Butta joins Red Hat

Linux maker Red Hat has appointed Thomas Butta as chief marketing officer, the company said. Butta was formerly chief executive of FGI, a 120-employee marketing and advertising strategy research firm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. There, he worked on marketing efforts for Lotus, Newsweeks, Reebok, and others. Red Hat sells Linux, an open-source operating system modeled after Unix, along with service and support.