Dell looks to keep Sun at bay with Linux
By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
August 15, 2000, 12:45 p.m. PT
SAN JOSE, Calif.--Linux will help Dell Computer dislodge Sun
Microsystems, chief executive Michael Dell predicted today during a
speech in which he also knocked the business plan of one of his
company's major partners: Microsoft.
"The open-source collaborative development model is built to succeed in the
Internet age," Dell said in his keynote address at the LinuxWorld Conference and
Expo in San Jose, Calif. "It makes much more sense than the proprietary model."
Dell was referring to Sun Microsystems, a company whose
revenue--$5 billion last quarter--is growing uncomfortably
close to Dell's $7.7 billion. Sun sells servers, more complex
and profitable but more difficult to sell in large quantities
and a type of computer Dell is working hard to sell.
Microsoft is another company that sells proprietary
software--products that, unlike Linux, may not be shared
freely and modified by anyone who wishes. Dell, which sells
more desktop computers than any competitor, has for years
been one of Microsoft's biggest customers, paying for
copies of Windows and Office.
In an interview after his keynote, Dell qualified his position
on the viability of proprietary software. "Clearly, Microsoft
has a pretty profitable customer model and customer
franchise," he said, and Dell isn't going to stop supporting
Microsoft customers.
Dell sells most Linux systems on its server line, the
environment where Linux and its progenitor, Unix, grew up.
But Dell said in a news conference that his company also is
examining the viability of Linux on the desktop, a move that
would provide a more direct threat to Microsoft's
stronghold.
Dell is in talks with Eazel, a company populated by former Macintosh programmers
working to make Linux easier to use and keep up-to-date, Dell said today. Eazel is
one of several members of the Gnome Foundation working to improve Linux for
use on the desktop.
"We're quite interested in how (Eazel's software) or the desktop opportunity might
emerge," Dell said. At this point it's a matter of when the technology will be ready to
deliver to customers, he added. The company is displaying desktop computers
running Eazel's software at the show.
According to a February report by International Data Corp., Linux has 4 percent of
the desktop operating system market, a hair behind Mac OS' 5 percent and way
behind Microsoft's 87 percent.
Dell's presence is among the strongest indicators of the widespread adoption of
Linux. At the same time, though, Dell hasn't tried to buddy up with open-source
programmers the way IBM, SGI, Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard and other
competitors have.
Instead, Dell chooses traditional business partnerships. It has invested in Red Hat,
Linuxcare, VMWare and CollabNet, Dell pointed out.
"Our commitment in ways that Dell is able to make a serious contribution is quite
significant," Dell said. "Not all these investments are going to yield a return for us;
they are going to yield progress in the Linux community."
Nevertheless, Dell ran into some skepticism during a question-and-answer period
with the keynote audience. Some asked what contributions Dell was making to the
Linux programming community, and several questioned whether Dell charges more
for Linux computers than for the same systems with Windows.
Dell flatly denied that his company charges an extra fee for Linux. In a news
conference, he said Linux servers cost less than Windows machines with the same
hardware.
Dell said his company sells 10 percent of its servers with Linux installed--a larger
fraction of Linux servers than any of his large competitors. He said he hopes that
percentage will increase.
Though Linux doesn't work on servers as powerful as high-end Unix models from
Sun, IBM, HP, Compaq and SGI, Dell is interested in markets where more units are
sold. With Linux as one of its three "strategic" operating systems, Dell can sell to
about 80 percent of the server market, Dell said.
The company offers Linux on four-processor servers. The company is evaluating it
on eight-processor systems, Dell said.
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