http://ohiolinux.org

• Consider: 1 license for Vista Home Basic $199 at Best Buy
• Consider: 1 Dell Mini 9 Netbook with Vista Home Basic for just $299
• Consider: 1 Dell Mini 9 Netbook with Ubuntu for just $249

So, for $199 you can get a software license for Microsoft. For just $100 more, you can get a working netbook with that software license. Or, for just $50 more, you can get that same Netbook with Linux.

If you had just $300 to spend, who wants to pick the software license?

Now, consider what this is doing to Microsoft’s margins… Your premium pricing power has just been put under pressure – not by Linux, but by the hardware underneath the OS that just dropped from days of $1,000 laptops to $299. Microsoft can’t justify doubling the price of the product just for its software license.  And Ubuntu is clearly offering hardware vendors a key counterpoint in their negotiations with Microsoft.

Microsoft is also in a bind as enforcing its premium pricing will either

1. invite priracy b/c who can look at the offerings and justify paying that much retail for the OS, and which hurts their margins more (a paying customer is better than a pirating one…)
2. 2) alienate a new set of younger, price conscious buyers entering the market (not just in the US, but around the world)

Clearly Microsoft is in need of a strategy refresh – and fast. I see the tide turning where their downstream users and upstream suppliers will create a challenging negotiation. Michael Porter would have fun with this analysis.

And with that… I may just order myself a Netbook soon. They’re almost as cheap as iPods now…

Oh, I forgot to mention that the IBM solution runs on Ubuntu and can be easily deployed on RHEL/SLED too ;-)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/04/ibm_linux_lotus_virtual_desktop/

IBM is working with Virtual Bridges and its VERDE (Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment) product to ship a virtual Canonical Ubuntu Linux desktop, with Lotus email, word processing, spreadsheets, unified communication, and social networking software included, to a variety of end-point devices. Virtual printing is also included.

…

When we look back several years from now, I think we’ll see this time as an inflection point when the economic climate pushed the virtual Linux desktop from theory to practice. The financial pressures on organizations are staggering; the management of PCs is unwieldy, and traditional office software innovation is paltry. Today’s virtual desktop is delivering superior collaborative software, an innovative delivery method, and an open-source operating system that is demanding clients’ consideration.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/neodave/2752500743/sizes/l/

Within the first two weeks, both had their laptops infected by viruses separately – different viruses, different times. One was running XP, the other Vista on you basic Dell laptops. Of course, who did they call? Answer: me.

Well, I took in both laptops and tried to fix them. I found that viruses today are far more advanced – one modified the MBR and the other completely wiped out the Dell recovery partition – savvy indeed. I did my best to try re-installing their respective Windows OSs, but I found that Microsoft’s licensing practices prevented me from succeeding. First, I only had Pro CDs of XP and Vista so the Home license keys on the underside of each laptop were of no use. I’d install the OS, then Microsoft Genuine Advantage would block me… thanks Microsoft.

So I had them try calling Dell – of course, no luck. They wouldn’t send a replacement media for Windows. If I had the time and energy, I’d file a lawsuit against them tomorrow.

So I turned to my laptop OS of choice: Ubuntu. No chance for a license key or media obtainment problem.

My sisters had both seen me using Ubuntu before so they had seen “what it looked like” but they never knew it wasn’t Windows. When I loaded it on their laptops, they actually didn’t know it wasn’t Windows. In fact, the first thing they both did was try downloading/installing iTunes from Apple.com. No luck – Apple, where’s an Ubuntu client?

So I set them up with all the software they needed for iPods. They actually installed their own printers without even calling me (HP printers – great compatibility). They use OpenOffice for their papers/spreadsheets/presentations, Firefox was not new to them, and Evolution is just as easy as Outlook.

They’re now both about to close out their first semester – both made it on Ubuntu alone. And the best news – not a single virus.

More amazingly, the overall number of “support requests” have gone down. Even when they had Windows there were other reasons for calls, but now… only an occassional “how do I?” type question here or there. It’s been great. They easily download from the digital cameras, they manage their music collections (no corrupted iTunes libraries), and they use all the latest social media networks. Now they would both prefer to get a Mac, but that’s the really interesting part – they have no need for Windows.

We’re making progress. Ubuntu is leading the way.

So Dell and Canonical forced them into it – but they did it. I’m honestly shocked.

Linux has hit a critical mass. It may not be taking over the desktop world, but it has at least reached “Mac” support status.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/new_linux_broadcom_wi_fi_drivers_arrive

It’s great to see the transition starting to happen everywhere. Even if some of the transitions are to Mac, it’s greater choice.

This is all going to be even easier as technologies like Firefox, OpenOffice/ODF and open standards start to permeate the set of options available to users.

http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS4429818312.html

You can register here:

https://www-950.ibm.com/events/wwe/grp/grp017.nsf/agenda?openform&seminar=692H5MES&locale=en_US/

The complicated news: there appears to be a bug in the Wubi installer that can set the drive path incorrectly. It doesn’t ruin anything, but it could be tricky for novices that run into it. More on this tomorrow.

Download your Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron ISOs today!

I really like the direction Mark is taking with Ubuntu on the server. One, it offers a competing model for the industry compared to the RHEL/SLES model, two Ubuntu is pushing the technology further (e.g. KVM) and making it very easy for users to adopt (ala Microsoft Windows), and finally, it’s one platform that does well in many circles from desktop to server (ala Windows). So while Red Hat, Novell and Oracle fight over what’s left of Sun’s Solaris install base and grab some of the Windows opportunity, Ubuntu is driving straight into the Windows Vista SP1 Party with a fresh alternative. Now let’s just get those “Apple-like” Ubuntu systems we need  with all the Adobe apps on them ;-)

Ubuntu article: http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2008/042108-ubuntu-linux-takes-on-enterprise.html?page=1

P.S. I claim absolutely no insight into what amount of sheer stupidity or drunkenness led to that Microsoft video link. I think sogrady said it best with just, “words fail me”.

http://www.linuxwins.com/9000-swiss-education-computers-drop-windows-for-linux/

From the Google translated page, it appears these desktop were in dual boot setups and are now going to be straight Ubuntu Linux.

What is the use? Candolle In college, it was anticipated the guidelines of DPI. Après des années de « dual boot , c’est-à-dire d’ordinateurs équipés d’un double système d’exploitation Windows/Linux, les machines tournent désormais exclusivement sous Ubuntu, une «distribution» de Linux. After years of “dual boot, ie computers equipped with a dual operating system Windows / Linux, the machines are now exclusively under Ubuntu, a” distribution “of Linux.

Sorry about that, I went off course. Take a look at this article which includes the play-by-play screenshots for running Ubuntu “inside” Windows. (and it works with Vista)

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1570&tag=nl.e622

By the way, if you’re wondering how a company got away with comparing performance with Solaris (which is not allowed per the Solaris license), you should note that they used the Solaris Express Developer Edition which I can only assume does not have the clause preventing non-Sun licensed parties from publishing Solaris performance results (I have not read that license myself, but am guessing Phoronix did – or they secured permission from Sun…).

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia_workstation_perf&num=1

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
6:30pm-8:00 PM
IBM
590 Madison Ave, 12th Floor
corner of 57th Street
** RSVP Closes at 4:30pm the day of the meeting (sharp!) ***
Please RSVP for EVERY meeting at this time.
Register at http://rsvp.nylug.org/

PLEASE NOTE: This meeting is at IBM, not Google!

Jim  Gleason – on – The Next Wave of Virtualization

Kernel-based Virtual Machine and its impact on the desktop Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a Linux kernel virtualization infrastructure and open source hypervisor that provides both full and para-virtualization capabilities for Linux on commodity x86 hardware that contain the virtualization extensions from Intel and AMD.  KVM is currently implemented as a loadable Linux kernel module.  In late 2006, it was first included in Linux kernel 2.6.20 and and first shipped with OpenSuse 10.1 and Fedora 6.

Since KVM is part of Linux, KVM leverages the scheduler, memory management and other key resources in the Linux kernel, unlike VMware and Xen which must create their own custom mechanisms. Thus, KVM development focuses exclusively on the next-wave virtualization, while Xen and VMWare must also maintain these ‘forked’ non-Linux resources.

All of the core KVM developers, including Avi Kavity, work at the firm, Qumranet, which launched a desktop virtualization solution called Solid ICE that leverages KVM.  Qumranet is the creator, maintainer and global sponsor of the KVM Open Source Hypervisor Project.  Other high-ranking Linux kernel developers such as Rusty Russell and Anthony Liguori of IBM, Ingo Molnar of Red Hat, and Andrea Archangeli formerly of Novell, devote most of their time to KVM development.

What is the Next Wave of Virtualization?

Qumranet has gone beyond conventional server virtualization and application streaming by completely virtualizing end users’ desktop machines.  From a browser on a thin client or PC, users access their desktop work environment over the network via a virtual machine running on a centralized server.  The end result is a seamless end user work experience, just like a physical PC on a LAN. This is a high-level talk which will focus on the breakthrough Linux technology KVM, and its impact on the virtualization market.

About Jim Gleason:
Jim has been providing emerging technology to early adopters in the Financial Serivces Sector for the past ten years.  Widely regarded as the person who brought Linux to Wall Street, Jim sold the first production Linux cluster to Goldman Sachs in 1998.  Jim was also an early Internet pioneer having closed deals for the first official web sites of Charles Schwab, VISA, and all of Hewlett-Packard’s original web sites in 1993. Jim is also the Founder of the NY Linux Users Group and currently works at Qumranet in the capacity of Vice President of Sales.

Meeting Location:
Please note that this meeting will be held at IBM, 590 Madison Ave, 12th floor, corner of 57th Street, and not at Google.  This is the building with the IBM logo on the front of the building.

Map:
http://tighturl.com/m

Books!!!
Our friends at Prentice-Hall kindly provide us with review copies of various new titles.  One of these could be yours, all you have to do is agree to review the book within a reasonable period of time.

http://www.krizka.net/2008/02/13/thinkpad-x61-tablet-automatic-screen-rotation-under-linux/ 

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue76#head-ae07153a350b0c9e5da6b4c84d8fca9fa1d7ab7a 

We’ve chosen to settle on KVM as our main virtualization focus. KVM is a special version of QEMU which utilizes the new virtualization extensions that both Intel and AMD have added to their newest CPU models.

http://whdb.com/2008/the-top-50-proprietary-programs-that-drive-you-crazy-and-their-open-source-alternatives/

ComputerWorld

Satyadas said IBM thinks that this year, it will happen. “All the stars are lining up,” he said. “Everybody has been saying that since 2001 except IBM. We never said that, but we are saying that now.”

Matt Asay’s Cnet Blog

It’s easy to overlook IBM’s announcement that its Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony suites will run on Ubuntu. I think this would be a mistake. IBM is not a dumb company. It’s not in the habit of wasting resources. For IBM to be partnering up with Ubuntu says something about the enterprise mindset on Ubuntu.

InformationWeek

By porting key software to Linux, IBM is looking to give businesses one less reason to buy products from rival Microsoft — which IBM said offers “a proprietary desktop model.” IBM’s Linux efforts will “further address customer demands around choice,” said Inna Kuznetsova, an IBM executive with responsibility for Linux, in a statement.