Another Linux Desktop Diss from Red Hat

Almost a year has passed since I wrote, Novell CEO Disses Embrace of Desktop Linux where I told you how Ron Hovsepian, Novell CEO, totally slammed Linux as a desktop operating system and now another major CEO comes out publicly against Linux on the desktop. Red Hat's CEO, Jim Whitehurst, actually said "First of all, I don't know how to make money on it."

Wow, Jim, really? Perhaps you shouldn't be CEO of a Linux company.

How does Microsoft make money off of Windows? They sell it. I know it sounds crazy, Jim, but that's how it works. You create something that people want and they'll buy it. Isn't that cool?

I'm not sure which stone Whitehurst is living under but someone should leave it unturned and get a more innovative thinker in the driver's seat at Red Hat. I know someone who'd take the job and be great at it.

Desktop Linux can be a reality but not if we roll over and let it die. Whitehurst did make an interesting analogy using a Hockey game and comparing to Desktop Operating Systems by saying that he "doesn't want to be where the puck is but where it will be."
Hey, Jim, have you ever been to a Hockey game? The puck travels fast and sometimes unpredictably and goes in different directions based on which team is in control.

Jim, you're misguided and should be replaced. Unfortunately, it's guys like you who rise to the top. My guess is, though, that you won't last long with your obvious business myopia.

Apparently creative thinking isn't a prerequisite for the CEO position.

In this same desktop diss-down, it's funny to note however, that Novell's Hovsepian apparently has changed his tune regarding Linux on the desktop with a statement that he's optimisitc about Linux on the desktop, especially on Netbooks.

Now that's a departure from his earlier attitude less than a year ago. Ah, what a difference a year makes.

Linux can save millions of dollars on the desktop and if the CEOs of Novell and Red Hat can't figure out how to sell that opportunity to customers, then I respectfully throw my hat into the ring for their jobs. Oh, and I'll do it for half of what they're currently making. You know where to find me.

What do you think of Linux as a desktop operating system and the attitudes of these CEOs of Linux companies that can't figure out how to sell their product?

[tymiles]

This is not the first CEO of Red Hat that has shown that they could not make money on Linux.

The problem with Linux on the desktop are the applications. There are no "Console" apps as a video game player would say.

If MS office ran on Linux, Linux would take off tomorrow. Its the one App that keeps Apple looking good. Almost EVERY Windows user I know that thinks about a Mac asks right up front if there is MS Office on Mac. Once they know there is they almost always for it.

I really think that someone like Ubuntu needs to go one step further on the Click and Run idea and make a good App Store like the iPhone, then get Ubuntu into as many netbook owners as you can and make a cut off the Apps like Apple does.

Also marketing. Someone like Red Hat or Ubuntu needs to make their OS be the fun Multimedia OS (Like Apple is) And sell it pre loaded in places like QVC, Best Buy and Walmart. I know Walmart tried Linux but that tried it sight unseen. People need to be able to walk up to a Ubuntu machine in Best Buy, next to a Windows machine, and the Ubuntu machine be of good quality but lower price. When people see it and play with it and then make the CHOICE to buy it, then the stigma of Linux machines just being returned will go away.

The next big step is a client server twosome like Windows XP and Windows 2003 server with Active Directory. Novell could of took this market. They have the OS, they have the server and they have the directory services. If they could just make it as easy as Windows to set up and manage. But no, as always Novell has to have a million features but no one can figure out how to use any of them! :-( Yes a former Netware admin can get it pretty easy but on Windows it just takes a PC tech who wants to read for 30 minutes to be able to set up a Windows 2003 server, DNS, set up AD and then add an XP machine to the domain and share files to it. A kid could do it without much directions. This is what we need on Linux. Who cares if point and click is silly.

Xandros server was perfect for this. But like Novell they come up with great ideas yet don't follow through on them. Xandros server has not been updated for years. (Cause no one will pay $450 per server for an untested server product)

They should have made it cheap and then moved the price up with newer versions. Also they should of made a demo that allowed you to set up multiple servers to test their client server and multi server ldap config. But nope, they blocked that in the demo! (Dumb)

One of the things that got MS big was that until 2003 server came out (And really you can still do it) You could load Windows server on anything, anyplace, at anytime, Enterprise version no questions asked! So people would use it like crazy!

Anyway, the Linux companies need to look at Apple and Microsoft and learn how it's done!

[khess]

Actually, Red Hat is doing pretty well in spite of the CEO: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090325/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_red_hat;_ylt=AkaeW05_59E21OhNT5t7b16or7oF

I don't think it's due to anything he's done but more of an economic thrust toward something less costly than Windows.

[Again]

Although I'm using Windows XP Home which was pre-installed on my notebook, I think Linux is another choice on the desktop. Many of my classmates use Linux in daily life.

[uliwehner]

Maybe we are looking at this totally wrong?

one poster suggested that we need to have a product people want and then they will buy it. But then we say it needs to be cheaper than windows boxes...

Maybe we need to look at a "Halo product" instead? a "HEMI" if you will? Give the user something they can lust after.

I don't want to have people automatically assume that my PC is an old worn out P3 with 256mb of ram just because i am running linux.

I want them to think, WOW this looks awesome. This laptop has a SD drive AND a 500gig HDD for storage? dual quads with 32 gigs of DDR3 ram and 2 video cards? and windows can not even run on it?

but it has xp installed as a guest? and it is a superfast gaming console?

Build a product that the poor windows guy just can't get

and don't tell me that there are no Linux geeks out there that convert Macbooks and such to linuxboxes for the "cool" factor?

can't tell you how to pull that off, but i would like for people to buy linux because it is awesome and cool rather then cheap and stable.

stable it should still be of course :)

Oh and yes, Active directory is what we need to conquer. In my personal opinion the ONLY product Microsoft makes that is truly worth paying for! it is easy to use and it does actually work.

call it LAD Linux Active Directory :)

[khess]

You can have AD on Linux.
Read my post about it: http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3528.html