By Brian Proffitt
Managing Editor
I woke up this morning, not-quite refreshed from a four-hour
slumber, and while I was standing in front of the mirror brushing
my teeth, a terrible thought occurred to me. This often happens
when I am brushing my teeth, because the taste of toothpaste
usually invokes memories of other days when I’ve drug myself out of
bed at the hour known as Ungodly.
Here was my thought: “What if this whole Dell/Ubuntu deal
doesn’t work out?”
It was kind of a guilty thought, because I really do want this
to succeed: the opportunities from having a first-tier hardware
vendor preloading any Linux distribution are great. For example it
means, finally, that all of those “I can’t get Linux to install on
my machine so Linux must suck” reviews will crawl away into
oblivion.
This thought really had some serious impetus, not just
toothpaste. Some pundits have reminded us ad nauseum of Dell’s
prior experience with selling Linux machines at the turn of the
century, and how Dell gave it up in 2001, citing poor sales. On an
emotional level, I get bemused by this line of thought, because
clearly some people are desperate to say anything to keep Linux
from succeeding. But some could argue that people like me are
desperate to say anything to keep Linux from failing, so emotional
arguments are negated.
On a practical level, there is some danger, like any business
arrangement, of Ubuntu on dell machines not succeeding. Blogger Ben
Hay had the
same thought, in a blog posted on LT this afternoon. But Mr.
Hay takes a more conspiatorial tack with his rationale than I
would. I’m not afraid of a big, dark Microsoft-Dell conspiracy; I’m
more afraid that someone’s going to screw this up
unintentionally.
Case in point: other vendors’ reactions to the Dell/Ubuntu
agreement. Novell and Red Hat put their differences aside long
enough to both say pretty much the same thing: that’s really nifty,
but these Ubuntu machines are really for the Linux enthusiast, not
the enterprise market where we market our enterprise-ready
desktops. You can just hear the upturned noses, can’t you?
Curiously, Linspire’s Kevin Carmody, who likely knew full well
about this deal before it was announced, had his weekly newsletter
all primed and ready with nearly the same argument:
“We have explained to Dell that we see Linux in two different
markets. The first we call the ‘Linux Enthusiasts Market,’ Carmody
wrote in his
newsletter. “This is where Linux is today. The second is the
‘Linux Mainstream Market.’ This market is likely one to three years
away. Because Dell is going to put their toe into the desktop Linux
PC waters now, they should offer a product that is geared towards
where that market is today… the Linux Enthusiasts.”
Linspire, he added, will be ready for that “mainstream”
market.
Geez, pat Canonical on the head and give them a sucker–it might
be less condescending.
It could be that these Dell machines are only going to
be bought by cutting edge adopters. Goodness knows, I’ve been wrong
before. But I think this constant assignment of limitations to the
Linux desktop, especially by its own vendors, is just
ridiculous.
Who knows what a solid, preloaded Ubuntu machine might be able
to do in the market? I have an idea, though: let’s get some
value-add partners teamed up with Canonical or Dell and go sell
these things like hotcakes to the one market segment that the big
commercial vendors consistently ignore: the small- to
medium-business (SMB) space.
Red Hat and Novell want the enterprise? Great, let them. If I
were Dell, I’d toss all my marketing energy into filling the SMB
channel with these machines, and split the support costs with
Canoncial. Linspire wants to wait for the mainstream? Okay, let ’em
wait. Meanwhile, Ubuntu’s out there making serious inroads
now into the a vastly underserved market for open source
products.
I am not writing this because I want Ubuntu to succeed while
other distros fail. I want them all to succeed. But I
think this constant inability to think of the possibilities of
Linux in all of the marketplace is dragging everyone down.
“Focus on mission” is what the commercial vendors might say to
this statement. “Tunnel vision” is what I would say in reply.
If we self-limit Linux, if we don’t think outside of the box,
then my worries become justified. This deal won’t succeed. Don’t
sell to just one market segment. Don’t just pigeon-hole these
machines to just “Linux enthusiasts.” Get them to anyone who can
really use a solid, secure, stable OS.
In other words, get them to everyone.