Red Hat: time to come into the 21st century

Sam Varghese
Thursday, 25 October 2007 23:59

Opinion and Analysis

There were plenty of subjects which could have generated some discussion - the patent case filed recently against Red Hat by a company called IP Innovations, Red Hat's concern over the recent EU settlement with Microsoft and the forthcoming Global Desktop distribution which is expected to be released in November, to name a few.

However, someone had apparently decided that this media call would be run the way they probably do things in Singapore, a country that is known for its social engineering. A couple of things really jarred.

Both Szulik and Peters made reference to a country named Korea which existed before I was born. Today there are two countries, named South Korea and North Korea - but I guess this distinction was unnecessary. There were also references to Asia as though the whole region is one amorphous mass. Of course, if anyone from this amorphous land mass were to confuse North Carolina (where Red Hat is based) with South Carolina, I'm sure that wouldn't go down very well. There would sure be some talk of ignorance.

Red Hat has a stated ambition of earning 60 per cent of its revenue from the region by the year 2009. Take it from me, a few history lessons would go a long way towards making that goal attainable.

Would Red Hat have ever tried to conduct such a "we speak, you listen" farce in the US? Or Europe? I know the answer to that - nobody would ever agree to dial in. Indeed, had I known it would be mere company propaganda, I wouldn't have dialled in either.

Ironically, Szulik referred to a desire to "bring the next generation of software developers (in the region) into the 21st century." Charity begins at home, sir. Red Hat would benefit greatly by pulling up its socks and moving into the same time phase itself. This manner of dealing with the media can only be described as archaic.