Case Study: Red Hat

Red Hat, the world’s leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat’s Open Source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Red Hat was founded in 1994 by visionary entrepreneurs Bob Young and Marc Ewing. [Source: Red Hat, Inc.]

Things to read:

Questions to consider:

  • What is the “Open Source” business model? How does Red Hat make money?
  • What are the advantages and disavantages of the Open Source model in comparison to the Commercial Software Development (CSD) model advocated by Microsoft?

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

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