[LUAU] Michael Dell on Linux stragegy... and Ubuntu Linux aiming for the enterprise

Julian Yap julian_yap at yahoo.com
Wed Mar 15 00:32:35 PST 2006


Michael Dell gives a general overview of their Linux strategy[1].
Interestingly, Dell mentions DistroWatch[2].  I'm pretty sure he's aware
of the top 10 distros then.

"Ubuntu is now the most popular desktop distribution on Dell PCs"
 - Count my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop (man, I wish I had that FreeDOS
option) and Dell workstation at work hole to the list.

"We love Linux, and we're doing our best to support the Linux community.
We see lots of opportunity there. If the Linux desktops could converge
at their cores, such a common platform would make it easier to support.
Or, if there was a leading or highly preferred version that a majority
of users would want, we'd preload it."

This quote I read from a Novell employee[3]:
Dell might be saying that they want only one "major" distribution is
horse hockey. In many, many conversations with IBM and HP, both those
vendors want the opposite. They want two major distributions that have
full enterprise support. Novell/SUSE as one (see IBM investment in
Novell) and Red Hat as the other. Why do they want this? Because they
don't want another Microsoft. They want to encourage standards,
competition, and hardware upgrades. They can't do this if everyone runs
the OS of the year from Microsoft. They can do this if everyone runs
either SUSE Linux, Red Hat Linux, or Microsoft. Doing that creates lots
of churn for them to take advantage of when trying to sell boxes
equipped with the latest bells and whistles.

--

Mark Shuttleworth the SABDFL for Ubuntu Linux recently proposed delaying
the upcoming Ubuntu "Dapper Drake" 6.10 for 6 weeks[4].  This should be
seen as a once off as the goals and reasons Mark mentions have shifted
up a gear.  

"Dapper is a "first" for us, in that it is the first "enterprise
quality" release of Ubuntu, for which we plan to offer support for a
very long time."

This includes certification.

"There are a number of ISV's and IHV's who are in the process of
certifying Dapper as part of their solution, and the delay will give us
an opportunity to ensure that those are ready for the release."

Ubuntu received IBM DB2 certification back in November 2005[5].

Ubuntu 6.10 will also be the first Ubuntu release to be supported for a
minimum of 5 years.

LINKS
1. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS3822185143.html
2. http://distrowatch.com/
3. http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=180124&cid=14915547
4.
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2006-March/000094.html
5. http://fr.sys-con.com/read/151639.htm





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