The new platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, was launched in Australia today. The company says it's all about moving past the "socks and sandals" image of the operating system and establishing it as a safe commercial alternative to Unix.
Speaking at a press briefing in Sydney today, the company's Asia Pacific vice president, Gus Robertson, told journalists Linux is beginning to be recognised as a "safe" choice, and that the company had seen a "huge increase in customer and partner interest" in Linux-based enterprise solutions in the Asia Pacific region.
The increased acceptance of the operating system among larger organisations is a fairly recent phenomenon, he said, with several key deals being sealed within the last eight weeks.
Intel Australia's strategic relations manager, Brett Hannath, agrees. "In China, Malaysia and Australia the uptake in Linux is quick," he said. "Intel really see Linux maturing."
One of the key drivers behind the accelerated uptake of the operating system is the certification of enterprise applications, such as Oracle. Being able to directly trace a products' liability to a vendor is a serious consideration for IT management, he said. Now if a customer has an Oracle issue when it's running on Linux, they sue Oracle, and not Red Hat.
Chief information officers (CIO's) that were conservative in their views towards Linux have a new outlook, Hannath added. "There was a stigma against Linux with CIO's. I honestly believe that."
