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 270/2023
Buy this issue as a PDF
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Find SysAdmin Jobs
News
-
OpenMandriva Lx 23.03 Rolling Release is Now Available
OpenMandriva "ROME" is the latest point update for the rolling release Linux distribution and offers the latest updates for a number of important applications and tools.
-
CarbonOS: A New Linux Distro with a Focus on User Experience
CarbonOS is a brand new, built-from-scratch Linux distribution that uses the Gnome desktop and has a special feature that makes it appealing to all types of users.
-
Kubuntu Focus Announces XE Gen 2 Linux Laptop
Another Kubuntu-based laptop has arrived to be your next ultra-portable powerhouse with a Linux heart.
-
MNT Seeks Financial Backing for New Seven-Inch Linux Laptop
MNT Pocket Reform is a tiny laptop that is modular, upgradable, recyclable, reusable, and ships with Debian Linux.
-
Ubuntu Flatpak Remix Adds Flatpak Support Preinstalled
If you're looking for a version of Ubuntu that includes Flatpak support out of the box, there's one clear option.
-
Gnome 44 Release Candidate Now Available
The Gnome 44 release candidate has officially arrived and adds a few changes into the mix.
-
Flathub Vying to Become the Standard Linux App Store
If the Flathub team has any say in the matter, their product will become the default tool for installing Linux apps in 2023.
-
Debian 12 to Ship with KDE Plasma 5.27
The Debian development team has shifted to the latest version of KDE for their testing branch.
-
Planet Computers Launches ARM-based Linux Desktop PCs
The firm that originally released a line of mobile keyboards has taken a different direction and has developed a new line of out-of-the-box mini Linux desktop computers.
-
Ubuntu No Longer Shipping with Flatpak
In a move that probably won’t come as a shock to many, Ubuntu and all of its official spins will no longer ship with Flatpak installed.