Newfound Wealth Strains Free Software Movement

By Lev Grossman Thursday, Aug. 19, 1999
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Recently, a new web site appeared called the Red Hat Wealth Monitor. Red Hat, of course, is a company that sells support services for the free operating system Linux. Last week, Red Hat went public in spectacular fashion. Check the wealth monitor now: It's worth almost $5 billion. This for giving away free software.

What does this mean for the Linux community, an informal, international fellowship of benevolent hackers who since 1991 have labored unpaid to develop the perfect microcomputer operating system? Until now, they've done it for the purest of motives because it was fun, and because it was useful. Now unexpected success has brought other motives into play, and nobody seems quite sure how to deal with them. MORE >>