HP to unveil commitment to Linux

Hewlett Packard (HP) will raise its profile in the Linux market on Monday by making the open source operating system one of its three "strategic operating systems".

The hardware giant is expected to announce improved products and services for Linux, which will sit alongside Windows 2000 and its HP-UX Unix offering as its third platform of choice. Details of the announcement are expected to be outlined at the LinuxWorld conference in San Jose, California next week.

Analysts said HP is reacting to user demand and following Dell and IBM, which have previously made similar commitments to Linux.

Kirsten Ludvigsen, a director at analyst IDC, said: "HP can be really expected to embrace Linux as a service and support platform, and port its applications to Linux."

Ludvigsen added that HP's increased commitment would allow it to step up its involvement in the Trillian project to port Linux to Intel's forthcoming 64bit processor platform.

Chris Martin, an analyst at researcher Xephon, welcomed HP's increased commitment to Linux, which he said would both expand the vendor's market and push forward the open source operating system generally.

However, he said one concern is whether the commitment might "sow seeds of doubt" about HP's long-term commitment to HP-UX.