Much like Microsoft's influence over software developers in the 1990s, Red Hat has seemingly rallied all of the major open source application providers to support the company's forthcoming online store--known as the Red Hat Exchange [RHX].
Make no mistake about it: Open source developers see Red Hat's forthcoming online store as their big opportunity to generate mind share and market share for their applications. The exchange could also extend Red Hat's lead over Novell in terms of overall Linux application support, The VAR Guy believes.