Red Hat returns to the Linux desktop

coredump

Red Hat used to be in the desktop business along with all the other Linux distributors. Then, they left. As Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat's CEO, explained Red Hat's desktop approachto me last year, "There are companies that sell hundreds of productsfor millions of dollars and there are companies that sell millions ofproducts for hundreds of dollars. Guess which kind of company Red Hatis?"
Now, however, Red Hat is switching from Xen to KVM for virtualization. As part of that switchover, Red Hat will be using not only KVM, but the SolidICE/SPICE(Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments) desktopvirtualization and management software suite to introduce a newserver-based desktop virtualization system.
Does this mean that Red Hat will be getting back into the Linuxdesktop business? That's the question I posed to Red Hat CTO BrianStevens, in a phone call after the Red Hat/KVM press conference, and hetold me that, "Yes. Red Hat will indeed be pushing the Linux desktopagain."
What got Red Hat interested in the desktop again was thatSolidICE/SPICE and the "virtual desktop management suite desktop madethe desktop much more interesting." And, Stevens continued, it's notjust good for the Linux desktop. "This open-source software can solvemanagement problems for both Windows and Linux desktops. So, while itabsolutely makes sense for us to deliver a Red Hat desktop on avirtualized platform, we can also put Windows and Linux desktops sideby side. With Red Hat's virtualization, users will no longer have achoice of one or the other, they can have both."
Specifically, the new virtual Red Hat Desktop will be managed by RedHat Enterprise Virtualization Manager for Desktops. This virtualdesktops management system, Red Hat claims, will deliver three to fivetimes better cost-performance for both Linux and Windows desktops.
The desktops themselves, both Windows and Linux, will run on Red HatEnterprise Virtualization Hypervisor. By using SolidICE and SPICEremote rendering technology, this will not be yet another thin-clientapproach. This will be a full-powered desktop that can handle HD videoand video-conferencing. On a high-speed network with sufficientlymuscular servers, Red Hat expects both Windows and Linux desktop usersto have a full desktop experience without performance or featurecompromises.
This follows up with Red Hat's existing Linux desktop efforts. It'snot that Red Hat ever gave up on doing things with the desktop. It'sjust that Red Hat had no plans on making any money from the desktopwith a formal desktop product.
Instead, Red Hat kept working on Linux desktop improvements, like improving Linux's audio playback with PulseAudio and making software installation and management easier with PackageKit. You just wouldn't find these improvements in a Red Hat Personal Desktop. Instead, you'd find them in Fedora 10, Red Hat's community Linux.   
Things are changing. Now that Red Hat has a way to fit the Linuxdesktop into its corporate business plans, the formal Red Hat Linuxdesktop is on its way back. You can expect to see it in the late summerof 2009 soon after RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 5.4 appears.

coredump

这个Solid ICE(http://www.qumranet.com/products-and-solutions)就是开发Linux内核虚拟化KVM的公司，被Redhat收购了，从其网站上看Redhat将是又一个加入虚拟化混战中的战士。

Tux

大致浏览了一下，大致的意思就是要推桌面虚拟化的产品，还是跑在RHEL上，并且有管理console。

很容易让人误解为重返桌面市场，太搞了...

桌面市场有了Ubuntu，Fedora，OpenSUSE，Mandriva等等，RH再折腾也没意思，也得不到任何利益...