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Red Hat, IBM Partner to Certify Apps for Linux
robyannetta writes "British tech site
Microscope has an interesting article talking about how Red Hat and IBM will join forces to help software suppliers certify their applications for Linux. The program is designed to make it easier for suppliers to migrate their software to Linux, and will also give IBM and Red Hat a boost by enlarging the pool of applications certified to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux with IBM hardware and middleware. Yet another example of creative business foresight that keeps both Red Hat and IBM in the black."
In the eyes of many pointy-haired IT bosses, Red Hat and Linux are synonyms. They probably think Suse is to Red Hat what OS/2 is to Windows 95.
It isn't certifying for linux, it's certifying for RedHat Linux on IBM hardware.
That almost certainly will count for something in the enterprise, where people will have lots of money riding on whether an application works-- although it may just be a cash cow for IBM designed to convince app developers to pay for expensive certifications. Either way though it won't be very useful in general.
What we need is something more widely practical, for example a certification authority that certifies distributions and applications as being compliant with the LSB. (If nothing else, commercial games on Linux will continue to go nowhere until this happens.) Then again, we kind of need a more meaningful LSB before there's any point to this.
IBM's relationship with Suse is way overhyped by the Suse crowd. The only reason *at all* they even sell Suse is because Red Hat was gaining a lot of power and IBM didn't want another software company (*cough* Microsoft *cough*) taking advantage of them. Suse just helped to level the playing field a bit more by giving IBM some leverage and threatening power over Red Hat. I wish I could cite sources but you can't cite conversations with the guys working at IBM.
Anyway, another poster to your comment mentioned stocks, this is another good area to look at if you want to see how a company's business plan is accepted in the real world and where they may be going. Red Hat has been upgraded several times by a few major players , most recently Prudential. IIRC, Prudential said that they see enormous growth for no less than the next two years in Red Hat. Novell on the other hand has been downgraded and predicted to underperform, their stock is down and generally their business is going to pieces. Novell's stocks over the past few months have all the traits of a start-up company, and more recently, a start-up company that flops. This is a common trend for Novell though and now Linux is just the new next thing that they want to hop on. Red Hat's business is linux, they have to stay devoted because it's all they have. Novell will drop linux the second something else comes along if they think it'll make them more money. Personally, I like both Suse and Red Hat, but Novell is going to be the downfall of Suse, Suse should have never gotten bought.
Regards,
Steve
Having "older" versions of packages is exactly what you need to be able to deliver a stable platform for ISV's to certify their code. RH's whole strategy with the Enterprise platform is to ensure that the platform remains a reasonably stable target for around three years. If you have a handful of servers or your desktops, and you only have basic packages, then go for the slightly more bleeding edge stuff, it'll work. I you have hundreds or thousands of servers to manage, and you need software from veritas, IBM etc, and you need in-house developers not to have to recompile everything every 6 months, then RHEL is probably a better bet.
A PHB doesn't care what applications they have, they care what solution can be provided to them by a vendor
This is part of what helps companies like Apple, Sun and SGI get a core of users who'll follow them to the ends of the earth. Buy the machine, you also get the software & the support from the company that made both. There's no buck passing, like when you contact $OS_PROVIDER for support and find them blaming your $HW_PROVIDER, or vice versa.
It doesn't always work, but it can do phenomenal things for customer loyalty if done right.