- Red Hat
Infobox_Company
company_name = Red Hat, Inc.
company_type = Public (NYSE : [http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=RHT RHT] )
company_
foundation = 1995
location_city =Raleigh, North Carolina
location_country = USA
key_people =Matthew Szulik , ChairmanJim Whitehurst , CEOBob Young , FounderMarc Ewing , Founder
num_employees = 2200 (2008)cite web |url=http://zenobank.com/index.php?symbol=RHT&page=quotesearch |title=Company Profile for Red Hat Inc (RHT) |accessdate=2008-09-30]
market cUSD (2008)
revenue = profit$400.6 million USD (2007)cite web
url=http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/67/67156/RHAT2007AR.pdf
title=Financial Results for Fiscal Year 2007
publisher=Red Hat
date=2007-06-28
accessdate=2008-08-20]
net_income = 59.9 million USD (2007)
industry =Computer software
products =Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Directory Server
Red Hat Certificate System
Fedora
Red Hat High performance Computing [ [http://www.redhat.com/f/pdf/rhel/high_perform_solution.pdf Red Hat High Performance Computing] ]JBoss Enterprise Middleware| homepage = [http://www.redhat.com/ http://www.redhat.com]In
computing , Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE|RHT) is a company dedicated tofree and open source software , and a majorLinux distribution vendor. Founded in 1995, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters inRaleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide. [ cite web | url = http://www.redhat.com/about/companyprofile/facts/ | title = Corporate Facts | publisher = redhat.com | accessdate = 2006-08-26 ]Some users associate the company primarily with its enterprise operating system
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ; others with the acquisition of open-source enterprise middleware vendor JBoss. Red Hat provides operating-system platforms along withmiddleware , applications, and management solutions, as well as support, training, and consulting services.History
In 1993
Bob Young incorporated the ACC Corporation, a catalogbusiness that sold Linux andUNIX software accessories. In 1994Marc Ewing created his own Linux distribution, which he namedRed Hat Linux . Ewing released it in October, and it became known as the Halloween release. Young bought Ewing's business in 1995, and the two merged to become Red Hat Software, with Young serving asCEO .Red Hat went public on
August 11 ,1999 , the eighth-biggest first-day gain inWall Street history.Fact|date=June 2008Matthew Szulik succeeded Bob Young as CEO in November of that year.On
November 15 ,1999 , Red Hat acquiredCygnus Solutions . Cygnus provided commercial support forfree software and housed maintainers ofGNU software products such as theGNU Debugger and GNU binutils. One of the founders,Michael Tiemann , served as thechief technical officer of Red Hat and now serves as the vice president of open source affairs. Later Red Hat acquired WireSpeed,C2Net and Hell's Kitchen Systems.Fact|date=August 2008In February 2000,
InfoWorld awarded Red Hat with its fourth consecutive "Operating System Product of the Year" award for Red Hat Linux 6.1. Red Hat acquired Planning Technologies, Inc in 2001 and in 2004AOL 'siPlanet directory and certificate-server software.The company moved its headquarters from
Durham, NC , toN.C. State University 'sCentennial Campus inRaleigh, North Carolina in February 2002.The following March Red Hat introduced the first enterprise-class Linux operating system [cite web
url=http://www.redhat.com/about/presscenter/2002/press_advserver.html
title=Red Hat Accelerates UNIX-to-LINUX Migration by Announcing the First Enterprise-Class Linux Operating System
publisher=Red Hat
date=2002-03-26] : Red Hat Advanced Server, later re-namedRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).Dell ,IBM , HP and theOracle Corporation announced their support of the platform.Fact|date=May 2008In December 2005 "CIO Insight" magazine conducted its annual Vendor Value Survey, in which Red Hat ranked #1 in value for the second year in a row.Fact|date=August 2008
Red Hat stock became part of the
NASDAQ-100 onDecember 19 ,2005 .Red Hat acquired open-source middleware provider
JBoss onJune 5 ,2006 and JBoss became a division of Red Hat. In 2007 Red Hat acquiredMetaMatrix and made an agreement with Exadel to distribute its software.On
September 18 ,2006 , Red Hat released the Red Hat Application Stack, the first certified stack integrating JBoss technology.On
December 12 ,2006 , Red Hat moved fromNASDAQ (RHAT) to theNew York Stock Exchange (RHT).On
2007-03-15 Red Hat released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, and in June, they acquiredMobicents .On
2008-03-13 , Red Hat acquired Amentra, a provider of systems integration services for SOA, business process management, systems development and enterprise data solutions. Amentra operates as an independent Red Hat company.Fedora Project
Red Hat sponsors the Fedora Project, a community-supported open-source project which aims to promote the rapid progress of free and open-source software and content. Fedora makes rapid innovation possible using open processes and public forums.Fact|date=May 2008
The Fedora Project Board, which comprises
community leader s and Red Hat members, leads the project and steers the direction of the project and of Fedora, theLinux distribution it develops. Red Hat employees work with the code alongside community members, and many Fedora Project innovations make their way into new releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.Business model
Red Hat partly operates on a
professional open-source business model based on open code, community development, professional quality-assurance services, and subscription-basedcustomer support .Developers take the open source
Linux kernel and adapt and improve it to fit certain needs. They produce open-source code, so more programmers can make further adaptations and improvements. When a problem emerges, an entire community of users can come together to find a solution. [cite web|title=The Meaning of Open Source
url=http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/meaning-open-source
date=July 3 ,2008 ]Red Hat sells subscriptions for the support, training, and integration services that help customers in using the open source software. Customers pay one set price for access to services such as Red Hat Network and up to 24x7 support, and they receive unlimited access to these services.
Programs and projects
One Laptop per Child
Red Hat engineers work with the
One Laptop per Child initiative (anon-profit organization created by members of theMIT Media Lab ) to design and produce an inexpensive laptop and provide every child in the world with access to open communication, open knowledge, and open learning. The XO-1 laptop, the latest machine of this project runs a slimmed-down version of Fedora as its operating system.Mugshot
Red Hat sponsors Mugshot, an open project building "a live social experience" based around entertainment. It refocuses technological thinking from objects (files, folders, etc) to activities, like web browsing or music sharing.Fact|date=May 2008 These topics form the focus of the first two features in [http://mugshot.org/ Mugshot] , Web Swarm and Music Radar. These had already started before the announcement of the project at the 2006 Red Hat Summit.
Dogtail
Dogtail , an open source automatedGUI test framework initially developed by Red Hat, consists of free software released under theGPL and written in Python. It allows developers to build and test their applications. Red Hat announced the release of Dogtail at the 2006 Red Hat Summit.Red Hat Magazine
Red Hat produces the "Red Hat Magazine" as an online news publication. It brings together issues of interest from inside and outside of the company, focusing on in-depth discussion of the development and application of
open source technologies. It covers news from Red Hat and theFedora Project , it updates readers on public licensing and theCreative Commons , and it features interviews with some industry leaders and open source people.The company originally produced a newsletter called "Under the Brim". "Wide Open" magazine first appeared in March 2004 as a means for Red Hat to share technical content with subscribers on a regular basis. "Under the Brim" and "Wide Open" magazine merged in November 2004 to become "Red Hat Magazine".
Red Hat Exchange
In 2007 Red Hat announced that it had reached an agreement with major
free software / open source (FOSS) companies that allowing it to make a distribution portal called Red Hat Exchange, which will resell FOSS software with the original branding intact. [Red Hat Prepares Business Application Stacks [http://techiqmag.com/2007/03/14/red-hat-launches-business-application-stacks/] ] Failed verification|date=August 2008Competitors
Red Hat's main competitors include
Sun Microsystems ,Canonical Ltd. ,Mandriva ,Microsoft ,Novell ,Oracle Corporation ,IBM andXandros .References
External links
* [http://www.redhat.com/ Red Hat official web page]
* [http://www.redhat.com/docs/ Red Hat documentation]
* [http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RedHatContributions Red Hat contributions to Free and Open Source software]
* [http://redhathigh.org/ Red Hat High]
* [http://linuxmafia.com/faq/RedHat/releases.html Red Hat release dates]
* [http://www.latamtech.com/?q=node/32 English translation of Enfasys interview with Julian Somodi, Red Hat's General Manager, Southern Cone]
* [http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/njl/?p=163 Szulik Says Red Hat Will Have Half of Enterprise Servers by 2015, IT Business Edge]
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