Red Hat unaffected by Oracle, Novell
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(InfoWorld) - Red HatÂ has scheduled a March release for RHEL5 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5), the latest version of its open-source operating system, while it tries to fend off new competitive threats from OracleÂ and the Microsoft-NovellÂ partnership. Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens discussed the RHEL5, the competition, the Fedora Project, and other issues with IDG News Service. Following is an edited transcript of the interview, conducted this week at the InfoWorld Virtualization Executive Forum in San Francisco: IDGNS:Â RHEL5 comes out in March. What are some of the features that will move virtualization forward and keep Red Hat competitive? Stevens: RHEL5 is a scalable, full native 64-bit platform. In the second quarter of 2005, there was a crossover point where more 64-bit x86 systems were sold than 32-bit systems. So there is this untapped (64-bit) capability within the IT shops as many systems are still running 32-bit applications on 64-bit systems. With RHEL5, we aim to help allow IT and independent software vendorsÂ to realize the power of 64-bit computing on these multicore architectures. There is a lot of untapped capability in performance there, so we aim to help that. As to virtualization, it comes as an integrated feature set for RHEL5. IDGNS: How has the move by Oracle to undercut you on the price for its Linux support and the partnership between MicrosoftÂ and NovellÂ affected the direction you are taking Red Hat as CTO? Stevens: It hasn't really affected the day-to-day activities because Red Hat is focused on creating value for customers. We have developed really close relationships to understand where we need to drive technology to make a meaningful impact on their businesses. We focus on the fundamentals, not on something else. If you start to think about what is going to create revenue for the company versus what's going to create value for the customer, you're thinking about it the wrong way. Our results for the last quarter show that we are largely unaffected. We look at the vibrancy of the Fedora Project, our open-source community. Fedora is Red Hat's vehicle for bringing advanced technology really quickly to end-users. The last release of Fedora has been out for about four months, and we are averaging more than 100,000 downloads a week and 1.5 million downloads total. Compare that 100,000 a week to Oracle with their release of Oracle Linux. We reach in seven hours what they reached in their very first month of releasing that source code. With the Novell-Microsoft deal, we continue to believe interoperability is important. We didn't see anything new and meaningful in that interoperability agreement. With RHEL5, we're going to show rich compatibility between Windows and Linux. We already have that. We are absolutely open to and willing to work with Microsoft under an interoperability agreement but one that does not require our customers to pay anÂ intellectual property tax on Linux. IDGNS: What are your projects for the coming year besides RHEL5? Stevens: We'll continue an initiative we started last year around AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol). It's going to transform how you manage messaging systems in grid environments. We'll be bringing that to a bunch of (test) customers this year. AMQP is about allowing you to have data sources and data feeds that can scale across grid environments. IDGNS: What else? Stevens: We're leading the work in Linux around predictability with a project called Real Time. It's not just about dropping latency, even though it does that. It's around how we get determinism. It's really critical that the workloads you're running, whether its multimedia playback or transactions, know that there is a sort of boundary on the completion of transactions. Real Time is basically a rearchitecture of how the Linux kernel does locking and scheduling. We've had a team working on this for the past year and a half and we will be working with customers under a proof of concept through the course of this year.
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Redmond won't just fight the "cooler" open-source operating system--it's looking at Red Hat, Novell and IBM.
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The latest Ubuntu distribution of Linux will support an entire new Lotus office productivity suite from IBM. Red Hat said it will support part of the suite: Notes and Lotus' upcoming Symphony, which is still in beta.
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Red Hat Inc. RHAT.O, a provider of   Linux open-source software, on Tuesday reported lower   second-quarter net income and cut its full-year cash flow   forecast, citing the high costs of integrating acquisitions.
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There is a fascinating article on Groklaw called Searching for Openness in Microsoft's OOXML and Finding Contradictions. One of the most relevant comments in the article is "So, they plan to be the only one in the Linux world that can actually interoperate with Microsoft. How do you think they will achieve that? By sharing? On the contrary, they already market themselves as uniquely interoperable, which means they get to interoperate and you don't, unless you are their paying customer."  There is also the Novell comment, "Only Novell has Microsoftâs endorsement as its partner to drive Linux-Windows interoperability."
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Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT), provider of Linux software and support, has issued a security alert to its customers. E-mails are circulating, says the company, that appear to come from Red Hat but actually are phishing hoaxes.
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New name, old support model Red Hat hopes to stand out from other vendors offering Eclipse-based Java tools by not discriminating between "free" and "useful" when it comes to features in its JBoss Developer Studio, released this week.â¦
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Though its next official full release is still months away, enterprise Linux player Red Hat (Quote, Chart) is rolling out the latest incremental update to its Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 3 product.
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Blog: I interview Iain Gray, VP of Global Support at Red Hat, to find out how the world's largest open source company structures its support offerings, and how they differ from proprietary software support.
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AMD (NYSE: AMD) says software vendors  Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL),  Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT) and Sun have pledged support for its next-generation dual-core computer chips.
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(InfoWorld) - Red Hat Inc.'s woes this week raise the issue of whether IT investors are turning sour on open source. A somewhat disappointing forecast for the next quarter has investors fleeing, just as they have from the company's open-source rival, Novell Inc. A close analysis of the situation, however, may give savvy investors -- and open-source advocates -- courage. Red Hat's problems are probably more short-lived than Novell's. Red Hat investors are rattled: Company shares (RHAT) have lost almost US$5 in value over the last week, closing Thursday at $20.59, down $0.38 for the day. On Tuesday, Red Hat reported solid second-quarter earnings per share of $0.11, on revenue of $99.7 million. This beat expectations of analysts polled by Thomson First Call, of EPS of $0.10 on sales of $97.5 million. The problem was the company's forecast for next quarter: revenue of $103.5 million to $105.0 million, compared with the consensus estimate of $106 million. Even before these numbers came out, analysts were questioning the company's ability to execute a smooth merger with Jboss. Up until recently, investors bought into Red Hat's strategy to move up the software stack. The Jboss acquisition gives it an application server. But disappointing cash flow suggest problems with executing this strategy, and even perhaps some push-back from customers. Four different brokerages in the past month have downgraded their advice on Red Hat stock, with Soleil Securities Group Inc. recommending a "sell." But not all analysts are dour. Banc of America and UBS analysts, for example, have issued reports saying that Red Hat's problems are probably temporary, and that the company's strategy could still pay off with increased sales in the next few quarters. Novell could face more long-term problems. The company has had trouble articulating a coherent strategy. And even though Novell sold its stake in Celerant Consulting to focus on core open-source software, stand-alone Linux sales for the company hover around just $10 million. But it's hard to analyze Novell's business using up-to-date figures, since the company postponed its quarterly report earlier this month, as it completes a voluntary internal review around the granting of stock options to employees. Novell may have to restate earnings. The delay in its earnings report caused the Nasdaq to issue a delisting notice. So far, Novell has been able to stay listed, by protesting the notice and requesting a review process. The next few months should clarify issues around the two companies. Novell needs to get its internal review done, come out with earnings statements that analysts can rely on, and of course eventually show growth in new-software licenses. Red Hat has fewer hurdles to jump. An uptick in cash flow should offer assurances that its strategy to offer a broader portfolio of tools and server software is on track. REFERENCES: Novell faces delisting from Nasdaq, Sep. 21, 2006ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT) has acquired Netscape  server-software products of AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL), as part of the Linux vendor's "open-source architecture" strategy.
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(InfoWorld) - The next Linux distribution that IBM throws its weight behind is likely to be China's Red Flag Linux, suggesting that for businesses elsewhere in the world the Linux market will remain a two-horse race for the time being. Support from vendors like IBM and Oracle makes a big difference for the adoption of a Linux distribution. It gives big businesses the confidence that the software will be around and supported for several years to come. IBM wants to give its customers as much choice with Linux as it can, but the cost of porting and testing applications for more than the two leading distributions -- from Red Hat and NovellÂ -- makes it impractical to widely support a third option, said Adam Jollans, IBM's worldwide marketing and strategy manager for open source. The next distribution that IBM supports widely is likely to be one for the Chinese market, where the leading contender right now is Red Flag Linux, from Red Flag Software, Jollans said. "We're watching China very closely to see what happens there," he said. IBM has around 300 software products. Supporting both Red Hat and Suse Linux effectively doubles the number for which it has to do testing. Adding support for its three main hardware platforms -- x86, and IBM's Power and zSeries -- means IBM has to test 1,800 software products. Adding broad support for a third Linux OS, such as Debian, would take that number to 2,700. "We're not ready yet to go to another multiple," Jollans said, during a discussion with reporters in Paris on Thursday. The company will support other distributions today, but typically only for large customers or large installations. Jollans also addressed a question about why IBM did not release its own Linux distribution several years ago. "We thought that if IBM was in the market as an 800-pound gorilla, it would have a negative effect on the Linux market. We won't do something that sets us against the community," he said.
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If Novell wants to be relevant they need to put a stake in the ground where Red Hat isn't already dominating. .NET is the answer.
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Ziff Davis - HP says it has certified its complete business line of desktops, workstations and notebooks on Novell's Linux Desktop. It will sell and support the distribution to volume customers.
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InfoWorld - Looking to bolster Linux in enterprise environments, Novell is offering its first service pack for Suse Linux Enterprise 10, with capabilities for new quad-core processors. The company also announced Monday commercial availability plans for Suse Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack.
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Investor's Business Daily - The hippy ethic championed in early ads for the Linux operating system is giving way to good old competitive rancor as Red Hat   and Novell   launch warring campaigns.