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Imagine the following scenario: You’re Microsoft — the world’s largest, most profitable software company. Several thousand of your partners are about to meet you in New Orleans for a massive conference. Everyone is wondering if you can (A) retain your established software franchises while (B) pushing deeper into cloud and software as a service (SaaS). Then, an unexpected hurricane blows into town. It’s called Google Chrome OS. Now what?

The buzz says Google plans to ship an operating system — called Chrome Operating System — for netbooks. But the Chrome OS strategy raises as many questions as it answers. To wit, here are five key questions Google needs to answer to ensure success in the operating system market.

I’m not pressing the panic button. I think millions of people remain committed to Ubuntu Linux. But recent events — involving Google Chrome OS, Google Android and Moblin — make me wonder if Ubuntu faces far more competition than Canonical anticipated.

When Lenovo recently launched four ThinkServers, The VAR Guy noticed that the systems — designed for small and midsize businesses — emphasized virtualization. Hmmm. So, The VAR Guy began to wonder: Are virtualized servers (running a mix of Linux and Windows) really starting to push into the SMB space?

At first glance, Canonical is an operating system company — built around Ubuntu Linux. But take a closer look at Canonical’s moves during the first half of 2009, and you’ll find the company has increasingly bet its revenue stream on cloud, online and consulting/support services. Here’s some perspective.

During some recent trips to retail stores across North America, The VAR Guy spotted five clear examples why Windows will continue to dominate Linux on Netbooks. Here’s the scoop.

Canonical has launched Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud Services, an effort to help customers build and support cloud infrastructures that live behind corporate firewalls. The announcement, leveraging Ubuntu Server Edition, caught The VAR Guy’s attention for two key reasons.

A potential Oracle-Ubuntu partnership gets a little sexier when you throw OpenOffice into the mix. Here's why according to The VAR Guy.

Red Hat has launched a cloud partner program and Amazon is the first to join. But what exactly does the move mean to Red Hat partners and Amazon Web Service users? Here's the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Dell’s Linux strategy includes close relationships with Red Hat, Novell, Canonical and Intel, among others. But during my June 26 visit to Dell, we shifted our attention to Dell’s consumer Linux strategy, which mostly involves netbooks and PCs running Ubuntu. I captured portions of the conversation — including Dell’s early thoughts on Moblin (Mobile Linux) — in this 3 minute video.

When Red Hat announced first quarter results on June 24, The VAR Guy spotted a rather interesting detail: Red Hat’s quarterly open source revenues are nearly four times larger than its closest Linux rival, Novell. And, Red Hat’s open source revenues seem to be growing faster than Novell's. Here’s the math, and the potential implications.

SharePoint has grown to become a $1 billion business for Microsoft. But now, Red Hat and Alfresco are partnering to direct some of those SharePoint dollars toward open source alternatives. Here's the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Linux put Red Hat on the map. But growing sales of JBoss open source middleware should make Red Hat a $1 billion company within the next few years. With that goal in mind, Red Hat is launching “partner-only” JBoss roadmap briefings the week of July 20. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Canonical continues to build the Ubuntu partner program. Although the effort isn’t generating headlines yet, solutions providers can measure Canonical’s progress by keeping their eyes on four key Ubuntu partners. Here they are according to The VAR Guy.

You can’t be half-pregnant. And Hewlett-Packard can’t be half-committed to Ubuntu Server Edition. Over the next few months, I think you’ll see HP make a far more comprehensive commitment to Canonical’s Linux server strategy.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is serious software. But xTuple, an open source ERP specialist, is injecting some humor into the conversation while building a channel partner program. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

Novell has taken two more steps to bolster its SUSE Linux partner program. Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions is now a Novell Authorized Training Partner in North America. The move comes as Novell strives to migrate Red Hat Enterprise Linux customers to Novell SUSE Linux. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.

When IBM announces its Smart Business cloud computing strategy on June 16, Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux distribution will be along for the ride. Here's the scoop from WorksWithU, the independent guide to Ubuntu.

As Canonical polishes Ubuntu to potentially support Google Android and Moblin v2, I’m both impressed and concerned. On the one hand, Canonical continues to change with the times — and in some cases, stay ahead of the times. On the other hand, Canonical runs the risk of repeating some major software mistakes IBM made in the 1990s. Here’s why.

The sleeping giant has awakened. It looks like Cisco Systems is addressing the Asterisk open source IP PBX threat — and opportunity. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.