Re: [ossig] Novell: Linux's move to the enterprise desktop imminent

[Ditesh Kumar <ditesh@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> SINGAPORE--Linux could start to chip away at
> Microsoft's stronghold on the enterprise desktop
> within the next 12 months, says a senior executive
> from Novell. 

The problem with Novell is that their marketing has never been as
aggressive as MS. They lost out on the filesharing battleground because
while MS was aggressively pursuing ISV's and developing gui tools to
allow a lower learning curve, Novell was insisting that the text
interface was good enough and not hitting back at MS on the marketing
playing field the way MS was hitting hard at them.

Linux on the desktop has a bright future but I'm not entirely sure that
it will be with Novell. Novell has always had excellent tech team but we
all know that that is only one component of making a good product widely
used. I have several questions in this regard: How aggressively is
Novell approaching the many software vendors in Malaysia? Why isn't any
representative of Novell on this mailing list pushing for adoption of
their branded technology for desktop rollouts? What is Novell doing to
increase the mindshare of its brand among the business types and also
the technical types? How many local OSS-supportive companies and
organizations has Novell approached to develop closer relationships
with? Hell, how many local universities have Novell approached to give
stuff away free (this generate good PR and helps the business case that
large organizations are using your product)?

I just hope Novell has learnt from the massive whipping they got from MS
in the 1990s. It's really not too late yet. Leveraging the open source
movement may just give them the edge needed to compete in the market.
Now they just need to get their groove together in the marketing arena
and they might just be THE linux desktop company, instead of acceding
that position to Sun.

-- 
Ditesh Kumar
Ameba6 Solutions Sdn. Bhd.

"Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits
is, of course, in a state of sin." 	- John Von Neumann


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