Gartner pours cold water on enterprise Linux desktops

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: PHIL HOCHMUTH ON LINUX
08/29/05
Today's focus: Gartner pours cold water on enterprise Linux
desktops

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Analysts at Gartner don't see Linux appearing on many desktops
* Links related to Linux
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Gartner pours cold water on enterprise Linux
desktops

By Phil Hochmuth

A recent report by analyst firm Gartner says that despite recent
hype around open source desktop software, technologies such as
Linux and OpenOffice.org are not posing challenges to Microsoft
in enterprise desktop computing.

The Gartner report says that "while most users could get their
work done either on Windows or Linux, Microsoft Office or
OpenOffice.org" in a "greenfield" environment where new PCs and
applications are installed, swapping out Windows for Linux is a
trickier situation.

Gartner, which advises many Fortune 500 companies on IT
decisions, says many of its clients look at open source software
as a cost-saving technology, while a smaller percentage say that
the control of source code is the major draw. But drawbacks for
open source adopters include an "oversized catalog of
applications with no suitable Linux alternative" as well
uncertainty about which Linux desktop environment - KDE, GNOME -
will emerge as the standard for Linux desktop computing.

Gartner says it had a hard time finding clients willing to talk
about Linux desktop deployments. But the analyst firm also says
it has studied some deployments of Linux desktops in the
education market where schools are seeing savings by using Linux
instead of Windows and StarOffice for word processing and other
tasks. In one Midwestern school district, more than 300,000 PCs
are expected to be installed with Linux and OpenOffice, the firm
says.

In all, the report surmises that "open source can make sense for
some users and can provide benefits. Organizations need to
carefully examine themselves to figure out where open source
products might best be used."

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To contact: Phil Hochmuth

Phil Hochmuth is a Network World Senior Editor and a former
systems integrator. You can reach him at
<mailto:phochmut@nww.com>.
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This newsletter is sponsored by HP
FROM THE NETWORK CORE TO THE NETWORK EDGE

Traffic management becomes critical as your network
infrastructure expands to support different types of traffic and
users. Most traffic management solutions have serious
limitations: too expensive, difficult to use, and overly taxing
on bandwidth. However ProCurve Networking by HP addresses these
requirements, overcomes the limitations of other solutions, and
gives you valuable insight into LAN performance.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=111667
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ARCHIVE LINKS

Breaking Linux news from Network World and around the 'Net,
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Archive of the Linux newsletter:
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/linux/index.html
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IT STAFF SHORTAGE LOOMING

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