Red Hat sets UK corporate desktop pricing

Red Hat's corporate Linux desktop software, to be released later this month, will be the first to be truly open source and avoid vendor lock-in, according to Red Hat chief executive Matthew Szulik.

The Red Hat Desktop, which will be available for download from 15 May, is the first implementation of Red Hat's long-term client strategy.

Red Hat argues that vendor lock-in is a big reason behind companies moving to Linux. Its desktop uses only open source components, differentiating it from the competitive Novell SuSE Linux Desktop and the Sun Java Desktop System.

"Customers don't want vendor lock-in," Szulik told vnunet.com. "With proprietary products you've got the same problems."

The main desktop components are the Gnome graphical user interface with Red Hat's Bluecurve look and feel, OpenOffice office suite, Mozilla browser, Ximian Evolution email, and patch management software. Red Hat will provide a managed service to support the product.

vnunet.com can exclusively reveal that prces start at £1,535 for the Proxy Starter Pack, £8,289 for the Satellite Starter pack and £2,149 for the extension pack.

"Customers are looking for thin client solutions to sophisticated problems such as policy management and single sign-on. They also want a more secure environment," said Szulik.

He added that some of the desktop components had not - until now - been mature enough to make the desktop possible.

All licences include 30 days' phone support and one year of web help desk escalation support.