Red Hat exec: New CEO has open-source cred
111133
Michael Tiemann, a Red Hat executive with years of open-source experience, says soon-to-be-CEO Jim Whitehurst understands the open-source movement.
711784
Company co-founder explains why the Linux company chose the name Red Hat.
518629
A top Red Hat executive has attacked the open-source credentials of its sometime business partner Sun Microsystems. In a Web log posting Thursday, Michael Tiemann, Red Hat&#39;s vice president of open-source affairs
251954
Red Hat Application Stack, available online, includes Linux and open-source middleware for building new applications.
498716
One of the first initiatives for Red Hat Beijing will be to support Linux and open-source education by making the Red Hat Academy program freely available to students.
688948
(InfoWorld) - Leaders of Microsoft's strategy to make its products more interoperable with competitive technologies said the company still hopes to strike a Linux pact with Red Hat similar to the partnerships it's forged with Linux vendors Novell, Xandros, and Linspire. "We'd love to do the same deal with Red Hat," said Tom Robertson, general manager of corporate interoperability and standards at Microsoft in an interview Friday. "We're always open to talking with them." That sentiment so far has not been the same on Red Hat's end, as the company has said it's not interested in a deal. Red Hat spokeswoman Leigh Day said Friday that is still the case. "We continue to believe that open source and the innovation it represents should not be subject to an unsubstantiated tax that lacks transparency," she said in an e-mail. Still, some wonder -- as Microsoft lines up the other Linux ducks in a neat little row -- if Red Hat might be next, and rumors suggest a pact might be imminent. Microsoft's latest Linux deal came Thursday in an intellectual property-sharing and interoperabilityÂ agreement with LinspireÂ that would shield the company's customers from Microsoft patent-infringement claims. The deal follows oneÂ struck by Microsoft and Linux distributor XandrosÂ last week, as well asÂ a high-profile and financially significantÂ deal with NovellÂ late last year. Microsoft has said it is seeking these partnerships for a couple of reasons. The one Robertson is most interested in is interoperability, as he -- along with Jean Paoli, general manager, interoperability and XML architecture -- is in charge of Microsoft's 18-month company-wide strategy in this area. Robertson said Microsoft customers have demanded the company address interoperability issues with other companies' software, including open source, and that IP (intellectual property) in those products is a concern for them. "If you look across the industry, you see companies working together to address IP on behalf of their customer base," he said. Microsoft has publicly said that Linux and other open source softwareÂ violates 235 of the company's patents. But rather than seek litigation as a way to settle these IP claims, Microsoft is striking these individual deals, Robertson said. However, much has been made of the fact that the company has not publicly disclosed any of the patents it claims open source software is violating. Robertson would not address why Microsoft will not show its patents and stopped short of claiming the deals with Novell, Linspire, and Xandros prove those companies are indeed violating Microsoft IP. None of the Linux companies will say so, either, and Novell in fact has vehemently denied infringement. This discrepancy is one reason some feel Red Hat will never sign up for an indemnification deal with Microsoft. The size and business viability of the companies that have signed on is another. Novell was flagging when its deal was struck -- and the company has continued to wane even since -- and some familiar with how it happened said it was a bailout to save the vendor from being split up and sold piecemeal. Indeed, Novell's U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing about the deal revealed that Novell got $348 million up front from Microsoft for patent cooperation and Linux coupons, while having to shell out only $40 million to Microsoft in return. Though Microsoft will not comment on the financial terms of deals with Xandros and Linspire, those familiar with the agreements said those companies also received financial compensation from Microsoft. This begs the question that if interoperability and protecting customers are Microsoft's ultimate goals for the deals, as Robertson said, why is the company so interested in Linux companies that ultimately don't affect that many customers? Many -- particularly those in the Linux camp -- suspect Microsoft is trying to make it appear that open source distributors are violating Microsoft IP to vilify them in an effort to dissuade customers from using Linux and other open source technologies. Bruce Perens, a longtime Linux and open source advocate, said Microsoft is giving Linux companies that are on the edge of going out of business money to create the illusion that Linux vendors are stealing its IP. Perens is a vice president at SourceLabs, a company that provides testing, management, and certification of open source software to users. "Here is Microsoft out collecting the losers in the Linux business and paying them money so they can ... paint open source as music pirates out there using Microsoft technology without a license," he said. "I think they're out to scare people." Even if this is the case, it take two to tango, and it's important to note that companies such as Novell, Linspire, and Xandros benefit in various ways from their deals with Microsoft. Aside from any financial compensation, the companies also gain access to Microsoft technology that would make their own Linux products more viable in the marketplace, analysts said. "These companies want the deals with Microsoft because it will make the products more attractive and more compatible with the Windows world," said Michael Silver, an analyst with Gartner. "It's pretty clear that there is definitely value for these companies."
645751
In a shocking turn of events, Matthew Szulik suddenly stepped down this week as the head of Red Hat. With his company in solid financial shape, will its new CEO -- a former top exec at Delta Airlines -- change course in mid-flight?
533344
Red Hat and Hyperic have formed an open-source project for developing a core set of IT infrastructure management capabilities, the companies announced Thursday.Dubbed RHQ, the project&#39;s source code will be available under the GPL v2 license, according to a Red Hat spokeswoman. The companies have set up a Web site for the project at www.rhq-project.org.The RHQ project&#39;s roots lie in the pact formed in 2005 between Hyperic and JBoss, which saw the latter company use code from Hyperic&#39;s Web infrastructure management product, Hyperic HQ, as a basis for JBoss Operations Network.&#160;Red Hat acquired JBoss&#160;in 2006, and Hyperic moved to an open-source model.It shouldn&#39;t be long before a healthy community springs up around RHQ, according to Katrinka McCallum, vice president in Red Hat&#39;s management solutions business unit. &quot;The fact Hyperic has an established name around open source is giving us a kick-start,&quot; she said, adding, &quot;I don&#39;t think it will be that hard because a lot of customers have been asking us to open source our management assets.&quot;RHQ will not provide a packaged management platform, per se. Instead, it will consist of a set of services such as for reporting, security, and agents -- that could be built into various product offerings. The companies plan to bake the results into upcoming versions of their respective products, including JBoss Operations Network 2.0, which is set to ship later this year, according to a statement.&quot;We&#39;re really looking at saving some money when it comes to collaborating on the core platform,&quot; Doug MacEachern, Hyperic&#39;s chief technology officer, said of the partnership.&quot;I think there&#39;s going to be a lot of opportunities to upsell in both directions,&quot; he added. &quot;JBoss might need coverage in other areas, whereas otherwise our customers might be looking to go deeper into the JBoss stack.&quot;Red Hat&#39;s new CEO, Jim Whitehurst, recently&#160;spelled out an ambitious growth plan&#160;for the company. One observer suggested Hyperic and Red Hat may work even more closely together in the future.&quot;The most headliney thing is that it solidifies Hyperic&#39;s position as an acquisition target for Red Hat,&quot; said Michael Cot&#233;, an analyst with Redmonk. &quot;This is all speculation on my part, but it adds up.&quot;McCallum would not confirm or deny whether Red Hat is considering a purchase of Hyperic.&#160;
563656
Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, sees open-source software moving into new areas as it becomes more of an established player in the IT world.
442005
Government support for open source is helping Red Hat grow its business in the Asia-Pacific region.
562284
Knows its licenses Hewlett-Packard isn't known for software governance, but after years of sifting and sorting through its own systems for non-compliant code, the hardware vendor wants to share its experience with developers and foster construction of tools for tracking free and open source software (FOSS) permeating corporate systems.â¦
82426
Red Hat Inc.'s woes this week raise the issue of whether IT investors are turning sour on open source. A somewhat disappointing forecast for the next quarter has investors fleeing, just as they have from the company's open-source rival, Novell Inc.
554126
Red Hat said it hired the former COO of Delta Airlines to serve as president and CEO.
422960
Microsoft invited to improve Red Hat turned in a healthy first quarter amid signs it's evolving into a multifaceted operation, thanks to growing sales of JBoss and use of channel partners.â¦
194864
(InfoWorld) - Red Hat said this week it had spruced up its Red Hat Command Center server- and application-monitoring service, eliminating the need for users to maintain a Red Hat-prescribed hardware appliance to collect monitoring data. The "scout" appliance has been replaced by software in the SaaS platform, which customers can now run on their own systems. "The customer now picks their own hardware and the software is now provided for free," said Andy Karandikar, Red Hat product manager for Command Center. Previously, users had to purchase a $900 x86-based white box for monitoring. Command Center is positioned for managed service providers, who resell it to their customers, and for small- and medium-sized businesses. Red Hat also addedÂ  the ability to export monitoring data in XML. This data is available for download, and offline archival and analysis. Prior to adding the XML capability, this type of offline archival could only be done in bits and pieces and in text form. "[Now] you can do it in XML, which is a more structured way that you can slice and dice the data," Karandikar said. Red Hat also improved the interface of Command Center so that it is more consistent with other Red Hat services and products. Red Hat Command Center monitors server components ranging from the operating system to applications. Red Enterprise Linux, JBoss software and a wide range of other IT infrastructure can be monitored including Windows. The Command Center service costs $192 per monitored server per year. Red Hat announced its "North American Value2" seminar tour, which features half-day seminars on transforming an enterprise with an open source-based approach to virtualization and SOA. The tour kicks off on September 11 in Minneapolis. "The Value2 tour is really a concerted push for Red Hat to get on the road and communicate our broader strategy as it relates to our open source architecture, how our solutions are being used in customer sites and the really get the message out there as to the value of the open source approach," said Shaun Connolly, vice president of product management and Red Hat. Technologies such as JBoss middleware are featured, as is the MetaMatrix data federation technology acquired by Red Hat.
388061
InfoWorld - Red Hat&#160;has scheduled a March release for RHEL5 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5), the latest version of its open-source operating system, while it tries to fend off new competitive threats from Oracle&#160;and the Microsoft-Novell&#160;partnership.
416101
After his company announced plans to acquire security and authentication tools from Netscape Security Solutions, Red Hat Inc. CEO and chairman Matthew Szulik spoke to Computerworld about the company's plans.