Weekly Edition
Return to the Press page
| |||||||||||||
Sun's Linux desktop off to flying start (Register)
The Register looks forward to Sun's Linux desktop offering.
"Sun is batting around the idea of teaming with service providers to rent out applications such as StarOffice and also hardware such as online storage. The service provider could theoretically ship a thin client or white box to a consumer and then charge for various products. Do you want browsing, StarOffice and storage? Well, that's x dollars per month."
(Log in to post comments)
What's wrong with this picture? Posted Nov 15, 2003 5:25 UTC (Sat) by BrucePerens (guest, #2510) [Link] I have a lot of respect for Sun, but they do some strange stuff. After spending years helping develop GNOME, they are now totally silent on the fact that their "Java Desktop" is GNOME with the addition of a very small portion of the system that has anything to do with Java. I wonder how the GNOME team feels about that.And is anyone else having trouble understanding why anyone would want to rent OpenOffice? Oh right, StarOffice. It has better fonts. Bruce
What's wrong with this picture? Posted Nov 15, 2003 6:37 UTC (Sat) by chill633 (guest, #16013) [Link] By renting, you're basically paying for a Network Admin to keep it all working and updated. YOU don't have to deal with anti-virus, program patches, firewalls, etc. -- your service provider does.Why StarOffice when OpenOffice is free? It is more than just fonts. A large library of clipart & templates, which is a mainstay of many office; Granted, OO is getting a lot closer on many of those, and surpassing SO in some, the big seller is... ...someone ELSE takes care of it for you. That is a BIG plus with many small to medium sized offices.
What's wrong with this picture? Posted Nov 15, 2003 15:34 UTC (Sat) by BrucePerens (guest, #2510) [Link] YOU don't have to deal with anti-virus, program patches, firewalls, etc. -- your service provider does.Sincerely, I get all of this just by typing "apt-get update; apt-get upgrade" every few days. There seem to be some people somewhere who are making that work. I can't find the bill :-) . Your point about outsourcing care for the software is taken, but I'm not sure that the differential value is very large. Bruce
sounds familiar Posted Nov 15, 2003 10:09 UTC (Sat) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] Sounds like the plight of the GNU hackers in response to the system being called "Linux". Strange stuff indeed.
....speaking of bad distribution names... Posted Nov 15, 2003 21:54 UTC (Sat) by frazier (guest, #3060) [Link] gnUserLinux?http://www.gnuserlinux.com UserLinux was a good name. I understand people wanting the GNU in there, especially given the Debian base. But, no disrespect intended, gnUserLinux is awful. It won't be especially rememberable, it doesn't roll off the tongue, and people migrating to a GNU/Linux system from something proprietary won't remember it. Please, don't remedy this with UserLiGNUs either! Friendly suggestions: To be blunt, gnUserLinux is like sauerkraut ice cream, not a Reese's peanut butter cup. It would be good to start off with a good name. I'll use whatever regardless of it's name, but it would be advantageous to have a good name given the intended user base.
....speaking of good distribution names... Posted Nov 16, 2003 5:40 UTC (Sun) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] gnUserLinux:Wow, I'm impressed. Nice show of integrity in an environment where corporations are pressuring us to hide the founding philosophy of our OS. How to pronouce? I hadn't heard of the gnUserLinux name. (Google and altavista haven't heard of it either yet.) Thanks Bruce.
....speaking of distribution names... Posted Nov 16, 2003 9:41 UTC (Sun) by frazier (guest, #3060) [Link] How to pronouce? I'd suspect g-n-user-linux? (or guh-nooser-linux? first one sounds better)...and there's my point in a nutshell. Even the people who get the whole 'GNU' factor aren't at home with this name at a glance. Some of the users this is potentially targeted towards (migrating from proprietary OSs) don't get the GNU at all. 'gnUserLinux' does not bring home the "GNU", nor does it make for a decent general name. Call it "User GNU/Linux", call it "Mainstream GNU/Linux", call it whatever, but please spare the world a gnUserLinux or UserLiGNUx. If you want to sneak a GNU in there to avoid GNU/Linux name confusion with people going "is this Linux or not", consider something like "MagnumLinux". Debian handles the GNU/Linux issue very well, and heck, has a pronouncable name too ("Debian"). The homepage reads: Debian is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run. Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an operating system), but most of the basic OS tools come from the GNU project; hence the name GNU/Linux.A weak name will hurt adoption, more than it should, unfortunately. In a corportate environment things have to marketed to management like anything else. This is easier to accomplish with a more accessable name.
....speaking of distribution names... Posted Nov 16, 2003 10:20 UTC (Sun) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] How about: GoLinux! (gnu on linux)"User GNU/Linux" might be untrademarkable, since all three words are either in common use or already trademarked. I don't know. I think g-n-user-linux is good though. The capital U should stop people calling it guh-nooser-linux. It's certainly not easy to find a catchy name with gnu and linux in it. Debians approach is very good indeed.
GoLinux! Posted Nov 16, 2003 14:53 UTC (Sun) by vblum (guest, #1151) [Link] Nice! And it's even a recursive acronym (Gnu's not Unix on Linux! ???)
....speaking of distribution names... Posted Nov 16, 2003 16:21 UTC (Sun) by vblum (guest, #1151) [Link] oh well .... no. 82 on the distributions page ...
....speaking of distribution names... Posted Nov 16, 2003 22:41 UTC (Sun) by frazier (guest, #3060) [Link] I like GoLinux... ...easy to pronounce, easy to remember. An excellent idea. As was mentioned, there's a Go!Linux at #82 on the LWN distributions list, but it looks dead. Here's what http://www.golinux.de says translated to English via Babelfish: Welcomely on the Website by Helmut FranzIn a nutshell, there's no active Go!Linux there. The LWN description for Go!Linux says: Comes with PC!Linux magazine. German.GoLinux is being used as a migration-related resource from tux.org. http://www.golinux.ch/ is a small resource looking independent of tux.org and Go!Linux. The worst thing I've run across so far about GoLinux is GoLinux.com which is a souless links page but does have links to Linux stuff which may or may not make it fair game under the guidelines of Linux International. I like the GoLinux name. If GoLinux.com could be secured and whatever naming conflicts could be resolved (not sure about the domain but given the nature of the active GoLinux sites I can see that being a doable task) that would be a nice, marketable, pronounable, usable, GNUable name. I've obtained blessing for a now long defunct Linux name from LI in the past... ...Jon "Maddog" Hall was great to work with. Don't know exactly what their policy is on situations like GoLinux.com above, though. If anything else, there's gotta be another name out there (rememberable, readily pronouncable, internally marketable to non-technical people without them thinking "how good can something be with a name like that?"). GoLinux is short, memorable, positive, and easily said. These are good things.
....speaking of distribution names... Posted Nov 16, 2003 23:37 UTC (Sun) by frazier (guest, #3060) [Link] Along the lines of GoLinux would be GoldLinux (GNU On Linux Distribution).The .com, .net, .org domains are there, too. A quick Google shows a lack of conflicts, there's Accelerated-X Summit Line DX - Gold Edition Linux Demos and there appears to be a discontinued or renamed web hosting product from Intuity Networks called GoldLinux. Not as catchy as GoLinux in my book, but certainly usable, pronouncable, and might be a reasonable candidate for a sanctioned trademark from Linux International (of course, that's up to them as the agent of the Linux Trademark). On the surface there appears to be few if any current uses of the name.
....speaking of good distribution names... Posted Nov 16, 2003 17:45 UTC (Sun) by BrucePerens (guest, #2510) [Link] It's pronounced "User Linux" the gn is silent, but present in the written form. It's GNU Linux with the user in the middle. That seemed appropriate.Bruce
....speaking of good distribution names... Posted Nov 16, 2003 23:34 UTC (Sun) by vblum (guest, #1151) [Link] If this is going to be end-user marketable, as it is supposed to be: I really fear not many inthe targeted audience will understand the gnUser concept, much less pronounciation. My fear is, _if_ it ever gets successful, it will easily be dubbed LoserLinux, loserGnInux or Sorry about this, I mean neither disrespect nor destructive criticism - I really welcome the best of luck with the project V.
OT but ....speaking of bad distribution names... Posted Nov 21, 2003 14:03 UTC (Fri) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link] > But, no disrespect intended, gnUserLinux is awful... Or is that gnAuwful? <g> gnUserLinux sounds like they are trying to say Gnu (new) user Linux, which gets uncomfortably close to gnu(L)userLinux! Take it from one who has taken to calling his former platform "MSWormOS"!
Sun's Marketing Posted Nov 15, 2003 23:23 UTC (Sat) by vblum (guest, #1151) [Link] This confurion is really unfortunate! Sun seems to have a good product, and their marketingis utterly shooting themselves in the foot! Boom! This was already apparent when VP Jonathan Schwartz gave his "Linux sucks" interview in The real issue seems to be that endorsing anything close to "Linux" is poison for a part of At this point, the overall impression is that of a clown whose left hand cannot stop what the Anyhow, this here sounds just like Microsoft naming their next release "Visual Basic OS" ...
Sun's Marketing Posted Nov 16, 2003 9:07 UTC (Sun) by XERC (guest, #14626) [Link] They have invested so much into Solaris that going around and telling everyone how great "Linux" works is probably intolerable for a large part of their organisation. Another part of Sun knows and accepts that Linux is the future of their marketplace, like it or not.Well yes, but if they really OWN the Solaris and don't license something into the OS, then have the opportunity to turn Solaris in to open source and free operating system. After all, BSD does pretty well next to Linux, and as Solaris is also one of the UNIX types, it can use many of the existing software and could have a pretty good chanse of becoming a sucessful free operating system. This way the previous investments would not be totally wasted. Does anyone have any use for the old MS-DOS or SCO's UNIX??? If we exclude computer-journalists and other hobbyists or historians, who are intereasted in acient software, then probably nobody misses those operating systems too much. Not to mention the fact, that Sun would be in a very good position for providing development services for the Solaris operating system, as they have a vast inhouse experience at it.
Sun's Linux desktop off to flying start (Register) Posted Nov 15, 2003 21:48 UTC (Sat) by pyellman (guest, #4997) [Link] I was at a Java developer's conference last weekend and a number of speakers publicly lamented the label given to this product. Since the product has little to nothing to do with Java, they consider the label to be an inappropriate exploitation by Sun of the Java "brand", which they (the developers) had helped to build. I tend to agree. If the product tanks, it could very well negatively affect the perception of the Java brand, at least among those who are uninformed -- which unfortunately is quite a few people.But then, this is just the kind of thing I've come to expect from Sun over the last couple of years. Peter Y.
Sun's Linux desktop off to flying start (Register) Posted Nov 20, 2003 12:49 UTC (Thu) by davecb (subscriber, #1574) [Link] I think Sun's doing the same thing with the desktop as with the middleware: shifting big parts of it to Java. Thus the "Java Desktop" and "Java Enterprise System" names are as much predictions as descriptions.--dave
|
|||||||||||||