This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz
by Norman Richards.
Original Post: From JBoss to Red Hat
Feed Title: Orb [norman richards]
Feed URL: http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/java?flav=rss
Feed Description: Monkey number 312,978,199
I just got back from Red Hat orientation, and now I'm a full-fledged Red Hat employee.
Yes, I even have my standard issue red fedora. Somehow I don't imagine I'll be wearing this around town much, but it's a nice touch.
I haven't been a hardcore Linux user for a couple years now, but even when I was (and I was always a Red Hat user) I didn't really follow Red Hat that closely. So, getting a close up view now is quite interesting. Some general things that surprised me.
Red Hat people are very serious about open source. Well, maybe that shouldn't surprise me so much, but I guess I've let public perception get in the way. I think it's the same thing that happens to JBoss. People make really dumb statements like "JBoss isn't real open source". What happens is that other people hear that and think there must be a grain of truth. It's happened so much that you see completely nonsensical statements being made about JBoss regularly in blogs. I think I bought into a lot of those types of statements about Red Hat without really taking the time to form my own opinion. The Red Hat guys are hard core open source, and I'm really glad that I'll get to be a part of that.
The Fedora Core/RHEL split actually makes sense. Or was that the Kool-Aid? When Fedora Core came out, I thought it was a huge mistake. I didn't understand what the point is, and I thought Red Hat was doomed. Maybe it's my time at JBoss, but the split between a fast-paced community version and a slower, stabler enterprise edition makes perfect sense to me now. That was kind of our thinking in doing JEMS at JBoss.
Red Hat writes code. They write a lot of code. I knew they contributed to projects, but I always had the image of Red Hat as being more of a taker than a giver. That obviously was unfair because they are huge contributors to the open source world. The Red Hat approach to open source is still quite different than our approach at JBoss, but I see that it's not quite so far off as I originally though. I look forward to seeing how the two approaches merge.
Red Hat has happy customers. It's clear that Red Hat is proud of this survey, which puts Red Hat at the top of the tech industry on delivering value to customers. I was really surprised to see Red Hat even edge out #2 Apple. Although you might argue that we had an image problem with JBoss in the community, we prided ourselves on keeping our customers happy and providing what we promised to deliver. Customers routinely ranked us ahead of competitors like BEA and IBM for delivering more value for less money. The fact that Red Hat is so similar to us in that way gives me great hope for future of the combined company.
I am very proud of everything we've accomplished at JBoss, and now that I've gotten to see a bit more of the company, I really can't imagine any other company that would be as good of a fit for us as Red Hat.
Previous Topic
