Cringely Red Hat analysis + more

1 minutes estimated reading time

I, Cringely Red Hat takes over IBM – I, Cringely – interesting Cringely Red Hat analysis. The IBM buyout of Red Hat is about cultural rejuvenation. In return, Red Hat gets scale. More related content by Cringely on IBM here. Red Hat is one of a few businesses that have managed to build themselves on open source and have a success exit. Open Source Software is a difficult category to build a successful enterprise of business of the ilk of Red Hat.

iOS vs. Windows – Input and Office – Radio Free Mobile – no real surprise here. One only has to go back to the late 1970s / early 1980s experience of the HP 150 mini computer with a touch screen to see the productivity issue that the Microsoft Surface represents. Keyboards work, and they work better now that more people are reasonable touch typists. When you pair them with a GUI, you want the cursor to be controlled from close to the keyboard. You’re more likely to have touchpads rather than touching the screen. Tablets are still interesting as consumption devices, the question is what the market is?

Oath will soon be rebranded as Verizon Media Group – The Verge – what is more interesting is how Verizon changes management approach (presumably after losing Tim Armstrong). It no longer feels ‘media industry’. It is interesting that Verizon has put its own name on the business. If it fails it will adversely affect the corporate brand. Oath gave them a bit of brand space. More related content here.

Snapchat Lenses are coming to the desktop and Twitch streams | TechRadar – integration with Twitch will fuel further speculation on an imminent Amazon buy-out, even though it doesn’t make that much sense on paper. Twitch does start to look as if it has similar capabilities to Chinese live streaming social selling platforms.