“[Q:] The open source licence allows other
companies to simply copy your version of Linux… Isn’t that a
terrible way to run a business?
“[A:] IBM is famous for selling [hardware] . .
. They break even on all that stuff. [But] IBM make all their money
selling services and support. Customers don’t want to buy more
technology, they want to buy solutions for their business
problems.”
“[Q:] You are up against some extremely
strong brands, obviously Microsoft Windows, but also companies
like IBM, who are getting into Linux. Isn’t that a very big
challenge?
[A:] No . . . if Red Hat is successful at
building its brand, and if IBM are successful at delivering the
benefits of open source to their customers . . . the customer
benefits, and if the customer benefits, both Red Hat and IBM are
going to benefit. We see what IBM is doing in open source as a
good thing, because our competition is with the proprietary
software development model.”