IBM and Canonical, the commercial entity behind Ubuntu Linux, on Tuesday are launching a combined cloud and Linux desktop package designed for Netbooks and low-end PCs.
For those of us still waiting for Linux to hit the desktop, this type of packaging may be exactly how the move from Windows starts to pick up steam.
The IBM Client for Smart Work was first launched in South Africa in September and was initially geared toward emerging markets. IBM found that there was strong interest in the U.S. and other markets that had aging PC infrastructure and little desire for continued Windows upgrades.
The U.S. version of the package contains a number of IBM products including word processing and spreadsheets via Lotus Symphony, e-mail via Lotus Notes or LotusLive iNotes, and collaboration tools from LotusLive.com. As with the previously launched initiative, the package runs on Ubuntu Linux.
Bob Sutor, IBM's vice president of Linux and open source, told me that the target is not a drop-in replacement scenario, but rather something for IT shops that don't want to be stuck in an endless cycle of upgrading desktop operating systems and applications.
This is an interesting development for multiple reasons:
- IBM and Canonical are teaming up to bring Linux to the desktop, offering what could be considered a next-generation thin-client that relies on cloud services but remains based on an actual operating system rather than just running in a Web browser.
- IBM is targeting Windows installations in the co-opetition model the company excels in--effectively insulating itself regardless of who wins the desktop.
- Canonical is building a channel to deliver solutions rather than depend on individuals and organizations to roll their own.
Lest you think that Netbooks are dead, Sharp is out with the PC-Z1, released under the "NetWalker" brand in Japan.
Running an Ubuntu Linux derivative, several sites have compared the PC-Z1 to the fabled Sharp Zaurus.
Ubuntu is a logical choice for Netbooks and other low-cost consumer devices. Besides being highly customizable, the open-source aspect really helps. Companies can tweak the operating system to meet their needs without having to be burdened with licensing fees. But having owned a 7" Asus Eee PC for more than a year, I can safely opine that Netbooks are not all they are cracked up to be. Between the challenging keyboard and questionable battery life, their utility varies between models and user styles.
Gizmodo doesn't think that this is a Netbook, but at this point, the whole category is so confusing, I can't figure what you're supposed to call it. (An extra batch of pictures of the PC-Z1 is available at Akihabara News.)
Odds are, you are better off with a smartphone, unless you really love this form factor or have very tiny hands for the very tiny keyboard. I find it hard to imagine people lugging these around as their main machine. Nonetheless, Sharp has raised the bar with better boot time and a claimed a 10-hour battery life. According to its release Thursday:
The PC-Z1 features a quick-launch function (approx. 3 seconds) similar to mobile phones, enabling users to conveniently check e-mail while on the road. Also, a long battery running time (approximately 10 hours) allows users to fully enjoy net services, such as videos or blogs.
The high-resolution, 5-inch touch-screen LCD enables intuitive touch operation while the full keyboard provides for comfortable text input. Additionally, in business settings, users can create documents, spreadsheets, presentation materials, etc., and edit them stress-free.
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Dell is now offering its ultra-hip Studio XPS 13-inch laptop with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed. It's nice to see Dell taking Ubuntu seriously enough to offer it as a standard option, but a bit disappointing to see that they are not offering the latest 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope release.
In light of Ubuntu's recent move to cloud services--offering Web-based file sync and sharing I'd like to think that this is just an early step in a partnership. Dell must recognize that there is a large untapped market opportunity for not just netbooks, but for the services revenue to manage devices and files.
On a less positive note, I have to imagine that fewer technical users would be confused as to why they should choose Ubuntu when the top of the product page clearly states "Dell recommends Windows Vista Home Premium." No company that cares about its customers recommends Windows Vista Home Premium (zing!).
(Via Engadget)
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In case you were concerned that Linux didn't have enough of a presence in pop culture, you can now read English translations of Ubunchu, a Japanese Manga comic series about three students in a sys admin club who are getting into Ubuntu.
I await the episode where Mark Shuttleworth flies his open-source spaceship to Japan to meet the students.
Via BoingBoing
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As we try to figure out the future of the cloud, one thing is assured: developers will drive both deployment and consumption approaches. As is common to so many other major software shifts, developers lead, regardless of what vendors want the market to look like.
With the exception of Amazon.com and Google, neither of which are IT stalwarts, there hasn't been much to write home about from the obvious big vendors. IBM, Sun Microsystems, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft have all made proclamations, with only Microsoft offering much in the way of a system to test-drive, let alone deploy.
In the past, Microsoft could show up late to a party and still win. That's becoming harder to do, as it's forced to compete on so many fronts. Despite a vast developer army, Microsoft's efforts have been highly confusing and occasionally nonsensical. Microsoft needs developers to win in the cloud.
But Ubuntu, with legions of developers and more than 10 million users, has substantial market power to shift the cloud into entirely different directions.
As fellow CNET blogger James Urquhart pointed out, Ubuntu now has "cloud computing" inside.
- Ubuntu server will start promoting cloud computing through entirely open-source software.
- For those wishing to manage clouds, Ubuntu will apparently contain tools that leverage the Amazon APIs
- Canonical will create standard Amazon Machine Images from Karmic Koala, essentially creating "ready to run" appliances that will serve as "standard builds" to the Amazon community.
- The Eucalyptus project out of UC Santa Barbara will soon be included in every install package.
When I last spoke with Canonical chief Mark Shuttleworth, he mentioned that he had no interest in being a cloud provider. His take was that everyone should have the ability to choose the shape, size, and vendor (including internal compute clouds via Eucalyptus) of their cloud efforts, and by integrating these tools into Ubuntu, he's helped to take that first step.
Much the way Amazon has become the default standard for cloud deployment, Ubuntu's approach could very easily become the de facto developer standard. Odds are that vendors that favor open approaches--IBM, Dell, and Sun will be amenable to this, but it's hard to see Microsoft or ultraconservative companies like SAP hop on board. Of course, if they don't, they could easily miss the ride.
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Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux, and analyst firm RedMonk have released survey results that show usage patterns for the Ubuntu server product.
The survey, completed by nearly 7,000 respondents, shows that Ubuntu Server Edition is being used for most enterprise tasks, such as Web sites, files, databases, and mail servers, and is considered "mission-critical" by most respondents.
This is an interesting set of results, even if they are biased, considering that Ubuntu has largely been known for its desktop grace and focus on developing a better Linux user experience. But the enterprise is where all the money is, and this survey shows that Ubuntu is well-positioned to garner not only a large user base but also a large revenue base.
Which competitors should be concerned? Not so much Red Hat, considering that it, too, has a massive user base and enterprise presence, but definitely Novell, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems, all which have seen their data center market share change over the last few years.
If Ubuntu continues on this trajectory and maintains the "high quality that's free until you need help" business model, it will be extremely difficult for anyone to defend against the data center encroachment.
And some interesting survey result snippets on the hip topics:
Virtualization:
The two most popular open-source technologies, KVM and Xen, are increasingly prominent across all business sizes, which tells an interesting tale, in terms of enterprise usage. The quick rise of KVM is important, as it indicates that Ubuntu made the right choice to select it as our maintained technology. Ubuntu was the first distribution to make KVM the default fully maintained and supported technology, with (Ubuntu version) 8.04 LTS.The cloud:
Many users think the cloud is ready; they believe Ubuntu would be a good platform for it, but not that many have decided to deploy it yet. That's not surprising, given the maturity levels of the technologies available in the market currently. We believe in Ubuntu as a platform for innovation, and we will be looking at ways of delivering cloud (services) into businesses simply and securely on Ubuntu Server Edition, along with explaining how it can provide real value to companies as an infrastructure model.
The NY Times is running a great piece titled "A Software Populist Who Doesn't Do Windows " detailing the vision behind the Ubuntu Linux OS and Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu.
Canonical, based in London, has more than 200 full-time employees, but its total work force stretches well beyond that, through an army of volunteers. The company paid for close to 60 volunteers to attend its developer event, considering them important contributors to the operating system. An additional 1,000 work on the Debian project and make their software available to Canonical, while 5,000 spread information about Ubuntu on the Internet. And 38,000 have signed up to translate the software into different languages.
Definitely worth a read.
In light of my chronic Mac problems, I decided that I would take a shot at Ubuntu running on a Thinkpad X300.
I'm a power business user who has enough technical background to use the command line and utilities, so Ubuntu didn't scare me. However, there were a few quirks that I ran into. For example I had to reinstall Pidgin three times, and it seems to get corrupted on a whim. I also had a day where Firefox would crash every few minutes. These are not things the average user can deal with gracefully.
The positive side of those experiences was the Synaptic package manager worked flawlessly to reinstall the applications that were acting weird. I also was able to get Adobe AIR and Twhirl running with no problems.
I was able to run Microsoft Office with no problem via CrossOver, and it loads faster than on Windows or the Mac by a shocking margin.
I did however run into one major application issue. No Photoshop. Admittedly, I don't use Photoshop all the time, but I needed to yesterday and the Gimp just wasn't happening for me. If one more person tries to tell me that Gimp is just as good as Photoshop, I will physically attack them.
Note: Kevin, my intrepid IT guy wrote most of this up for me. If it says "I" it probably actually means "we" or "us" or probably just Kevin himself while I sat around eating bonbons. Also, we reconstructed the shell commands as best we could remember. Apologies if we got it wrong and you end in some kind of wormhole. There were also a number of other Ubuntu sites that we pulled information from. The Ubuntu community is utterly amazing at pulling together information and helping users solve problems.
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I've written in the past about how sub-notebooks are a great opportunity for Linux on the desktop. There is no need to run Windows (or MacOS for that matter) when you are using the machine primarily for browser-based applications.
I've been running Ubuntu on a Thinkpad X300 for the last 2 weeks and while it's still a bit too geeky, the issues I have run into appear to be largely due to the fact that IBM doesn't officially support Ubuntu (yet.) With the exception of Adobe Photoshop I have yet to run into any business reason why I can't use Ubuntu full-time.
In light of consumer response to Vista (not great if you haven't been paying attention) there is an opening for Linux to swoop in and grab some market share. The big hardware vendors just need to start playing along.
Just days after Mark Shuttleworth asked the Linux desktop community make pretty things, Make Tech Easier has come along and created a UI for Ubuntu that looks just like Mac OSX.
It's pretty astounding how quickly this was able to be done. Now if only someone could port all the necessary apps.
