Solaris is being left behind as IBM encourages users to switch from Unix to Red Hat Linux, and also offers free support for this migration.

IBM and Red Hat Linux have joined forces and offer free expertise to all users that want to give up on the Unix operating system for a Red Hat Linux distribution.

For that, the user's situation will first be evaluated, and if he meets the requirements, IBM will offer Migration Factory Services, but this time for a fee. From the statements made by IBM officials, starting from the first months of 2004 and until now, over 500 systems running HP/UX and Solaris solutions have migrated to IBM's AIX.

The main obstacle in the acceleration of Linux's adoption is the ignorance of users concerning the simplicity of the install process and the minimum risks involved in switching from Unix to Linux.


"That is why IBM offers in the first stage free analysis and counseling services for the clients that meet the requirements", said Scott Handy vice-president of the Linux department within IBM for vnunet.com.

Another reason why IBM and Red Hat are anxious to ensure a large number of clients is the imminent launching of an open-source version of Solaris, announced by Sun Microsystems for a long time now. With this new version, users will be able to configure and customize the operating system similarly to Linux.