Linux Distributions and the Global Economic Crisis

No matter where you are in the world, it’s pretty much impossible to look at the news of the day without hearing or reading about the global economic crisis: financial markets in turmoil, bank failures, companies reducing their workforce, and so on. If we look at the businesses that support the major Linux distributions and even the funding that many smaller distributions depend on, we see that the impact of troubled times on Linux can’t be talked about in a general way. Some Linux companies and Linux distributions are still doing well while others have serious and obvious problems.

A CNET News article published on Wednesday shows that Red Hat continues to fare well. Despite a tumbling stock price, Matt Asay’s article points to a leading analyst, Mark Murphy of Piper Jaffray, recommending buying Red Hat stock. Jaffray is optimistic about Red Hat’s future, noting that “Red Hat’s billings have grown at an average rate of 31% – representing clear market share gains.” Asay goes on to point out that Red Hat’s open source business model may be ideally suited to the current economic climate: “Red Hat has shown no signs of slowing, with its subscription model able to weather the current recession: even if it doesn’t sell any new subscriptions, it can tread water and/or grow with its existing customer base, something that license-revenue driven companies simply can’t afford to do.”

Mandriva, on the other hand, continues to struggle financially. This week, new CEO Hervé Yahi decided that the contracts of most remote employees would be terminated in what appears to be a cost cutting measure. The news was originally broken by Vincent Danen in his Linsec blog. The post was later amended to report that Danen would be retained by Mandriva, but Adam Williamson was not so fortunate. “Well, I was rather expecting this after reading Vincent’s blog this morning (and to be honest, doing some basic mental arithmetic on our recent financial results), but I have been told that as of December 31st, I’ll no longer be working for Mandriva, as all external contractors are being canned.”

Reaction across the Linux blogosphere and in the Mandriva community forums was quick and, with the notable exception of a couple of posts in the comments section of last week’s DistroWatch Weekly, nearly unanimous in support of Adam Williamson and critical of Hervé Yahi. Perhaps the harshest and most colorful criticism of Yahi came from Planète Béranger who responded to Vincent Danen’s original post by saying “Hervé Yahi, le couillon du siècle. (Translation: Hervé Yahi, the schmuck of the century.) To the revised news that Vincent Danen was staying but Adam Williamson was out, Béranger added: “Hervé Yahi, le plus couillon de tous les couillons du monde. (Translation: Hervé Yahi, the biggest schmuck of all the schmucks in the world.) While others were more temperate in their comments, the sentiment was essentially the same.

Adam Williamson moderates the Mandriva community forum and has effectively been the voice of the company and the distribution for the English speaking world. He posts regularly to the comments section of DistroWatch Weekly. Adam frequently explained the rationale behind what was included in the distribution and staunchly defended Mandriva in response to critics, always doing so in a polite, respectful, and informed manner. Mandriva’s relationship with the Linux community will definitely suffer with Adam’s departure at the end of the year.

Finally, Novell, which has been successfully building its own Linux business, took an important step to answer at least one of the concerns frequently voiced in the community. A Wednesday announcement on the openSUSE Spotlight web site reported the death of the EULA (End User License Agreement). Beginning with version 11.1, openSUSE will have the same license as Fedora. Many in the Linux community objected to the click-through EULA which is structured like and reminiscent of a commercial, proprietary software license. This move is undoubtedly designed to allay the suspicions many in the Linux community still have regarding Novell and their commitment to FLOSS software. In light of the current economic turmoil, mending fences with the Linux community and building as many bridges as possible is definitely in Novell’s interest.

(Source: Distrowatch.com)