Salon.com > C. Scott Ananian

Criminal code?

Wed, 09 Feb 2000 17:00:00 +0000

A week ago I began putting "Acquit Jon Johansen" posters up around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I am a graduate student. Last Wednesday, I started handing out the same fliers to suits at the LinuxWorld expo in New York. On Friday, I stood at the corner of 42nd and Broadway competing with the flower lady for a piece of New York's mindshare. Hackers and geeks in 74 other North American and 26 other international cities did the same. The free-software community is up in arms, chanting for freedom and carrying pictures of Johansen, a 16-year-old Norwegian.

And just why was I freezing my toes on a Manhattan corner instead of warming my fingers on the keyboard of my laptop, hacking code? And why were geeks passing the hat at a LinuxWorld convention party the night before, raising cash for a Johansen defense fund? Forget the VA Linux buyout of Slashdot, or the latest rumor about which Linux start-up is about to go public -- right now, the Johansen case is the single hottest issue in the free-software/open-source world.

Inside the Red Hat IPO

Fri, 13 Aug 1999 16:00:00 +0000

9:43 p.m. EDT, Wednesday: E-Trade informs me that I am the owner of 400 shares of Red Hat Software, bought at the initial offer price of $14. I exhale breath I've been holding for three weeks. Somehow, I never believed it would actually turn out this way, that I'd end up with stock in my hands.

About three weeks ago, on July 20, Red Hat sent an e-mail to hundreds of software developers offering us a chance to participate in its initial public offering, a gesture of support for the community of free-software hackers without whom the company would not exist. But weeks of infighting and confusion -- aided and abetted by E-Trade -- followed. Now I've finally got my stock. Am I happy? Sure. Relieved? Definitely -- by the market's close on Thursday the stock price had reached $72.62. But was it all worth it? The whole process nearly tore our community apart. So, I really don't know.

How did I get here?

A Linux lament

Fri, 30 Jul 1999 16:00:00 +0000

At first I thought it was spam. It was probably the hundredth message I had received that day, and I was inclined to consign it straight to my personal spam graveyard. But it was titled "A personal invitation from Red Hat" and in my world, Red Hat -- one of the leading distributors of the Linux-based operating system -- is a big name. So I took a look. And I got excited. On close examination, the e-mail seemed minted of pure gold -- it was a special invitation to participate in Red Hat's imminent initial public offering.

This is the story of how that gold turned to lead for about 400 software developers passionately devoted to Red Hat Inc. -- a story from the front lines of a battle between the idealistic world of open source and the real world forces who run this country.

Starting July 20, Red Hat sent at least 1,000 e-mails to a group of software developers who had contributed to the products Red Hat sells, in particular a Linux-based operating system. The e-mail began: "Dear open source community member: In appreciation of your contribution to the open source community, Red Hat is pleased to offer you this personal, non-transferable, opportunity."