Red Hat plots Linux expansion in Europe

Linux vendor, Red Hat, is to use its recent investments to expand operations throughout Europe.

Offices will be opened in France and Italy by Christmas thanks to recent cash injections from Dell, Oracle and IBM.

Bob Young, founder, chairman and CEO of Red Hat, said: "We want to scale the opportunity in Europe quickly. There is huge support in Europe for Red Hat and Linux and we want to get our operations to a stage so the users can support themselves as well as if they were living next door to our North Carolina HQ."

Meanwhile, Red Hat has also announced the start of production of the latest version of its suite of products, Linux 6.1, at its first European manufacturers, Saturn.

The appointment of Saturn for software manufacturing, purchasing and fulfilment is the first time the company has manufactured outside the US.

A 24-hour, seven-day-a-week support centre will also be opened in the near future, promised Colin Tenwick, managing director for Red Hat Europe. "This multilingual centre is essential as customers move Linux into mission critical applications. It is critical that we provide support throughout Europe and not just the UK," he said.