Red Hat Exchange (RHX) was a part of the hoopla surrounding Red Hat's release of its next-generation Linux platform.

The Exchange, which is expected to formally be launched on May 10 at the Red Hat Summit, is an effort to make it easier for end users to get a myriad of third-party vendors' applications directly from Red Hat. It also marks Red Hat's entry into a channel development space that Novell is already in with its Market Start program. Which approach is better all depends on whom you ask.

"They're doing something we've already done and they're doing it slightly differently," Justin Steinman, Novell's director of product marketing for Linux, told internetnews.com about RHX. "I'd actually submit they are doing it in a channel unfriendly way."

The Novell Market Start program introduces independent software vendors (ISVs) to Novell's network of channel resellers and solution providers. There is no cost for vendors to join and the only thing that Novell asks is that the ISVs certify their solutions on Novell SUSE Linux.

According to Steinman, Novell benefits because it gets more solutions on SUSE Linux. The ISVs win because they get access to Novell's channel. And the channel wins because it gets more products to sell.

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