The two largest vendors of Linux distros to the enterprise market, Red Hat and Novell, have both said that they have no intention of entering the consumer market, with both alluding to the strength of Microsoft as their reasoning.Speaking to PC World's John Ribeiro, Red Hat's vice president of corporate marketing Michael Chen said: "The desktop market suffers from having one dominant vendor. Some people still perceive that today's Linux desktops simply don't provide a practical alternative."
Novell's CEO Ron Hovsepian also confirmed to PC World that the company has no plans to enter the consumer market, adding: "The market for the desktop for the next three to five years is mainly enterprise-related."
Ribeiro added that any firm looking to enter the consumer market faced enormous challenges: "Building a sustainable business around the Linux desktop is tough, and history is littered with example efforts that have either failed outright, are stalled or are run as charities."
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