Red Hat, best known as a distributor of the upstart Linux operating system, is branching out.
The company is set to announce on Friday the Red Hat E-Commerce suite, a cornerstone of its strategy to concentrate not only on Linux, a competitor of Microsoft`s Windows and other operating systems, but also on other "open source" software tools.
"This is a significant step from Red Hat in broadening their focus," said IDC analyst Michele Rosen.
Unlike proprietary software from companies like Microsoft, the inner workings of open source software are freely available on the Internet and elsewhere, leaving developers free to tinker with and improve the programs.
The individual pieces of Red Hat`s suite, which includes the Apache Secure Webserver, an open source database called PostgreSQL and Red Hat Linux itself, are thus available for free on the Internet. A central component of the suite, Akopia`s Interchange e-commerce platform, came to Red Hat when it bought the open source developer earlier this year.
"That is a pretty common set of products to use out in the wild," Rosen said.
Because the software components are available for free, Red Hat is betting that its suite`s ease of installation and tightly integrated functions -- as well as support from its service centre -- will be worth the price, about $3 000 for a one-year licence.
The suite is aimed at medium-size business, according to Red Hat`s Charles Gold -- those too big for basic e-commerce packages from companies like Yahoo, but too small for multimillion dollar packages from giants like Oracle and BroadVision.
"It is not meant to be an Oracle or Broadvision killer," Gold said.
Not all analysts are convinced that open source software like the PostgreSQL database program is ready for prime time in the business world, despite the success of Linux and Apache, which is now a de facto standard for Web servers.
"Open source databases are not going to be able to compete with software by the large database vendors like Oracle, Microsoft and IBM,`` said First Albany analyst Mark Murphy. "This is rocket science, what a database does, and it is just not likely that something so critical is going to be taken over by an open source product."
But open source advocates argue that programs like Linux and Apache are often more reliable than their proprietary counterparts, thanks to scores of volunteers who scour the code to find bugs and optimise performance.
The PosgreSQL database, for example, "lags behind in terms of proven capacity compared to Apache or Linux," Rosen said, "but it is certainly capable of running a decent-sized e-commerce site."
Asked how open source can be an advantage, Red Hat`s Gold related the tale of an anonymous programmer who downloaded a demo version of the e-commerce suite hours after its release.
"Someone took the demo and by the next day created a Japanese-language site with it" by modifying the code, he said. "That just does not happen with proprietary software."
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