Some days, I just want to reach out on Slashdot and just shake people. Recently, I’ve wanted to do that even more thanks to all the “fear, uncertainty, and doubt” (FUD) surrounding UnitedLinux and Red Hat. First things first. Both UnitedLinux and Red Hat are here to make money from Linux. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Some days, I just want to reach out on Slashdot and just shake people. Recently, I’ve wanted to do that even more thanks to all the “fear, uncertainty, and doubt” (FUD) surrounding UnitedLinux and Red Hat. First things first. Both UnitedLinux and Red Hat are here to make money from Linux. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Here’s the first FUD: Red Hat is becoming the Microsoft of Linux (meant to be taken in a bad, bad way).
No, they’re not. Red Hat is full of good people that have capitalized on delivering a business-class Linux that big partners like IBM and Oracle can take seriously. And, thanks to Red Hat’s smart marketing folks — specifically Bob Young, Red Hat co-founder, and Melissa London, former PR director — Red Hat’s become the first, brand name of Linux.
Sure, Red Hat wheels and deals with the big boys of computing, and because of that, they have the biggest slice of the Linux pie. But, they don’t own the Linux market, and they don’t play Microsoft dominance games. Red Hat is simply successful (at least by Linux market standards). For some people, success seems to be reason enough to accuse them of being like Microsoft. Trust me, I know Bill Gates, and Matthew Szulik is no Bill Gates.
Of course, Red Hat bashers have also attacked Red Hat for doing things like unifying the KDE and Gnome default…
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