IBM to acquire software company Red Hat for $34 billion

Reuters ^

[Java4Jay]

IBM Corp said on Sunday it had agreed to acquire U.S. software company Red Hat Inc for $34 billion, including debt, as it seeks to diversify its technology hardware and consulting business into higher-margin products and services.

[usconservative]

You certainly aren’t familiar with Ubuntu .....

[RayChuang88]

Kind of not surprised. IBM worked specifically with Red Hat in the late 1990's to port Linux itself to run on IBM "big iron" computing hardware. Indeed, the Watson AI system is based on IBM mainframes running a variant of Red Hat Linux.

[Yossarian]

I last tried Ubuntu about 7 years ago. Perhaps it has changed / matured.

Is it still focused mainly for personal workstations?

For electronic design workstations & servers, Red Hat (in the US) and SuSE (in Europe) rule the world.

[Regulator]

Jeez

I remember when Red Hat was 5 guys in a room on the Peninsula

$34 bil? Does Linus get any of that?!

[usconservative]

Ubuntu Enterprise

[Yossarian]

Thanks!

[LaRueLaDue]

“I don’t like this deal. IBM, with their despicable internal politics, is no place for a technology or product to thrive. Witness: POWER, PowerPC, IBM PCs, Lotus Notes, ad-infinitum. “

You can add Informix to the mix. They destroyed a good product there, for the sake of their DB2 piece of crap.

[1L]

Can someone explain to me why a company who practically invented the computer and did invent the PC operating system, can not, for MUCH less than 34 billion, actually CREATE a version of linux or BSD equivilent? I realize they’re buying market share and that costs a ton too, but sheesh. IBM may not have been well run for the last quarter century or so, but they built enough goodwill in their first 40 years to last almost indefinitely IF they made a good product.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

Just use CentOS. That way nothing changes about your setup, except you don’t pay Redhat anymore. Ubuntu is a big jump. Different package manager, etc.

[1L]

Is Fedora no longer around? I know CentOS is a RH clone. I’ve installed it. But I thought Fedora was more closely related to RH.

[pbear8]

I am a member of the IBM team who is trying to get IBM back into the computing game.

I have a friend at RH, he loves the company and is now very nervous about his job.

[Openurmind]

Red Hat Linux runs the U.S. nuclear submarines.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

Been a while since I looked at it, but last I knew Fedora was the desktop version of RHEL which had a short EOL and was considered sort of a testing ground for RHEL.

CentOS is exactly the same as RHEL, just with the RH name removed.

[Ouderkirk]

Let’s hope they don’t turn it into OS/2.

Not that OS/2 was bad...it’s just that at the time Widoze was better suited to the market.

Always like Linux

[cicero2k]

The other story is the decline of Unix OS, from Sun Micro Systems, which made for Redhat Linux ascent.

Unix was overpriced in the eyes of enterprise IT, and migrated from at great expense and risk. Oracle bought Sun, nonetheles and became undertaker of UNIX, though Java lives on.

Oracle itself still dominates enterprise databases and charges mightily. The risk of migration to cheaper is not worth it for most customers.

[Ouderkirk]

Lotus Notes is really a really powerful system and works great.

The problem is it’s just like heroin. Once you’re on it, you’re hooked and can’t get off.

[poconopundit]

And you don’t like IBM for their lock-in and monopolist practices? Or some other reason? Just curious.

[usconservative]

Yes and Yes. And because they'll make my operational expense go up through increased support costs and horrible support.

F*** IBM.

[Rummyfan]

I am a member of the IBM team who is trying to get IBM back into the computing game. I hope its not too late.

Does IBM still run their version of Unix, AIX? Are they looking to Red Hat and Linux to create some new hybrid that could become an industry standard?

[taxcontrol]

IBM should look at Minux3 as well