Red Hat intros 12 month only support on 'consumer' OSes, Jan 27, 2003

Linux release cycles are of course pretty fast, and Linux is either free or cheap, depending on whether or not you feel the need to add to your manual pile. However, if Linux is being used in a commercial environment then IT managers are not going to be particularly enthusiastic about even the possibility of having to upgrade to a new version every 12 months. Red Hat's current death list EOLs RH 7.1-8.0 at the end of this year, while 6.2 and 7.0 get theirs as of the end of March.

Linux on Intel-based computers is now likely to become the dominant platform in corporate data centers, according to a recent report from investment bank Goldman Sachs. That puts even more pressure on Microsoft to persuade Unix users to stick with its Windows operating system on Intel systems rather than move to Linux. (That's no easy feat these days.) Indeed, if it fails to stop the groundswell, Microsoft may be forced to radically rethink its strategy as none of the company's server platform products now run on Linux. One scenario offered by analysts at First Boston has Microsoft switching gears and supporting Linux on key subsystems like Exchange and SQL Server and the .Net framework.

Where do you see Linux in 2 years?

I think in two years we'll see more Linux on the desktop. It will be very interesting to see what happens, its very hard to judge

Developers at last week's LinuxWorld had mixed reactions to the need for such an IDE (integrated development environment) and to which one might serve developers best. But most agreed that for Linux to catch on with new developers, the major Linux distributors will have to do more with visual tools.

A federal judge in Seattle refused Wednesday a request by software maker Lindows to toss out Microsoft's trademark case against it, paving the way for an April trial.

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