SINGAPORE--Red Hat insists it remains unperturbed by the recent movements from Oracle and Microsoft, which could potentially place the leading Linux seller under increased competitive pressure.
Speaking to an audience here this morning, Matthew Szulik, Red Hat's chairman, CEO and president, recalled his initial thoughts when news of Microsoft's new partnership with Novell broke late last week: "My first question was: 'There must be problems with [Windows] Vista." Szulik said his thoughts then shifted to what he described as a lack of innovation from a company that had billed itself as a great technology innovator.
Microsoft last week formed an alliance with Novell to market the latter's Suse Linux product suite to businesses that want a mixed Microsoft and open source environment. Both companies said the new partnership will allow for greater interoperability between the two software platforms.
Szulik, however, noted that interoperability is already, and has always been, a key focus of Red Hat and the open source community.
"Where's the innovation [in the Microsoft-Novell partnership]?" he said. "[Instead] I saw intellectual property taxation... I saw an organization that's been trying to reinvent itself over the past few years, and a company that has been trying to get into the open source software space."
Szulik was in town on the invitation of Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), under its Distinguished Speaker series which has featured other high-profile IT personalities including Symantec CEO John Thompson, Dell Computer's Michael Dell and Microsoft's Bill Gates. Seated among the audience was an unexpected guest--Singapore's Second Minster for Information, Communications and the Arts, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.
Open source adopters in the city-state's public sector include the Ministry of Defence and National Library Board.
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QUICK POLL |
In Singapore for the first time, Szulik regards Asia as the fastest-growing market for open source, particularly because companies in the region do not have legacy systems and are "not held captive" to how things are run historically.
The Red Hat chief, in his speech, made repeated reference to the importance of instilling collaboration and sharing between three key communities: government, education and private enterprises.
Innovation, Szulik said, is driven by collaboration and the sharing of ideas, and goes beyond the ability to simply price a product more cheaply.
Red Hat's challenge today is about bringing the government, education and private sectors together, he said, and about enabling greater access to information and bringing better security to the market. He spoke passionately about the One Laptop Per Child program, a non-profit association that focuses on research and development efforts to build a US$100 laptop for children worldwide. The proposed system will run on Linux.
These issues, Szulik quipped, are more important than Oracle's decision to compete with Red Hat.
A long-time partner of Red Hat, Oracle last month unveiled plans to provide cheaper technical support for Red Hat Linux customers and offer its own clone of the open source OS, Unbreakable Linux. The announcement puts Oracle in direct competition with Red Hat.
Szulik, however, dismissed suggestions of any real threats.
He explained that building a customer response system and an ecosystem to support open source software "is not a simple undertaking".
"It's more than selling cheap customer support," he said, noting that companies that want free open source support can already turn to Fedora, a free Linux distribution which thrives on the camaraderie of a large user community willing to offer free support and help.
Oracle, he added, was one of seven original investors involved in the early days of Red Hat, and both companies will continue to have "a great relationship" moving forward.
Szulik also noted that Red Hat will continue to move up the software stack, as the company has done with the acquisition of JBoss, as long as it means offering more value to Red Hat customers. He pointed to the company's Mugshot initiative, a social-networking project to drive the use of open source software.
"We want to be the defining technology company of the 21st century," he said, citing the company's mission statement. "The JBoss acquisition was a strategic move because middleware is the glue between the OS and applications [layer]."
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PUSH POLL...
"What do you think Oracle's latest announcement and the Microsoft-Novell partnership mean most for the open source community?"
In a recent industry poll, 57% of the respondents agreed that the Microsoft-Novell deal is a good thing for Linux...stating that it is "Another reason for businesses to adopt open source.
In a recent industry poll, 11% of the respondents agreed that the Microsoft-Novell deal is a good thing for Linux...sighting "More market opportunities for open source players."
In a recent industry poll, 32% of the respondents stated that increased competition due to Oracle's latest announcement and the Microsoft-Novell partnership pose a serious threat to leading Linux seller, Red Hat.
How about: "The backstabbing has begun...It can no longer be said that Linux/OSS is an insignificant player in enterprise IT"
Posted by mdwstmusik on Saturday, November 11 2006 04:16 AM