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Red Hat Explains ArsDigita Purchase

Posted by Hemos on from the good-move-by-the-hat dept.

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.

7 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. this is good for arsDigita by ChenLing · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
  2. From the FAQ by lw54 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    How does the Red Hat/ArsDigita deal complement Red Hat's business?
    • 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?
    • Red Hat has been a strong contributor to creation and enhancement of Open Source software
    • Collaborative process is at the heart of Open Source software development
    • The collaborative Open Source process allows widely distributed contributors to participate
    • ArsDigita has strong Open Source roots

  3. Re:I like RedHat but... by StudMuffin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The reason is simple...

    Greylock was the VC firm behind both RedHat and Ars Digita. RedHat's 'purchase' of Ars Digita allows Greylock to bury the aD losses in the RH books, as well as give a glimmer of hope to the ACS product making the light of day again.

    About the Ars Digita staff going to RedHat - the total number appears to be about 10 to 15 people, so it's hardly the flood of engineers. RedHat got ACS for a song. And to think that two years ago when aD approached RedHat about putting ACS into the standard distro, they laughed in our faces.

    (Yes, I was an aD wonk)

    --
    Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel. -
  4. Looks to me... by banky · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
    1. Re:Looks to me... by bonius_rex · · Score: 3, Interesting
      This "showdown" is a Big_Fucking_Deal(TM).

      Sun's refusal to open Java to a standards body is making it really hard for me (a card-carrying Open-Source-Looney) to figure out what is better long term. I'm all for open standards, and (on the surface, at least) it looks like .NET is more open than J2EE. (Microsoft, has at least submitted some of .NET to ECMA)

      Is this a correct analysis? Something the back of my mind tells me I've just been tricked...

      I have always been of the mind that the trio of Sun/Netscape/Oracle was the One_True_Religion, but now I'm not so sure.

  5. Moving to compete with VA? by nzkoz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Looking at the press release, I noticed the following bullets:

    • Red Hat has been a strong contributor to creation and enhancement of Open Source software
    • Collaborative process is at the heart of Open Source software development
    • The collaborative Open Source process allows widely distributed contributors to participate

    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
  6. Re:But... by __past__ · · Score: 4, Interesting
    All of those are much slower than the equivalent C code.

    Proof? Of course, there cannot be one, but if you like benchmarks, compare the Great Computer Language Shootout. Though C "wins", I wouldn't exactly call it "much slower".

    They all use byte-code or generate C code, then compile the C code.

    Wrong. For all languages I mentioned there are native compilers available. For all (AFAIK, not sure about Standard ML), there are also bytecode compilers available, for some also compilers to C.

    BTW, nobody would ever be so stupid to first generate bytecode, then C out of this (At least I hope so). Oh, and assembly isn't what you compile to in the end, thats why there are assemblers.

    None that I know of generate assembly language directly.

    If you talk of generating native binaries directly, you surely should try to get to know more. Here are a few:

    I'm sure you'll find more.
    --
    Programming can be fun again. Film at 11.