Linux distributors make a United stand

Caldera, SuSE, TurboLinux and Connectiva have formed alliance to knock Red Hat off the top spot.

Linux has for many years been associated with a cute cartoon penguin, giving the impression that most companies will want to eventually embrace it as they would a favourite cuddly toy.

In the past, all Linux distributors have stuck together through thick and thin to promote the open source operating system as a viable alternative to Microsoft Windows but, following an agreement struck last week, the whole marketplace has become more like a battlefield.

Four of the smaller Linux distributors - Caldera, SuSE, TurboLinux and Connectiva - have formed an alliance to support a single implementation of Linux for the enterprise which they are hoping will blow rival Red Hat off the top spot.

The new company/standardised software, which is known simply as United Linux, has been backed by industry heavyweights such as IBM, AMD, Borland, Computer Associates, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Fujitsu, SAP and Progress Software. According to industry watchers, the move will leave three main players in the market: Sun Linux, United Linux and Red Hat.

"Due to the support of IBM, this effort is hard to dismiss. However, it remains to be seen whether Oracle, Veritas and BEA will endorse this effort," said Stacey Quandt, an analyst at Giga.

The initial version of the software will be based on the planned next release of SuSE Linux version 8, but all four partners will contribute to the technology.

Each partner will continue to bundle value-added software and services and will sell United Linux distributions under their own brand-named products. All four are planning to ship a United Linux server product by the end of the year.

Good for resellers, ISVs and OEMs

Supporters claim that the partnership will benefit resellers, independent software vendors (ISVs) and original equipment manufacturers, which currently have to undertake separate testing and certifications around each of the four vendors' products.

"Linux is the fastest-growing server operating system. This will accelerate take-up by driving up the number of business applications," said Scott Handey, director of Linux software solutions at IBM.

"A single distribution means a tremendous amount of applications will become available. This will reduce the amount of testing for ISVs and expand their reach."

The move should allay fears that Linux might fragment into many flavours, which happened to Unix in the early 1970s. It should also ease concern over lack of support, Handey claimed.

Graham Holt, general manager at Linux reseller Cyclades, agreed. "Linux is difficult to deploy in the enterprise because of a lack of support. Companies have to maintain different versions," he said.

"We manufacture communications boards with embedded Linux so it will not affect us much. But it will help because now there will be only two major versions to support."

But Holt regretted the absence of Red Hat. "If people want to see an enterprise Linux it needs to be shrink-wrapped. But without the support of Red Hat there will be a split," he explained.

Red Hat reactions

Despite being the main target, Red Hat has welcomed the move. "Too many distributions hamper the migration of applications to Linux so, if this effort by Caldera and others consolidates distributions, it is a good development," said Mark de Visser, vice president of marketing at Red Hat.

"But with Linux, application support is everything. Red Hat Linux Advanced Server has it today. Time will tell if the Caldera group's distribution will achieve the same level of support."

Analysts have expressed mixed opinions about the success of the new partnership and the operating system as a whole.

Kevin Restivo, an analyst at IDC's software partnering and alliances group, said: "Overall resellers and partners are not relying on Linux to be a primary driver of revenue and they often tend to be more hesitant to add new products to their portfolio, given current economic conditions.

"Couple that with the desire to focus more on services and consulting, as well as other value-added work, and Linux does not appear to be a primary driver of revenue in the short term."

However, Restivo added: "Linux operating environments are still the fastest-growing operating systems and resellers generally do not, and cannot, ignore that fact."

Clive Longbottom, services director at Quocirca, was not very optimistic. "Not so very long ago, a battle was declared against a certain software vendor with the invention of a type of Unix, called Linux," he said.

"This Linux would be a single core, with no changes allowed, so that a program built for one version would run on all others. Some thought it would be successful. It wasn't.

"Meanwhile, the big boys decided that money could be made out of Linux and they set about creating enterprise versions, where the code was tightly controlled and the company took ownership and added functionality. This led to incompatibilities in the Linux arena."

Longbottom added that, after Linux exploded into different variants, someone had the idea of bringing all of the variants together into a single kernel to get around the problem of incompatibility.

"The big boys thought this was a good idea because they knew this would keep the small guys confused for the foreseeable future, but they could carry on creating non-kernel differentiators," he said.

"Basically all we are going to end up with is more flavours of corporate Unix which, sadly, is doomed to failure."

Additional reporting by Peter Williams.

SUMMARY

• Four well-known Linux distributors have partnered to challenge Red Hat with a standardised Linux distribution for the enterprise known as United Linux.
• Resellers welcomed the move because they claim that enterprise-level Linux has been hard to deploy because of a lack of support.
• Despite being the target, Red Hat has backed the development, claiming that a more consolidated market will encourage migration to Linux.