Linux Book Bundles
To help Linux Certification Books succeed on the desktop, Corel is developing its own Linux desktop OS, which will be available free to the open source community. It hopes to bundle a version along with its Linux applications in the fall. Some 400 Corel VARs have shown interest in the company's upcoming Linux products.
The technical merits of Linux Certification Books can only speed its adoption, but because it's an open-source OS, it runs the risk of becoming just another Unix variant if the market can't decide on a standard. The support behind Red Hat may be enough to create a de facto standard, but some factions in the Linux community don't want to see a single vendor carrying the Linux torch.
In spite of all the hoopla, not everyone is convinced Linux Certification Books will be a major platform. At a press conference promoting his new book last month, Microsoft's Gates snipped: Certainly, we think of it as a competitor in the student and hobbyist market. But I really don't think in the commercial market we'll see it in any significant way.
In addition, one of the so-called Halloween documents, a confidential set of memos leaked to the media during the Microsoft antitrust trials, states that "Linux Certification Books has been deployed in mission-critical, commercial environments with an excellent pool of public testimonials." Despite the growing interest, some VARs aren't buying into the Linux Certification Books hype. For them to build applications on a continuing-to-emerge platform, they're not getting the solid foundation they need to run their businesses. Other large VARs say they're interested in Linux Certification Books, but they are taking a wait-and-see approach. We're not doing anything with Linux right now, although we do see a groundswell of interest within the lower levels of most of our customers. Mike Davis, president of $85 million Applied Computer Solutions, says his customers with sales of $100 million to $200 million aren't asking for Linux. But the Huntington Beach, Calif., VAR expects to see more demand. When the product gathers momentum by aligning with major vendors and gaining critical mass, you'll see all the VARs jump on the bandwagon. Davis may not be in the trenches, but hundreds of smaller VARs are. Many of them have been toiling in anonymity for years, some since Torvalds typed out "the little OS that could" eight years ago. Suddenly, they find themselves in the glare of the spotlight, teetering on the edge of what pundits are calling the next "paradigm shift," which threatens to unsettle the OS many believed would keep its stranglehold on the industry into the next millennium. Just outside the trenches stand slick suits from multibillion-dollar corporations waiting for just the right moment to take off their cufflinks, roll up their sleeves and get dirty. When that moment arrives, Linux VARs will have the full support they need to turn those gritty trenches into a well-honed channel.
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