Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » Red Hat's JiHAT

April 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Red Hat's JiHAT

TAGS: Open Source

Red Hat's got a jihad going on. (JIhad, of course, does not denote "armed struggle," but rather a striving. In this case, Red Hat has just taken a major move up the software stack, with the threat reverberating from Redmond to Somers (IBM). Importantly for the rising stack business, as well, Red Hat has clearly decided to go it alone in building and deploying enterprise-grade software stacks.

Despite my earlier analysis on why Novell should acquire JBoss, it's clear that the synergy between the top Linux distributor and the top open source application server company is clear. Integration between the two companies will not be seamless, but it's arguably a better fit than with Novell:

And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.

But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. Luke 5:37-38

I witnessed new wine (SUSE) being poured into old bottles (Novell) - it finally worked, but it was a difficult transition (cultural, business model, license model, etc.). Red Hat + JBoss doesn't have the same issue. Both use GPL licenses (GPL and LGPL). Both are used to service-based models.

What Red Hat adds to JBoss, however, is its ingenious licensing strategy, and both contribute to each other by feeding leads. Companies that use one open source technology are more likely to use another. In this way, the two companies mutually reinforce each other. And Red Hat offers JBoss additional teeth to its business model - a way to help users become paying customers.

This is a great step forward for open source, and for these two companies. Let the JiHAT begin!

Posted by Matt Asay on April 10, 2006 02:24 PM

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