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VA Linux Systems opening 10 new offices 42

Posted by Hemos from the join-the-revolution dept.
tweek writes "Over at news.com , you can read a story about VA Linux Systems deciding to open offices in 10 other cities. " The story also talks about great revenue growth, and the potential for an up-coming IPO.
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VA Linux Systems opening 10 new offices More

VA Linux Systems opening 10 new offices

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  • Not to disagree with you, Kit, but the text on your website seems to belay your comments. According to the VarStation YMP page, each VALinuxSystems box ships with:
    • VA Linux OS Version 6.0 Kit
      All VA Linux Systems machines ship with the best Linux distribution, including the Linux Journal, Using Linux from Que, "Getting Started 6.0" guidelines, 6.0 CD, and much more! We don't stop there. We tune each machine that leaves our manufacturing floor with a kernel that is configured specifically for your hardware.
    There's no mention of RH - or Debian, or SuSEI realize that this is, essentially, marketing-speak, and doesn't actually mean that VA is shipping its own dist, but it certainly reads that way to the uninformed. "VA Linux OS" sounds like a dist unto itself.
  • You are supposed to pay sales tax on everything anyway - if you order from other states and do not pay it, you need to pay it when you do your state taxes at the end of the year.

    That depends on what state you live in. Some states (Texas, South Dakota and Nevada for instance) have no 'state taxes'.

    I know that where I live there is no mechanism in place to pay such taxes for private individuals (although I believe there is something called a 'use tax' for businesses). At any rate, nobody that I know of pays sales tax on interstate mail order.

  • I'm sorry, but I beg to differ with you on this. VA having their own distro would not do them, or the linux community, much good. VA has done a phenominal job helping to mainstream linux, and provide a (fairly) reliable source for hardware. I personally do not have any experience with purchasing from them, however I have recieved quite a few reccomendations from friends of mine.
    VA has found a market where it was needed, and has filled that spot quite well. Diversification into the software market, especially by producing their own distro would add "yet another distro"(tm) to the market, and potentially weaken not only the growth potential of VA as a company, but linux as a whole.
    Now before I get branded as flamebait, or anything else, I'd like to clarify a few items. First of, i am a linux user, advocate, and occassional code tweaker. I haven't done much, since my coding experience is somewhat limited, but I'm hoping to improve.
    Now as to the though of "yet another distro"(tm) being a bad thing... in theory it would not be, every little bit of work on linux helps, but from the public perspective, seeing a new distro come out almost every other week can make some people scared. They worry about incompatibility (which really isn't an issue) and name loyalty. Any coders who would work to develop a new VA distro would probably be better of helping to improve one of the already existing distros.

    I was going to add more, but I seemed to have misplaced my opinions.
    -j
  • And I always thought Virginia was a whole state.

  • Recently I heard the following on CNBC (paraphrased from memory, but very close to what they said):

    "Many of you may have heard of the new computer operating system Linux ... Well, we have their CEO here today."

    It really caught me off-guard, and left me wondering who you'd call the CEO of Linux (Linus, probably). They were talking about the CEO of VA Linux. They appear to have confused Linux the OS with VA Linux the company.

    This makes me wonder how widespread this will be, particularly as VA Linux now runs http://linux.com/ [linux.com]. I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I'm wary that their name change (from VA Research) could have been a ploy to co-opt the Linux world.

    Sorry if I sound paranoid, but sometimes that's appropriate, especially in lucrative young sub-industry.

  • Re:why? (Score:1)

    by N1KO ( 13435 )
    Maybe they can deliver faster this way
  • This isn't entirely a "good thing." I live in the state of New York. Now that VA has a presence in my state, I would have to pay sales tax on anything I purchase from them. At 7.25% this really hurts. Lately I prefer to "roll my own" systems, but this just eliminated any chance of me buying from them.
  • "VA is not in the distribution business We have our own load (based on Red Hat)"

    According to the LinuxMandrake folks, you have a bonafide distribution:)

    I believe a VALinux distribution could only benefit VALinux. As the number of distibutions is growing quite considerably, VALinux has the opportunity to grab Linux and become "the" distribution offering both Hardware and Software solutions, similiar to a Sun Microsystems. As the number of distributions continues to grow, I think it has a negative impact on potential customers. Customer's interested in Linux are not going to change their habits too much. VALinux has the opportunity to grab Workstation and MidLevel Server Market share from the likes of Sun, SGI, and MS.

    As far as RedHat is concerned; the whole "Linux Portal" plan was blown when they failed to aquire the linux.com domain. RedHat Linux Software will probably not make it either. RedHat can make their distribution THE userfriendly distro, but there will always be someone to download all that hardwork, change the logo's, and ask Macmillan to distribute for $20 bucks less. All under the guise of "supporting linux".

    I honestly don't think Linux will gain wide acceptance in the business world until a dominant player stands out, VALinux probably has the best chance of being that player (RedHat a close second depending on the choices they make). I personally would like to see Linux gain that acceptance, I would love to be able to use Linux at work, as opposed to just at home.

    ..but that's just my $0.00.
  • Note that these are _Sales Offices_, not development or production sites.

    I would say they are being opened because that is how things are done in the business sales market to penetrate more markets. By that I mean the PHB's want to have 'local' sales and support staff to talk to.

    I would also guess that these will become support hubs for 'large' support clients. So that they can do the "next day, onsite support" thing eventually.
  • "Not to disagree with you, Kit"

    Ok I'll say it. I disagree with both Kit and Chris, as their website clearly statues "VA Linux OS".

  • If you had an idea how many résumés they receive,
    you'd understand that they can't give feedback
    to everyone
  • You are supposed to pay sales tax on everything anyway - if you order from other states and do not pay it, you need to pay it when you do your state taxes at the end of the year.

    SUPPOSED TO ;b
  • Kewl, Wilmington, NC is right up the road from me!!! Does anyone know how one would go about getting a job there? That would be too cool...

    It's sad to live in a world where knowing how to
  • The name was changed from VA Research to VA Linux Systems to reflect the merger of VA with Linux Hardware Solutions. If you want to talk about confusion, at LHS we used to get phone calls on a daily basis asking us who the CEO of Linux was, how to subscribe to our magazines (Linux Journal and Linux Magazine), what the ticker symbol for "Linux" was, and when was "Linux" going public.

    If you think about it "VA Research" doesn't provide much information about what the company offers. "VA Linux Systems" cuts to the chase. Heck, one of the most common questions at the LHS booth during a tradeshow was consistently, "So, what do you guys do?" another one was "Where do I get your operating system?" Even when you think the name of your company tells it all there is need for clarification.


    In short, the traditional view of the business world has a difficult time dealing with a shared resource, such as Linux. Until more people get a grasp on the "ownership" so-to-speak of Linux these types of statements from the uninitiated will pop up from time to time.

    --Kit

  • Allow me to be painfully specific.


    VA takes Red Hat, adds kernel patches, a desktop theme and a couple of other assorted items and burns it on a CD. This CD is shipped to the customer with their system so they can recover from any problems that might arise. This CD exists because it benefits VA and our customers. It allows us to have a higher degree of control over the drivers we ship and eliminates some of the guesswork for our support people. It gives the customer peak performance as well as a known state to restore from. Why would we bother if it didn't benefit anyone? We'd just download the current version of Red Hat, burn it on CDs and go with that.


    This CD is not sold seperately. If you consider it a good value to buy a system so you can get this distribution on CD, then I guess VA sets the record for the most expensive version of the Linux O/S. (Buy our version of Linux for $2000 and get a free workstation! :-)


    The Mandrake folk are in the business of selling a boxed software product. VA is in the business of selling a boxed hardware product. Red Hat sells a boxed software product. When hardware == software then things will change.


    LHS used to ship the boxed Red Hat CD along with a one-off with current updates and other packages our customers found useful. We could have pressed all of that on a single CD instead, but we still would not have been in the business of selling a software product. That's all we're doing at VA.

    --Kit

  • I wonder how long it will be?
  • I haven't really seen any attempts to tie Linux in as a specific VA brand. I don't think VA is even trying to accomplish such a thing. It sounds like the CNBC slip-up was just that... a slip-up by an uninformed journalist. Hell, Fortune actually named Redhat as a VA competitor! Let's just not trust the press to get things straight.

    On the other-hand, I've actually seen trepidation about tux who seems to be in danger of becoming permanently branded as something belonging Penguin Computing. That does worry me because Tux is does not belong to anyone company. He belongs to the whole O.S. Secondly, it wasn't that bright of Penguin because they are not going to have a very easy time trademarking their logo.
  • Sorry for the late reply hope you get it.
    The Linux Mandrake comment was supposed to be funny:) "bonafide distribution". I laughed my self into a stupor when I wrote it.

    I understand COMPLETELY where you are coming from, and that you are not in the distribution business. I was trying to point out that leading with your own distribution, or partnering closely with an existing leader would only benefit VA.

    I personally believe VA can compete directly against Sun's Workstation Market share. To do this VA will have to work with Unix Workstation customers who are accustomed to the Hardware Vendor providing OS support as well. Providing that OS level of support will be attractive, providing your own distro or closely aligning with a RedHat (etc.), would be more attractive to that same customer.

    You want to sell the complete package, not just another Computer. If you are just selling another computer, the customer can go to Dell. If you are selling a complete solution, and provide the best support possible, customers will stay for life.

    Sorry for the rant you probably know all this already:) I just think that VALinux is a Kickass company that is poised to take off. I wish them the best of luck

    Rob.

  • Nice (Score:1)

    by warmi ( 13527 )
    Good for them. They are probably going to outgrow RedHat but since they are not really in the same league I don't see that as a problem.
    With Linux commercial companies getting stronger and stronger I wonder what's going to happen to Debian and others ... Not that I will miss Debian but it looks like they will be pushed out of the game ( at least from the perspective of mainstream technical press )
  • This is great, a Toronto office! Hopefully they will ship from Canada too, as the border duties/broker fees really suck!
  • I appreciate that there are limits to how a company can expand, but I'd love to see a branch in Europe. Anywhere'd do, but Ireland in particular. Actually, there's a huge building operation going on down the road from me, so if anyone from VA is reading this, I can give them directions.
  • Dude, come to US and you will be happy forever ...
  • In case you missed it, VA hired on 2 debian developers (that I know of), and the Linux.Com [linux.com] site they host advertises itself as "Powered by Debian" :)
  • They mentioned in the news.com article only a few cities by name -- New York, Houston, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, and Atlanta.

    What are the 4 other cities?
  • As Chris posted yesterday in another thread, VA is not in the distribution business We have our own load (based on Red Hat) that has some kernel tweaks provided by our engineers to optimize performance on our systems. The only way you can get this version of Linux is with a VA system.

    To reiterate more of what Chris said, the choice of Red Hat was not made to the exclusion of other distributions (we have 2 Debian developers on staff whose job is to develop Debian full-time). Red Hat was chosen because we're growing so rapidly that we had to streamline the operations or go insane. (Whether sanity was maintained is a different discussion altogether. :-)


    As more and more things fall into place more options will likely be available.


    --Kit

  • They are opening a Dallas office?!?

    I wonder if it is possible for me to get a job with them.

    I would do almost anything for it...


  • But unlike windows, i can give linux a facelift :P
  • get a grip. I highly doubt anyone but heins is opening anything but a car dealer in pittsburgh.
  • We have our own load (based on Red Hat) that has some kernel tweaks provided by our engineers to optimize performance on our systems. The only way you can get this version of Linux is with a VA system.

    Ouch, you make that sound like a GPL violation! Before anybody flames them, they do appear to have the modified kernels on ftp.varesearch.com [varesearch.com]. Maybe you should have left off that last sentence?

    I'd also like to say that VA has been doing great things to support the community. They're supporting a number of developers full time, and the services they provide through on.openprojects.net [openprojects.net] are just wonderful. Way to go, guys!
  • Maybe if you move to a real town (with a real football team) like Philadelphia you woudn't have such a problem ;-)
  • OK, I didn't type as clearly as intended.


    The only way you can get the VA-version of Red Hat in CD form is with a VA System.


    All of the drivers have been released under the GPL, there just may not be included in the currently shipping version of Red Hat.

    --Kit

  • why? (Score:2)

    by Suydam ( 881 )
    Does anyone know what precipitated the new offices? I was wondering (for no real reason): Are they were projecting the need for these offices and spending their capital on them in hopes of sustaining their growth? Or are they already so big that they need this many offices?

    Just wondering. Even Red Hat (who is, for now at least, much bigger) doesn't have offices in that many cities do they?

    Just wondering...

  • How do you define stupidity of typical American as oposed to that of a typical Canadian ?

  • Re:What are the other cities? (Score:3)

    by Johnathon Walls ( 27265 ) on Tuesday August 03, 1999 @06:19AM (#1768377)
    The ten cities are: "New York, Toronto, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Irvine/Los Angeles, Orlando, Virginia, and Wilmington, North Carolina" according to LinuxToday [linuxtoday.com]. I'm hoping (praying) that they go on a hiring spree in Canada!
  • I guess they can skip Boston; it's not a big college town...

    Well, one of my friends was in fact hired by VA a few weeks ago, but I guess his kitchen does not quite qualify as a fully-established VA Boston Office. These guys have been on a _serious_ hiring binge.

    Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity

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