[wplug] AOL looking to buy Red Hat

Hagbard Celine hceline at softhome.net
Sat Jan 19 19:42:49 EST 2002


<some snipping>
> 
> One other point is that even if AOL swallowed RedHat whole, they wouldn't be 
> able to mess up Linux too much.  There are other distributions and the 
> software itself is controlled by maintainers.  AOL would just have control 
> over distribution of one flavor, not over the actual development of all the 
> software.
> 
Well, correct me if I'm wrong, please, but doesn't development of such systems
software as gcc, glibc, automake, autoconf, and a couple of others *depend* on
the contributions of Red Hat people, and couldn't AOL screw up not only Linux,
but a whole slough of UNIX platforms by pulling a Netscape on the
aforementioned packages?  If AOL's damage extended only so far as fouling up a
single distribution, I wouldn't be *as* concerned,  Maintaining a distro is no
 big deal; I've whomped up my own distribution, and I figure that if I can do
it, just about anyone can.  It's the depencency on corporate moneys for
maintenance of the more involved software (everything costs something, after
all) and the suceptibility of companies to takeovers by blithering idiots with
a lot of cash that worries me...

Hagbard 




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