HP taps Mandrake for Desktops

For a Linux distribution, the soul is the Linux kernel, the brains are the GNU system services, and the look is a function of the desktop manager. So what differentiates one distribution from another? Its the "feel" and that's no mean matter.

Sports analogies are always good, and golf clubs are a great analogy. After all, unlike tennis, golf equipment is highly regulated to insure that equipment technology does not change the character of the game. Just recall the brouhaha caused by the groove design introduced on Ping irons to keep balls spinning perfectly and traveling straight down fairways. Yet even in a highly regulated environment, subtleties in design have knowledgeable golfers swearing by one brand and forsaking all others.

For Linux distributions, the rules are wide open and the differences dramatic. Our recent switch to SuSE Linux Enterprise Server for all of the CCI Web sites recently drew an irate message from a savvy systems developer who helps us with some of the other CCI sites and is a Red Hat aficionado. With Linux as with everything, once you get used to doing something regularly in a particular way, any deviation appears capricious at best and broken at worst. This makes the HP deal all that more important for MandrakeSoft S. A. as HP will likely cater to new users of Linux in the small and medium business (SMB) arena.