Red Hat offers TCO savings: de Visser

Linux Journal ^ | 6 January 2003 | Unknown

[ShadowAce]

Penguin Ping

[ShadowAce]

Ping

[Joe Bonforte]

So a VP of marketing says his company's product is better... Not exactly unexpected news, is it?

[RogueIsland]

The bottom line is clear the prospects for Free Software are good.

It would seem from their quarterly profit that selling free software is even better.

[chance33_98]

Thanks for the ping and a bump - will read as soon as I get back from the store (need coffee!)

[ShadowAce]

That is true. I would expect any marketing wonk to tout his company--that's his job. But the numbers are working too--they are posting a real, monetary profit now. I think that's the real news of this article.

[dfwgator]

Anyone who doubts the viability of Open Source needs to read "The Cathedral and the Bazaar." They will see the light.

[shadowman99]

"need coffee!"

Free Beer to you!

[Bush2000]

Why is RedHat advertising being posted on this site?

[Karsus]

If you call this advertising, then why do you not complain when like stories about MSFT are posted?

[ShadowAce]

LOL!!!

[Bush2000]

If you call this advertising, then why do you not complain when like stories about MSFT are posted?

Because, unlike those stories, this one is content-free advertising.

[ShadowAce]

...unlike those stories, this one is content-free advertising.

So--you'd rather see posts that bash one comapny or another, or bitch and moan about something rather than see some good news without any pointed stick being poked at something?

[Nick Danger]

They just turned a profit. This is a big deal. For a long time the jury was out on whether that business model ("give away the razor, make money on the blades") would work for software. There certainly were enough attempts; most of them fell on their butts.

Well, now there is at least one profitable company that came out of all those millions that were poured into Linux-related IPOs during The Great Excitement. This is news, even if Microsoft doesn't like it.

I've always thought that the open source model was a pretty good idea for common infrastructure items like operating systems, web servers, email servers, and even DBMS's. The trouble was that because of the history (Richard Stallman, et. al.) the idea of "open source" got tangled up with the whole "free of charge" business, which really wasn't related and needed badly to be dumped if open source were ever to really take off. It seemed to me that the "free" in "free software" always had more to do with 'freedom' than with 'provided at no charge,' and particularly in a business setting people would be willing to pay money to support development of software they could have the source to and customize. That evolution in thinking has been a long time coming, and part of it had to await the demise of the companies that bought into the more strident hoo-hah from the Free Software Foundation and the like.

That's starting to happen, and the result is a profitable Red Hat, among other things. I think we'll be seeing more of this.

[Dominic Harr]

Why is RedHat advertising being posted on this site?

You can not be -- oh, my god -- that is the funniest thing I've ever -- man, you can't have just posted that -- this is too easy -- I now have seen it all -- you post so much MS advertising -- now you say this --

Thank you, thank you for that.

I haven't laughed so hard in a long, long time.

[Bush2000]

So--you'd rather see posts that bash one comapny or another, or bitch and moan about something rather than see some good news without any pointed stick being poked at something?

I'd like to see an actual news story. Not regurgitated pablum from one of RedHat's VPs.

[Bush2000]

They just turned a profit. This is a big deal.

Wrong, Nick. This isn't news. RedHat reported in June 2001 the following: Red Hat Achieves Positive Cash Flows From Operations and Shows A Profit for the First Time in First Quarter.

And look at the title: "Red Hat offers TCO savings: de Visser". It's an advertising piece. Nothing more. Nothing less.

[Dominic Harr]

A "too good to miss" ping!!!

[Karsus]

How is this different that what you post?

Since you never seem to answer this question, I will ask it again.

What qualifies you to make tech related judgements?