TurboLinux Offers OEM-Specific Distro
Although Dell Computer Corp, and VA Linux Inc. have stepped away from the Linux OEM business, one distributor still has its eyes on the OEM market. Turbolinux, Inc. announced last week that it released a distribution tailored to the needs of OEMs.
Turbolinux Workstation 7.0 is now available as an OEM package for OEMs interested in offering desktop solutions. Bob Hess, vice president of sales and marketing at Turbolinux says this strategy targets enterprise customers interested in rolling out Linux for end users.
“This is the strategy which offers the most flexibility and works best for Turbolinux in the USA,” Hess says. Although Turbolinux has offers products for large backend systems like the IBM zSeries, reaching out to desktop OEMs extends their strategy of offering solutions across the enterprise.
Hess says Turbolinux makes no suggestions of how OEMs deploy or market the distribution, stating, “OEM's can choose what they want to do with the product, tailoring it for the customers to whom they will make it available, on a global basis.” Turbolinux includes a number of packages with Workstation 7.0, including email, the Mozilla browser, and PDA syncing functionality. OEMs can further tailor the OS to meet customer demands.
Earlier this month, Dell quietly pulled Linux as an option for desktops and notebook machines on its website. Although customers can order pre-loaded for fleets of machines, the company said the consumer market for Linux was not profitable. In addition, one of the early Linux OEMs, VA Linux, said it was shifting focus to software from hardware tailored to Linux.
About the Author
Chris McConnell is Product and Technology Editor for Enterprise Systems.