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| UPDATED: 2006-05-16 |
 Three Short Tales Of Linux 
By: David Utter 2006-05-16 A Dow Jones Newswires reporter took a shot at switching from Windows to Linux on a Sony Vaio machine, and found he could do some things much better than others.  For Mark Golden, the prospect of dropping cash on Windows XP a few short months ahead of Vista's release looked like a bad idea. So he took the Linux plunge and documented his attempts to live with Linux.
To get copies of six Linux distros quickly, he picked up a copy of Linux for Dummies, 6th edition. However, Golden then had to download five of the six anyway to obtain their most recent releases. Installations proceeded smoothly, he noted, and soon he could do basic tasks like web browsing, printing, and email, albeit with some tweaks needed. But multimedia proved impossible to achieve in an effective manner for Golden. He experienced graphics or sound issues, or both. Linspire, Red Hat, and Novell all blamed hardware compatibility issues. Golden noted that the Xandros distribution worked the best with graphics and sound, but also demonstrated some problems with playing online videos and DVDs. Applications like Windows Media Player and QuickTime would not work for him through CodeWeavers CrossOver; CodeWeavers noted in the article that their support could have walked him through the QuickTime problems, though. For now, the promise of Linux as a desktop threat to Microsoft is an empty one. Disparaging the proprietary multimedia formats used by Microsoft and others won't impress the user who just wants his DVDs to play without delving into FAQs and editing configuration files. Linux will continue to excel on the server side, where system administrators with the time and expertise to handle those systems can get the most out of them. On the business side, Red Hat (RHAT) may provide some entertaining options for companies that use JBoss, the middleware package Red Hat announced it would purchase in April. While Red Hat will pay some $350 million in cash and stock for JBoss, businesses that use JBoss may be able to wring some price breaks out of middleware competitors like IBM and BEA. A TechNewsWorld report cited RedMonk analyst James Governor on that developing issue: "Customers are already using JBoss to whack IBM and BEA over pricing," he said. "If you're a Red Hat customer and an [IBM] WebSphere customer, you'll have a very interesting conversation with your sales reps over the next couple of months."
Novell (NOVL) has tried to turn to Linux in the wake of Microsoft wrecking Novell's networking business. The company acquired SuSE Linux in 2003, but has not had the gains Red Hat is enjoying with Linux sales. The declining NetWare business for Novell made an impact from 2004, when Novell had a net profit of $414.1 million, to 2005 and a net loss of $16.5 million, the Boston Globe reported. That article also cited industry analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group, who faulted Novell for bailing out on its NetWare customers while trying to position itself as a Linux player. ''Novell is losing revenue faster on NetWare than they're gaining it on Linux," he said in the report. ''The transition has been doing a lot of damage to Novell's revenues." --- Tags: Linux, Red Hat, Novell Add to | DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web | Furl Bookmark IFN - 
About the Author: David Utter is a staff writer for InternetFinancialNews and WebProNews covering technology and business. |
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