| Red Hat reveals desktop push |
May 04, 2004
At a London press conference today, Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik unveiled his company's new strategy that centers on the release of a Red Hat Desktop targeting the government, academic and enterprise IT organizations.
Today's news marks an official shift in Red Hat's focus onto end users and the enterprise. Szulik had previously said the company was focused on management problems enterprises have faced and that the desktop was not part of the company's immediate agenda, but he did not discount a Red Hat Desktop as the "ultimate end goal." Red Hat had also publicly discussed the desktop client strategy in detail at last November's Desktop Linux Conference in Boston. Red Hat vice president of Engineering, Brian Stevens, presented Red Hat's approach to client-side computing.
The just-announced Red Hat Desktop (RHD) is to be part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) offerings and works in conjunction with servers running either Red Hat Network Proxy (RHNP) or Red Hat Satellite Servers (RHSS). RHD will feature applications including an e-mail client, browser, and office suite. Enterprises and vertical markets in government and education are the key focus, though the announcement also points out the benefits to developer environments that can benefit from a single desktop and open source development tools. Currently, Red Hat ships GNOME, Mozilla, Evolution, OpenOffice.Org, Bluecurve, and other open source software.
As part of today's announcement, Germany's largest insurance company LVM has said that they are evaluating the Red Hat offering. The company has a reported 8,400 Linux desktop users,
The Linux Desktop opportunity now ripe
Enterprises are looking for a complete solution to running their network that is both easy to implement and keeps systems up-to-date. Solutions, like Red Hat's, are emerging to address this need. "Several industry trends are coming together which are likely to change how organizations deploy information technology on the desktop," commented Dan Kusnetzky, IDC's VP of system software research. "Strategies to lower costs while still providing a well managed, secure platform are increasingly important. This announcement makes it clear that Red Hat understands these emerging requirements and has a strategy to provide the needed products and services."
IDC forecasts that Linux clients are increasing dramatically, with an estimated compound annual growth rate of 25.4% (2002 to 2007), "which takes Linux from a 2.7% share of client operating environment paid new license shipments in 2002 to a 6% share in 2007."
An IDC whitepaper reviewing the market opportunity for Linux on the desktop and discussing the Red Hat strategy is available for download with registration or a valid login for the Red Hat network here.
Availability
RHD is open source software and source code will be available on Red Hat's Web site, with binaries, documentation, maintenance, and support available through a licensed subscription from the company, Available configurations of Red Hat's client include either Red Hat Network Proxy or Satellite Servers, enabling several clients to be deployed and managed simultaneously with a simple method to secure and manage systems. The company plans to focus first on security and management, then interoperability and productivity, and then on "thin client" software for devices, according to today's statement.
Available mid-May, Red Hat Network Proxy or Red Hat Satellite Server packages come with 10 RHD "entitlements" that include 30 days of installation support for installation and a year of online support, starting at US $2,500. The Satellite starter package lists for US $13,500. Additional desktop seats are available in units of 50, and are available for US $3,500.
Future directions for Red Hat's desktop offering include improving interoperability across organizations through products and software offerings from Red Hat partners VMWare, Real, Macromedia, Adobe and Citrix. These programs also include certification programs.
Red Hat also reaffirmed their plans to work with embedded partner Wind River systems in an effort to service the device market and thin client computing environments.
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