| Linux is a full-fledged operating system. It provides full multitasking in a multiuser environment. It gives a high quality of software for a cost far lower than other commercial versions of UNIX. Red Hat has opted to take Linux a step further.
Red Hat Software is a computer software development company that sells products and provides services related to Linux. Red Hat’s mission is to “provide professional tools to computing professionals.” Red Hat provides these professional tools by doing the following:
- Building tools, which Red Hat releases as freely redistributable software available for unrestricted download off of thousands of sites on the Internet
- Publishing books and software applications
- Manufacturing shrink-wrapped software, versions of the Linux OS, making Linux accessible to the broadest possible range of computer users
- Providing technical support
Red Hat’s customer-oriented business focus forces it to recognize that the primary benefits of the Linux OS are not any of the particular advanced and reliable features for which it is famous. The primary benefit is the availability of complete source code and its “freely distributable” GPL license. This gives any user the ability to modify the technology to his or her needs and to contribute to the on-going development of the technology to the benefit of all the users, providing benefits such as security and reliability that commercially restricted, binary-only operating systems simply cannot match.
About the Authors David Pitts is a senior consultant with BEST Consulting, one of the premier consulting companies west of the Mississippi with over 1,400 highly trained consultants. Currently on assignment with The Boeing Company, David is a system administrator, programmer, Webmaster, and author. David can be reached at dpitts@mk.net or dpitts@bestnet.com. David lives in Everett, Washington, with his wonderful wife Dana. Everett, he explains, is like living on a postcard, with the Puget Sound ten minutes to the west and the year-around snow-capped Cascade Mountains to the east. David’s favorite quote comes from Saint Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel, and, if necessary, use words.”
David B. Horvath, CCP, is a senior consultant in the Philadelphia area. He has been a consultant for over twelve years and is also a part-time adjunct professor at local colleges, teaching courses that include C Programming, UNIX, and Database Techniques. He is currently pursuing an M.S. degree in Dynamics of Organization at the University of Pennsylvania. He has provided seminars and workshops to professional societies and corporations on an international basis. David is the author of UNIX for the Mainframer (Prentice-Hall/PTR), contributing author to UNIX Unleashed, Second Edition (with cover credit), and numerous magazine articles. |
|