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Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Cyber Cynic

IBM & Canonical to launch Ubuntu desktop for business

45 comments

TAGS:Canonical, desktop linux, IBM, Linux, Lotus, Ubuntu
IT TOPICS:Desktops & Servers, Hardware, Linux, Open Source, Operating Systems, SaaS & Cloud Computing, SOA & Web Services

Recall how IBM and Canonical launched the Ubuntu IBM Client for Smart Work Linux desktop in Africa? Wish you could get one in the States? Wish no longer, as the two companies are introducing an Ubuntu-based Linux-based desktop package for arrival in 2010.

The IBM Client for Smart Work with Ubuntu is being built on top of Ubuntu 9.10. For applications, it uses IBM's OCCS (Open Collaboration Client Solution software), which includes both Lotus Symphony (IBM's take on OpenOffice) and Lotus Notes for e-mail and groupware.

You'll be able to run the Ubuntu-powered IBM Client both as a traditional desktop operating system and as a virtualized desktop. If you elect to go the virtual route, the IBM Client can run off either a cloud or servers using Virtual Bridges' VERDE (Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment) software.

VERDE is a Linux-based VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) server service. The company claims that VERDE can support up to a million user sessions per cluster on up to 10,000 servers. With it, Virtual Bridges says that it can support the Ubuntu desktop on any PC. Besides the usual virtual desktop services, it includes multimedia and sound support and local printing.

It's this virtual desktop that IBM is pushing. In an IBM statement, Bob Sutor, IBM's VP of Linux and open source, said that "Instead of positioning the IBM Client as a 'drop-in' replacement for the status-quo desktop, IBM is looking to create something better-focused on usability, openness, and security with a path to cloud computing-in market segments that make sense. Linux as the basis of the desktop is a pragmatic choice and gives a nod to the likely future of the desktop as being open and often virtualized."

Several companies, such as Midas Networks, will be offering the IBM Client as a virtualized desktop based on VERDE. You don't have to go to a SaaS (software as a service) vendor for the virtualized desktop. Other IBM partners will offer an appliance using Lotus Foundations, Lotus Domino VERDE so a business can run its own virtual desktops in-house.

This is not a consumer Linux desktop, though; it's meant for business. Specifically, IBM is targeting companies that need an inexpensive alternative to Windows for "collaboration, email, browser-based applications, and straightforward office productivity tasks."

Some vertical businesses have already embraced this plan. RealtyBargains.com will provide access to real estate property assessment information to its agents with the IBM Client for Smart Work starting in January 2010. "Our partnership with IBM and Canonical will allow us to offer the real estate industry's best agent workspace," said Padma Kumar Nair, RealtyBargains.com's president and CEO, in a statement.

While this far from an attempt to offer a universal Linux desktop replacement for Windows, it is a concerted effort to offer business users an affordable Windows replacement. With Windows 7 Professional Upgrade listing for $199 for Vista users, and XP users facing a situation where buying a new PC is probably their best 'upgrade' choice, the Ubuntu-powered IBM Client for Smart Work may well find some customers.

IBM Pricing:

Option A: A Starting Point

$3 LotusLive iNotes per user/month.

E-Mail, calendaring

TOTAL:$ 36 per user per year.

Option B: Add Social software capabilities to Option A

$9.75 LotusLive Connections per user/month

Dashboard, file sharing, personal profile networking, contact management, groups, project management, instant messaging.

TOTAL: $ 153 per user/year.

Option C: A Typical Solution

$74.50 Lotus Notes/iNotes

E-Mail, calendar, todo, contacts), Lotus Sametime entry (Instant messaging, chat, presence awareness), Lotus Quickr entry (file sharing)

TOTAL:$74.50 per user first year; $25.75 per user each additional year for the IBM Lotus software

Option D: Add virtual desktop capabilities

$49 per user first year. $10/user/year for subsequent years.

Supports Windows and Linux guests.

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Distribution contrast

Submitted by Charles on December 27, 2009 - 8:18 A.M.

I noticed that proprietary codecs/drivers were not touched on much in this article. Fedora normally doesn't include proprietary drivers for important things like video cards.

Ubuntu does the best job of the lot at finding new drivers, but we've used the latest release on a variety of machines and found that it has a lot of problems:

a) a lot of hardware that used to work is broken (fresh install).
b) overheating issues with notebooks.
c) network printers now take a long time to initialize (the print button doesn't become available), where they were instantly available before.
d) GDM has been stupidified. Getting rid of things like timed login makes it a lot more difficult for system integrators (and autologin is not the same thing). Also we liked just having a username prompt (security), don't make us click icons to login.

OpenSuSE actually used to be a favourite back in the 9.2 days, but after 9.3 it just became bloatware. OpenSuSE 11.2 does some nice things with the DVD edition where you can add sources that point to non-free codecs, but the live CDs don't (at least the ones we downloaded) do that. I agree that OpenSuSE is probably the closest to windows with YaST being very similar to Control Panel. It also has a lot of nice visuals, the greens are certainly better than Ubuntu's brown themes.

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Nothing new

Submitted by ram on October 21, 2009 - 1:57 P.M.

Can this blog entry look anymore like a press release? We know SJVN is a Linux pimp and everything, but this is too much.

In any case, I remember IBM has offered something like this for some time now. Googling produces some results. Here are the top two:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10113197-92.html

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/24825.wss

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Say what?

Submitted by Granny Tux on October 20, 2009 - 10:30 P.M.

Open Office and Symphony do everything MSFT Office can do and more. I regularly output OO docs to Adobe pdf and post them for clients. I've moved all but one of our client's websites to Open Source solutions without one complaint -- and, many kudos. The only issues I continue to deal with are clients using MSFT desktop clients like Outlook/IE who wind up infected or infecting others.

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Open Office can do everything MS Office can?????

Submitted by Anonymous on October 21, 2009 - 1:36 P.M.

No, I think not. How about:

Run an "On the Fly" grammar checker. Last time I checked one wasn't available on Open Office, but had been available on MS office for a decade.

How about saving .DOC files with a password. Open Office can open .DOC files with a password, but for some strange reason can't save them.

Open Office still lacks and lacks and lacks.

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What rubbish!

Submitted by Zetheroo on December 16, 2009 - 6:37 A.M.

Is that really the best you can come up with?

Why not bring up how long its been that OpenOffice could, with a single click of a button, create a PDF file!? How long has it taken MS Office to implement that?

Don't get me wrong ... I appreciate certain aspects of MS Office, but your rhetoric is simplistic, ignorant and just plain rubbish.

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ignorance

Submitted by Bill on October 27, 2009 - 9:03 P.M.

The DOC file is a proprietary format. It has been reverse engineered by freedom fighters to allow an easier transition to ODF. M$ software will always have a few bells and whistles that only work with their software because they want to exclude everyone else from fully using their proprietary file formats. They desire monopolization through exclusion in lieu of competition based on the merit of the software produced.

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While OpenOffice and

Submitted by Anonymous on October 21, 2009 - 8:42 A.M.

While OpenOffice and derivatives can do a lot of what MSOffice it can not do all. Most people do not need all those extra options but the ones that do it is not an option. Yes OpenOffice can also do things that MSOffice can not do but then Lotus 123 can do things that MSOffice and OpenOffice can not do. So if moving to OpenOffice it has to be determined if the lack of features can be lived with out.

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What features?

Submitted by Anonymous on October 30, 2009 - 6:25 A.M.

Any document that MS Word, Powerpoint, and Excel can produce, OpenOffice can also produce.

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A true test of the vendor's

Submitted by Mike Angelo on October 20, 2009 - 8:27 P.M.

A true test of the vendor's confidence in their own product is if they themselves run it on their own internal systems exclusively. Fail otherwise.

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It certainly makes sense for

Submitted by Anonymouse on October 20, 2009 - 4:03 P.M.

It certainly makes sense for mid and large businesses. If you have so much computing power somewhere, why maintain more software on each desktop? Just plug in a thin client.

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