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While you may not spend a lot of time thinking about this, the role Linux plays in the technology that we all use everyday is growing quite significantly. In an effort to more fully appreciate this, I had an opportunity to speak with the new vice resident and general manager of Red Hat’s RHEL Business Unit \u2014 Dr. Stefanie Chiras \u2014 and ask about her vision for RHEL and Linux in general. She was very enthusiastic \u2014 not just for Red Hat, but for the open source movement overall and the rising importance of Linux.<\/p>\n
Chiras started with Red Hat in July \u2014 not quite four months ago \u2014 and already describes herself as a \u201ctrue Red Hatter.\u201d She explained that she has had a serious focus on Linux for the last six years or more. As she points out, we all do development differently these days because of the open source movement. The changes in just the last five years have moved us to very different ways of doing things whether we’re working on public or private clouds, containers, or bare metal.<\/p>\n
During the interview, I learned to properly pronounce \u201cRHEL,\u201d which I\u2019d in the past always expanded to its full name (Red Hat Enterprise Linux). Chiras \u2014 and probably everyone else at Red Hat \u2014 simply says \u201crel\u201d as in the beginning of \u201crelevant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chiras was most excited about joining Red Hat at what she sees as a pivotal point with Linux providing greater stability and security and the rapid current of innovation. Developers are increasingly turning to Linux for rapid deployment, using tools such as OpenShift<\/a> for rapid delivery.<\/p>\n Linux is playing an increasingly important role in all of our lives. In fact, it has become one of the most important pieces of computer software in the world. Even those of us who don\u2019t own or manage Linux systems probably use it every day \u2014 on our phones and tablets, through the web pages that we frequent, when we check our friends\u2019 Facebook pages, when we find our way to websites using Google, or when we research topics on Wikipedia. Those of us who manage Linux systems have probably noticed that we’re not so much the oddballs on the tech staff that we were five or 10 years ago. The systems we set up and manage are moving to the mainstream and providing more important services than they ever did in the past.<\/p>\n Linux skills are increasingly valuable. Regardless of the technology in use, the OS is just as important as ever \u2014 on every platform and not at all diminished.<\/p>\n How everything comes together is vital and exciting. Open source and Linux in particular have dramatically changed the computing world and brought us to an increasingly flexible, powerful, and fast moving technological landing pad. Developers and Linux professionals are as important as ever. Put on your seat belts, and try to keep up. We’re all going places, and the technology that’s moving us forward is very exciting.<\/p>\n Join the Network World communities on\u00a0\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0and\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n to comment on topics that are top of mind.<\/p>\n Sandra Henry-Stocker has been administering Unix systems for more than 30 years. She describes herself as “USL” (Unix as a second language) but remembers enough English to write books and buy groceries. She lives in the mountains in Virginia where, when not working with or writing about Unix, she’s chasing the bears away from her bird feeders.<\/p>\nLinux is everywhere<\/h2>\n
What the increase in Linux means to us<\/h2>\n