Red Hat

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Red Hat, Inc.

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

For other uses, see Red Hat (disambiguation).

Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ: RHAT) is one of the largest and most recognized companies dedicated to open source software and the largest distributor of the Linux operating system. 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. Red Hat provides operating system platforms along with middleware, applications, and management solutions, as well as support, training, and consulting services.

1 History
2 The Fedora Project
3 Business model
4 Programs and Projects
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.

[edit] The 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 process works at a faster pace and at a lower cost than that of a proprietary model where the code is not visible to users.

The software Red Hat creates using this model are free and widely available, which leads to the misconception that the company "sells free software."

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.

[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 High

The company organizes Red Hat High, a week-long summer technology camp for young teens held in partnership with N.C. State University. The goal of the camp is to bring approximately 50 students together for one week to experience the power of technology and creativity through collaboration. The camp is open to rising 8th and 9th graders, is free to the students, and uses all open source software.