Dell goes Linux

[Tony]

Its interesting, with the breakup of MS going to the American Supreme courts, that Dell have announced Linux as being their third operating system that they will install and support. This OS appears to be gaining good support worldwide, and appears to be gaining popularity because of its open architecture and its usefulness as a web server. So does anyone use it, and do you think it will be a threat to the MS Windows dominance? Will it make it big as an alternative to a desktop OS as opposed to a server platform?

[Astraman]

Dell Chooses Linux as Third Global OS: Linux joins Microsoft Corp.'s Windows and Novell Inc.'s Netware as one of three strategic operating systems Dell uses to power the front-end of its customers' Internet infrastructures. The addition of Linux as a strategic, global operating system is expected to help Dell capture an increased percentage of spending associated with building the infrastructure for the new Internet economy -- expected to reach $370 billion annually by 2003. Dell's announcement is part of Dell and Red Hat Inc.'s One Source Alliance, a global initiative intended to speed commercial acceptance and respond to the growing demand for Linux-based systems. For more, go to http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/corporate/press/pressoffice_us_2000-06-20-rr-001.htm.

[Anders]

I think Dell's actually been at this for quite a while, installing Linux on Internet servers that is. At least in the US. I can't remember what their sales are in this area, but it's quite substantial. This is probably more of an announcement of the alliance with Red Hat. I remember that Michael Dell was at a conference some six months when Dell's stock price was really down in the dumps and everyone was slating Dell for not have an internet strategy. Michael Dell pointed out that Dell was actually a major supplier of internet infrastructure as a lot of their servers are used for that, and he thought Dell stock was unfairly beaten up.

As a SUNW shareholder I tend to listen in on the quarterly conference calls, and as far as I understand IBM and Compaq have been trying to push Linux also, but Sun doesn't seem too worried. I don't actually think the issue is free operating system or not, it's all to do with support, scalability and reliability.