last year, to develop a version of the Linux operating system for
consumer PCs -- in part because of Microsoft's dominance over the
market.
"The desktop market suffers from having one dominant vendor, and
some people still perceive that today's Linux desktops simply don't
provide a practical alternative," Red Hat officials said in a blog post Wednesday.
"Building a sustainable business around the Linux desktop is tough, and
history is littered with example efforts that have either failed
outright, are stalled, or are run as charities," they said.
Linux commands only about 1.2% of the desktop market in the United States, according to research group Gartner.
Red Hat said, however, that it would continue to develop its Enterprise Linux desktop.
It also said it has no plans to abandon its Red Hat Global
Desktop program. Under RHGD, Red Hat is developing a slimmed-down
Linux-based desktop OS designed for low-cost PCs in emerging markets
such as Brazil, Russia, China, and India.
Red Hat said it had originally hoped to ship RHGD within a few
months, but the company has now backed away from a firm timeline. "The
desktop business model is tough, so we want to be prepared before
delivering a product to the emerging markets," the company said on its
blog.
Indeed, Microsoft is also looking to capture those markets,
which are expected to provide the bulk of the computing industry's
growth in the years ahead. Redmond earlier this month announced that it
would extend the life of Windows XP -- but only for low-cost systems
not capable of running Windows Vista.
