"Lately, I've found myself troubled with the changes taking place with Xandros. As many of you probably know by now, Xandros has gone through a reorganization that meant that they had to layoff roughly five employees. What's even more disturbing is that they are looking at letting go of their support for the desktop market and focusing on the server realm instead. Granted they'll still support their open circulation desktop to some extent, but the fact remains that I'm seeing a possible trend brewing within the Linux Desktop market that has me a little shaken up."
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Member since:
2006-02-15
Lets think about this for a few seconds:
server market:
- IT professional maintaining the system
- business critical: much easier to sell support
- long-term relationship (ie customer doesn't elect to go with a freebie distro even though it saves a few $$)
- smaller selection of supported apps & configurations
- other revenue pools (training, certification, books, priority support, etc..)
desktop market:
- Newbie to IT professional maintaining system
- generally not business critical: much easier for customer to go with a free distro once they get "comfortable"
- larger selection of apps that technically should be supported (thousands of apps bundled, etc..)
- wider array of support related questions
- minimal avenues for other revenue
- expectation of customer does not co-incide with reality (ie Win32 support)
- wider range of hardware to support w/limited to no OEM support
- faster evolution of software
Seems logical. Is it a good thing? Perhaps not, but it is (what I perceive to be) reality.
Member since:
2005-11-15
I would go further. How many people do you know that bought a Windows from shelf? I've been working with IT for a couple of years and, if what I saw can be extrapolated to others, can say that is not much money. And, of course, for Linux there are even less money. Red Hat realized that (and what you said also) a couple of years ago.
To a Linux distro get money from the desktop there is only one path, it must be pre-installed.
Member since:2006-11-08
Yup.
The retail Windows market is pretty limited (still woth billions, but I'd guess most PCs run OEM or bootleg copies), but Windows' ubiquity helps Microsoft by making sure lots of people have MS skills. Meanwhile, the real money's in the server market, which is full of MS skilled techies.
Good thinking on the part of the distros and good luck to them!
Simon
Member since:
2006-06-19
Commercial distros should be shooting for business usage. That is where the money is at. That will possibly translate into employees wanting the same OS at home so have a "fedora" project for them.
Of course, the smart thing for businesses would be to use a free distro and actually hire some good IT staff to manage everything. That provides so many benefits compared to a canned product being implemented.
Member since:2005-11-13
Commercial distros should be shooting for business usage. That is where the money is at. That will possibly translate into employees wanting the same OS at home so have a "fedora" project for them.
Agreed. If Linux is really going to win on the desktop it needs to start in corporate america, which honestly I think it will end up winning, its just going to take some time.
Of course, the smart thing for businesses would be to use a free distro and actually hire some good IT staff to manage everything. That provides so many benefits compared to a canned product being implemented.
The larger companies seem more inclined to do this from what I've seen and I agree its the best route to go.
Where I work we run windows on the desktop but we have our own OEM image of windows and its customized for our business. Our IT guys image new workstations and dell ships them to us with no OS installed.
Member since:
2006-07-24
"... I'm seeing a possible trend brewing within the Linux Desktop market that has me a little shaken up."
* What market?
* There's always Debian.
* Why do you think Ubuntu/Canonical would have the same problems as Xandros? Does Xandros have the hype, the community, the $10M foundation Ubuntu has?
* There's always BSD.
Edited 2006-11-08 15:36
Member since:2006-01-23
Member since:
2005-07-19
of course it will work,
just keep in mind that you want to make money out of your product:
- installation medium with nice book
- support, disaster recovery, aftersales
- etc.
but not for free, sjeez. do i get customers that give me bed and breakfast in exchange for a quality product?
* iam a pirate and i approve this message *
Edited 2006-11-08 15:47
