Red Hat

Open source seeks to eat its young (again)

At Hogwarts, only the Slytherins seem to care whether you're a pure blood or a mudblood. In the open-source community, too, some open-source advocates have never seen a corporate open-source contribution that couldn't have gone farther or been done with nobler purposes.

For example, Adobe announced several new open-source projects "designed to help media companies and other publishers build richer Flash applications."

Alas! It wasn't open enough, at least, not for Chris Messina, who promptly criticized the move as "open washing, applying the tastes-great, less-filling label, while doing everything they can to maintain their … Read more

Red Hat is wrong to insist Microsoft disavow litigation

Red Hat's legal team has given a half-hearted pat on the back to Microsoft's open sourcing of Linux device drivers this week.

The observation of the Bible's James came to mind: "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing."

But it was Red Hat's parting shot on patents that I found bewildering, not to mention irresponsible:

Over the years, the individual and corporate members of the community have through formal and informal steps made clear that they will not pursue or threaten patent litigation in the Linux area. Patent threats are irreconcilable with … Read more

Microsoft embraces GPL, opens Hyper-V to Linux with LinuxIC

Old dogs may struggle with new tricks, but they seem to be able to figure out new licenses.

In a shocking move, Microsoft announced Monday the release of Hyper-V Linux Integration Components (LinuxIC).

The news reflects Microsoft's continued interest in lobotomizing its virtualization competition through low prices, but also the recognition that it must open up if it wants to fend off insurgent virtualization strategies from Red Hat, Novell, and others in the open-source camp.

But the truly startling news is that LinuxIC is being released under the GNU General Public License (version 2). Microsoft once called GPL anti-American. … Read more

Intel claims No. 2 Linux contributor spot as hedge against Microsoft

In 2007 Red Hat stood on top of the Linux kernel contributor list with room to spare. At 12.7 percent of the Linux kernel contributed by Red Hat (measured in terms of lines changed), IBM was the runner-up at a comparatively distant 5.9 percent. In 2008, Red Hat slipped a little but maintained the top spot (11.2 percent), with Novell making a burst into second place at 8.9 percent.

In 2009, things get more interesting, with Intel making a serious challenge to claim the top spot in Linux kernel contributions.

Red Hat, Novell, and IBM all … Read more

Getting over 'the software business'

Here's some comfort for the software industry, innocently offered up as advice to the media industry in an excellent Andrew Savikas post. Savikas challenges media companies to think beyond media-as-product to think of a media-as-service, just as restaurants look beyond "food" to sell "meals" and a complete dining experience.

It's a great idea. It's just too bad that 90 percent of restaurants fail within their first few years of existence. Media companies apparently have the choice of failure or...failure.

Software companies, which also have the problem (and opportunity) of easily replicable goods, … Read more

Trent Reznor: 'So you want to make money on the Web'

For those who have yet to grok the Open Core business model, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame will sing it to you. In a series of forum entries, Reznor explains exactly how to build a music business on the Web and, in the process, classically defines Open Core, the primary business model for open-source software, too.

Reznor writes:

Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth … Read more

Red Hat: From manic acquisitions to focused execution

Red Hat is at the top of its game right now, delivering quarter after quarter of impressive performance despite (or, perhaps, because of) a global recession. But it wasn't always thus. Despite a meteoric initial public offering in 1999, Red Hat spent years fumbling about for a winning game plan, dabbling in technologies that took it far beyond its core competence in operating systems.

Small wonder, then, that Red Hat today hasn't risen to the bait to move beyond its core competence.

In fact, it may well have been the burden of its IPO that set Red Hat … Read more

Open source's double standard on government bias

The open-source community has a long tradition of looking for and hounding away at the very thought of Microsoft influence from government IT policies.

For example, Open Source Initiative President Michael Tiemann rightly decries an alleged tie between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's charitable donations and Microsoft's "cabinet-level access to inform policy."

Apparently, however, Tiemann has no problem proudly displaying a picture of Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, wearing a Red Hat fedora, declaring...

Would that all Presidents and all ministers of all countries were so concerned about the sovereignty of their … Read more

Former Red Hat execs aim to open-source health care

It was bound to happen. With the U.S. government promising truckloads of cash to overhaul the U.S. health care system, while simultaneously making positive noises around open source, it was just a matter of time before someone connected the dots.

That someone appears to be Joanne Rohde, former executive vice president of worldwide operations at Red Hat, who has launched the Axial Project, a stealth-mode start-up that aims to "combin[e] the principles of Open Standards and Open Source...to connect all the parties in the Health ecosystem safely and securely."

It's a big task, … Read more