Linux United?  Not Yet

Linux is growing up.  Not only are Linux sales increasing, Linux penetration into the corporate market is growing.  This has led to the need for Enterprise versions of Linux, better suited to the requirements of large computing environments.

At first, it seemed that such needs would be serviced by hardware vendors selling to enterprise customers.  IBM, for example (the largest and most successful Enterprise Linux vendor) has an extensive program for creating extensions to Linux, focusing on enterprise needs.  Its intentions have been to offer these extensions to the Linux Open Source community, for inclusion in future versions of the kernel.  Of course, IBM also offers support for some enterprise chores within its proprietary operating systems (especially VM for its Z-series mainframes, supporting multiple instances of Linux), and across its portfolio of middleware products, not as open source (Many vendors provide infrastructure and application software for Linux in traditional ways, at normal prices.)

But Linux distribution houses (who package the Linux kernel with additional software and services) have determined that enhancing their products for the enterprise market (now that there seems to be one) soundCalls like an economically appealing venture.

Red Hat Offers Enterprise Class Linux

Red Hat acted first, with it’s offering of its Red Hat Linux Advanced Server, offering added enterprise-class features and new levels of reliability, performance, and support.  Red Hat is doing this both by adding enterprise class features to the Linux kernel (for performance and scalability) and by working with its Alliance partners to provide additional enterprise features customers may require.  Other enhancements include clustering for failover and load balancing via Red Hat’s Cluster Manager and support for shared storage devices.  Red Hat will use an Enterprise-focused roadmap for the release cycles of its Advanced Linux Server to insure the stability and reliability of the platform.   Alliance partners will provide certified hardware and software, enterprise-class support, and improved Enterprise-class Linux technology.

Smaller Linux Players Form Unitedlinux

Perhaps in answer to the Red Hat announcement – or perhaps just as a way of consolidating their efforts and surviving in a crowded and difficult market, Caldera, SuSE, Connectiva, and Turbolinux have joined to create UnitedLinux which will also offer an Enterprise version of Linux.

They will cooperate to create an Enterprise version of Linux, based on the current Linux kernel existing Linux standards.  SuSE will do the actual development, with Caldera transferring its German developers to the effort. 

All four vendors (and additional Linux vendors who choose to join them—UnitedLinux is open to all) will ship a UnitedLinux CD as the basis of their Enterprise distribution.  Their own differentiating software will be shipped on separate media.  This will insure that any application written to the UnitedLinux version will work across all of its participating distributions.  (Of course, if ISVs exploit features found in the individual distributions outside of the UnitedLinux base, some “tweaking” will be required.  There is no magic here.)

Where, you might ask (we did), is Red Hat in all this? Not a member of UnitedLinux yet, but it’s possible that they could join. Mark de Visser, Vice President of Marketing, stated, “Too many distributions hamper the migration of applications to Linux, so if this effort by Caldera and others consolidates distributions it is a good development. But in Linux, application support is everything. Red Hat Linux Advanced Server has it today. Time will tell if the Caldera group's distribution will achieve the same level of support.” With most of the Linux market share, Red Hat can afford to comfortably sit on the side lines and wait to see what happens next.

The UnitedLinux effort is supported by a number of enterprise system and software vendors including IBM, HP, Intel, Computer Associates, Fujitsu, and SAP.

What Does IBM Think?

Wondering if they might be concerned about a possible split in the Linux community, we asked IBM what they thought about a UnitedLinux without a Red Hat presence. IBM appeared unconcerned. An IBM representative noted that they expected Red Hat and other Linux distributions to be invited to join UnitedLinux.

IBM’s support for UnitedLinux, they said, does not signal a strategic preference and IBM will continue to support multiple Linux distributions including UnitedLinux and Red Hat.  IBM's commitment to aggressively working with Red Hat on a variety of hardware, software, and service opportunities remains unchanged.

While it might be efficient to pick one distribution, no single Linux distribution has all the requisite language, geographic, middleware, and server support that customers require worldwide. Linux is all about freedom of choice and IBM believes continued competition encourages innovation which ultimately benefits customers.

And Then There Is Sun

This might be a good time to note that there is yet another major vendor with its own distribution of Linux wending its way to the marketplace.  That is Sun who will be building its own distribution, based on a Red Hat license (but not, we believe, the Advanced Server version), and adding various Sun elements, including Forte tools and SunONE servers. 

Can A Single Linux Be Preserved?

All of this leads to the inevitable concern that the best part of Linux, its ability to maintain a single set of API’s across multiple platforms, could be compromised by these multiple approaches.  Here’s the problem.

1. Today, the Linux community works on improvements (and fixes) to the Linux kernel and, at intervals, ships a new version.  All of the distributions then switch to that version.  It is this community agreement to use a common kernel that underlies Linux’s enduring unity and appeal.
   
   

2. Each distribution adds additional software to differentiate its offering and appeal to its particular audience by size, geography, or market segment.  However, good Linux manners demands that such additions be (a) outside the kernel and (b) made available to the open source community.  This allows application developers to either avoid using them or to incorporate them into their application, maintaining their cross-distribution interoperability.
   
    

3. If UnitedLinux and Red Hat Advanced Server (or Sun) go down different paths this could cause a divergence (or fork, as it’s called in Linux), lessening interoperability.  That would make Linux, like Unix, a less perfect and much less desirable, OS environment.
   
    

4. Since we’ve been muttering nightly prayers for several years that Linux will somehow maintain its single path, this makes us worried, but hopeful.  Red Hat (and others, e.g., Mandrake and Red Flag) could join UnitedLinux.  Sun could decide to follow their lead.  Or the underlying kernel could be the basis for interoperability, with the Enterprise features being kept separate.

It’s important to remember that, at this point, only a very small part of the Linux market is the Enterprise market.  And none of this applies to anything else.  

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