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While competitors such as Novell adopted the new kernel months ago, Red Hat has held off, and instead backported a number of key features of the new kernel to the 2.4 version it was using with RHEL.

RHEL 4 scales up the scope for the workloads it can bear. The company is pushing into mission-critical areas where it can compete directly with the likes of Sun, and allow companies currently running Unix on proprietary kit to take advantage of Linux on low-cost commodity hardware.

The server software boasts new technologies such as the security features of SELinux so that it meets compliance standards necessary for deployment in the governmental and financial sector.

Red Hat makes no secret it is gunning for Sun's customers. It clearly took the hint when Sun announced a campaign to 'take back Wall Street' toward the end of last year. Red Hat describes RHEL 4 as eliminating 'the need for Solaris in the enterprise'.

It has even gone so far as to offer customers of its Red Hat Network the ability to manage deployments of Solaris on their corporate networks through a single management

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system - hopefully weaning them off Sun altogether.

Sun for its part has looked less than kindly upon Red Hat in the past - despite selling servers running the platform. Its latest bid to halt the march of Linux is to release its own operating system Solaris under an OSI-approved licence. If it can grow an enthusiastic community of open source developers around Solaris it can speed progress of the platform, while the licence will prevent its billion-dollar IP tied up in Solaris slipping into Linux.

More than 750 systems are certified for RHEL 4 from the likes of IBM, HP and Dell. It runs on Intel's Xeon and Itanium based chips, as well as AMD64, IBM POWER and more. Hundreds of applications are also going through the certification process.

RHEL 4 with its 2.6 kernel also brings improvements to its desktop sibling in the form of plug-and-play USB device recognition, better wireless support and improved power management features to boost battery life in mobile devices.

'This release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a defining milestone in the evolution of Linux as the backbone of the enterprise,' said Paul Cormier, Executive Vice President of Engineering at Red Hat. 'Red Hat Enterprise Linux in 2002 marked the entrance of Linux in the enterprise. The second version one year later put us at par with Unix in terms of reliability, and ahead in terms of value. Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.4 has the performance, scalability, security, and application portfolio needed to make Linux the sensible choice for every deployment, from servers connected to client and desktop systems. This methodical delivery of innovation is helping create unprecedented value for the customer.'