MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-05-23 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir Secretary NYLXS
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [hangout] Big Business & World Perceptions - Linux on the Des ktop
|
To be honest, Burlington Coatrack factrory is making a mistake.
The Free Software desktops are actually better than the slave-ware
versions of Software.
There is a problem, however, of verticle application markets. I was
hoping that the FSCC would beable to begin filling in these needs, but
I haven't been able to jump start that aspect of things .... (yet).
>From a functionality POV, X is hugely better than either Mac or Windwos,
Ruben
On Fri, May 23, 2003 at 02:21:00PM -0400, Michael Richardson wrote:
>
> You can be honest just don't say the words "Linux is not ready for the
> desktop". People will accept a product with weak points. If you tell them
> it is not ready they won't accept it.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Inker, Evan [mailto:EInker-at-gam.com]
> Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 1:13 PM
> To: 'Michael Richardson'; 'hangout-at-nylxs.com'
> Subject: RE: [hangout] Big Business & World Perceptions - Linux on the
> Des ktop
>
>
>
> And My Point is that you should be brutally honest when describing the
> strong points and weak points of any product, irregardless of whether its
> BSD, GPL, lGPL, or Proprietary licensed.
>
> Its sometimes more helpful to criticize a product with the hopes that the
> developers (Not in MS case though..) will make modifications/changes.
>
> "The Truth Will Set Ye Free"
>
> Regards,
>
> Evan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Richardson [mailto:MRICHARDSON-at-abc.state.ny.us]
> Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 2:05 PM
> To: 'Inker, Evan'; Michael Richardson; 'hangout-at-nylxs.com'
> Subject: RE: [hangout] Big Business & World Perceptions - Linux on the Des
> ktop
>
>
> My point is that so long as those who produce, upgrade and promote a product
> says it is not ready, most people will not want to invest in it or use it.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Inker, Evan [mailto:EInker-at-gam.com]
> Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 12:58 PM
> To: 'Michael Richardson'; 'hangout-at-nylxs.com'
> Subject: RE: [hangout] Big Business & World Perceptions - Linux on the Des
> ktop
>
>
>
> Michael,
>
> You are not getting the point! "Business Perception" is business perception,
> not fact nor revelations nor truly unbiased Technical statistics. MS has
> raised this to a "pissing and media contest" and nothing else.
> Unfortunately, your idea of "Most of the people won't know if you don't keep
> saying it" is just plain stupid! If you follow that logic, you are just as
> bad as MS. Whether its MS or Linux, lets be honest regarding capabilities
> (not just pricing) of the OS. While I have issues with MS practices, media
> blitzes and security, Linux is not the "End All" of all OSs. I would like to
> see Open Source OSs and applications flourish and prosper but in all
> reality, proprietary systems are not going to totally disappear.
>
> As far as MS not being ready for the desktop, I would say its not ready for
> the Back-End/Server side more so than for the desktop. Due to the
> proliferation of insecure MS Desktop/Office products (mind you I said
> insecure and badly developed but nevertheless effective and productive
> software). This is an area where Linux, BSD and Unix must play a game of
> producing their own reliable and easily integrated Open Source "Office Like
> products (similar but lets not play a game of copying MS designs; Evolution
> and GIMP are great examples of good Linux Open Source products which any MS
> user can utilize) which doesn't need a "Rocket Scientist" to install.
>
> Bottom Line for Business is "Use the Right Product for the Right Job". I
> would hope that the "Right Product" would be Open Source but that isn't
> always the case....
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Evan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Richardson [mailto:MRICHARDSON-at-abc.state.ny.us]
> Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 10:11 AM
> To: 'Inker, Evan'; 'hangout-at-nylxs.com'
> Subject: RE: [hangout] Big Business & World Perceptions - Linux on the Des
> ktop
>
>
> First thing those in the Free and Open Source community have to stop saying
> "Linux is not ready for the desktop". STOP SAYING THAT!!!. Most of the
> people won't know if you don't keep saying it. M$ is not ready for the
> desktop (it keeps crashing). But they don't keep that in the buyer's face.
> Look at where they are at.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Inker, Evan [mailto:EInker-at-gam.com]
> Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 10:01 AM
> To: 'hangout-at-nylxs.com'
> Subject: [hangout] Big Business & World Perceptions - Linux on the Desktop
>
>
>
> Linux lags on the desktop
> Jennifer Maselli, InformationWeek
> Friday, 11 April 2003
>
> Associates at Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp.'s more than 330 stores
> have used Linux-based point-of-sale systems, inventory applications, and
> gift registries for more than two years. But CIO Michael Prince drew the
> line at desktops in the company's headquarters: Linux wasn't ready, for a
> slew of technical reasons.
>
> Until now. A lot has changed in the last six months, Prince says. Support
> from key vendors and advancements in the compatibility of Linux software
> gave him reason to put StarOffice, Sun Microsystems' desktop software suite
> that runs on Linux and other operating systems, on 300 office PCs. He uses
> it himself. But here's the catch: The corporate PCs still run Microsoft's
> Windows, and Prince hasn't abandoned Microsoft Office. He wants Burlington
> office staff to have the same applications as the retail stores, but he
> doesn't yet think a corporate transition to Linux on the desktop is worth
> the trouble of migrating existing data and retraining employees.
>
> Linux looks increasingly like a technically viable option as an operating
> system for PCs, but it's still one that's rarely considered seriously in
> business environments. That's despite wide use of the open-source system in
> many companies' IT infrastructures: Research firm IDC says Linux has 14% of
> the US$50.9 billion market for server operating systems and will climb to
> No. 2 behind Windows by 2006. Replacing server software and training IT
> staff to use Linux is one thing; getting knowledge workers to use a new
> system makes even the several-hundred-dollar savings between the Microsoft
> Office productivity suite and a Linux suite such as StarOffice not enough
> for most IT execs. "They're not willing to make a change from Microsoft when
> the Windows software is handling their needs and users are comfortable with
> it," says Nicholas Petreley, an analyst for research company Evans Data.
>
> Linux on the desktop is confined mostly to workstations that rely heavily on
> graphics for digital-content creation and product engineering, says Jim
> McDonnell, senior VP of marketing for Hewlett-Packard's personal systems
> group. "This makes sense because it's taking advantage of the operating
> system for performance," he says.
> But vendors haven't given up trying. Sun's latest low-cost Linux PC, slated
> to ship this summer, could spur wider use of the system on desktops, says
> Bill Claybrook, research director for Linux and open source at the Aberdeen
> Group. "Linux hasn't made a dent in the desktop marketplace so far, but
> things will change," he predicts.
>
> Other changes are under way. Oracle said last month it will offer technical
> support to customers using open-source software from the UnitedLinux
> consortium. In February, CodeWeavers Inc. and Tarantella Inc. started
> bundling together Tarantella's Enterprise 3 access software with
> CodeWeavers' CrossOver Office Server Edition, to let users access Office
> applications from a client running Linux via a Java-enabled Web browser.
> Also, Ximian Inc., a maker of Linux-based desktop-productivity applications,
> says a version of its software, to be released this spring, will tightly
> integrate with Windows.
>
> The technical barriers are steadily falling away, Burlington's Prince says.
> Many of the company's applications have been loaded using Oracle's toolsets,
> and IT workers at Burlington use those same Oracle toolsets to do
> development work. Until recently, the toolset used to develop and deploy the
> applications required a special version of Java called Oracle J-Initiator,
> and up until a few months ago it had been available only on Windows. Oracle
> teamed with Sun to add Linux support, Prince says. Still, some of the
> company's older Oracle applications aren't Linux-compatible.
>
> StarOffice 6.0 can open Microsoft Word and Excel documents, removing one of
> the most annoying problems of the past, Prince says. By deploying both
> StarOffice and Windows on corporate PCs, he hopes to ease any eventual
> transition to Linux. Still, a migration is a migration, so Prince isn't
> making a major operating system or productivity-suite change right now. "I'm
> not sure there's any payback in migrating people," he says. "Cost-wise,
> Linux is better, and it's more reliable, but migrating users one-by-one is a
> big effort." Prince will encourage new employees to use Linux instead of
> Windows, but he won't force them. "We want people to use what they're
> comfortable with," he says.
>
> Linux still has shortcomings. Rory Hudson, retail systems manager for Zumiez
> Inc., a retailer with 100 stores, deployed PCs running Linux in stores so
> managers can access a company intranet and Linux-based E-mail and
> spreadsheets for financial reporting. But he's keeping Windows at
> headquarters to do some of the company's more-complicated PC-based work. "We
> wouldn't consider switching off of Windows, because we have advanced
> spreadsheets and Excel handles those really well," Hudson says. "We've found
> a really good niche for each operating system." That includes Apple
> Macintoshes for the company's graphic designers.
>
> Aberdeen analyst Claybrook has his own Linux experience. He dabbled with the
> open-source system on his desktop but dropped it because some document
> formatting was lost when files were sent to a Windows machine. "We have a
> specific format that we need to follow when we send reports, so I couldn't
> afford those discrepancies," Claybrook says.
> Laptop users also face challenges. "Laptops are tougher to run Linux [on]
> because they've got more proprietary devices, and not very many are designed
> for Linux," Prince says. "It's doable, but it's a lot of work."
>
> Some business-technology executives are just getting comfortable with
> running Linux on their servers, where it has something of a track record for
> value and performance; Linux on the desktop isn't even in the planning
> stages. PNC Bank is evaluating whether to move some servers to Linux and
> plans a limited test this year. The bank is confident it can lower costs and
> increase performance using Linux. But it isn't even considering a desktop
> change. "We don't really have a need for faster performance at the desktop
> level, so there's not the same push to evaluate Linux on the desktop," a
> spokeswoman says.
>
> For those who choose to take the plunge, however, there are savings to be
> had. Zumiez's Hudson says that running either Windows or Unix on
> point-of-sale computers in all stores would have cost about US$1,000 per
> store. Zumiez went with free Linux systems for the 19 stores it opened last
> year. Sun's StarOffice suite lists at US$50 per machine for 125 users, to
> US$25 for 10,000; that compares with an average price of about US$400 for
> Office.
>
> Ernie Ball Inc. turned to Linux out of crisis more than cost savings. Three
> years ago, the global manufacturer of guitar strings was slammed by the
> Business Software Alliance for running more copies of Windows than the
> company had paid for. Then there were the pirated copies of software from
> Autodesk Inc. and FileMaker Inc. It was the spark that turned Ernie Ball
> into a Linux hot spot. "We had 120 days to comply with the BSA, and we
> complied by throwing everything out," says Jeff Whitmore, an IT manager at
> Ernie Ball.
>
> The company operates almost all of its business on open-source software,
> including Red Hat Linux on its desktops and servers, StarOffice on PCs, and
> E-mail from Ximian. Whitmore says the company spent about US$20,000 to make
> the switch and cut US$80,000 to US$100,000 a year from its IT budget. With a
> little more than 70 users, the IT staff handled training on the fly. "There
> wasn't a lot of training involved, and we just handled questions from users
> as they popped up," he says.
>
> For now, Microsoft commands more than 90% of the desktop market, and most
> users seem comfortable with what its productivity apps cost for what they
> deliver. With its upcoming Office suite, Microsoft will try to pull further
> ahead of competitors. That leaves only a little wiggle room for Linux, as it
> battles the inertia of an installed base.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Evan
>
>
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> ____________________________
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> Fair Use -
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> you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
> Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received
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> E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free
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> late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not
> accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this
> message which arise as a result of e-mail transmission.
> If verification is required please request a hard-copy version.
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> be construed as an invitation or offer to buy or sell any securities or
> related financial instruments.
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>
> ____________________________
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> NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
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