New Leader for Fedora Project, Jan 13, 2008

I am very pleased to announce that Paul Frields has accepted a job with Red Hat, and he will be taking over as Fedora Project Leader in February.

During the Release team meeting yesterday, it was decided to slip the deep freeze date by a week at least. This will also slip the final release of Fedora 7 by at least a week.

The Fedora Project is pleased to announce the release of the fourth and final test release of Fedora 7!

As promised, we have pushed FC6 prerelease images to the trackers:

The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from free software. Development will be done in a public forum. The project will produce time-based releases of Fedora Core about 2-3 times a year with a public release schedule. The Red Hat engineering team will continue to participate in the building of Fedora Core and will invite and encourage more outside participation than was possible in Red Hat Linux. By using this more open process, we hope to provide an operating system that uses free software development practices and is more appealing to the open source community.

We will continue to work to promote this position and are pleased to join our colleagues in the open source/free software community, as well as those proprietary vendors which have publicly stated their opposition to software patents, in that effort.

At the same time, we are forced to live in the world as it is, and that world currently permits software patents. A relatively small number of very large companies have amassed large numbers of software patents. We believe such massive software patent portfolios are ripe for misuse because of the questionable nature of many software patents generally and because of the high cost of patent litigation.

Red Hat announced that it has opened an engineering and research & development office in Westford, Massachusetts.

Red Hat today announced its K-12 Red Hat Linux Pilot Program, designed to extend the availability of the Internet and computing technology to all schools, regardless of size or budget, improving the overall learning experience for all students. As part of its open schools initiative, Red Hat will assess the computing needs of participating schools, install open-source software and applications, and provide technical support

Red Hat Inc. today released Red Hat Linux version 7.3, a highly configurable operating system (OS) designed for deployments ranging from games and personal productivity to file, print and web serving. Red Hat Linux 7.3 adds new productivity tools, personal firewall configuration at installation, and video conferencing software to deliver everything individual users, educational institutions and small businesses need for flexible Internet-based computing.

Red Hat, Inc. today announced that CEO Matthew Szulik has been named to the additional post of Chairman of the Board of Directors

Building on Red Hat's early support of the xSeries platform, the Linux distribution partner today announced its support for the IBM eServer zSeries, iSeries and pSeries platforms.

Red Hat today proposed an alternative to the settlement announced today of the class-action lawsuit against Microsoft. Red Hat offered to provide open-source software to every school district in the United States free of charge, encouraging Microsoft to redirect the money it would have spent on software into purchasing more hardware for the 14,000 poorest school districts.

"While we applaud Microsoft for raising the idea of helping poorer schools as part of the penalty phase of their conviction for monopolistic practices, we do not think that the remedy should be a mechanism by which Microsoft can further extend its monopoly," said Matthew Szulik, CEO of Red Hat.

Red Hat Inc.today announced that Red Hat Linux 7.2 and Red Hat Linux Professional are now available in stores, through computer resellers and direct from Red Hat.

There is a new bill on its way to congress that could have a drastic effect on copyright law and the technology we use every day--including open source software. The Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, or SSSCA, was originated by Senator Fritz Hollings (Dem.-S.Carolina), Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. It requires that all hardware and software, referred to as "digital interactive technology or services" must incorporate certified security technology used in conjunction with copyrighted material.

Red Hat today reported revenue of $25.6 million for the first quarter ended May 31, 2001, an increase of 18% versus the $21.7 million reported for the first quarter of fiscal 2001 and a decrease of 5% over the fourth quarter of fiscal 2001.

Red Hat has announced the Red Hat High Availability Server 1.0, a specialized version of Red Hat Linux 6.2. Red Hat High Availability Server is an out-of-the-box clustering solution where virtually uninterrupted service is required.