Netscape Communications Corp should begin selling Linux as a way out of its current troubles, an editorial in the Boston Globe decided last week. As the paper points out, Linux comes with source code so that programmers can modify its policy Netscape has just decided to imitate with future versions of its browser software. Linux can be downloaded over the internet for free, but a network of hundreds of programmers worldwide have made the system robust enough for use in large scale projects by the likes of NASA and Digital Domain Inc (see separate story). There are now some 5 million Linux systems worldwide, compared with only 1.5 million in 1995, and millions more potential customers. But, says the Globe, Linux needs the credibility and commercial skills of a major player before it can gain a wider slice of the market. So why doesn’t Netscape take a stake in one of the small companies trying to commercialize Linux, such as Red Hat Software Inc or Ray Noorda’s Caldera Inc? It might then be able to snag enough of the corporate computer network market to put iself back in the game.
