Despite lacking the commercial backing of some of its rivals, community-based distribution Debian is gaining ground amongst enterprise users.
In a keynote presentation at Linux.conf.au 2004 in Adelaide this morning, HP's Linux chief technology officer Bdale Garbee predicted that Debian would become an increasingly visible choice amongst users of the open source operating system. Almost 50 percent of conference attendees identified Debian as their preferred distribution.
Most enterprise IT companies which support Linux limit that support to commercial distributions, most commonly Red Hat or SuSE. However, that position is beginning to change, according to Garbee, a former Debian project leader and long-time advocate of open source solutions. 'Even my colleagues at HP who are more SuSE-inclined are realising that in some parts of the world Debian is an option they have to offer,' he said.
Other IT companies are also extending the range of Linux distributions they support. Sun, which currently runs its Java Desktop on SuSE, has said it wants to make the software distribution-independent.
Debian currently has in excess of 1,200 registered developers, Garbee noted. The distribution gained some unwelcome publicity in late 2003 when the main debian.org website and some associated project machines were hacked by an unknown intruder.
While Linux has now become a mainstream choice for many enterprise users, Garbee said getting agreement to deploy it could still be a challenge. 'A certain amount of economic and political will is required, even if it is just within your company,' he said.
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