VNU Net: Linux hits the commercial market; Red Hat Network to boost corporate Linux sales

“Perhaps most significant for the prosperity of Linux over the
next 12 months is the hive of current activity among developers and
distributors of commercial Linux solutions. … Foremost among
these is Red Hat. At LinuxWorld, chairman and former chief
executive Bob Young, a now familiar figure on the industry event
circuit and in the press, talked up Red Hat Network (RHN), the
company’s most important foray into satisfying commercial
enterprise requirements.”

“While RHN is ostensibly a subscription system for keeping
Linux-based systems updated with the latest releases and fixes, it
is also, he hinted, a way for companies like IBM to resell Red
Hat’s products and services, thus magnifying the company’s global
impact several fold. Young would not say whether a particular
deal with Big Blue, or anyone else, had actually been signed to use
RHN in this way, but clearly that cannot be far off. This is
exactly the kind of opportunity he envisions for RHN.”

“Those who hope to see Linux as a corporate mainstay, as opposed
to an interesting experiment, are eagerly awaiting the first deal
between Red Hat, or even another Linux distributor, and someone of
the order of Compaq, Dell, Hewlett Packard or IBM to sell the
operating system into their major accounts. This, in its turn, will
transform the job of Linux distribution from one of shifting copies
of a free product to one of providing lucrative services on a
global basis.”

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