Fedora for Itanium taking baby steps

An effort to extend Red Hat's Fedora version of Linux to computers using Intel's Itanium processors is getting under way. A lead programmer, Silicon Graphics employee Prarit Bhargava, has established a mailing list, and is trying to coax Red Hat to release an Itanium version of its "rawhide" prototype Linux.

Fedora is Red Hat's fast-changing version of Linux, intended to attract outside programming involvement and to mature new technology quickly. Fedora today supports x86 processors such as Intel's Pentium and Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron, and the forthcoming Fedora Core 4 will extend to IBM's Power processors as well. However, Bhargava said he believes Itanium version won't make the Fedora Core 4 deadline.

Fedora Core 4 had been scheduled to arrive in May, but has been delayed until June 6.