Red Hat has added two packages to its range of Linux operating systems. Designed to offer lower-priced alternatives to its Advanced Server operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES and Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS will be available later this year.

Positioned as an alternative to Red Hat Linux 8.0, Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES (£225 Basic Edition, £519 Standard Edition) provides the core operating system and networking infrastructure for a wide range of entry-level and departmental server applications.

Ideally suited for network, file, print, mail, Web, and custom or packaged business applications, Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES is fully compatible across the Red Hat Enterprise Linux family. While Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES provides the same core capabilities as the existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS, it is designed for smaller systems with up to two CPUs and 4GB of main memory.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (£115 Basic Edition, £199 Standard Edition) is the desktop/client member of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux family, and is designed for client/server deployments, software development environments and targeted ISV client applications (such as EDA and oil/gas applications). Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS provides support for workstation and desktop systems with up to two CPUs and 4GB of main memory. As it’s designed with the desktop environment in mind, Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS does not include many of the server applications found in Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (formerly Red Hat Linux Advanced Server) is now available in both x86 and Itanium 2 versions (£959 Standard Edition, £1,598 Premium Edition). Designed for large departmental and datacenter servers, this version of the software supports up to eight CPUs and 16GB of main memory.

“Manageability and standards are critical in commercial computing environments,” said Brian Stevens, vice president of Operating System Engineering at Red Hat. “With the introduction of Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES and WS, organisations are able to seamlessly deploy reliable, high value Linux solutions in all aspects of IT infrastructure.”

Red Hat plans to launch Enterprise Linux 3 in October, which will include support for servers running Itanium 2, IBM’s PowerPC-based processors and AMD’s new Opteron processor. The next version of Red Hat Linux, 9.0, will also be available in April.

Christian Harris, Mar 18, 03 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Linux