More
Progress On Linux Desktops
We
are continuing to look at Linux on the desktop.
Recently we spoke with SuSE, best known as Linux’s
European distribution. Last
fall SuSE announced that it would offer a desktop version for the
Home market. This
product, which will start to ship in April, is admittedly a niche
market product. But
SuSE believes that as more applications – particularly those
that appeal to home market users, like games – become available,
it will move from niche to mainstream.
Other
important improvements have also occurred.
 |
As
Linux gains awareness in the hardware manufacturer market,
it’s gaining HW support.
|
|
A
maturing Linux community is offering better, more polished
software. That
means nicer fonts and icons and a more usable user
interface.
|
SuSE
believes that companies like Lindows, who sell to the Home market
through the retail channel, have helped to open this market.
SuSE’s offering will go through the retail channel, too. That means communicating about applications and functions
rather than about technical advantages.
The SuSE Home offering comes with a large amount of
applications software, including OpenOffice.org, MP3 players, and
a video editor – all free.
SuSE’s
SOHO product came out in January, intended for firms with 1-25
employees, and is doing well.
It now includes some licensed software, such as Crossover
Office to run Windows applications and StarOffice instead of
OpenOffice.org, so that SuSE SOHO users will receive support.
SuSE has actually reduced the number of software packages
included to make the offering easier to understand.
For example, it includes only two email interfaces, Kmail
and Evolution, instead of 13.
A
SuSE Enterprise desktop product is coming out
June 4; expect it to be more like the SOHO product plus.
It will include Microsoft-compatible metric fonts, licensed
from Agfa, to allow MS Word and Excel documents to open nicely in
StarOffice. Users
will be able to choose KDE, GNOME or Ximian desktops.
Most
of SuSE’s partners are in the U.S., Germany, the United Kingdom
and a few other European countries.
It’s
interesting to note that SuSE told us many of their U.S. clients
were in financial services because this week there was a small and
very niche market Linux conference directed to just a portion of
the Financial Services Market, Linux on Wall Street.
Linux
is becoming so mainstream, there wasn’t really any Linux news
announced at the show. The vendors came mainly to give brokers and
banks a chance to see their Linux wares.
Most
of the focus was still on Linux on the server.
While Linux on desktops was a subject at the one-day show,
attendees report that the idea is still largely being explored
rather than implemented. That
ties in with what we’ve heard – lots of pilots, not too many
large business implementations at the desktop yet – but lots of
talk.
(back to top)
