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An assortment of Linux distributors including Caldera International, Turbolinux, and SuSE Linux AG will announce a group strategy this week to take on open-source Linux market leader Red Hat, according to sources familiar with the plans.

Details of the group strategy remain sketchy, but experts anticipate that these smaller Linux vendors will likely consolidate their distribution channel into one, making it easier to counter the size and strength of Red Hat.

Building on Success

Each of the Linux vendors expected to participate in the announcement Thursday has experienced success in different Linux markets, says Dan Kusnetzky, a senior analyst at IDC. SuSE has high-end commercial activities in Europe and Germany, Caldera has Open Unix "replicated site business," and Turbolinux offers parallel-computing and cluster-management software.

That means each of these Linux distributors will likely try to hang on to its key markets and leverage a new, single distribution channel with a wide Linux offering capable of taking on Red Hat, Kusnetzky says.

"Being relatively small companies--compared to Red Hat and to other major software companies--[Caldera and the others] probably are looking at ways of staying in the markets they are in because they really are not competing with one another except on the remote edges; otherwise they are very complementary," Kusnetzky says.

Moreover, a single Linux channel for the smaller distributors "would result in a more uniform product across those companies," he says. "They could apply their special value add, and each be competing in different market spaces and not run into one another too much."

A mutually funded, joint Linux lab responsible for productizing Linux offerings from all participating Linux distributors could be another element of the group's strategy to take on Red Hat, Kusnetzky says.

Red Hat's Partners

Red Hat, meanwhile, is working with partners to make its Linux offerings into more viable options for the enterprise.

For several years, Red Hat has offered an Alliance Program that encourages companies such as Glenayre Technologies and RLX Technologies to work closely with the Linux distributor to develop enterprise Linux products.

Red Hat also has a wide range of Linux technologies and services, spanning desktop Linux, workstation Linux, embedded Linux software environments, Linux server and database software, e-commerce and parallel-computing Linux software, and professional services.

"Red Hat has pretty broad offerings in the Linux area," Kusnetzky says. "Red Hat has been the leader of the industry both by revenues and by shipments since we've been tracking it."

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