Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
To quote from the Red Hat release itself: "There have, however, been a number of business issues that have conspired to delay the product (global desktop) for almost a year. These include hardware and market changes, startup delays with resellers, getting the design and delivery of appropriate services nailed down and, unsurprisingly, some multimedia codec licensing knotholes."
There are secondary factors as well that have led Red Hat to this decision. Competing with the Ubuntu distribution which has gone the longest way towards satisfying the consumer who wants a Linux for everyday use would be difficult - unless Red Hat's product were markedly superior. That superiority would largely be measured on the multimedia front.
One must not forget that between the time when Red Hat made the announcement about the global desktop - last May - and its decision to give up on the consumer desktop, we've seen some pretty nifty devices - the eeePC leads the way - running Linux and catching the imagination. So-called rich desktops are not the talk of the town, the trimmed down devices are the ones which are selling.
Red Hat's announcement had an oblique reference to this: "Technical developments that have become available over the past year or two are accelerating the spread of the Linux Desktop."
Putting a traditional desktop distribution on the market at this stage would not exactly set the Thames on fire.
Red Hat has been enthusiastic about the consumer desktop in fits and starts - only for top executives to later make it clear that the server space is the company's main interest.
That space brings in revenue, enables it to hire key developers, and keep the ecosystem healthy.
David Bass
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