Another look at Ubuntu and the Enterprise

This post has been hanging out in a draft for a while and decided to post it.

Every 6 months a Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) comes around to help plan the next release of Ubuntu and each time I look forward to seeing some blueprint or meeting geared around Ubuntu and this past UDS I was greeted with this: Ubuntu Desktop in an Enterprise Setup.  This is not the first blueprint in Launchpad that has been created around Ubuntu I’ve seen and not the first post I’ve made about management and Ubuntu.

What Ubuntu needs is not a Business Remix removing social bits and pieces (social is used more and more in business these days) but integration within the various systems management tools that already exist.  The most exciting thing about this new blueprint is the line: “Ubuntu-only solutions (e.g., a tight coupling to Landscape) are not an option.”  To whoever made that point I salute and applaud you.  People don’t want to be locked into yet another tool from yet another vendor.  If they are a CA shop, or a Symantec shop for Endpoint Management then Ubuntu should just work on that platform.

The challenge is this is not something that is going to be handled by a community member or by a member of the desktop engineering team, it is something that is going to be have to be done by Canonical’s business development or OEM team.  They are going to have to work w/ getting support from the companies that do Enterprise Endpoint Management.  Take a look at this table I’ve done in another blog post that shows how Ubuntu is supported:

Vendor	Name of Product	Supported Linux Distributions
Symantec	Altiris Client Management Suite	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (6 before EOY), SUSE Linux 11
Dell (KACE)	Kace Systems Management Appliance	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4, and 5
IBM (Tivoli, Big Fix)	Configuration Manager (?)	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, 5, and 6, SUSE Linux 9, 10, 11
Microsoft	System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM)	SCCM 2012 will support Red Hat, SUSE, and Solaris
Canonical	Landscape	Ubuntu
HP	HP IT Management Software (NOTE: Had hard time finding exact information about HP’s product as they have a lot of names

So let’s get going and get Ubuntu supported by Enterprise Endpoint Management….

UPDATE: I started working on this draft shortly after it was posted (5/7) and unfortunately haven’t seen any movement on this blueprint, not even an approve… Hopefully someone, somewhere within Canonical is working on it

Enterprise support instead of a business remix

In the last “Ask Mark” section that occurred on 2001/11/23 our supreme dictator for life showed up for questions (log can be found here) Mr. Shuttleworth mentions “we’re going to do a business desktop remix, because lots of people want a remix without the social bits…”  And I wonder just who wants this business remix?  Are there customers who are actively looking to replace Windows w/ Ubuntu but are just looking for the “social” to be removed?  I would argue we don’t need a new remix of Ubuntu, we need 3rd party support of Ubuntu instead.

Let me explain….

I work w/ businesses every day ranging from 300 client devices to 100K+ client devices and none of them are even thinking about switching to Ubuntu.  In fact there is only 1 customer I’ve talked to all year that is using Ubuntu.  That customer isn’t looking for a remix of Ubuntu, he/she is looking to better manage the devices.  The only Endpoint Management Tool that supports Ubuntu is Canonical’s own Landscape, none of the vendors (HP, IBM, Microsoft, Symantec, Kace) provide support for the product and until that happens I doubt we will see many Enterprises adopt Ubuntu as their desktop of choice.

What do I mean by an Endpoint Management Tool?  I want a product that allows me to deliver software, patches, and images to my device along w/ providing a comprehensive inventory (software and hardware) of all of my devices.  Management won’t let me buy yet another tool to manage the devices or perhaps even migrate to this new operating system so it needs to work w/ what I currently have. Also I want a company to stand behind the product and offer me support. Bonus points for it being completely administrated from a web page.

Let’s take a quick look at what Linux support is out there w/ the top Endpoint Management Vendors I run into contact w/

Vendor	Name of Product	Supported Linux Distributions
Symantec	Altiris Client Management Suite	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (6 before EOY), SUSE Linux 11
Dell (KACE)	Kace Systems Management Appliance	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4, and 5
IBM (Tivoli, Big Fix)	Configuration Manager (?)	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, 5, and 6, SUSE Linux 9, 10, 11
Microsoft	System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM)	SCCM 2012 will support Red Hat, SUSE, and Solaris
Canonical	Landscape	Ubuntu
HP	HP IT Management Software (NOTE: Had hard time finding exact information about HP’s product as they have a lot of names

Note:  This is not a complete list of solutions/vendors/etc.  What is listed is based on information from the website from what I could, it might be wrong

So what does that table demonstrate?  We need vendor support before we need a “remix.”  We need one of the other vendors beside Canonical to start supporting Ubuntu in order to grow into the enterprise desktop arena.

Ubuntu and take your device to work

This week I attended through work a presentation about Endpoint Management with a focus around the whole “bring your device to work” megatrend the experts are talking about.  In case you haven’t heard this discussion is all about allowing an end user to purchase or use their own device instead of a corporate device.  Examples given in this presentation are large New York City based banks encouraging people to use their own devices (usually a Mac) as a recruiting tool to help attract top talent.  The presentation focused on how will IT manage these devices (patch, deliver software, track inventory, etc) on a non-corporate device.  In the past someone in IT decided what version of desktop/laptop (either a Dell or an HP) and then decided on an operating system (Microsoft and still for a lot of shops XP).  Now we are seeing a growth of whatever type of device the end user wants (anyone have this at their work?).

The interesting part about the discussion was the focus on Mac and how companies are managing them.  Macs in the corporate environment are growing and growing (heck I moved to one) and companies have to figure out what to do w/ them.  Thankfully the product I consult around (Altiris Client Management Suite) has perhaps the best Mac management outside of Apple. When asked about where the expers see Linux in the corporate world the expert replied it still exists within the walls of the datacenter (whether on premises or off premises in some form of cloud) and it really doesn’t exist in the corporate desktop (at least in the US).

This is a large frustration I have with Ubuntu is that it could focus on the corporate environment and potentially increase market share but instead chooses to focus on TVs and potentially mobile devices.  Canonical could partner with the various Endpoint Management software vendors (Microsoft, IBM, CA, Symantec, Dell, etc.) to support Ubuntu.

When I show up w/ my own laptop running Ubuntu there are certain things I’m required to have or report on including up to date with patches, has up to date antivirus and definitions and is able to be managed by the corporate management solution.  So Canonical, fire up those partnership agreements or whatever is needed and get your operating system supported by more vendors so the corporate desktop market share can grow

Still confused about Ubuntu Phone and Ubuntu TV

Can someone explain to the reason Canonical is pushing into the phone and television market so much?  At the latest UDS this was perhaps the biggest announcement… Ubuntu was going to make a phone and a tv and I still don’t understand the point.

On the TV side one of the worlds largest computer companies Google has tried to do a TV.  The Logitech Google TV tanked causing the company to loose MILLIONS of dollars betting on the device and yet Canonical is trying to make a TV?  Why?  Can someone explain the point of having Ubuntu on a TV, in fact can someone explain to me why I want my TV to become a computer, complete with apps etc?  I don’t want to play Angry Birds on my TV, or tweet while watching some show from some complex keyboard.  If I want Angry Birds I’ll do it from my phone or iPad, or I can tweet from my phone, my iPad and my laptop.  Do I want to have a discussion over IRC on my TV?  Nope I’ll use my laptop do that… The goal might be to watch Youtube on my TV?  But I can do that from my Boxee box and even play all kinds of media on that device.  What is the goal?

Onto the phone… Ubuntu phone will be dead in the water in the States w/o 2 things.  #1 being a major carrier like AT&T or Verizon pushing the sales of it (Verizon already doesn’t push Windows Phone 7 devices hence the scarcity of the them, so Ubuntu phone will be just another phone not to sell).  The second thing is out of the box Exchange Active Sync.  People want a smartphone they can get their work email on and it seems most people use Exchange at work.

Without having a major carrier and Exchange support out of the box the phone will be dead in the US.  It will have less of a market share than RIM or Windows Phone 7 does.  Sorry Canonical, still not understanding the desire to be there.

Also w/ WebOS now open source does this all matter?

Becoming a user in the community instead of a contributer

In a blog post from UDS, Charles Profitt writes about how the Ubuntu community is evolving and changing as it grows more popular and becomes perhaps “mainstream.”  He talks about how “new members of our community come from a different culture; they are used to faceless corporations ignoring them unless they act rude and obnoxious.”  And I would like to disagree with him on this.

I think more and more people are using Ubuntu who just want to use Ubuntu and don’t really care about giving back to the project.  In fact I am quickly becoming one of those members of the community.  When I first joined the Ubuntu project during the Warty Warthog release it was because I was looking for a way to give back to a project.  I spent my days as the computer guy for a private company doing everything from password resets and unjamming printers to more technical things like server administration.  I was looking for a way to challenge myself and learn something new during the evening hours and to give back some how to a community of people.

I have found over the releases that more and more I just want to use a piece of technology that just works and meets my needs without having to tinker with the little bits and pieces.  The GREAT news is that 90% of the time Ubuntu works for my personal computing needs.  Granted professionally I have had some problems using Ubuntu in my day to day needs but that’s a whole different story.

Soon I maybe joining the group of “users” who don’t contribute back to the community as much as others do, but it’s not because I’m used to corporations ignoring me, its because I’ve finally found a way to get things done the way I want to get them done.

Resources for learning Linux Admin in large organizations

A little background here:  I’ve been doing administration of Windows networks and enterprises and now have been consulting for a long time setting up enterprise management systems, mostly focusing on Windows (client and server).  I’ve been running Linux desktops for a long time at home.

Rambling intro to get into the point of this post but what I am really looking for are some good resources (books, web pages, examples) on learning about administration at an enterprise level.

Customers that use Linux in the Enterprise have more experience than I do and I want to learn.  How do you create and manage local repositories?  How do you do scripted OS installs for multiple computers?  What other tips, tricks, ideas, do I need to learn?

Good books?

 

Thanks in advance

Focus on working w/ Partners, not inventing your own product

On a recent post to Planet Ubuntu, Dustin Kirkland announced he is moving on from the Server Team to the Systems Integration Team with Canonical and also talks about a new product called “Ubuntu Orchestra” a new product that is “a collection of the best free software services useful in provisioning, deploying, hosting, managing and orchestrating enterprise data center infrastructure services…”  He then goes on to talking about “the brave new world of Management and System Integration."  Will this new product work with Landscape or is it just another product?

I’m trying to understand why Canonical is spending time and money on Yet Another Product and Not Invented Here so it must not be good instead of working with the existing System Management providers to help move Ubuntu further and further into the enterprise.

Landscape is already defined as an easy-to-use management service how is this different from Orchestra? 

Here’s my frustration, with Canonical we have a company that is investing in two products for Systems Management, when there are companies that do this for a living they could partner with and get support. 

Can someone please explain both the difference in the projects and why Canonical is not working with other vendors for systems management?

Microsoft & CentOS, now we need Ubuntu +???

A recent news story that has been all over the web these days is CentOS will now be a 1st class citizen on Microsoft Hyper-V and some hints that CentOS will be supported in System Center.  Having Microsoft support a FLOSS system natively on CentOS is an awesome fact and a cause for great excitement.

However I’m left wondering where is Ubuntu?  The biggest concern for me would be if CentOS became supported on System Center.  Canonical has spent a lot of time working on Landscape and the cloud but very little support on the enterprise and enterprise support.

Imagine if Ubuntu became a 1st class citizen on Hyper-V?  I think the internets would explode with different conspiracy theories etc

Call for Help: Tips and Tricks in the Kubuntu Chapter

I have been writing the Kubuntu chapter for The Official Ubuntu Book ever since it came out and now I can barely believe we are on the 6th Edition of the book.  In the chapter there is a section of the chapter titled “Tips and Tricks” which need some serious updating.

What would you add or change in this section?  What is your favorite Tip and Trick Kubuntu related?

Please drop me a comment here and I will try or change that section in the book, all changes due by March 15.

Thanks,

 

jonathan

Fun with VirtualBox – Kubuntu Natty and Windows 7

My main computer is my work laptop which run Windows 7 however I try to help out as much as I can with Kubuntu and the Kubuntu project.  I have ran into various problems with things I need to do for running Kubuntu naitively and have posted here several times about applications I miss when I’m running Kubuntu.  (If someone knows how to connect Kontact w/ Exchange 2010 please comment here)

I recently asked on Quora wondering if VirtualBox had a mode like VMWare Fusion on Mac with Unity Mode.  I discovered Seamless Mode in VirtualBox and running my Kubuntu Natty VM.  So here is the screenshot