in my experience
AOL to buy Red Hat? I'd prefer a Lindows acquisition.
January 19, 2002 3:43 AM
A massive media company looking to buy a Linux distributer could be a good thing. Linux as a desktop OS is just not quite there yet, and perhaps a company that prides itself on making the Internet easy could bring Linux to more consumers. But, I'm not sure AOL wants to get into the business of software development for an OS that still is, for the mast part, a server OS. IBM does that already and seems to be doing a good job.
January 19, 2002 3:43 AM
A massive media company looking to buy a Linux distributer could be a good thing. Linux as a desktop OS is just not quite there yet, and perhaps a company that prides itself on making the Internet easy could bring Linux to more consumers. But, I'm not sure AOL wants to get into the business of software development for an OS that still is, for the mast part, a server OS. IBM does that already and seems to be doing a good job.
In my opinion, a better Linux acquisition for AOL would be Lindows. Most people have investments in Windows software, which wouldn't be an issue with Lindows. I think a strategy of shipping /Red-Hat-Linux-CD's to everyone in America would garner few new AOL subscriptions because folks would have to deal with way things are done in Linux, and use Linux software. Yes, I know a Linux user could install WINE on their own, and then run their Windows software, but how many AOL users would do that? Not enough to base a business plan on.