The Open Source Man

BBC:

Bob Young is a self-confessed contrarian with a strong desire to change the world by allowing people to share and collaborate. The approach has served him well and has helped turn the Canadian into a multi-millionaire.

Mr Young started out as a typewriter salesman and went on to found and run a computer-leasing company. That was sold on, but the firm that bought him over ran into financial difficulties and Mr Young became unemployed with three children to support and a large mortgage.

He cleaned out his wife’s sewing closet, turned it into an office and started again. He started a business called ACC Corp that distributed free Unix software. Mr Young also published a newsletter for former clients using the Unix operating system. Those subscribers turned him on to a new freeware version of Unix called Linux.

He was later told about Marc Ewing, who had created an enhanced version of Linux called Red Hat. Mr Young sold the software as fast as Mr Ewing could produce it.

In 1993, Red Hat Software was created as the two combined their companies and financed their fledgling business by maxing out a half-dozen credit cards.

By 2000, the company had captured 25% of the server operating system market, and Red Hat held over 50% of the global market for Linux systems. Today. it is the largest distributor of the Linux operating system.

Screenshot from Red Hat

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