Red Hat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Red Hat, Inc.
Type	Public (NYSE:RHT)
Founded	1993
Headquarters	Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Key people	Matthew Szulik, Chairman, President, CEO Bob Young, Founder Marc Ewing, Founder
Industry	Computer software
Products	Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Directory Server Red Hat Certificate System Fedora
Revenue	$278.3 million USD (2006)
Employees	~1700 (2006)
Website	http://www.redhat.com

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) is one of the largest and most recognized companies dedicated to open source software. It is also the largest distributor of the GNU/Linux operating system^{[citation needed]}. Red Hat was founded in 1993 and has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide. ^[1]

The company is best known for its enterprise-class operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and more recently through the acquisition of open source enterprise middleware vendor JBoss. Red Hat provides operating system platforms along with middleware, applications, and management solutions, as well as support, training, and consulting services.

Contents 1 History 2 The Fedora Project 3 Business model 4 Programs and projects 4.1 One Laptop per Child 4.2 108 4.3 Mugshot 4.4 Dogtail 4.5 Red Hat Magazine 4.6 Red Hat Exchange 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

In 1993 Bob Young incorporated the ACC Corporation, a catalog business that sold Linux and UNIX software accessories. Then in 1994 Marc Ewing created his own version of Linux, which he named Red Hat Linux. Ewing released it in October, and it became known as the Halloween release. Young bought Ewing's business in 1995, and the two merged to become Red Hat Software with Young serving as CEO.

Red Hat went public on August 11, 1999, the eighth-biggest first-day gain in Wall Street history. Matthew Szulik succeeded Bob Young as CEO in November of that year.

On November 15, 1999, Red Hat acquired Cygnus Solutions. Cygnus provided commercial support for free software and housed maintainers of GNU software products such as GNU Debugger and GNU Binutils. One of the founders, Michael Tiemann, served as the Chief Technical Officer of Red Hat and now serves as the vice president of open source affairs.

In February 2000, InfoWorld awarded Red Hat with its fourth consecutive “Operating System Product of the Year” award for Red Hat Linux 6.1.

Company headquarters were moved from Durham, NC, to N.C. State University's Centennial Campus in Raleigh, NC in February of 2002.

The following March Red Hat introduced the first enterprise-class Linux operating system: Red Hat Advanced Server, later named Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Dell, IBM, HP and the Oracle Corporation announced their support of the platform.

In December of 2005 CIO Insight Magazine conducted their annual Vendor Value Survey, where Red Hat ranked #1 in value for the second year in a row.

Red Hat stock was added to the NASDAQ-100 on December 19, 2005

Red Hat acquired open source middleware provider JBoss on June 5, 2006 and JBoss became a division of Red Hat.

On September 18, 2006, Red Hat released the Red Hat Application Stack, the first certified stack integrating JBoss technology.

On December 12, 2006, Red Hat moved from NASDAQ (RHAT) to the New York Stock Exchange (RHT).

[edit] The Fedora Project

Main article: Fedora Project

The Fedora Project is a Red Hat-sponsored, community-supported open-source project. Its stated goal is to promote the rapid progress of free and open-source software and content, and its rapid innovation is possible using open processes and public forums.

The project is led by the Fedora Project Board, which is comprised of community leaders and Red Hat members, and this group steers the direction of the project and of Fedora Core, the Linux distribution it develops. Red Hat employees work with the code alongside community members, and many Fedora Project innovations make their way into new releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

[edit] Business model

Red Hat operates on an open source business model based on open code, community development, professional quality-assurance services, and subscription-based customer support.

Developers take the open source Linux kernel and adapt and improve it to fit certain needs. The code they write is open, so more programmers can make further adaptations and improvements. When a problem is found, an entire community of users can come together to find a solution. The whole development process is said by some to work at a faster pace and at a lower cost than that of a proprietary model where the code is not visible to users.

Red Hat sells subscriptions to the support, training, and integration services that help customers in using the open source software. Customers pay one set price for access to services such as Red Hat Network and up to 24x7 support, and they receive unlimited access to these services.

[edit] Programs and projects

[edit] One Laptop per Child

Red Hat engineers work with the One Laptop per Child initiative, a non-profit organization created by members of the MIT Media Lab. The mission is to create an inexpensive laptop and provide every child in the world access to open communication, open knowledge, and open learning. The Children's Machine, or 2B1, is the latest version of this technology.

The machines will run a slimmed-down version of Fedora Core as the operating system, and Red Hat engineers have been working on the adaptation, called Fedora OLPC project

[edit] 108

108 is an open content and collaboration portal aimed at developers. It lets Red Hat deliver developer-oriented content and facilitates the collaboration of Red Hat project managers, customers, partners, and communities. 108 was announced at the 2006 Red Hat Summit in Nashville and is currently a beta.

[edit] Mugshot

Red Hat sponsors Mugshot, an open project that is creating "a live social experience" based around entertainment. It refocuses technological thinking from objects (files, folders, etc) to activities, like web browsing or music sharing. These topics are the focus of the first two features in Mugshot, Web Swarm and Music Radar. These were already underway when the project was announced at the 2006 Red Hat Summit in Nashville.

[edit] Dogtail

Dogtail is an open source automated GUI test framework. It was initially developed by Red Hat, and is free software released under the GPL. It is written in Python and allows developers to build and test their applications. Red Hat announced the release of Dogtail at the 2006 Red Hat Summit in Nashville.

[edit] Red Hat Magazine

Red Hat Magazine is the online news publication produced by Red Hat. It brings together issues of interest from inside and outside of the company, focusing on in-depth discussion of the development and application of open source technologies. It covers news from Red Hat and the Fedora Project, it updates readers on public licensing and the Creative Commons, and it features interviews with industry leaders and the movers and shakers of the open source world.

Under the Brim was the company's original newsletter. Wide Open Magazine was first published in March 2004 as a means for Red Hat to share technical content with subscribers on a regular basis. Under the Brim and Wide Open Magazine merged in November of 2004 to become Red Hat Magazine.

[edit] Red Hat Exchange

Red Hat recently anounced that it has reached an agreement with major Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) companies that will allow them to make a distribution portal called Red Hat Exchange, which will resell FOSS software with the original branding intact.^[2].

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Red Hat Documentation
• Red Hat contributions to Free and Open Source software
• Red Hat's history
• How Red Hat Got Its Name, as told by Bob Young
• Red Hat's business model
• Red Hat and One Laptop per Child
• Red Hat Magazine
• Red Hat High
• JBoss acquisition information
• Red Hat release dates
• English translation of Enfasys interview with Julian Somodi, Red Hat's General Manager, Southern Cone
• Certified Stack announcement
• 108 About page
• Mugshot in Red Hat Magazine