Media
Monday, January 21, 2002Does BYTE have a dead tree edition again?
AOL [AOL] will be making a big mistake if they buy RedHat [RHAT].
I'm not involved with the discussions, so I can't say for certain why AOL would want to buy RedHat, but I don't see how this could improve their competitive position against Microsoft. It is mere mimicry.
But then, what is it that AOL-TimeWarner wants?
John Robb suggests that "[a]fter looking at the alternatives, AOL probably is thinking that they will pay hundreds of millions of $$ for Linux for use in these various schemes. So rather than pay Red Hat, it is looking at buying it."
If AOL is thinking this, they aren't thinking clearly. There is no reason to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a Linux distribution when you can download the ISO image. If anything, AOL would be paying development and system integration costs -- and those would be made more expensive with a RedHat purchase, as the company would be dealing with merger-related morale issues.
There have been some interesting comments in /. One was the use of the AOL distribution method to blanket the world with RedHat CDs. This may be an effective work around for not controlling the boot loader, but would still require the end-user to choose to install Linux. Can you imagine someone answering "yes" when asked "Do you want to format your hard disk?"
Or is the goal to improve Linux' support for DRM?