During a press conference Tuesday in London, Red Hat announced its long-term client strategy, and described how the Red Hat Desktop will help achieve the company's goals. Matthew Szulik, Red Hat chairman and CEO, explained that Red Hat's client strategy was forged from the need for choice in the technology industry to drive innovation and forward thinking. "Open source is now causing the enterprise to question traditional models of software and software availability. This is an architectural alternative that extends from devices, through the network, and into the datacenter, deployable and flexible without concern of lock-in."

Red Hat's strategy intends to bring the security, manageability and reliability of open source to the client environment. Existing Red Hat customers will benefit from a consistent platform for both client and server applications and new customers will have the opportunity to pilot and integrate flexible open source alternatives. The client strategy is an extension of Open Source Architecture designed to enable open source in the enterprise by providing breadth and depth of open source and partner-certified solutions.

In March 2004, Red Hat allied with Wind River to pursue the device market, with a standard open source platform. This is now followed with the first market deliverable of the client strategy: the Red Hat Desktop.

The Red Hat Desktop is a secure, manageable solution for the enterprise and is targeted at government, academic, and enterprise IT organizations. The Red Hat Desktop is a productive environment that features mature open source office applications including an e-mail client, browser, and office suite. Organizations seeking a single client for developers who require both development and office productivity solutions are ideal pilot sites.

The Red Hat Desktop will be made available in configurations which include either Red Hat Network Proxy or Satellite Servers. A Proxy or Satellite Server deployment enables several clients to be deployed and managed simultaneously, and simplifies the ongoing security and management of systems. Future enhancements to Red Hat's desktop strategy will focus on productivity and interoperability with the support of industry partners.

In parallel, Red Hat will continue work with Wind River to address thin client computing and the device marketplace. By building thin clients and devices based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, customers will have access to flexible open source technology for a broader range of solutions, from single-purpose call center clients to handhelds.

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