June 4th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Due to an outpouring of popular demand through its IdeaStorm website, Dell came to realize that a large number of people would like to purchase Ubuntu preinstalled on new computers. Breaking its long-held “Windows or die” stance, Dell went forward and made it available. Great work, Dell! (See the page for all IdeaStorm-generated ideas they have implemented.)
Now, there are some caveats. Only a few systems are available, it’s only available in the US right now, and Dell includes some language to dissuade unsavvy users from making the Ubuntu choice. These issues are fine in the short term, though, especially if you consider this a proof of concept experiment for the company.
However, one of the other top ideas on Dell’s IdeaStorm website was to preinstall OpenOffice (and Firefox, and some other FOSS apps) on the Windows boxes Dell sells. From a simple end user standpoint, this option would benefit a larger number of Dell customers: it’s easier for a user to learn new desktop applications than to switch OSes entirely, it would be easier to find on the website when purchasing a new computer, and it’s easier for a user to see that OpenOffice might have a cost of $0 in Dell’s online store, but if he or she chose Microsoft Office from that same dropdown menu, another $150 or more will be added to his or her system’s final price.
Simply put, OpenOffice preinstalls would save more customers more money. It would probably quickly show that most users don’t need Microsoft Office at all. However, there’s at least one company that does not want that to become apparent. I wonder if Microsoft would be above putting pressure on Dell to block this idea? Probably not.
OpenOffice would obviously benefit through marketshare increases if Dell were to offer it as a preinstalled option. But the primary benefit would be to new users–those who don’t even know it exists right now, but will be willing to try it when cost and convenience factors make it easily available to them.
According to the IdeaStorm website, pre-installed OpenOffice is “Under Consideration,” which appears to be just below “Coming Soon” in their hierarchy of possible implementation. Let’s hope it moves to “Already Offered” soon!
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
May 7th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
The founder and CEO of FON, a wireless networking company, has announced all company computers will migrate from Windows to Ubuntu.
“As of next week Fon will not buy any more Microsoft licenses, nor install, service any new Microsoft programs on any existing computers. All the software we use will be Open Source unless a certain package we need is not easily available in Open Source format.
“There are many reasons at Fon for dropping Microsoft. The first one and by far the most important is to save time… Ubuntu has the look and feel of Microsoft, but it’s like a Microsoft software that works fast, that turns on and off very quickly, that installs programs very easily, that lacks that atmosphere of paranoia that surrounds Microsoft and that is extremely easy to learn and use.”
When it comes down to it, a migration from Windows to Linux is simple. The boss says “do it,” and everybody learns fast. After a transition period, they’ll come to see that Linux is indeed a better platform, and that will be that.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on FON Migrates to Ubuntu
March 28th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Express Computer (of India) publishes a detailed investigation of the growing importance of FOSS in Indian computing, titled “OSS Diversifies as it Gains Acceptance.”
“A lot of organisations are using Open Source solutions even though they may not be running an end to end OSS solution stack. The OSS landscape in India is changing rapidly because of the demands that customers are placing on vendors to offer a business advantage, value for money and reduce the risk associated with making long-term technology investments.”
In some ways, adoption is happening the reverse of the process in the US and Europe. End user applications may be switching to FOSS first: “In India, enterprise productivity tools such as OpenOffice have become quite popular. However, to a large extent, enterprises haven’t adopted open source applications at the back-end.”
The article mentions the major factors behind Linux’s rapid adoption as cost, interoperability, stability, security, innovation and choice.
One of my key interests is open source on the desktop. And the article touches on that subject too:
“In India the adoption of the Linux on the desktop is at a nascent stage. Mass adoption on the desktop is still a dream. Pradhan says, “This is a key area of interest for Red Hat today, since we have visibly moved beyond the platform and are now making ourselves felt in applications developed around Linux.”
The Linux operating system is already making inroads in Indian enterprises with huge deployments such as LIC with 2,000 desktops. 6,000 schools in Uttar Pradesh have adopted Linux in their curriculum.”
With Red Hat doubling in size in India each year, I expect to see a lot more migrations to Linux and OpenOffice throughout the country’s educational and broader IT sectors.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on India’s FOSS Market Gaining Momentum
March 22nd, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Last week, the Wall Street Journal published Linux Starts to Find Home on Desktops, in which they find Linux beginning to make inroads as a user desktop platform in corporate IT.
“Linux still goes into only a tiny proportion of the desktop and laptop PCs sold. But in a recent report, market researcher IDC said licenses of both free and purchased versions of Linux software going into PCs world-wide rose 20.8% in 2006 over the previous year and forecast that licenses will increase 30% this year over last. That compares with 10.5% growth in 2004, according to IDC.”
Why? Because of the success of Linux on servers:
“As corporate-technology chiefs become more comfortable with Linux running on their servers, they are beginning to warm to the idea of installing Linux in PCs for workers who don’t require most of the features offered by Windows and other Microsoft software, such as the Office suite of programs.”
And the rapidly-developing world is likely to be a major catalyst for increased Linux growth:
“So far, the clearest shift toward desktop Linux is happening in Asia, which “may turn out over time to be a pivotal market for Linux on the [PC] desktop,” Mr. Gillen says. Shipments of Linux for PCs in Asia in 2005 caused a surge in overall Linux licenses that year, he says.”
Overall, this is a perfect example of disruption according to the model described by Clayton Christensen. It’s fascinating and very rewarding to watch it in action!
Posted in GNU/Linux | 1 Comment »
March 19th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Cool news from Venezuela this morning: Rolando Blanco announces on his blog that a Venezuelan government agency migrated 850 desktops and 16 servers to Ubuntu.
Blanco’s post includes a number of snapshots of the new desktops in action. They look great!
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on Venezuela Ubuntu Deployment
March 16th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Anyone familiar enough with using Microsoft Windows and Office knows that moving years of data and habits to a new platform is not easy.
That difficulty–created through decades of strategic decisions at Microsoft–is exactly why it is so important to migrate away. Microsoft’s strategy is to make it ever harder to work on any other platform, and to keep increasing their revenues by squeezing those who remain locked in to Microsoft’s products. They seem to be redoubling their efforts at monopoly control right now, in particular by tying their desktop monopoly products to new server products coming out, but right now is also a chance to escape.
An opportunity exists to switch to Open Source (whether it’s just Firefox and OpenOffice on existing Windows boxes for now, or whether it’s an OS migration to Linux) because of faltering sales of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007, providing a rare chance for individuals and organizations to make a shift and get off the expensive treadmill of Microsoft’s stream of costly updates.
Sam Hiser provides a high level guide to “leaving Windows and Office.”
At the very heart of this opportunity is ODF, the OpenDocument Format, which does for typical office documents what HTML did for the web: standardizes it and gives every person and every program equal access to the real value, the data stored within.
Adopting ODF is the key to escaping Microsoft’s dungeon, and breaking down that barrier then opens up an unprecedented range of flexibility in a competitive marketplace. Hiser discusses several ways to accomplish this in his post, and has collected thoughtful comments from notable industry veterans in response (and in affirmation of his points).
Posted in GNU/Linux, ODF, Open Source, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Sam Hiser on Migrating Away from Windows and MS Office
March 14th, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Up on the Ubuntu Fridge is a post about the French Parliament getting ready to adopt Ubuntu:
“The French Parliament looks to be the next big Ubuntu switcher according to reports. Recently the Parliament produced an official government report that recommended the use of free software over proprietary software. The switch to free software is expected to provide a substantial savings to the tax-payers according to the government study.
Following this recommendation two companies, Linagora and Unilog, have been selected to provide the members of the Parliament as well as their assistants new computers containing free software. This will amount to 1,154 new computers running Ubuntu prior to the start of the next session which occurs in June 2007.”
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source | 1 Comment »
March 2nd, 2007 Benjamin Horst
Linux Today announces that Zaragoza, Spain will migrate to FOSS:
“The City Council of Zaragoza has decided to abandon the Windows operating system and move to open source systems that should save the Aragon capital city nearly €1M per year.”
The migration will be carried out in two phases, scheduled to be finished by the end of 2008. Phase 1 involves a move to OpenOffice.org, and Phase 2 is the adoption of Novell SUSE Linux.
According to the article, “The Press Office and the Office of Citizen Relations already are using OpenOffice.org, and will be followed by the Municipal Registry office,” which means the migration’s in full implementation mode! (Eliminating the specious argument they’re just aiming for price concessions from Microsoft. We never believed those allegations regarding other announced FOSS migrations anyway.)
National and EU recommendations promote the use of Free Software and open standards across the European continent, so Zaragoza is almost certainly going to be surrounded and supported by many others riding the same wave. Good luck to them and their neighbors! (Now please help us out in New York City!)
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Zaragoza, Spain Adopting OpenOffice and Linux
March 1st, 2007 Benjamin Horst
ThisWeek Community Newspapers announces that Bexley City Schools, a district in Ohio, will migrate all its computers from Windows to Linux:
“We began looking around and said, ‘Well, if we go to the most current Microsoft product, how much would that cost?'” Hyland said.
Upgrading ME to Windows XP, a newer version of the popular operating system, would cost the district about $412,000, she said. That price would include purchasing new machines and upgrading software.
The technology budget for the district last year was $159,000…
Last spring, the district decided to avoid those costs and switch to Linux, which is much cheaper to maintain. Because the district is dropping Windows and picking up Linux, it can phase out older computers and the ME operating system in a more efficient way, Hyland said.”
Meanwhile, on the West Coast, SearchOpenSource.com writes Microsoft Windows ousted at California school district:
“By this summer, all 5,000 students and 250 teachers will be working off of a Linux-based thin client running OpenOffice.org, and the majority of the district’s servers will be running Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.”
Linux’s advantages, including remote administration and no licensing fees, resulted in huge cost savings for the 7-school district:
“Carver said it cost the district about $2,500 per school to migrate to Linux, compared with the estimated $100,000 it would have cost to upgrade their Windows infrastructure. In addition, buying more Microsoft Office licenses would have cost the district $100 per license, she said, whereas OpenOffice was free.
Ultimately, moving to Linux has enabled the Windsor School District to build out technology capabilities that wouldn’t have been possible with Windows.
“[The students] are able to do more because Linux cost less,” Carver said. “Our new computer lab [at Brooks] was set to cost $35,000 and ended up costing us $16,000 with Linux [on thin clients].”
And the kids love it too. “The kids think Linux is cool because it’s new, but what they’re really doing is stepping into the 21st century,” Carver said.”
Adding to the familiar story of cost savings is a slightly newer story, of additional capabilities Linux and FOSS provide to schools, above what they could have done with Windows and Microsoft.
Soon these migration stories will be so common I won’t be able to keep up with them (I don’t post many of them already, but do try to read most). Putting this in terms of Gladwell’s Tipping Point, we must be somewhere between the early adopter and early majority phases of the global shift to FOSS platforms.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 1 Comment »
February 22nd, 2007 Benjamin Horst
After a high-profile accusation of piracy threatened a schoolteacher with a Siberian prison sentence, many Russian schools will move entirely to open source software, from Linux to OpenOffice.org and the rest of the FOSS stack.
“Schools in the Perm region will soon quit buying software from commercial companies, said the region’s Education Minister Nikolay Karpushin. The announcement was made in line with the report on ensuring ‘license purity’ in the region’s schools.
According to Karpushin, schools would start using freely distributed software like the Linux OS, Russky office and OpenOffice desktop apps.”
Russia is one of the largest countries where I had not heard a lot of news about FOSS adoption, so this story caught my eye. Russia is, fairly or not, famous for digital piracy. Maybe instead they can become famous as a powerhouse of open source!
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Russian Schools Moving to Linux