Dell & Linux

[DaveWolles]

Hi,
i'm doing research for a company that is looking to switch from Windows 2000 to a Linux environment. Of course, money is the biggest issue here.

One of the questions i have been given is to find detailed information about why Dell is ending support for Red Hat Linux on April 30 2004.

So, why?? ;)
Are they just focusing on Red Hat Enterprise now? Or are they completely abandoning Linux and will they focus more on, for example, Unix or maybe even the upcoming Longhorn, as a precaution for competition against other major server vendors?

[ph34r]

I'm guessing they are going to the enterprise stuff from RH.

[sharth]

As far as i understand it, they are not dropping linux http://linux.dell.com

it would seem more likely that they are moving towards enterprise edition.

[happybunny]

HP/Compaq has been doing similar things...dropping all the support for 7, 8 and never developing for RH9.

I suspect they are following Redhat's lead of moving to enterprise level OS and support.

[av8or]

I would guess it is because RedHat has ended the life of the RedHat Linux line of products and and moved everything to the RedHat Enterprise Linux line. You can no longer download RedHat Linux. You can however download the Fedora Core Linux which is the product formerly known as RedHat Linux. To get RedHat products you now have to purchase from the RedHat Enterprise Linux selection of products.

[mdwatts]

Moving to /dev/random since the subject is more off topic than technical.

[DaveWolles]

Hi,
thanks for the replies. i see that it's indeed not a clear issue :D

it seems kind of strange as well, if Dell is indeed abandoning the Linux market with all it's potential.
i just read something about Sun signing a deal with the Chinese government that could result in the sale of 100 to 200 million Linux desktop's. that made me even more confused about Dell's vision.

Well, if anyone has any more information about this or links to articles, please post them :)