O’Reilly Network: Think Twice, Red Hat

“So what should Red Hat look out for?

First, as GNN showed, an influx of cash is not guarantee of
success.

Second, as Netscape has showed (so far), a business plan that
calls for fast world domination is not a good match for a
technological plan that involves a lot of experimentation and
careful evolution.

Most important, Red Hat should worry about the conditions
imposed on new technology by AOL and Time Warner. Will they want a
Red Hat distribution to include copy controls? (I’m not sure how
that could be layered on a free operating system, but Red Hat could
die trying.) Will they expend too many resources trying to attack
the Windows monopoly head on, rather than playing on Linux’s unique
strengths (and the ones it inherited from Unix) as a multi-user
system, a server well-tuned for open Internet protocols, etc.?”

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