[Desktop_architects] Distro involvement

[Jon Perr]

All,

I defer on the participation of the distro companies and organizations.  I
did, though, want to raise a few issues from past experience on how the
intersection of communities and vendors sometimes makes it difficult to
address some of the thorniest issues in Linux desktop adoption.  Take the
following with the appropriate grain of salt.

1.  THE "WHO WILL DO IT?" PROBLEM

Some of the toughest barriers to Linux desktop adoption, especially by
corporate customers, are bigger than any given vendor.  However, the
complexity (and often, the sheer drudgery) of the development work, combined
with lower interest among community hackers as end users, mean that key
issues don't get addressed (or at least, not in a timely way, from a market
perspective).

Consider these examples:

a) Microsoft Office file format fidelity.  OpenOffice is good and getting
better, but issues like fonts, pagination, graphics display, etc. still mean
some document reformatting for mixed Linux/Windows audiences.  This
especially important for organizations who've made an investment in
templates.  Or think of the Word document with tables, multiple sections
with different headers/footers, etc. as an example.  Even with XML document
formats, the huge legacy Office 97/2000/XP installed base means this problem
won't go away.

b) Office Macros/VB Script Conversion.  For financial services and other
sectors which commonly automate Word or Excel  with scripts or macros
(especially to access big back-end databases), a move to Linux desktops is
especially problematic. Their investment in scripts/macros makes migration
to Linux prohibitively difficult.

c) Printer Drivers and Setup.  The availability of vendor supported,
end-user configurable printer drivers is also a real problem.

I don't what the answer is getting vendors and the multiple communities
together on putting resources and schedules against these class of issues,
but it seems like a topic worth covering.  Having been on the vendor side,
I've lived with the "we don't have the resources, but hopefully the
community will do it" issue.

2. VENDOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE ISSUES

A challenge in having lots of commercial distros involved may be their
concerns over competitive advantage.  Some vendors are focused on pursuing
advantage through usability, configuration or desktop software deployment
and management functionality which they may feel ill at ease discussing.
Hopefully, we can bracket the discussion by focusing on areas of shared or
baseline capabilities (like some of the above).

Jon



-----Original Message-----
From: desktop_architects-bounces at lists.osdl.org
[mailto:desktop_architects-bounces at lists.osdl.org]On Behalf Of Miller,
Marc
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005 12:04 PM
To: John Cherry; desktop_architects at osdl.org
Subject: RE: [Desktop_architects] Distro involvement


At first I thought it was rather early in the process to be inviting the
distribution companies, but the more I think about it, the more I
realize they should be invited to participate in this meeting.

1.  Many of them do have strategies in these areas, and it will help
them to compare notes in an open forum so as to refine their strategy.
2.  The distributions will be taking the desktop code to the customers.
Getting them involved early in the process will help things from a
relationship standpoint and will give them an opportunity to express
their opinions on what affect Linux client adoption.
3.  Distribution companies will get a preview of the compelling features
in the desktop packages that they should take advantage of.
4.  A number of the .org developers actually work for these
distributions.  It will help our .org invited representatives achieve
their goals if the developers employed by these distributions are able
to support the same efforts.  Red Hat, for example, is very strict about
what it will allow its engineers to work on.

-----Original Message-----
From: desktop_architects-bounces at lists.osdl.org
[mailto:desktop_architects-bounces at lists.osdl.org] On Behalf Of John
Cherry
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005 9:39 AM
To: desktop_architects at osdl.org
Subject: [Desktop_architects] Distro involvement

The question about including commercial distros in the Desktop
Architects Meeting came up at the planning meeting.

What would you think about opening up the Distros Session to any distro
that wants to participate?  If we do this, we would need to get the
distro reps together prior to the meeting to prepare and consolidate.
For the distros, I would like to see the following...

1. Top inhibitors they perceive in each of the desktop market segments.

     Fixed
     Technical workstation
     Transactional worker
     Office
     Consumer
     Mobile professional

2. Strategy for multiple desktop support.

3. Strategy for consistent package management.

4. Strategy for enabling ISVs on Linux platforms.

The time is really getting short for changing the Distros Session, but
if the commercial distros would like to participate, this is one way to
do it.  Just a proposal.  Feedback?


--
John Cherry
Initiative Manager
503-906-1929