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The desktop Linux market got a big boost earlier this month at LinuxWorld, where Lenovo unveiled plans to soon begin selling ThinkPads preloaded with Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. The deal makes Lenovo the second major vendor to support Linux on its consumer PCs, following the trail Dell blazed in May with its decision to offer machines loaded with Ubuntu Linux.
The effects of the groundbreaking moves are more symbolic than tangible: Solution providers say the path to a broader customer embrace of desktop Linux remains strewn with obstacles. But by committing to bundle, sell and support systems without Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows, Dell and Lenovo have cracked the door open a bit further for the challengers to Microsoft's desktop dominance.
"At the end of the day, how many of our customers in large enterprises actually use the preloaded version? Very few," Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) Product Manager Guy Lunardi admitted during a LinuxWorld panel discussion. "But it's a matter of making it available."
Lenovo will begin shipping SLED ThinkPads in the fourth quarter, offering them to both bulk corporate buyers and individual consumers. Meanwhile, Dell recently unveiled plans to expand its worldwide Linux desktop push by making preloaded Ubuntu machines in Europe. It also intends to sell SLED on PCs and laptops in China.
Desktop Linux has been something of a white whale for open-source software and its evangelists, with every year for the past decade being declared at some point to be "the year of the Linux desktop." The current annum isn't likely to be an exception. In addition to vendor support for preloaded Linux, advocates point to an assortment of recent technical breakthroughs addressing longstanding pain points.
"This year, we've seen some major advances," said John Cherry, the Linux Foundation's desktop Linux initiative manager. Significant improvements in 3-D graphics rendering, audio and other multimedia support, and in system manageability have raised Linux in the enterprise to a whole new level, he said.
Greater Customer Interest
InTech Solutions CEO Bob Brentson, whose Penfield, N.Y.-based services firm specializes in open-source solutions, said he's seeing a greater customer receptivity to Linux and other open-source software on the desktop: "There's a lot of people interested and inquisitive about what it could do for them."
Brentson's No. 1 suggestion to his clients is that they give Novell's version of OpenOffice a try as a less expensive alternative to Microsoft Office. Every customer who has done so has stuck with OpenOffice, he said.
But when it comes to desktop Linux, Brentson runs into more obstacles. Lackluster multimedia support remains a huge problem; customers don't want to mess with hacks to enable video and audio playback. Application availability is also a sticking point. Popular small-business tools like QuickBooks and ACT don't have Linux versions available.
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