Novell is talking to a number of OEMs about getting its upcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 preinstalled on the hardware systems they ship. But while Ron Hovsepian, Novell's president and chief operating officer, said the company had nothing to announce in this regard at its annual BrainShare conference here, Novell is talking to a number of key vendors like Dell in this regard. "I know there is an opportunity here and we are working on the how and the when," he said in a media and analyst question and answer session. The delay of Vista could not have come at a better time for Novell, in this regard.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-11-18
I agree, the lack of software suitable for home users is a problem.
Last time I checked, most people do the majority of their "home computing" in only a couple of applications, a web browser, an email client, a word processor, a spreadsheet program (occasionally), viewing pdfs and listening to music or watching videos.
When my wife made the transition with me to Linux, she had zero problems. We had used Firefox in Windows, we use Firefox in Linux. We used Gmail for email, so no problem there. For word processing and spreadsheet, we use OpenOffice.org (and for most people who just write letters and manage small spreadsheets for budgets, it works fine). For PDFs, yep we still have Adobe Reader. Music is handled by Beep Media Player and video is handled by VLC or MPlayer. Done and done.
I will concede that when she has to write a paper for school, she will use MS Office since it has grammar check. I know that Abiword has grammar check, but formatting is often messed up when you have professors who require papers turned in as .doc and OO.o does not have grammar check support. Minor detail, so I keep it around for her.
Things have gotten extremely easy compared to what they used to be. One morning, I found the computer off. I asked my wife if she had turned it off and she said, "Yes, I shut it down." With a wave of panic washing over me, I ask, "How", to which she replied, I went to this menu and clicked there and selected Shut Down. I never showed her that. She figured it out on her own and she's a technophobe! Minor, I know, but the areas that used to be really bad (printing) are getting much better. I could go on and on.
Member since:2005-09-13
// I went to this menu and clicked there and selected Shut Down. I never showed her that. She figured it out on her own and she's a technophobe!//
Er ... and how do you suppose she figured that out? By using Windows.
So, it was good for at least one thing, I guess. :-)
Member since:
2005-07-06
I agree, the lack of software suitable for home users is a problem. But what about companies? The Novell Linux offerings comes with a lot of software suitable for business use. This is also in this setting that Novell has its broadest brand recognition.
You also have to keep in mind that what makes Linux difficult to most people is that they have to install it for themselves, as opposed to windows that comes preinstalled. In this case we are talking about a preinstalled Linux. So no difficulty here.
Another difficulty is unsupported hardware. This is not a problem as Linux would be bundled with hardware that works. No difficulty here either.
The third problem people use to mention when they say Linux is hard is the lack of media multimedia support. This is due to legal problems when releasing free Linux distros. This will not be a problem in this case. People will be paying for these boxes, and some of that money could be used for licensing this kind of software
so that it could be preinstalled, just like on windows.
As for popping in a CD and have automagic installation like in windows, I'm not entirely sure that this is a good thing. You never know what software that gets installed next time you listen to a CD.
Besides, software installation in Linux is actually much easier in Linux than it is in Windows. Most Linux distros have automated net based installation system that finds and installs and once installed keeps track of the software you need.
You don't hunt all over the internet to find what you need as software is collected in repositories. This means that software installation in Linux is often as easy as checking a checkbox. No CDs, no extra work to find it. It all behaves very much like windows update on steroids.
You also have to remember that the modern Linux desktop is a lot different than what it was when Wal-Mart started selling Linux boxes. Today, it do just work. Most of the problem people have when first installing Linux springs from the fact that they didn't buy their hardware with Linux in mind.
So, I think Novell could be succesful if they manage to get some OEM company to cooperate.