“Red Hat, Inc., and Dell Computer Corporation today extended
their strategic alliance with a worldwide service and support
agreement and a commitment from Dell to factory-install Red Hat
Linux on all future and currently shipping Dell® PowerEdge®
server models….”
“This is another big boost for Red Hat. Until this
announcement, Dell would only factory-install Windows NT on its
servers, other OSes would have to be done through the DellPlus
organization. This move will increase market growth for both Red
Hat and Dell. In the OS market in general, the increased
shipment of the “challenger” (vis-à-vis Microsoft) OS should
lead to diversification. However, within the Linux segment of the
market, this will lead to consolidation – at least, until Red Hat’s
competitors strike their own deals.”