AOL is thinking of buying Red Hat?! This has got to be a joke.

AOL has a history of buying things that sparkle, including Mirabilis (and their product, ICQ), WinAMP and Netscape, but in all of those cases, they were buying code. Due to the nature of Linux and Open Source software, this code is fully available for anyone to download, use and modify. So what does AOL have to gain by doing this? They're not gaining exclusive access to code, and it's not like Linux is really ready to give to your average AOL user.

The only thing that AOL would get is a well-established Linux distribution that the majority of Linux users install out of the box. They walk into their local computer store, ask for “that lenooks thingy”, go home, put the CD in the drive, click a few buttons (which they really don't understand) and then start playing about with the only bit that looks familiar: the web browser.

This is the only thing that AOL has to gain. Imagine if the standard Red Hat install CD setup AOL by default, with just a few free hours to get them hooked. Most people who install Red Hat probably click on the default option for everything and hope for the best. They don't want to fiddle with /etc/ppp/whatever-it's-called.conf; they want to be a 1337 h4x0r and they want it now.

I've never been a fan of Red Hat, but for their sake, I hope AOL doesn't get their way.