FRAMINGHAM (06/21/2000) - Dell Computer Corp. yesterday announced plans to preinstall Red Hat Inc.'s version of the Linux operating systems on its servers and PCs.
Red Hat Linux joins Windows and Novell Inc.'s NetWare as one of the three operating systems that Round Rock, Texas-based Dell installs and supports for users. During a press conference, Michael Lambert, senior vice president of Dell's Enterprise Systems Group, said the move was made in response to increasing demand from users for Linux-based systems to power their Internet computing architectures.
Dell and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based Red Hat also said they plan to do joint development work that will focus on Internet uses of Linux and on core operating system development in areas such as reliability, availability and clustering. Also included in the joint work will be development activities aimed at supporting Linux on systems based on Intel Corp.'s 64-bit IA-64 microprocessor technology, the companies added.
Dan Kusnetzky, an analyst at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Massachusetts, said Dell sees the move to support the open-source software as an opportunity to sell a lot of small servers "as Linux earns the reputation as an enterprise operating system." Red Hat, meanwhile, "gets to stand on the podium with another hardware supplier," Kusnetzky said.
Dell and Red Hat also said that Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. plans to equip all 1,400 Toyota and Lexus dealers in the U.S. with a Linux-based Dell PowerApp.web appliance server so it can provide them with customized digital content.