Circa 1998/1999 RedHat Inc. became the first truly successfull Linux distribution. Prior to that only two companies had really made a commercial success of free software, cygnus at first (though they got greedy later and went non-free and that made them bankrupt so redhat bought them), and VA-Linux systems, which later renamed itself to VA-software as the systems industry shuddered it’s final dying spasms.
This week however, saw the founder of RedHat, Bob Young resign from the board of directors.
What makes Young of particular interest is his later venture, the one he will now be involved with full-time. Young founded lulu.com the online alternative publishing house (my own book “Batteries not included” is published by lulu), which opened up the doorway for many writers who simply would not sell out far enough for the mainstream publishing world to accept them, to nevertheless get their work out there and read.
Young has now left the software world behind permanently to focus on this contribution to the world of the arts, and more power to him I say.
