HP ups pressure on rivals in Linux space
Vendor makes SuSE its standard open source operating system
Hewlett-Packard (HP) has upped the ante in the battle to win market share in the increasingly fraught Linux space.
Last week the vendor announced that it has made Novell's SuSE Linux its standard for customers that want an open source operating system for business desktops and notebook PCs.
HP could not confirm when SuSE Linux PCs would be available to the UK channel, but said that roll-out in North America would begin in the second half of 2004, followed by the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions "at a later date".
Russell Coombs, HP's UK and Ireland Linux business manager, said: "The channel has always been important to us and with Linux it is no exception.
"We're talking to partners about how we can go to market to offer Linux, and incentives are part of that."
The move comes just a week after IBM announced its own Linux initiative for the channel.
HP has also claimed that it is seeing encouraging signs from its Sun Eclipse scheme, unveiled last month to lure Sun Solaris customers to HP Linux systems.
Neil Macehiter, research director at Ovum, said: "HP's decision to target the Linux PC market was motivated by its desire to steal a march on arch-rival IBM, which has announced support for SuSE Linux across its server line."
Recently IBM claimed it was leading the Linux race and that its incentive scheme, offering VARs 60 per cent off its Linux products, had lured partners from HP.
But HP insisted it has seen an increase in channel partners moving to it for Linux products.
Coombs said that HP had seen no evidence that IBM's '60 per cent off' scheme would damage its own channel programme. He added that HP is also offering incentives to lure customers from Sun Solaris and IBM.