Red Hat chief takes stand
Published: 06 Aug 2003 09:35 BST
Dismissing pundits who have disparaged new technologies, Red Hat chief executive Matthew Szulik had a simple message for LinuxWorld attendees: "We will prevail."
Speaking to attendees during a late afternoon keynote, the head penguin of Red Hat likened critics of Linux to those who have been wrong in the past about new technologies, adding that it's time for the disparate open-source community to come together.
"Each of you here are heirs to the future information society," Szulik said. "I'm here to ask you to participate... in moving the entire industry forward."
As one of the two major distributions of Linux software, Red Hat has a lot to gain from community solidarity. In the past, open-source software has been attacked by companies that believe that software should always be proprietary. This year has also added the twist of ailing Unix company SCO Group claiming intellectual property rights over Linux.
With digital-rights battles raging in the software industry and the entertainment industry, Szulik highlighted that it's time for open-source developers to take a side.
"If the 60s was the generation that fought for civil rights, what is going to be the generation that is going to be looking after digital rights?" he asked attendees. "That's the generation I want... when you can see the code and not be arrested."
Szulik didn't hawk products, but did highlight the $1m (620,000) that Red Hat gave to start a legal fund for open-source projects. He said the money was a way to thank the community.
"Because of people like you that made voluntary contributions, that allowed us to build an organisation that is publicly traded," he said.
He also called for others to contribute to the fund.
"We will find out very quickly which of those choose to exploit the community and which of those will step forward," he said.
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