Red Hat to release low-cost Linux desktop

According to Red Hat press release, the operating system integrates online services into a client desktop platform. Red Hat will use local suppliers to build the machines which will be targeted towards small businesses and governments in emerging economies.

Thee software will be made available on Intel's Classmate PC although about 95 per cent of the software comes from Red Hat's involvement with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project.

The first version of the software is expected in June and subsequent updates will move to a model where traditional applications are integrated with online services.

Red Hat chief technology officer Brian Stevens said that Windows was dead and the future was integrating online services with local data.

Users aren't sitting in isolation and so Windows doesn't have anything to add to the experience of the user."

Red Hat is also working out a project to put a user's operating system on a USB stick. The software will execute as in a virtual compartment. More here. µ