* IBM and Red Hat on a Linux mission in China, India, Korea and Russia
IBM and Red Hat are partnering to stoke up more enthusiasm for Linux technology in emerging markets, the vendors said last week. The effort will focus on markets such as China, India, Korea and Russia, and will involve software, services and coding tools for developers at software companies in these markets, with the hopes that these developers will write more applications for Linux. Red Hat/IBM tutorials on how to use Linux will also be offered in the targeted regions.
The offering will provide developers with IBM hardware and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, along with implementation services that will help developers port existing code to Linux and develop new software for the platform. Participants in the program will also get access to the Red Hat Network, which provides scheduled pushes of software updates and tools for running Red Hat servers.
The services will be offered through IBM Innovation Centers, which are facilities with IBM equipment and staff meant for connecting with local technology partners in specific areas. IBM says it helped 400 organizations around the world migrate to Linux through its Innovation Centers last year.
Through these centers, IBM and Red Hat will also be offering 29 different Linux tutorial sessions on such topics as software development for Linux, security practices and hardware training.
The IBM/Red Hat offering will be available in the following cities: Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in China; Bangalore, India, Seoul, Korea; Tokyo, Japan; Waltham, Mass.; Chicago, Ill.; San Mateo, Calif.; Sydney, Australia; Hursley, U.K.; Paris, France; Stuttgart, Germany; Moscow, Russia; and Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.
IBM and Red Hat say this move will help programmers in developing markets create software for open platforms, as opposed to proprietary Unix, Windows, or other systems. It will be interesting to see if this effort results in more developers around the world having truly vendor-neutral Linux and open source programming skills and knowledge, or if the program just produces more software that runs on IBM/Red Hat servers.
