CED News

Open source-leader Red Hat, Inc. is proposing to provide open source software to every school district in the United States if Microsoft provides computing hardware for the 14,000 poorest school districts. Red Hat (Nasdaq:RHAT) proposed an alternative to the settlement recently announced of the class-action lawsuit against Microsoft. Red Hat offered to provide open-source software to every school district in the United States free of charge, encouraging Microsoft to redirect the money it would have spent on software into purchasing more hardware for the 14,000 poorest school districts. Under the Red Hat proposal, by removing Microsoft's higher-priced software from the settlement equation, Microsoft could provide the school districts with many more computers - greatly extending the benefits Microsoft seeks to provide school districts with their proposed settlement. Red Hat is headquartered in Durham, NC. www.redhat.com