The first full version of UnitedLinux will be available from November 18. That"s one of the main snippets of news from an informative presentation on the progress and rationale of the UnitedLinux from a presentation by Gregory Blepp, VP at SuSE and board member of UnitedLinux, made at the London Expo show in London yesterday.
UnitedLinux is a marriage of four distros - SuSE, Caldera, Conectiva and TurboLinux - designed to address the needs of the business market, particularly in terms of round the clock, local support. It"s also evolving into a scheme to develop a channel for Linux sales (of which more later).
Blepp, who"s background is at hard headed commercial organisation like Network Associates and CA, said that Linux market can no longer rely on venture capitol to sustain it so it needs to become more financially focused. Linux, in short, needs to address the needs of business people - not just appeal to the tech savvy.
That means developing a high quality business-orientated Linux, which provides on Linux version for hardware vendors to certify against, shorn of some less than mission-critical ad ons.
"An IT administrator at HSBC can live without the Klingon version of the GUI," Blepp explained.