File this under wild speculation, but following the money can lead to interesting conclusions. Yesterday, news came out that Dell founder Michael Dell had invested $100 Million of his own money in Red Hat. Today Cnet reports that executives from Microsoft and Red Hat are having a nice chat together. Well, $100M is not small potatoes, and if Microsoft were to make a bid for Red Hat, Mr. Dell would make a pretty handy profit. At the very least, that investment gives Mr. Dell a seat to view the game.
So, I’m not saying that this means anything at all. But Microsoft buying Red Hat would certainly affect the Linux landscape with tsunami-like force. Would it be the end of the open software movement? No, of course not! But it would instantly make MS a big player on the Linux scene and would allow them to play both sides of the street if they chose to do so. Regardless of what their true motives are, it certainly makes one wonder.