“Thus, when Covalent Technologies appeared in the
public-relations bitstream last week with news that it had secured
five million dollars in venture capital funding from H&Q
Venture Associates, it seemed that this company was following what
has become, for some at least, a path to riches.”
“Covalent is demonstrating how to make money by following
the model ESR calls “give away the recipe, open a restaurant.” This
the very same model that Robert Young followed with Red Hat and
Michael Tiemann followed with Cygnus. Randy Terbush, founder,
CEO, and CTO of Covalent Technologies, agrees, saying simply, “We
want to be the Red Hat of Apache….”
“Covalent Technologies was founded in 1994, a year before the
birth of Apache. Today, it is focused exclusively on providing
support and products for the Apache server. Apache has proved
itself on a number of popular platforms, including BSD, Linux, and
Windows; as of the latest Netcraft survey, it holds a remarkable
54.81% share of the market.”