Red Hat bails on consumer Linux desktop

Red Hat likes Linux on the desktop, but it also likes making money.

The company's desktop software unit on Wednesday released an update on its plans, saying it will focus its efforts on specific markets but not face off against Microsoft in the consumer market.

The Linux Desktop team explained:

An explanation: as a public, for-profit company, Red Hat must create products and technologies with an eye on the bottom line, and with desktops, this is much harder to do than with servers. The desktop market suffers from having one dominant vendor, and some people still perceive that today's Linux desktops simply don't provide a practical alternative.

Instead, Red Hat is focusing on desktop software that works with its server products aimed at businesses and developers.

A product called Red Hat Global Desktop that is targeted specifically at resellers, which focus on emerging markets, has been delayed for almost a year because of business issues. The company hopes to release it "soon," according to its corporate blog.

[adasha76]

competition

At the end of the day, if you're looking to install a Linux OS at home chances are it will be Ubuntu. It makes sense for them to concentrate on their strong points. This seems like a sensible move.

[The_Decider]

Ubuntu

While Ubuntu is years ahead of windows, it is mainly just hype. There is not a lot of substance to Ubuntu. It is just a dumbed down distro.

There are far better consumer level Linux distros. openSuSE 10.3 being the current best.

[hunter_jc]

Excel

How are they going to put Excel on it? Currently there is no replacement product for Excel

[NProszkow]

Excel / Spreadsheet Program

Google Documents? Any other web 2.0 based software?

A few options...

[rjpotts]

RE: EXCEL

Please tell me you are joking?

I think that there are plenty of Excel substitutes out there. Such as OpenOffice Calc, Lotus Symphony, Google Spreadsheets, etc... For the most part the "Office Suite" has been nailed down.

The are large corporate Financial systems for Linux such as Oracle Financials, there are large CRM systems, etc...

The products that you are missing are things like small business accounting products such as QuickBooks and PeachTree. There are no Tax applications such as Trubo Tax or Tax Cut.

For the home and prosumer market there is a like of good video editing software such as Adobe Premier and Apple Final Cut Pro. For photo editing you do have GIMP but I would much prefer Photoshop. I would much rather have Illustrator or Freehand vs InkScape.

There are no real good replacements for products like MS Visio, MS Project, and MS Access.

You have Evolution to handle the functionality of Outlook, as well as a multitude of online PIM tools.

The problem that Linux faces is a lack of standards as far as its GUI and GUI framework. It cannot standardize on a user interface. If the Linux community could find a UI framework and focus on developing applications around one common framework then it will grow. Otherwise we will continue to have little fights over little applications and no work will be done on applications that are used to support small businesses.

This is one of the reasons I walked away from Linux and chose the Mac platform. I was tired of the instability of Windows and lack of commercial application support on Linux.

I'm not saying that everyone should switch to Mac. And I'm not saying people should drop Windows or Linux. I'm just saying that it was the right choice for me. I also believe that if you do a little research you will find the right tools on the right platform that supports your needs.

[GKDubs]

Red Hat exit more likely due to Ubuntu than MS

I understand why Red Hat would position its exit from the desktop market as being due to Microsoft's market dominance but MS has always been the 800 lb. gorilla. The real reason for Red Hat's exit is that Ubuntu has won the Linux desktop battle for hearts and minds.

[richard petty--2008]

What? Again?

Red Hat is abandoning the desktop again?

They abandon the desktop every two years or so; They've abandoned it at least four times.

The nice thing about this, though, is that the news writers don't actually need to pen new articles. They can simply sift through their archives and republish old "Red Hat Abandons Desktop" stories again. Then, it's off to an early lunch...

[Darvus]

Catch 22

Home desktop and small business installations of Linux won't be commonplace until there's more third-party software support. There won't be more third-party software support until there's a bigger installed base of Linux users to buy them.

Yes, there's currently a number of Linux users out there, but the issue there is that those already using Linux are more or less "power users" that rely heavily on open-source software, which is free. How do you crack that market with paid products? It's been that way for a LONG time and isn't likely to change very soon.

Until someone's able to sell the idea of Linux support to the big third-party software vendors (like, say, Intuit), it's just going to stay that way. I don't like it, but I'm trying to be realistic.

If someone out there can prove me wrong, I welcome it with open arms.

[rjpotts]

Hit the nail on the head

You hit the nail on the head. The majority of the people (not all) using linux are power users, and they don't want to pay for software. Software vendors such as Intuit make money from selling software and are not going to give it away for free.

Many people use Windows because its what they use at work and its easy to pirate the software. For some reason people feel they are to good to pay for software.

[JCPayne]

Linux people design stuff for other geeks.

Not the simple minded that merely wants to check email and surf the web for one or two sites and then log off.

[The_Decider]

LInux is perfect for the simple minded people

Who check email and surf the web.

Linux is simple to install and maintain and the lack of the need for AV and AS makes it perfect for idiots online.

Linux is far easier to install, configure and maintain than any windows version.