Almost a week ago, Tim O'Reilly wrote:
 > Size does matter.  And despite Red Hat's huge market cap, it is a tiny
 > company.  It needs to get big fast, or it will be history because it
 > won't live up to that market cap.  This is why O'Reilly has never gone
 > that route--once you take money, the rules are different, and it's as
 > easy to be the goat as it is to be the god.  But note that this isn't
 > necessarily bad.  If having RH as a stronger competitor to MS is a good
 > thing, using the tools that you get from financing in the public markets
 > can be a really good thing.  It's a calculated risk, one that RH decided
 > to take, and if you don't understand the stakes, now is not the time to
 > complain.  The decision that led to the merger with Cygnus (and likely
 > with other OSS companies in the future) was one that was implicit in the
 > original decision by RH to go public.  It's not a surprise.

Nobody has commented on this.  In recent years, a number of companies
have been build specifically to be acquired by Microsoft.  If Tim is
right, then a new type of free software business plan goes like this:
  o Create company.
  o Issue stock to developers.
  o Build kick-ass GPL'ed product.
  o Show it to Bob Young.
  o Trade stock for RedHat stock.
  o EnJOY the golden handcuffs that come with it.  :)

-- 
-russ nelson <sig@russnelson.com>  http://russnelson.com
Crynwr sells support for free software  | PGPok | Government schools are so
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Potsdam, NY 13676-3213  | +1 315 268 9201 FAX   | can outdo them. Homeschool!