Linux partners come together to create UnitedLinux

NEW DELHI: Companies present in the Linux industry Caldera International
Inc., Conectiva S.A., SuSE Linux AG and Turbolinux Inc., have announced,
UnitedLinux, a new initiative that will streamline Linux development and
certification around a global, uniform distribution of Linux designed for
business. UnitedLinux will address enterprise customers’ need for a standard,
business-focused Linux distribution that is certified to work across hardware
and software platforms, accelerating the adoption of Linux in the enterprise.



Under terms of the agreement, the four companies will collaborate on the
development of one common core Linux operating environment, called UnitedLinux
software. The four partners will each bundle value added products and services
with the UnitedLinux operating system and the resulting offer will be marketed
and sold by each of the four partners under their own brands.



Nearly every vendor supplying a piece of the technology infrastructure used by
businesses has expressed support for UnitedLinux. Independent hardware and
software vendors spend considerable effort certifying their products and
services on individual Linux distributions to ensure product compatibility for
their customers. UnitedLinux will significantly diminish the number of
distributions that vendors are asked to certify and will provide a true
standards-based Linux operating environment.



UnitedLinux will help further speed enterprise adoption of Linux by providing
businesses with a greater choice in the number of applications and hardware
certified to work on the uniform version of Linux. Customers will also benefit
from the global sales, localization, education, support and services that all
four UnitedLinux vendors will collectively provide.



The collaboration of the four leading Linux companies will result in an
enterprise Linux offering, which is truly global by virtue of the companies'
ability to provide local language support, training and professional services,
in addition to the support of strategic partners. UnitedLinux will provide one
unified Linux code base for IBM’s complete eServer product line and AMD 32-bit
and 64-bit platform and Intel’s x86 32-bit and Itanium processor family
platforms. UnitedLinux supports LSB, Li18nux, and GB18030 standards, as well as
enabling installations in English, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean,
Portuguese, Spanish, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese languages.



In addition, UnitedLinux unleashes a massive research and development
organization for Linux in the enterprise. Effectively, the four companies
involved in this process will shift dollars and resources once allocated to
creating and maintaining custom Linux operating environments and divert them to
new R&D on Linux enterprise software. UnitedLinux is dedicated to bolstering
the enterprise readiness of the platform, but in the same collaborative spirit
from which Linux was founded and continues to flourish.



While today’s announcement outlines the founding members of UnitedLinux, the
initiative is open for additional Linux companies to participate. The four
partners currently plan to each offer their own server products based on
UnitedLinux by the end of 2002.