Red Hat's RHEL 5 to launch in March

SAN FRANCISCO--Red Hat will ship its new version 5 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to customers in March, spokeswoman Kathryn Poole said Tuesday.

But the software is done now, Chief Technology Officer Brian Stevens said in an interview.

"The party is Thursday--assuming we don't have a snow day," Stevens said. There are no more blocking issues, and the company issued a near-final release candidate last week, he said.

In a December interview, Chief Executive Matthew Szulik said the final "gold code" RHEL 5 software would ship February 28. Stevens, though, said final releases are burdened with scheduling issues such as getting CDs back from manufacturers and getting the Red Hat Network support system adapted to the new software.