Open source application service launched by Red Hat

Red Hat has launched its answer to Salesforce.com's Application Exchange portal. Known as RHX (Red Hat Exchange) the online portal is positioned to provide IT professionals with a one-stop shop to find open source applications that are optimised to work on top of the Red Hat Linux operating system. So far RHX only has 14 open source application providers signed up but Red Hat director of online services Matt Mattox claimed that the relatively small number of app providers is actually a good thing – as users are not overwhelmed with providers.

"We see this as an investment in the rising tide of greater open source ecosystem," said Mattox.

Red Hat pre-announced the application exchange back in March when it announced the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.