Discussing desktops at the Collaboration Summit

This panel, moderated by Steven Vaughan-Nichols, featured John Hull from Dell, David Liu (gOS), Jim Mann (HP), Timothy Chen (Via), Kelly Fraser (Xandros), Grégoire Gentil (Zonbu), Ellis Wang (Asus), Debra Kobs-Fortner (Lenovo), and a representative from Everex whose name your editor did not catch. Together, they represented a wide range of industries, from component makers and operating system vendors to providers of complete systems. They take different approaches to the Linux desktop, but they are all optimistic about where it is heading - though some are more so than others.

So how are these vendors doing with desktop Linux? While all of the vendors were optimistic, some were more guarded than others. Dell states that sales have "met expectations," but are aimed mostly at niche markets so far. There is, they say, a lot of interest in emerging markets, where users can start with Linux from the outset and do not have to migrate from other platforms. HP was also moderate in its enthusiasm, saying that its sales are "right about at the industry average." Lenovo was cautiously optimistic; their Thinkpad offerings are targeted at business users, which is a slower market to get into. According to Lenovo, most of their Linux-based sales are custom products designed for specific businesses.

Rather more enthusiasm came from gOS, the company which supplied the distribution for Wal-Mart's low-end PC. Sales, they say, are "very good." Asus is clearly happy with the success of the Eee PC. That success, they say, comes from the effort put into designing a complete solution for users, with features like quick booting and solid-state storage: "you drop it, it still works." Everex says that "sales are brisk"; the company is pleased and will continue to offer Linux-based products - including the "MyMiniPC", a small system aimed specifically at MySpace users. Via's components are found in a number of small Linux systems, including the Eee PC, so Via is happy. It's too early for real results from Zonbu, which is trying to use Linux-based systems for a "computers as a service" business model. But, says Zonbu, Linux is the best platform for companies trying new models. Finally, Xandros also is optimistic, especially about "new form factors" for the desktop, a place where Microsoft, they say, "stumbled."

The panel was asked what the development community can do to help these desktop businesses; in response, Arjan van de Ven piped up from the audience, asking what the companies are doing for the kernel community. From Lenovo, the word is that developers can work to get drivers into enterprise distributions as soon as possible. That request, of course, gets back to the tension between enterprise distributions and the desire for current code; this subject was not pursued further here, though. Dell would like to see more collaboration with other vendors in the production of drivers. The Via representative came straight out and said that "we don't do much" to support the community, but insisted that their intentions are good. He said that community support is hard for a Taiwanese company to do, but didn't say why. Via does plan to open a community site at linux.via.com.tw with driver code and more, but this site is not yet in place.

[PULL QUOTE: There would appear to be some tension between providing a truly open device and keeping support costs down. END QUOTE] Support of users came up briefly. The HP representative said that the company expects distributors to provide backup support, but the first call will always go to the vendor of the hardware. That can be a problem, especially for the small devices which are seeing so much success at the moment; a single support call can wipe out any profit on the sale of one of those systems. Selling "constrained systems" which only do a few things helps; but, earlier, Mr. Mann had also talked about the difficulty of installing additional applications on these systems. There would appear to be some tension between providing a truly open device and keeping support costs down. The word from Asus is that a system like the Eee PC generates a lot of relatively trivial calls - things like "how do I search on the web?" So there is a real need to train users which has little to do with Linux itself.

On the subject of applications, the gOS representative discussed a strategy of putting as much as possible on the web. The problem with local applications which look like Microsoft products is that users then expect those applications to behave like Microsoft products. It is better to have something which is obviously different and, presumably, better. Xandros called for better style guides and consistency throughout the interface; clones of other products are not what the market needs. On the HP side, the biggest request was "don't make people open a terminal."

Perhaps the most amusing comment came from the Via representative, who described a "Maddog/Shuttleworth" choice. He asserted that his grandparents would find Jon "maddog" Hall (who was in the audience) to be a rather scary presence, while Mark Shuttleworth comes across as a friendly gentleman. Our interfaces, he says, need to look more like Mark Shuttleworth. Your editor, who has always found Maddog to be one of the friendliest people he knows, does not entirely buy into this analogy. But perhaps there is something to be said for clean-shaven interfaces.

There was some talk of asking suppliers to provide hardware which is supported by free software. Perhaps the most telling comment came from Lenovo, which, apparently, has been asking for Linux-supported hardware "for a number of years." Free drivers are not a priority, though; the first priority is just having things work. So there is still some work to be done in this direction.

Arguably the most interesting theme which came from this discussion - and from the first day of the summit as a whole - is that nobody is really pushing all that hard to get Linux into traditional desktop settings. The real action at the moment would appear to be in small devices like the Eee PC. These "greenfield" areas where there is no established presence to compete against offer vendors a market where they are not trying to migrate users away from other products. They would appear to be convinced that Linux can be a strong contender there - maybe the strongest. So soon we may truly see the year of the Linux desktop - for specific types of "desktop."