Video Interview: Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst
Red Hat president and CEO Jim Whitehurst sees opportunities for open source firms that might be putting undue burden on their dwindling IT departments because of the current economic downturn. Whitehurst offered his views in a press conference in Munich. His conclusion: "When people look at alternatives, often Open Source wins."
Jim Whitehurst, who has been head of Red Hat since January 2008, compared the current financial crisis with that of the dot-coms in 2000. The pressure toward austerity was the same back then for Linux and the open source community. It was the first time IT chiefs especially in banking and insurance sensed the need to count costs.
Whitehurst's interview is not without its plug for Red Hat, considered by some the only currently profitable open source developer. The reason for its success may not only be its features, but its business model. Whitehurst explains that Red Hat doesn't just sell open source functionality, "we make money by making the operating system enterprise class." The added value for customers, he says, are the stable Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) releases that create robust APIs and open standard components for the IT of the future.
As for what's coming in 2009, Whitehurst promised further management and migration functions for KVM virtualization, as well as a new version of the Enterprise IPA identity management system for Linux. Additionally, RHEL 6 should be out by the end of 2009.
Mathias Huber from Linux Magazine Online interviewed Red Hat's new CEO, Jim Whitehurst.
Issue 243/2021
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
Another New Linux Laptop has Arrived
Slimbook has released a monster of a Linux gaming laptop.
-
Mozilla VPN Now Available for Linux
The promised subscription-based VPN service from Mozilla is now available for the Linux platform.
-
Wayland and New App Menu Coming to KDE
The 2021 roadmap for the KDE desktop environment includes some exciting features and improvements.
-
Deepin 20.1 has Arrived
Debian-based Deepin 20.1 has been released with some interesting new features.
-
CloudLinux Commits Over 1 Million Dollars to CentOS Replacement
An open source, drop-in replacement for CentOS is on its way.
-
Linux Mint 20.1 Beta has Been Released
The first beta of Linux Mint, Ulyssa, is now available for downloading.
-
Manjaro Linux 20.2 has Been Unleashed
The latest iteration of Manjaro Linux has been released with a few interesting new features.
-
Patreon Project Looks to Bring Linux to Apple Silicon
Developer Hector Martin has created a patreon page to fund his work on developing a port of Linux for Apple Silicon Macs.
-
A New Chrome OS-Like Ubuntu Remix is Now Available
Ubuntu Web looks to be your Chrome OS alternative.
-
System76 Refreshes the Galago Pro Laptop
Linux hardware maker has revamped one of their most popular laptops.