Posted on 02/09/2007 5:25:47 PM PST by nickcarraway
JBoss founder to pursue personal interests, says he’s ‘done what I can’ to promote open source.
JBoss founder Marc Fleury will leave Red Hat, the company said Friday, a month before the launch of the latest version of Red Hat’s commercial-use Linux operating system.
Mr. Fleury became part of Red Hat after the latter bought JBoss, the open source support startup based in Atlanta, last year for $420 million. Red Hat now bundles its Linux for the enterprise with JBoss’ open-source application server.
The news is bittersweet for fanatics who believe strongly in open software for all and idolize those who have helped make it happen (see JBoss Planning Acquisitions). Mr. Fleury, a doctor of physics and a former French paratrooper lieutenant, echoed those sentiments toward open source while cautioning against putting faith in a single power.
“People need to understand that open source is a tsunami that is transforming the software industry in its wake and its inevitability is now well beyond challenge or the force of individual personality,” Mr. Fleury said in a statement released by Red Hat.
The JBoss acquisition has helped keep Red Hat in the forefront, even while observers worry about challenges from Oracle and from a partnership between Microsoft and Novell (see Red Hat’s Hat Trick). Shares of Red Hat rose a dime to $24.20 in recent trading.
Some 6,000 copies of the JBoss application server are downloaded from SourceForge.net every day, compared to the 9,000 downloads of Oracle’s Unbreakable Linux software during the month of November.
While insiders have speculated Mr. Fleury had become dissatisfied with his place at the company and with Red Hat’s investment in JBoss’ R&D, Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik had diplomatic words for the departure.
“Marc has made positive contributions to open source software,” Mr. Szulik said in a statement, praising the “outstanding employees” who were part of JBoss and are now Red Hat workers.
Though now there’s one less JBoss/Red Hat employee in the ranks.
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