Definition of Red Hat / Fedora

Although Red hat and Fedora are two names, both refer to the same reality with two different models: one distribution GNU / Linux.

Fedora is the free version created by an independent community of developers and aimed at the end user, while Red Hat is the corporate and paid version that the company of the same name develops from Fedora with a series of additions and support technical

Red Hat was one of the first large companies then multinational that was created around the software free.

It was founded in 1993 and, to get an idea of ​​its “youth”In relation to GNU / Linux, we must think that the core of this operating system (what is strictly known simply as Linux) saw the light at the end of 1991. Also in 1993, Slackware was born, considered one of the first Linux "distros", with which we can already see that the bet that Bob Young and Marc Ewing (the two founders) made for the penguin platform was very early.

The distribution created by Marc Ewing (Young appeared later, after founding a successful software company, and the two merged their businesses) was initially addressed all types of audiences, but quickly both saw the potential it had for companies thanks to following the model UNIX.

The success was such that after a few years of growth, Red Hat went public in 1999. Throughout its history, the company has established alliances with giants from the world of computing like IBM, Oracle, Dell or HP.

As a return to the community that has given and continues to give so much, Red Hat has contributed to many bundles of GNU / Linux with source code and sponsorship, as well as to promote and sponsor various projects related

As the company grew, the managers of the company realized that it was difficult for them to continue to maintain the base distribution and, at the same time, manage all the projects in which they were involved, the support to companies and sales.

All of this required an amount of staff, money and time that was beginning to be unaffordable for the company.

This is how Fedora was released in 2003, a completely open version carried out by a community of independent developers, which Red Hat takes and turns into Red Hat Enterprise Linux, your operating system professional for servers and workstations.

Red Hat's business model has evolved, and is currently offered mostly as a subscription service that includes updates and technical support, with a powerful community technique company-driven and under whose umbrella is a community of developers and companies that build solutions based on Red Hat products.

One of the products that, apart from professional distribution, is most successful in the Catalogue from Red Hat, is the JBoss application server, product of the acquisition of the eponymous company in 2006.

JBoss is built on Java, so it can be run on any software platform that has a Java virtual machine.

Fedora does not have a separate entity from Red Hat, this company being the ultimate responsible for its organization and what happens to it

However, Fedora does have an advisory body whose members are elected by both Red Hat itself and the community.

In this way, a Balance between both parties without forgetting that Fedora is what it is and has arrived where it has arrived thanks to Red Hat, and that it would not exist without it, something that we cannot affirm to the contrary.

Photos: Fotolia - Mario Hoppmann

Themes in Red Hat / Fedora