“Landmark Communications, a large privately held media company
whose chairman bankrolled Linux leader Red Hat Inc., announced it
has funded a wholly owned subsidiary with the intention of doing
for databases what Red Hat did for Linux and operating systems –
give business a formidable open source alternative to existing
proprietary applications.”
“Newly formed Great Bridge LLC is backed by more than $25
million from Landmark Communications, a media conglomerate involved
in broadcast, print and interactive media including The Weather
Channel, the Virginian-Pilot newspaper, and weather.com. Batten
funded Red Hat’s successful launch and IPO last year, and served on
its board of directors.”
“As Red Hat has done for the open-source Linux operating
system, Great Bridge will market commercial products, services and
support for PostgreSQL (popularly called “Postgres”), a
rapidly evolving, open-source database that rivals leading
proprietary databases such as Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server in
performance and features. After recently winning the prestigious
LinuxWorld award for Best Database Management System, the judges
said PostgreSQL “has become one of the most mature and powerful
open-source tools available.”