[ic] Re: AOL in negotiation to buy Red Hat

[Michael Adams]

Personally, I think it would be a shame if AOL bought Red Hat.  The culture
of Red Hat (open source), is about 180 degrees from AOL's.

I know why AOL wants to buy Red Hat.  They want to get out from under
Microsoft's thumb.  On the other hand, I don't see how their strategy is
going to work.  The reason Microsoft's OS is on everyone's desktop is
because computers ship that way, and that's where the desktop applications
are.  How is AOL going to get everyone to switch to Red Hat Linux without
the computer vendors shipping with it, and without the wide range of
applications?  Unless they are going to get into the software business, I
don't see how they can do it.

The only strategy that makes any sense out of this, is AOL is trying to get
some leverage on Microsoft.  AOL really doesn't want Red Hat.  They just
want the leverage.  If that's the case, then, like so many buyouts, Red Hat
will probably flounder.

The good news is, this is all open source.  We can all take our source code
and go elsewhere.  That gives me a lot more piece of mind than a situation
where this was closed source.

Regards,

Michael Adams