Every once in a while, somebody will come along and highlight that restrictive licenses carry more risk than permissive licenses. I think this is not as big a threat as some would have you believe. There are two main branches of what is broadly known as free/libre open source software (FLOSS). Free software licenses are restrictive in the sense...

Memorial Day in the US is traditionally the unofficial start of summer, but ironically it's also the start of a busy community season around the world. With more students out of school, code contributions on various projects tend to rise. Conferences also tend to increase in frequency (particularly towards the end of the season). But even as life...

Let's not kid ourselves: the free and open source community is not all laurel (yanni?) leaves and Kumbaya. There are arguments all the time. Vi vs. emacs. Restrictive vs. permissive. Open vs. proprietary. Heck, on most days, I have had discussions about one or more of these topics before I've finished my morning coffee. When you add business...

It's a pretty violent metaphor, this notion of what happens to your open source software project if one or more of its members might get hit by a bus. Or a truck. Or whatever motor vehicle of doom happens to be barreling down the road of fate. At first thought, one might simply want to urge people to look both ways when crossing the street. But...

Whether it's a favorite sports team, a school, or just a group of friends, there is something about human nature that seems to drive many of us to display our affiliation. We do this, typically, by displaying plumage that is synchronized. If I am a fan or a particular team, and I see someone wearing a matching jersey, then I can identify with that...

This week is our annual Red Hat Summit, a time when many of our nearly 12,000 employees put their work down and come together to work with customers and determine how best to work together moving forward. This may seem pretty antithetical to the goals of a team like ours, where free and open source projects are the focus, not commericial support...