Posted on 08/14/2002 11:24:22 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
What do you get when you cross Sun Microsystems and the open source community centered on Linux? I thought the answer was lower-cost servers that run Linux, which is what Sun announced this week. But Sun CEO Scott McNealy has far grander ambitions that he hopes the open source community will help him achieve: breaking Microsoft's grip on the desktop and expanding Sun's hardware offerings. I don't think anyone can break Microsoft's desktop grip at this point, but Sun has the right idea in formulating an alternative that is more coherent than the pieces you can cobble together to create an open source desktop today.
Sun is not known as company with expertise or any history in selling desktop or laptop systems, however. But during his LinuxWorld keynote and press conference yesterday, McNealy gave unmistakable cues, but no specifics, that the company will propose an alternative desktop software and hardware platform based on open source next month.
Sun cites the fact that Linux has been growing faster on the desktop than in the server market as a primary reason that Sun plans to focus attention on the client side. The new focus also fits neatly into McNealy's goal to do whatever he can to stymie the Microsoft Windows machine, which, in typical McNealy-speak, he called a "welded-shut hairball."
Sun has chosen a good time to try gaining desktop users. Microsoft's customers are balking at the new licensing terms and looking for lower cost solutions in these tough economic times. Displacing Windows on the desktop, however, will take more than appealing to the bean counters. Many companies have Office macros and applications that are not easily accommodated by an open source alternative.
I can speculate that the alternative desktop will center around Java, Mozilla, and Linux, with OpenOffice/StarOffice as an alternative to Microsoft Office and Linux (or even Solaris) as the operating system, some user interface conventions, and industry standard hardware.
The basic elements of an alternative desktop exist. The challenge is in creating an integrated platform that gains the kind of community development support and governance that Linux has garnered.
Can any dictator be trusted? McNealy views Linux as a community headed by a "benevolent, competent dictator," namely Linux founder Linus Torvalds. He is referring to the Linux Standard Base (LSB), which Torvalds and others maintain in hopes of keeping Linux from fragmenting the way Unix did. (Sun knows a great deal about that problem.) My guess is that McNealy and company would like to play the role of the benevolent, competent dictator governing the evolution of the open source desktop alternative to Windows as they have Java.
McNealy emphasized that Sun is not interested in creating a proprietary brand of Linux, but would like to help enforce LSB compliance. The question is: Can any dictator, benevolent or not, be trusted, especially one that makes its living selling hardware and software in a competitive technology marketplace?
The other challenge is getting hardware and software vendors' support. McNealy added Dell to his enemies list and intimated that Sun is ready to take on the leading light of the PC industry: "Don't go to Dell to buy a PC, go to Wal-Mart -- you'll get just as much technical support."
Sun execs claimed they could more than match Dell's hardware cost structure, provide better support, and would have the advantage of bundling software for free, such as OpenOffice, rather than having to charge customers for Microsoft Windows or Office.
At this point, it's a lot of huffing and puffing on Sun's part. The company does make huge investments in research and development compared to Dell, but the PC maker has definitely figured out how to create a vibrant channel to sell products. If the target market is selling hundreds or thousands of desktops or notebooks to office workers, call centers, retail outlets, small businesses and even home users, Dell has been setting the standard.
There is also the question of creating a viable business. McNealy admits to being a serious capitalist. If he is not making money on the software, then he better figure out how to better leverage Sun's software investment (given the primary software components are basically free to desktop users) and make money in the margin-challenged desktop hardware market and in the support services.
For an alternative desktop to get any support, more than Sun and a few other hardware vendors will have to sign up, and the cost savings will need to be clearly evident. In fact, the ultimate validation would be Dell configuring machines with an alternative desktop, but its ties to Microsoft will make that an interesting dilemma. However, Dell did announce that it would give bulk business customers a choice of buying desktops without Microsoft's operating system, or any other, pre-installed.
But software in not really free in the long run. If you want any maintenance support or packaged upgrades, there will be a cost associated with the service.
If McNealy's ultimate goal is to keep people from spending money on Microsoft software, his effort will fail. Microsoft has billions of dollars and can more easily adapt to changing economics.
For Sun and the open source community to succeed, they need to deliver real, competitive value and a growth path that gives customers the confidence that they won't one day be bullied by a less-than-benevolent dictatorship. Creating innovation and choice without fragmentation and proprietary extensions will be a real test of the open source community concept.
What do you think of McNealy and company as the benevolent, competent dictator governing the evolution of the open source desktop alternative? Can Sun break Microsoft's grip on the desktop? Leave a message in our TalkBack forum, or e-mail me at dan.farber@cnet.com.
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I had not seen the Graphic here or the one you referenced!
I need to spend more time on the Linux boards!
This should help!
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