UK Linux enthusiasts fear software split

UK IT professionals attending a Linux conference this week expressed their fears that the open source operating system would fragment between different development houses.

Four of the main companies involved are Red Hat, Suse, Caldera and Turbolinux, some of which spoke this week at the Linux Expo '99 show at Olympia in London. There is a growing concern amongst Linux enthusiasts that these companies will carve different paths.

One attendee summed up the feelings of many when he said he feared Linux would go the same ways as Unix, "splitting into several different flavours."

Scott Harrison, major account sales manager of Red Hat Europe, said the big advantage Linux has over Unix that could prevent this is that "we all work on the same kernel, which is key."

He added: "We pay six out of 10 kernel developers not to have a job and concentrate on developing the kernel for the rest of the community." He said another safeguard is that "any code cut is straight out there on the website."

Jurgen Geck, director of strategic alliances at Suse, said: "We try to be cross-platform. With Linux you get a chance to reunite and develop the operating system for various platforms and support all on an equal basis. We are not bound to one processor."

Concerns were also raised about the emerging dominance of Red Hat as the Linux distributor.

"I notice that people are using the terms Red Hat and Linux as interchangeable," said an attendee.

The Dell panel representative said little to allay that fear.

Julian Phillips, head of alliances for Dell in the UK, told VNU Newswire: "Red Hat is the most corporate thinking and enterprise thinking of the Linux distributors."

Dell has a minority stake in Red Hat, its first equity investment.