Red Hat CEO Says Linux Could Become U.S. Standard

CEO Matthew Szulik predicts greater growth and innovation for open-source products, and says better education and access to information are crucial.

NEW YORK—Red Hat Chairman, CEO and President Matthew Szulik told attendees at the C3 Expo here that open-source software is already highly successful.

Szulik was the opening keynote speaker at the C3 conference the week of June 26. He said the best-known open-source product, Linux, already runs on 13 platforms ranging from laptop computers to mainframes, and that it would soon be running on handheld devices and smart phones.

Szulik also said "content democratization" was critical to innovation because it would lead to access to information worldwide.

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Szulik and Red Hat, along with MIT, are part of a team that is trying to create a $100 laptop computer for use in the third world. Szulik said there is already strong interest in such a product in Eastern Europe, Africa, China and India. He also said this type of product was entirely within reach.

"All you need is a platform, Linux, a browser, a power supply and access to the Internet," Szulik said. He noted that one reason todays laptops are so expensive is because they cost so much to sell, mostly because a large percentage of their cost comes from advertising and marketing expenses.

Szulik argued that a major reason why the existence of low-cost computers would spread innovation is that they would encourage the growth of computer skills. Of all the challenges he has as CEO, "Finding qualified people is the hardest," he said, adding that the situation in the United States is getting worse every year. "Federal funding for R&D has declined," he said, "and state funding has been declining overall."

Szulik said open-source software is already more popular outside the United States, and that this is where hes finding the talent he needs to continue innovating. Describing what he called an epidemic in the decline of technically trained people in the United States, he said students in grades K through 12 arent being taught technical skills and arent being encouraged to take up careers in computer science and engineering.

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"The need speaks for itself. There isnt a technical CEO that Ive met that hasnt spoken publicly about the need to reform and improve the quality of technical education at the earliest levels. It goes beyond just hardware and software. Its [about] curriculum and a move from teacher-centered learning to student-centered learning," he said.

Szulik said the current problems with technical education need to be solved at the highest levels, starting with the President. He suggested that todays educational crisis could benefit from something like the spur President John F. Kennedy gave to science and engineering for space research in the early 60s.

In his wide-ranging talk, Szulik also said programs such as Firefox are helping to spread interest in open-source software, and he said efforts such as the one by the NSA to create a trusted version of Linux could make open source a standard in the United States—as, he said, it is already becoming the standard in other countries.

Szulik said he couldnt speak specifically about Red Hat because the company has its earnings call later this week.

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