Q & A With New Red Hat CEO Jim WhitehurstQ & A With New Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst

Jim Whitehurst, named CEO of Red Hat in late December, talked with editor at large Charles Babcock about the challenges ahead for the Linux distributor, from competing with Microsoft to getting value out of its JBoss acquisition. Here are excerpts from that discussion:

information: You could have had a number of turnaround jobs. Why Red Hat?

Whitehurst: I want to do something that had meaning beyond turning a company around. I feel passionate about open source code as a better way to develop software, a lower cost, higher-quality way of doing things.

information: How did you get involved in open source?

Whitehurst: I have an undergrad degree in computer science. I'm kind of a techie ... a geek, an early adopter of technology. I've been a Fedora user for years, and in the mid-'90s, I was playing around with Slackware Linux.

information: In addition to its products, how does JBoss help Red Hat?

Whitehurst: It's quite synergistic with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. There are quite a few interlinkages. It broadens our relationship with the channel [of systems integrators and independent value-added resellers], and it broadens our relationship with our biggest customers.

information: Is JBoss worth the $326 million price?

Whitehurst: I'm very pleased with the JBoss acquisition. As the company made its [quarterly] earnings call, you could see the momentum there. ... A lot is written about our growth slowing down, but I don't really see it in our numbers.

information: Is it conceivable somebody would want to buy Red Hat?

Whitehurst: The fact that we are so disruptive and perform so well makes us a threat to some people. One way to handle a threat is to buy it and get rid of it. Because of our margin [Red Hat's earnings multiple], it would be hard to buy us for that purpose and retain the people. Unless someone is going to be true to our open source principles, it's not an acquisition that's going to work.

information: What do you think of the Microsoft/Novell deal?

Whitehurst: My broad concern is that Microsoft has invested heavily in Windows and its .Net framework. That's quite different from an open set of standards. Interoperability is good for the customer, but if you're interoperating by moving toward proprietary standards, that's bad for the customer. I can't believe Microsoft is interested in fostering interoperability with Java and open source at the expense of Windows.

information: Do you think the future enterprise consists of islands of open source code surrounded by proprietary software, or the other way around?

Whitehurst: I clearly believe open source is a superior development model. I can see how islands of open source might grow into continents.

information: How much opportunity remains for Red Hat?

Whitehurst: There are so many different places where our transformative model works. We need to focus on a few things, focus on go-to-market things, and win. I still have a lot to learn, but you can see my work is to focus the company.

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New CEO Must Prove Red Hat's More Than A One-Trick Pony Above Photo By Bruce DeBoer