Red Hat unimpressed by United Linux

Red Hat has given a lukewarm response to last week's announcement that a consortium of leading Linux vendors are creating a single unified Linux distribution called United Linux.

Current Linux market-leader Red Hat has expressed scepticism about the level of application support that consortium members - initially Caldera, SuSE, Turbolinux and Connectiva - would provide, at least in the short term.

In a formal statement, Red Hat said: "Too many distributions hamper the migration of applications to Linux, so if this effort by Caldera and others consolidates distributions, this is a good development.

"But in Linux, application support is everything. Red Hat Linux Advanced Server has it today. Time will tell if the Caldera group's distribution will achieve the same level of support," the statement added.

Members of the United Linux consortium are scheduled to meet Red Hat as well as other distributors, such as Mandrake, in the near future. But they will have a hard time convincing Red Hat of the benefits of joining the club.