[nylug-talk] CentOS makes Red Hat(R) money, and works with them (officially so via Fedora(TM))

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 03:19 -0400, Ron Guerin wrote:
> Red Hat should hire me then,

Red Hat is hiring like mad, as usual.  They are up to around 3,000
employees now.  I can also report that Red Hat's "Employee Agreement" is
respective of their attitude on GPL and creative people's rights to
their ideas, unlike Google's which is absolute trash and viral beyond
what I've ever seen as an engineer (yes, I've seen both, and know others
who have seen both and drop Google from consideration when they've seen
it).

Red Hat's financials continue to be sound ever since they changed their
reporting model a half-decade ago after hiring a new CFO.  That CFO was
from the textile industry, and they report very differently than the
overwhelming majority of software companies.

I.e., when Microsoft ships a box or "Volume License" to an OEM or
reseller, they count the box as a "sale" then and there, well before (if
it ever) reaches the end-user who activates it.  When Red Hat sells a
subscription to anyone (OEM, reseller, end-user, etc...), they only
realize the value when it's in effect.

E.g., you buy a 1-year system with a Red Hat Enterprise Linux
entitlement from Dell or even a 3-year subscription from Red Hat
directly on September 30th, only 1 day is realized for that quarter, 3
months on the next December 31st, etc...  It's why Red Hat's financials
are so predictable and always growing quarter after quarter after
quarter steadily.

Combined with Red Hat continually growing faster overseas, with over 50%
of its revenue there (yes, an US company preferred overseas in many
places -- e.g., not just the US government is mandating MAC/RBAC like
SELinux, but even private companies in other countries), it's truly
global with localized focus.  As Red Hat's head of international sales
always introduces himself at the US embassy at the country where any
pitch is going on, "Hi, I'm with the other US software company" (i.e.,
the US State Department can show no favoritism of any US company, and
has to help each equally).

On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 03:19 -0400, Ron Guerin wrote:  
>  and I would correct this.

Can you give me specifics?  That would define how they think you would
fit their combined, complementary mission (GPL-only) and branding (Red
Hat(R) et al.) accordingly.

On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 03:19 -0400, Ron Guerin wrote:  
> I do appreciate though your enlightening post

(I smell a troll)

On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 03:19 -0400, Ron Guerin wrote:
> which explains to me quite clearly now why Red Hat hasn't amounted
> to more,

More "what"?  Any technical specifics?

Especially technical specifics that aren't based on ignorance that were
absolutely dead wrong to anyone who knows the company, let alone works
with or is an employee.  I mean, it's quite laughable what you said for
anyone involved with CentOS, the Fedora Project, Red Hat, etc...

Case-in-point:  

Just because it's common, LUG-level majority perception doesn't mean
it's true at all.  That goes for demonizations of Novell, Debian, Gentoo
(although even Daniel has been trying to stop some of Gentoo's own
leaders from causing some of their own problems in that regard) and,
increasingly, Canonical (Ubuntu) as well.

On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 03:19 -0400, Ron Guerin wrote:
> hopefully their new CEO can get Red Hat back on track.

Any specifics you care to share?  Or are you afraid that your
assumptions will be incorrect again?

BTW, their previous CEO was not only loved by everyone in the company,
but their incoming CEO believes in his entire viewpoint, who was -- not
surprisingly -- hand picked by him.

-- Bryan

P.S.  I find LUGs that work well avoid demonizations of any distros or
companies, and realize that we're all in the movement together in
various ways.  If I wanted to argue about marketing in the software
world, I wouldn't have come to GNU and related Freedomware in the first
place.  I would have just remained in the commerceware and, worse yet,
hostageware world.  Don't drag that over to Linux, please.  That's
really the difference between making "hot air" and "making a
difference."


-- 
Bryan J  Smith              Professional, Technical Annoyance
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org  http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith
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