In fact, when Microsoft announced its patent agreement with Novell, Red Hat was reported to have
turned down a similar offer of cooperation with Microsoft, calling such an arrangement an ???innovation
tax.??? So, Red Hat, which was once viewed by some in the free software community as a threat
to the free software movement, is now being viewed more often as a great defender of free and open
source software rights.
To its credit, Red Hat has managed to become a profitable venture while making some remarkable
contributions to the open source effort. Releasing its installer (Anaconda) and software packaging
tools (RPM Package Management) under the GNU Public License (GPL) has enabled other Linux
distributions to use and enhance those features. Within Red Hat Linux and now Fedora, Red Hat,
Inc. has worked hard to include only software that could be freely distributed (removing most software
with patent and copyright issues).
Despite continued emphasis from Red Hat, Inc. that Fedora comes with no guarantees, Fedora
is an excellent Linux distribution. I know of universities that have deployed hundreds of Fedora
desktop systems in their computer labs and small companies that run their businesses exclusively
with Fedora. Even if you prefer to bet your business on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora
is a great way to evaluate and use technology that is in all Linux distributions from Red Hat.
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