Microsoft Preps For Desktop Battle

Linux

At the Enterprise Linux Forum last week in Santa Clara, Calif., SuSE demonstrated its first enterprise corporate desktop designed for large IT infrastructures. SuSE Linux Desktop costs $598 for a five-user license and comes with a five-year maintenance contract, said Holger Dyroff, general manager of Americas at SuSE. It offers a corporate GUI and a choice of running Sun's StarOffice 6.0 or Microsoft Office and starts shipping today.

Meanwhile, Ximian also demonstrated at the forum its enhanced Ximian Desktop 2, expected to begin shipping today. The Linux GUI is based on the GNOME 2 platform and incorporates an edition of OpenOffice.org that features support for Microsoft Office file-compatible documents.

Red Hat, for its part, plans to debut an enterprise corporate Linux desktop in November, said a source close to the company. Red Hat's first enterprise desktop will feature an enhanced BlueCurve GUI, updated Linux 2.4.2x kernel, Sun's Java Virtual Machine, support for Windows applications and seamless access to Microsoft Exchange via a connector, the source said. The product is expected to be priced between $99 and $139, the source added.

Red Hat executives would not confirm this report.

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Ballmer: Microsoft will rise to the challenge presented by Linux on the desktop.

Microsoft continues to see stiff competition from Linux on the server side but has seen little penetration so far of Linux on the desktop.

A report released last week by research firm IDC shows Linux server revenue was up 35 percent in the first quarter of 2003 from the year-earlier period.

"In this environment of lean IT budgets and concerns about Microsoft's attention to customers, non-commercial software such as Linux and OpenOffice is seen as interesting good enough or free alternatives," Ballmer wrote in a letter to customers last week. "We will rise to the challenge."

The enhanced enterprise support and Microsoft Office compatibility will attract new users to the Linux desktop, but it will take time, solution providers said.

"There are significant barriers to overcome, with Microsoft's virtual lock on desktop apps," said Kevin Gates, Linux specialist at Denver Solutions Group, Denver. "I don't see us making sales on desktop for at least six to eight months."