Is there a future in a free operating system? Intel and Netscape think so - they will announce next week plans to invest in a Linux vendor.
The two companies will drop an undisclosed amount into Red Hat, a small company in Research Triangle Park, N.C., that sells Linux software, according to sources close to the deals.
Linux, developed by a worldwide band of Unix hackers as a free alternative to pricey network operating systems, has shown signs of late of breaking into the enterprise. Oracle recently announced plans to port Oracle8 to the operating system, for example.
One user wondered why Intel and Netscape had waited so long.
Dwight Gibbs, chief technical fool at online financial advisory firm The Motley Fool, said the move is particularly good for Intel because Linux on Intel CPUs is a low-cost Unix option. "It also makes Intel less dependent on Microsoft," he said.
Gibbs, who uses Linux to pump out more than 60,000 daily e-mail newsletters, says Netscape will benefit from the deal because it further cements its hold on the non-Windows market. "Netscape's saying, 'Let's get the Linux people running Netscape.'"
RELATED LINKS
How Linux got so dang
hot
Corporate support adds to stability, low cost and collaborative
improvements. Network World, 8/17/98
Lookin' into Linux
IntraNet, 3/98
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