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Technology Stocks : Red Hat Software Inc. (Nasdq-RHAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: guerillero.de who wrote (644)	8/17/1999 10:31:00 AM
From: Doug B.	Respond to of 1794

Well, it depends. First of all, I am not sure whether Red Hat really wants to put up with the hassle to develop some special driver for some special hardware. But more important: if Dell wants to sell a preconfigured LINUX machine, it would be the easiest to build this machine from components which are already supported by LINUX. This could be a requirement when they select the component vendor. Dell is a hardware company, and they are going to try to build machines with the most advanced components they can get, for the cheapest prices they can get. Hardware becomes obsolete incredibly quickly, and if you stand still you get left behind. Only after this will worries about OS come to the fore. Okay, so maybe Dell does not pay Red Hat to support its hardware. They probably do not pay Microsoft to support their hardware either. But do they build their machines to conform to what Windows currently supports? The answer is no. However, Dell and Microsoft probably work together to see that the preloaded OS works on their new machines. Red Hat hired engineers to do specifically this sort of thing. Dell would happily enter into this sort of arrangement if it means they get to sell more of their technologically advanced, low-cost hardware without having to engineer entirely new boxes or laptops. It is worth it to Red Hat to pay their own people to do this? You bet, if it means they get installation fees for a buttload of machines. Why would Dell even bother with all this? Why not just sell machines with Windows and tell everyone to be happy? The answer is that there is SIGNIFICANT DEMAND out there for machines preloaded with Linux. I can't tell you how many people have cursed Dell for requiring them to buy an OS that they have every intention of immediately wiping off the machine the moment it comes in the door. Large software companies are also supporting Linux, and partnering with Red Hat, because they see the demand out there. "... Dell. They are not an OS development company."\n Neither is Red Hat. LINUX is not developed by Red Hat. They bundle it and support it, and perhaps develop some tools for easier configuration, but they are NOT developing the OS. Correction - Dell is not a software development company, nor do they want software development to become part of their focus. If Dell wants to dilute their focus and hire a team of programmers, they can, but in order to support their latest hardware at every turn, it is going to require more than 2-3 very sharp people. Plus, this goes against everything about the economies of scale that have made Dell such a fierce competitor. Red Hat is indeed a software development company. They have hired people specifically to work on Linux and roll their changes back into the public baseline. They just work on the things that create value in Linux for their partners, both on the hardware side AND on the software side. Good discussion for once on this thread. Regards, Doug