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Technology Stocks : Red Hat Software Inc. (Nasdq-RHAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric Sandeen who wrote (691)	8/18/1999 12:22:00 AM
From: Pink Minion	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1794

This should give you an idea of what they are focusing on: redhat.com looks like consulting and classes. MH

To: Eric Sandeen who wrote (691)	8/18/1999 1:29:00 AM
From: Doug B.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1794

When I was talking about Red Hat getting into development activities, I meant more systems integration type activities where say, Dell, for instance, contracts with them to write drivers/OS mods/compatibility upgrades to Linux. This for the purpose of supporting Dell hardware, so Dell can sell machines prepackaged with Red Hat Linux. This makes sense for both Dell and Red Hat. I think this is definitely in the long term outlook, and probably makes up part of the substance of the agreement just made between Dell and Red Hat. General software development of the sort you are talking about is done by general service software contractors, companies that have some expertise in the particular discipline to which the software is being applied, or other small startup companies that see a market like the one you describe. Red Hat does not have expertise in school scheduling - they have expertise in Linux. The scheduling program is for someone else to write, imho. You have, however, hit on one of the fundamental things that people just don't seem to get, which is that software is an enormously huge, expensive, pain in the ass. You think your school system has problems - try MCI WorldCom and Lucent right about now. Try the IRS. Try the Ariane rocket that blew up a few years ago at the cost of a significant chunk of a billion dollars. And the failure of the onboard computers during the descent of the lunar module of Apollo 11. Neil Armstrong had just seconds of fuel left and had to pilot a machine that he had never flown before by the seat of his pants. Bet you never heard that one before. ALL software. This is why I kind of chuckle whenever anyone says "Just get 2 or 3 sharp guys - no problem." Famous last words. The number of sharp guys out there is finite - and half of them are out there kernel hacking in their spare time. Read the book "Death March" by Ed Yourdon and, even more fundamentally, "The Mythical Man-Month" by Fred Brooks. These describe the kind of HASSLE that has probably taken a year or two off of my life expectancy. The number of software projects and problems is increasing. One estimate of the current rate of programmer productivity vs. expected demand for code says that in the next couple of decades, even accounting for population increases, every man, woman, and child on the planet will be writing code. This aspect of supply and demand for highly specialized labor is good for my personal bottom line, but bad for society in general. This is why companies are willing to put some backing into something they perceive is going increase the reliability of systems they run their application progams on. Linux does this for companies. The advent of companies like Red Hat which provide a consistent, controlled, reliable Linux distribution with support and a name brand adds to the perception of upper level management that their IT departments are doing the "responsible" thing with their systems. All my not so humble opinions... Regards, Doug