Red Hat goes back to school

Red Hat has slashed the price of its Linux distribution in a bid to raise its profile in the education sector.

The company is offering a 50 per cent discount on the regular price of Red Hat Linux 7.2 and Professional for schools, universities and other academic organisations.

"It is especially important for academic institutions to keep costs to a minimum," said Dirk Haaga, channel manager at Red Hat. "Linux has always been the inexpensive alternative and now Red Hat Linux has become even more affordable."

The company is also offering the same level of discount to users of other distributions of Linux in order to gain market share from rivals. And until the end of February it is offering 25 per cent off all its Linux products to everyone who buys through its website.

However, Gary Barnett, principal consultant at Ovum, said that most software vendors offer significant discounts to educational establishments.

"When it comes to application development, universities are seen as a very important place to create lots of supporters," he said. "As computer science graduates make their way out into the world of development they bring those skills with them. It is quite a smart move."