IBM Purchase of Red Hat Software: There is No Fear Except Fear Itself – with Thanks to FDR
Paw Prints: Writings of the maddog
IBM bought Red Hat Software.
The world wide web is alive with the news, and many of the people who have worked and used Red Hat in the last 25 years are lamenting the “fall” of their beloved company and software.
I understand how they feel.
- The first company I worked for, Aetna Life and Casualty is much smaller than it used to be through various economic reasons.
- The college I taught at, Hartford State Technical College, was merged with the state community colleges and is not even mentioned today.
- Bell Laboratories, renamed Lucent and broken off from the world's largest telephone company, purchased by Alcatel, then by Nokia.
- Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), once the second largest computer company in the world was purchased by Compaq, then by HP.
- SGI (who I worked for briefly) is gone.
Believe me, I know the pain.
Yet IBM has been a friend of Linux for a long time.
As early as 1998 IBM said they were going to support Linux, one of the first major companies that said that while Microsoft was at its peak and calling Linux “a virus and a cancer”.
I still remember the IBM ads of the early 2000s touting Linux on TV and in magazines. I remember the little white-haired boy who represented Linux and how “on spot” the IBM advertisements were.
In 2001 we all cheered when IBM announced they had invested a billion USD in Linux (and made two billion from that investment).
I was invited to Austin, Texas by Daniel Frye, the VP of Open Source for IBM when Lou Gerstner Jr. (IBM's CEO) wrote the memo that made Open Source a focal point of IBM.
Lou wrote that in the past IBM had produced closed source products unless someone make a case for the product being Open Source. In the future IBM would produce Open Source products unless someone made a case for the product to be closed source.
Being from DEC, and knowing how engineers often were put through the legal and business gauntlet when they wanted to make a product Open Source, I understood the power of that memo from Lou.
I remember that day in Austin, when Dan asked me if the Open Source community would be afraid of IBM taking an active interest in Linux. I told him that some would, but the people I respected (Linus, Alan Cox, David Miller and others) would welcome IBM's involvement in Linux, GNU, and Open Source.
I remember when people left the Linux project because “other people were making money on the work I do”. This was and is a wrong attitude. You write Free Software for whatever reason you write it. The fact that other people make money off of it is not a concern as long as they obey the license you wrote it under.
IBM has Open Source advocates all over the world. Their purchase of Red Hat should increase the exposure of Red Hat to even more people, to allow Red Hat to be used in even larger commercial-grade opportunities.
The statements I have read from both companies state that Red Hat will still be an autonomous division of IBM. We will see how true that is, but it is a good sign that Jim Whitehurst is to remain at the helm of Red Hat and will join IBM's executive team.
Early on IBM hired many FOSS developers, even for projects not directly in their line of business. They gave support to Apache and many other Open Source projects. They were sponsors of many Open Source conferences.
IBM even has a server line called “LinuxONE” which touts security, scalability and lightening speed.
I can not predict the future, but if the past is any example of IBM's respect and love for Linux, than Red Hat should be confident in their future.
Carpe Diem.
comments powered by DisqusSubscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Canonical Bumps LTS Support to 12 years
If you're worried that your Ubuntu LTS release won't be supported long enough to last, Canonical has a surprise for you in the form of 12 years of security coverage.
-
Fedora 40 Beta Released Soon
With the official release of Fedora 40 coming in April, it's almost time to download the beta and see what's new.
-
New Pentesting Distribution to Compete with Kali Linux
SnoopGod is now available for your testing needs
-
Juno Computers Launches Another Linux Laptop
If you're looking for a powerhouse laptop that runs Ubuntu, the Juno Computers Neptune 17 v6 should be on your radar.
-
ZorinOS 17.1 Released, Includes Improved Windows App Support
If you need or desire to run Windows applications on Linux, there's one distribution intent on making that easier for you and its new release further improves that feature.
-
Linux Market Share Surpasses 4% for the First Time
Look out Windows and macOS, Linux is on the rise and has even topped ChromeOS to become the fourth most widely used OS around the globe.
-
KDE’s Plasma 6 Officially Available
KDE’s Plasma 6.0 "Megarelease" has happened, and it's brimming with new features, polish, and performance.
-
Latest Version of Tails Unleashed
Tails 6.0 is based on Debian 12 and includes GNOME 43.
-
KDE Announces New Slimbook V with Plenty of Power and KDE’s Plasma 6
If you're a fan of KDE Plasma, you'll be thrilled to hear they've announced a new Slimbook with an AMD CPU and the latest version of KDE Plasma desktop.
-
Monthly Sponsorship Includes Early Access to elementary OS 8
If you want to get a glimpse of what's in the pipeline for elementary OS 8, just set up a monthly sponsorship to help fund its continued existence.