What is the world's defining software company for the 21st
Century?  Red Hat wants to lead the world, but it doesn't.
Google and Apple do. What do these companies have that Red Hat
lacks?   Which company did you think of when you read that
title? My guess is that you didn't think of Microsoft, Oracle,
SAP, or...Red Hat, though Red Hat claims this mission as its
own. Why? Red Hat has taken as its mission the mantle of
leadership into software's future, but it is not the company we
most associate with the future. Who gets that honor?  Apple
and/or Google.  I spent some time this morning discussing this
with a friend who who runs IT for part of Google's European
operations out of its London office. He has a hugely interesting
background, having spent a few years at Red Hat before joining
Google in 2007. He left Red Hat on great terms and continues to
be an admirer of his former employer.  Yet it is his former
employer. Why? And why have Greg Stein, Guido Von Rossum, and
other prominent open-source developers and