Forbes.com: Red Hat Lives In Microsoft’s Crosshair

“Why would a person choose to head a firm that is square in the
sights of the most fiercely competitive–some would say
ruthless–company in the tech industry? That’s exactly where
Matthew Szulik, chairman of tiny Red Hat Software, finds himself
every day: on Microsoft’s radar.

“Consider the bodies of soldiers left dead on the field in
Microsoft’s wake: Netscape in Web browsers and WordPerfect in
office suites. IBM failed to make inroads against Windows with
OS/2; once high-flying RealNetworks has come under enormous
pressure as Microsoft threatens to surpass Real’s market share in
streaming media. The same is happening to Palm, once the dominant
platform for handheld software, which is now being seriously
challenged by Microsoft’s Pocket PC.

“It’s even hard to get venture capitalists to back a firm whose
ideas put it in direct competition with Microsoft. Yet that’s where
Red Hat stands. Still, Szulik’s ideology seems to be a good fit
with that of the open-source movement that defines Linux…”

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