Red Hat Leaves the Linux Desktop

By Jim on November 4th, 2003

Linux users have been rocked this week by big news from two major vendors: Red Hat has bowed out of the race for the desktop market, and SuSE has been bought by Novell. What do these twin tremors mean for Linux users and the future of Linux itself?

Red Hat’s exit from the desktop is disheartening to some Linux partisans but makes perfect sense for the company. In the end, Red Hat has to put its shareholders interests above the idealistic dream of displacing Windows on the desktops of non-corporate users. This speaks well of Red Hats management; its focusing on the bottom line and allocating scarce resources to areas that will bring the highest possible return for the company.

No doubt the Linux purists will be on the march, decrying Red Hats decision as either “blasphemy” or a “betrayal” of the open source movement. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Linux world needs a strong Red Hat and should support Red Hats moves toward increasing profitability and financial strength. There are plenty of other distros that can cover the desktop for home users, there really isnt much of a need for Red Hat to be in that space.

The bottom line here is that well all be better off if Red Hat succeeds over the long haul. And it, like any other business, must do whatever it takes to achieve and grow. Hats off to Red Hats management, theyre getting it done.

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