In January, at LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, Linux distribution firms Caldera International Inc. and
Turbolinux Inc. were busy preaching a new strategy:
businesses operating in the Linux space need to carve out markets in the proprietary space above the open Linux kernel in order to
survive.
The two firms, together with Conectiva SA and SuSE Linux AG, took that idea one step further Thursday when they announced that the
four would move away from development of their own respective Linux distributions and instead create a global, uniform distribution
of Linux designed for business. The move also means that each of the firms can reallocate some of their resources, currently
dedicated to extending their Linux distributions, to other projects.
The initiative, dubbed UnitedLinux, is intended to streamline Linux development and certification around the new distribution.
“UnitedLinux addresses enterprise customers’ need for a standard, business-focused Linux distribution that is certified to work
across hardware and software platforms, accelerating the adoption of Linux in the enterprise,” the firms said.
More On Linux In The Enterprise |
Linux Jockeys, Meet Mainframe Mavens Linux Gains Legitimacy In The Enterprise The Strategic Importance Of Linux Quiet LinuxWorld Belies Rapid Acceptance of Linux
|
The four partners said they will each bundle value added products and services with the UnitedLinux operating system, and each of
the four partners will market and sell the resulting offering under their own brands. The four also said they each plan to offer
their own server products based on UnitedLinux by the end of 2002.
A host of leading enterprise system and software vendors immediately announced their support for the initiative, including AMD,
Borland, Computer Associates, Fujitsu Siemens, Fujitsu Japan, HP, IBM, Intel, and NEC.
“IBM fully supports this new, UnitedLinux, which will make it easier than ever before to create a wide variety of Linux-based
solutions for any size e-business,” said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software Group. “UnitedLinux
brings together the best technologies and capabilities of these four companies, delivering a single international Linux distribution
that will make it simpler for solution providers to utilize and customers to deploy. Our support for UnitedLinux spans our entire
Linux software, hardware, and services portfolio — already the broadest in the industry — giving our customers and business
partners what they need to move more business workloads onto Linux.”
The UnitedLinux alliance is missing one rather large player in the space: Red Hat Inc. Red Hat is the Linux
distribution company that has had the most success penetrating the enterprise market, with key customers like IBM. Big Blue said it
will continue to support Red Hat Linux across its key hardware, software and services offerings.
In any case, the members of the UnitedLinux initiative appear to have left the door open for Red Hat, and other Linux players, to
join them. They said the initiative is open to allow additional Linux companies to participate.
This article was first published on InternetNews, an internet.com site.
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020
Anticipating The Coming Wave Of AI Enhanced PCs
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 05, 2020
The Critical Nature Of IBM’s NLP (Natural Language Processing) Effort
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
August 14, 2020
Datamation is the leading industry resource for B2B data professionals and technology buyers. Datamation's focus is on providing insight into the latest trends and innovation in AI, data security, big data, and more, along with in-depth product recommendations and comparisons. More than 1.7M users gain insight and guidance from Datamation every year.
Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on Datamation and our other data and technology-focused platforms.
Advertise with Us
Property of TechnologyAdvice.
© 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this
site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives
compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products
appear on this site including, for example, the order in which
they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies
or all types of products available in the marketplace.