HP sets up Linux 'centre of excellence' in Blighty

HP is stepping up its interest in Linux and has set up a UK centre of excellence for Linux in Reading.

The company is also planning to set up similar centres in mainland Europe and in the US. Further details weren't available on Thursday but it's understood that Germany and Atlanta are under consideration.

According to HP's enterprise Linux manager, Ian Dent, the aim of the centres is to set up scenarios "that are as close to real life as possible". The Linux facility, located at Oracle's Reading site, will be used by HP customers who want to test Linux systems in live environments.

Dent said: "This is the first place in the world where this has been implemented. Our customers can see real-life examples of the things they can do with Linux."

HP claims to be the market leader in Linux servers. According to Dent, the company is the biggest supplier of Linux servers. "One in five of our best-selling ProLiant servers run Linux," he said.

Dent added: "The perception is that IBM is leading but we are leading." He said IDC's figures for the third quarter of 2005 showed HP was in first place with 38 per cent of the Linux server market, with Dell in second place with 26 per cent and IBM in third place with 19 per cent.

But IBM has claimed those figures are misleading, as they are for new server shipments only and do not take into account upgrades and consolidations of systems, an area where IBM claims to have been doing well.

Dent said he had more bad news for IBM, this time in the Linux database market. Quoting Gartner Dataquest figures for 2005, he said IBM's share of the Linux database market was now down to 17 per cent with Oracle way out in front with 81 per cent. But again this was based entirely on revenue and the new licence sales rather than units sold.

Colin Barker writes for ZDNet UK