From: "Joe Barr" 

http://www.internetweek.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml%3Bjsessionid=2XBGNHX
JFU0UOQSNDBCSKH0CJUMEIJVN?articleID=10300578




Microsoft, Linux Camps Gird For Desktop Battle

By Paula Rooney , CRN


Boston -- The Linux vs. Windows desktop is heating up on both the
enterprise and consumer fronts.

At the Enterprise Linux Forum last week in Santa Clara, Calif., SuSE
demonstrated its first enterprise corporate desktop designed for large IT
infrastructures. SuSE Linux Desktop costs $598 for a five-user license and
comes with a five-year maintenance contract, said Holger Dyroff, general
manager of Americas at SuSE. It offers a corporate GUI and a choice of
running Sun Microsystems' StarOffice 6.0 or Microsoft Office and starts
shipping Monday.

Ximian also demonstrated its enhanced Ximian Desktop 2, expected to begin
shipping Monday. The Linux GUI is based on the GNOME 2 platform and
incorporates an edition of OpenOffice.org that features support for
Microsoft Office file-compatible documents. The GUI runs on many leading
Linux distributions.

Red Hat, for its part, plans to debut an enterprise corporate Linux desktop
in November, said a source close to the company. Red Hat's first enterprise
desktop will feature an enhanced BlueCurve GUI, updated Linux 2.4.2x
kernel, Sun's Java Virtual Machine, support for Windows applications and
seamless access to Microsoft Exchange via a connector, the source said. The
product is expected to be priced between $99 and
$139, the source added.





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