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Red Hat Explains ArsDigita Purchase
hezron writes "Red Hat VP, Howard Jacobson, sent a mass email explaining their acquisition of ArsDigita's assets. Here is the press release concerning the acquisition." The press release is actually a quick FAQ about the purchase - Howard does a good job of explaining the purchase and the reasons for it. Howard's a smart guy, and I hope that the purchase of AD will mean a longer life then how AD's past management was handling it.
Now if they'd just get Phil back.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
Now Red Hat is spamming us.
The is the first press release I've ever seen from a publicly traded comapny that consisted entirely of bullet points...
#!
arsDigita has great engineers, and pretty good technology (a few bugs, but mostly worked out now). The really bad part (and what drove aD into the ground) was bad management. As the only (AFAIK) profitable open source based company, Redhat should know a thing or two about running a business well. Hopefully they'll be able to restructure the aD assets and personnel, and really add to the community.
"You have the option of insanity. I do not. And that makes me crazy!" - Brian to Angela, My So-Called Life
I believe that's the first time I've ever seen the word "fetishistically" used. I will definitely have to work that into my everyday speech.
as long as they don't ever take down http://www.arsdigita.com/books/ I'll be happy.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
- ArsDigita software enables content creation through collaboration
- ArsDigita software and consulting expand Red Hat's ability to deliver the benefits of collaboration to the enterprise
Okay, I can understand those reasons, but these?Just think... Redhat could rename ACS to RCS (RedHat Community System) and then Revision Control System would be out of business...
:)b
Of course, this is probabyl why they are not planning to rename ACS
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
* RedHat recognizes that press releases are boring.
* RedHat has long been a proponent of boring press releases.
* In light of this historic relationship, this press release will bore the hell out of everyone who reads it.
Gas is the verb (imperative), and Bill the object (noun). Get the joke? (...and as far as I know, there is unfortunately no death penalty yet for abusing monopoly power...)
is this really the right time to buy a new, troubled company? I applaud the effort to save Ars Digita, but there is a reason it had gone under...
Somehow, I think a company should refrain from acquisitions until it is comfortably in the black itself. I'd hate for RedHat to burn through its reserves faster than necesary.
...I thought they hated Tcl! God knows
they've fired or alienated into quitting
enough of their Tcl people.
Wouldn't that be nice? Then we wouldn't have to worry about SF doing a /. and begin some weird subscription scheme. And the service would remain Free.
Gnulix - not only a short bread
"Pirating software is like stealing crack from a drug dealer and pretending that it makes you free from addiction."
Pirates are known to rob your boat or possibly rape you. But stealing software? That seem a little far fetched. Who told you that?
Why is Red Hat purchasing more companies when they can't even manage the companies they already have? Red Hat bought successful companies like Cygnus, HKS, AV, and C2Net and ran them into the ground. Every quarter more and more Red Hat employees are laid off or told to not work for weeks to make the stock numbers look good. Even the Red Hat careers page is mostly internships. It just does not make sense. I feel sorry for those ArsDigita folks.
It's always nice to see that open source companies are devoted enough to the movement to try to keep (what they see as) valuable parts of it from failing. Still, I hope we don't end up seeing them be so supportive that they drive themselves into the ground in the process...
That list forget to include the following line of code:
#define BACKDOOR_PASSWORD "!seineew era sreenigne epacsteN"
cpeterso
It looks ot me like Red Hat wanted some Java programmers in its payroll. Since Sun is now starting to talk Linux more, and a lot of people think that there is a 'showdown' brewing between Java/J2EE and .NET, Red Hat is afraid of being marginalized between the two. Now they have a Java toolkit and the programmers to use it.
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
See this for background about ArsDigita:
ArsDigita: From Start-Up to Bust-Up by Philip Greenspun
Bush's education improvements were
Maybe you shouldn't bother, smarty pants--"impart" is a transitive verb and you seem to have forgotten the direct object. ;)
I've heard a lot about CMSs and ArsDigita in particular, but I'm not entirely up on my CMS terminology.
I poked around on the ArsDigita pages, but what I found was a lot of marketing and buzzword crap, and no really good to the point explanation on what it is. I don't have the time to read all the marketing B.S., so I'm hoping somebody here can get straight to the point and tell me what this is all about.
If I were to download and install the ArsDigita CMS, what exactly would that buy me?
Is it a collection of APIs for developing web pages?
Is it a templating engine for generating markup?
Is it a kind of uber-Wiki?
Is it a message board system?
Is it some online collaborative environmnet like Source Forge?
It it an online publishing system like Slash or PostNuke?
Help me get to the point!
Bryan
Here is more background information about ArsDigita:
ArsDigita VCs v. Co-founders: The battle for control of ArsDigita Corporation
To me, the entire dispute was very interesting.
Bush's education improvements were
Have you worked with ocaml?
www.ocaml.org.
It's a great language, and transparently compiles to assembly on both windows and linux. Fast, modular, with all the functional fun that the kids want these days.
# (/.);;
- : float -> float -> float =
"I hope that the purchase of AD will mean a longer life then how AD's past management was handling it."
Ouch, so close! Only a few more hours and Slashdot would have had my $120! I guess you just can't lose a bet against Slashdot grammar. This time it was Hemos, not Taco. The illiteracy twins are at work again.
Compare this short notice:
Note: Sun's trademark prevents us from calling the software "ACS Java", though "ACS for the Java Platform" is OK. Hence the abbreviation "ACSJ".
To this unfortunate obfuscation at cheapbytes.com:
Looking for CDs containing the downloadable
version of the XXX XXX Linux distribution?
Hint: The name has to do with an article of clothing
to keep your head warm.
We can't call it by it's real name due to trademark law.
Our president will be providing a statement and information at
a later time regarding this subject. Please be informed about
this matter prior to jumping to any erroneous conclusions.
Cheapbytes, IANAL and this is not legal advice, but if the statement above is good enough for redhat, I wonder what could prevent you from saying something like
Note: Red Hat's trademark prevents us from calling the software "Red Hat", though "XXX XXX" is OK. Hence the abbreviation "XXX XXX".
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
"a longer life THAN..." not "a longer life THEN..."
Is it TOO much to ask supposed "editors" to actually make sure that what they write (and expect us to PAY for) is at least vaguely grammatically correct?
*sheesh*
People with no technical education often think they can participate sensibly in a technical enterprise. They often use an immense amount of energy hiding the fact that they cannot.
The acting performances by Academy Award winners are, literally, bland and unconvincing compared to the acting performances of managers trying to pretend that they can manage a business they don't understand.
Here is an article about that subject: An Engineer's View of Venture Capitalists
Bush's education improvements were
I have mostly used Erlang and am just now getting into O'Caml. The whole point being to try to get more speed.
O'Caml is fairly fast but still uses a middle layer of C code and therefore is slower than it should be. Array access, even when compiled with "-unsafe" is slower than the equivalent C code. Unsafe mode should be the same speed as the C version. My guess to the reason it's not is due to that middle layer of C code I keep talking about. That's not the only area O'Caml suffers either, in fact, from what I can tell, array access is the fastest of anything in O'Caml.
Another problem is when you start using external API's that have a C interface (OpenGL for example). It gets really slow (2-3 times or more slower) when you start accessing those.
If the O'Caml compiler generated the ASM code directly it could make serious optimizations and not have to deal with the cruft the C compiler adds. I'm surprised that no one has done it before. Funational languages would be really fast if compiled directly. They just don't do it though, they seem to always generate C code before compiling or use byte-code which is really slow compared to native code.
It's not that O'Caml is that bad, it's not. It's very fast, but it could be the same speed or faster than C (at least with bounds checking and such turned off).
Overrated? This is damn funny! Mod the poor bastard up.
Looking at the press release, I noticed the following bullets:
Perhaps RedHat is moving to provide a collaborative development platform ..... ala SourceForge Enterprise edition. Could VA's SourceForge business be about to get another competitor. Of course, if you believe what their CEO had to say on their last conference call, they don't have competitors.
Cheers Koz
Venture Capital Links:
The Venture Capital Marketplace (See the VC Directory: Many Resources.)
Finance Web (Lists VC Companies.)
Venture Capital on the Net Links (Large Free Database)
National Venture Capital Association (Select NVCA Members.)
Infon Venture Capital Database ($99)
YAHOO! Venture Capital Firms Listings
I don't have any connection with these companies. I cannot comment on their usefulness.
Bush's education improvements were
That doesn't sound like good management to me. Sounds more like an AOL acquisition.
... red hat buying mandrake.
Eve had some nude pictures up before we mocked her on /. about a month ago, now they're gone.
Does anyone have them saved or cached?
What I want to know is whether they're gonna make an effort to get some of the original team on board, Greenspun, Eve Andersson, etc. Assuming, of course, that they'd want to come back. But RedHat's got to have someone clueful to manage the ACS project if they ever want anything out of it besides a tax writeoff.
It seems to me that you, like many linux users, are really saying "why don't they compile directly to x86!" The world is bigger than x86. Most scripting languages want to be cross-platform. And no that does not mean run on windows and linux-x86.
If you took a second to look at how much code gcc is then you would realize how fscking big a task that is.
t.
Well, as I'm typing this on my Sun Blade (which is next to my Mac, which is next to my PC) I wouldn't say I'm forgetting about other platforms.
But yes, you would have to target specific architectures... pretty much just like the C compilers.
BTW, I don't want a scripting functional language. There's no reason (other than speed) that I can't use a functional language to replace C in almost everything.
It is a big task, yes... but that's the only way to be as fast as C.
Virtual mod point to you ;-)
"Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded."
From what I understand, all the ACS/Tcl software is open source and really well documented, but the Java stuff is either not completely open, or too murky to figure out easily. Supposedly, in a last ditch effort, AD management was heading in a closed-source, packaged-solutions direction.
So, does this mean we'll get a usable ACS/Java with every Redhat boxed set? That would be cool...
In the meantime, I'm learning Tcl!
You're being way too polite... this was nothing but a face-saving move by the vulture capitalists... better than just saying the company tanked and shut its doors (which is the real truth).
I should know, I work there. Thanks RH!! Now we'll be able to soak more cash from the fat cats.
I've always thought that "ArsDigita" would be a great name for a proctologist's practice.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
the Man in the Red Hat?
I am a sentient ATM.
I bought 100 shares of RHAT at $5/share (couple of months ago), basically to put my money where my mouth was. It was a token of my support and I could not care less whether I lose it all or make a million (although I DO have a preference).
I expected/hoped that RedHat would make decisions that struck a balance between open source and capitalistic risk taking. I think I'll pick up another 100 shares. Nice job.
Ars got 0wn3d.
:)
"Tiemann also provides financial support to organizations that further the goals of software freedom, including the Free Software Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the ArsDigita Foundation."
a nn .html
http://www.redhat.com/about/corporate/team/tiem
On the subscription services you get an extra tick box to disable the spelling and grammar errors in the articles. You can't disable just one or the other though.
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~eveander/
Sorry ... this might be a little more convenient: For the love of PI.
We bought them.
How does the Red Hat/ArsDigita deal complement Red Hat's business?
They make us bigger.
How will Red Hat change the ArsDigita business?
We'll swallow them.
Will Red Hat continue to develop ACS for the Java Platform (ACSJ)?
Yes.
When will the 5.0 version of ACSJ be released?
Whenever we damn well feel like it.
Will ACSJ remain Open Source?
Yes.
Will Red Hat change the license for ACSJ from ADPL to GPL?
Yes. Well, probably.
Will ACS continue to be called "ACS"?
Yes. Well, maybe.
What will happen to www.arsdigita.com?
We'll swallow it.
Will Red Hat continue to operate ArsDigita's public discussion forums (web/db, "ACS Core & CMS", etc.)?
Yes.
Wow... this press release reads like an executive Power Point presentation. Ten to one it was. :)
The world won't end in darkness, it'll end in family fun, with Coca-cola clouds behind a Big Mac sun.
What's the relationship between openacs and java. Didn't ACS 4 introduce some java into the mix? Is ACSJ the only option for people who want something like ACS but with java integration?
Yeah, and it comes with an industrial-strength porn download manager and viewer.
- In mid-to-late 2000, Matthew Szulik (Red Hat's CEO) was hot to acquire ArsDigita. He was extremely frustrated, and seen to punch a wall, when none of those appointed to review the technology could endorse using their technology (it had a lot to do with the way that ArsDigita relies too heavily on the general-purpose database to do the heavy lifting).
- None of the people who reviewed the ArsDigita technology are at Red Hat any longer.
- ArsDigita was funded by the same Venture Capitalist, Greylock, that Red Hat was. A Greylock representative (who himself owned as much stock in Red Hat as Greylock) sits on the board of Red Hat.
I think that Red Hat is being pressured by Greylock to "clean up" their ArsDigita mess. In short, there's nothing to see here - move along.