The Change Mariner

Major vendors to push Linux to the desktop

InfoWorld.com:

Inspired by stirrings among corporate users for desktop Linux and with Microsoft’s forthcoming Longhorn operating system not expected on desktops until 2005, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell are augmenting their corporate Linux desktop wares. Novell and Red Hat also are assembling Linux desktops.

IBM’s Global Services unit, for instance, intends to put in place next year a broad-based technical support program for Linux on corporate desktops.

What figures to add even more momentum is that HP and Dell are expected to announce technical support programs early next year, according to an industry executive familiar with both companies’ plans, who requested anonymity.

“You are going to see similar announcements from HP and Dell around the [late January] LinuxWorld timeframe. If IBM is going to stand behind Linux on the desktop, that is something those two will have to do as well,” the source said.

Sun, too, has been pushing desktop Linux and its StarOffice suite.

“Customers now have a few strong reasons to consider alternatives to Windows desktops,” said Hal Stern, CTO of Sun Services.

First, the cost of Microsoft software and licensing terms are considerably higher than that for Linux, Stern said. Second, desktop and user provisioning with Linux has improved. And third, a proliferation of stateless clients, such as Sun Ray systems, offers users non-Windows choices for desktops.