Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Servers

    Novells New CTO Says Linux Desktop Is Ripe for Adoption

    By
    Peter Galli
    -
    February 15, 2006
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Novells new CTO Jeff Jaffe is very bullish on the outlook for the Linux desktop going forward, saying he believes it is on the cusp of a significant adoption wave.

      “I think we are approaching a tipping point on the enterprise desktop side. The industry has built a commercial infrastructure to make it easy now for more open-source projects to be relevant to business,” Jaffe said.

      “There used to be all sorts of barriers and obstacles, even if the technology was good enough, but a lot of the nontechnical barriers are now evaporating,” he said.

      While, previously, there was not enough momentum behind the desktop, the technology is now better. Corporate IT departments have became more comfortable with having the right skills for Linux, and are developing acquisition policies to bring open source into their enterprise, he said.

      /zimages/2/28571.gifClick here to read why Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols thinks the Linux desktop has been so slow in coming.

      “I think it is about to take off. As I see it, if you segment the market, there are those for whom the Linux desktop has been fine for the past few years—fixed function, transactional users, thin clients—but I think what we are about to see is adoption by the basic office worker,” Jaffe said in an interview with eWEEK at the Open Source Business Conference here on Feb. 15.

      Jaffe is a former executive at IBM and Lucent Technologies—who was appointed to the position last November to replace Alan Nugent—and will be overseeing Novells technology and product business units.

      With regard to adoption of the Linux desktop on the consumer side, Jaffe said that would take longer, as would support from the ISV community. But, for the enterprise Linux desktop, Novell was working hard at providing even better integration in the desktop for users.

      “We are also doing a lot of work in our labs to exploit and develop the new X over OpenGL graphics subsystem, including using it in applications, windowing and managing photographs, so there is a lot of excitement there,” Jaffe said.

      But corporations would have to, almost universally, get very clear on their acquisition policies for open source this year. “There are some corporations who want to let us have flowers bloom internally and then there are others who are scared to death,” he said.

      Bill Hewitt, a senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Novell said that while desktop adoption numbers remained small, Novell was seeing some volume from customers like the Department of Education and Ritz Camera.

      “Just from a Novell standpoint, we save some $3 million a year not paying for Microsoft licenses, so as the economics become more apparent to customers, they will start to move,” he said.

      Jaffe added that it is interesting that for many years now the number one mantra for CIOs was avoiding vendor lock-in, which had driven things like standards and Posix.

      “It is very interesting that there is this one part of the industry where that has not quite happened. But I think deep inside their DNA they do not want vendor lock-in,” Jaffe said.

      “When the Linux desktop is at a level that they no longer question its value, when that happens, the instinct of every corporate IT manager is to go to the thing that is open,” he said.

      Asked by eWEEK why he had taken the CTO job at Novell, given the recent layoffs and other negative corporate issues that had affected the company, Jaffe said that his career as a technologist had been about understanding what the key technology plays would be over long periods of time.

      “When I met with the leadership team at Novell, they were passionately involved in what I view as the most disruptive technology and methodology in our industry, which is open source.

      /zimages/2/28571.gifClick here to read about Novells claims that its Linux desktop will surpass Windows.

      “I also got a serious sense that Novell as a company was going to constructively participate with the community in making this happen and in making a difference in the industry,” he said.

      Asked how Novell would differentiate itself from its competitors like IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Red Hat, Jaffe said that many of the companies that were its competitors were also its partners.

      Open source was changing the way software was built, developed, sold and incorporated into enterprises, and many companies will continue to work together to make that happen, he said.

      “But, having said that, where we are focused is on our operating system distribution, which is a fundamental anchor point for everything. It is where it all starts,” Jaffe said.

      “We will also continue to participate and contribute strongly to the open-source community, which is an important part of our philosophy. We are also very dedicated to providing enterprise services and support, with our long history around NetWare giving us a deep knowledge of the enterprise and their needs,” he said.

      /zimages/2/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis.

      Peter Galli
      Peter Galli has been a financial/technology reporter for 12 years at leading publications in South Africa, the UK and the US. He has been Investment Editor of South Africa's Business Day Newspaper, the sister publication of the Financial Times of London.He was also Group Financial Communications Manager for First National Bank, the second largest banking group in South Africa before moving on to become Executive News Editor of Business Report, the largest daily financial newspaper in South Africa, owned by the global Independent Newspapers group.He was responsible for a national reporting team of 20 based in four bureaus. He also edited and contributed to its weekly technology page, and launched a financial and technology radio service supplying daily news bulletins to the national broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, which were then distributed to some 50 radio stations across the country.He was then transferred to San Francisco as Business Report's U.S. Correspondent to cover Silicon Valley, trade and finance between the US, Europe and emerging markets like South Africa. After serving that role for more than two years, he joined eWeek as a Senior Editor, covering software platforms in August 2000.He has comprehensively covered Microsoft and its Windows and .Net platforms, as well as the many legal challenges it has faced. He has also focused on Sun Microsystems and its Solaris operating environment, Java and Unix offerings. He covers developments in the open source community, particularly around the Linux kernel and the effects it will have on the enterprise.He has written extensively about new products for the Linux and Unix platforms, the development of open standards and critically looked at the potential Linux has to offer an alternative operating system and platform to Windows, .Net and Unix-based solutions like Solaris.His interviews with senior industry executives include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Linus Torvalds, the original developer of the Linux operating system, Sun CEO Scot McNealy, and Bill Zeitler, a senior vice president at IBM.For numerous examples of his writing you can search under his name at the eWEEK Website at www.eweek.com.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×