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It's time vendors ate their own penguin food

Tags:
Linux Desktop

Andrew Donoghue ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 15 Jan 2004 17:04 GMT

The desktop Linux platform might not be very mature yet, with the likes of StarOffice and OpenOffice lacking some of the functionality of Microsoft Office, but these kinds of developments don't happen on paper. To create a viable, battle-tested product -- with the flexibility to satisfy the varying requirements of the different departments across an organisation -- what better than to actually roll it out across an organisation. And who would be best placed to develop code to plug whatever gaps emerge during the deployment? Sun, HP, IBM, Novell -- take your pick.

This doesn't have to happen overnight but making a commitment to achieve even a partial rollout over say the next two years would provide a massive confidence boost to those end-user organisations attracted by the concept of Linux on the desktop but nervously waiting for someone to make the first move.

A grand gesture by one of the vendors might help overcome some of the inertia surrounding the open-source desktop alternative. Although there is a lot of positive energy around the issue with the City of Munich replacing thousands of its out-of-date Windows desktops with Linux or the UK Public-spending watchdog the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) signing up to trial Sun's Java Desktop, there are also a lot of non-believers.

A September survey by analyst Gartner claimed that Linux desktops would not actually work out any cheaper than Windows for most enterprises. "Knowledge workers use PCs to run diverse combinations of applications," said Gartner vice president David Smith. "For those users, migration costs will be very high because all Windows applications must be replaced or rewritten." And the chief technology office of Barclay's bank recently rejected the whole concept on financial grounds and for reasons of scale: "If you do a fully absorbed cost analysis my perspective is that there isn't that degree of clear water between one equation and the other, not if you've got a well run environment. Believe me, we've done the numbers."

So it seems we are at a bit of an impasse, which will probably be solved over time -- but how much time? Surely one of the companies proudly shouting up and making money off the Penguin, HP -- which made some $2.5bn from Linux last year -- has actually got the guts to put its money where its mouth is?