…

By: TK

TK — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:10:22 +0000

The success of RH’s tactic will remain to be seen. In the business sense, they are sticking to what they know best, enterprise servers and middleware. Their knowledgebase is concentrated on this area meaning they can be a bit more efficient rather than dealing with finicky desktop users – and believe me, they can really ruin a techie’s day.

With such a conservative approach, they are still contributing TONS of stuff to the desktop environment, probably waiting until they can sell a total drop-in Linux environment. The pieces are there, and I have a feeling they are waiting for the glue.

By: GaryM

GaryM — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:28:31 +0000

Redhat could be downplaying Canonical or the desktop or both. But if Ubuntu keeps gaining momentum, by the time Red Hat decides to join the desktop market it may be too late.

By: Zac

Zac — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:14:42 +0000

I see a big difference in the vision between Mark and Jim. I’m with Mark on this.

By: W. Anderson

W. Anderson — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:53:49 +0000

It is possible that Jim Whitehurst’s fixed vision may turn out to be “a fatal flaw” IF Microsoft finds an unbreakable way to control servers and middleware through some new feature/capability link to Windows Desktop, and Microsoft Exchange.

This also assumes that the mobile market will continue to hold Microsoft influence at bay with Google Android, Symbian, Apple IPhone technology and other superior products.

Maybe they can even do same through Lawsuits and Patent claims. They certainly will try anything.

W. Anderson

By: Mr Pink

Mr Pink — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:48:50 +0000

Until money start changing hands linux on desktop will continue to be a failure. And Red Hat understands it, so does Shuttleworth