Topics: Linux, Entertainment News
9:43 p.m. EDT, Wednesday: E-Trade informs me that I am the owner of 400 shares of Red Hat Software, bought at the initial offer price of $14. I exhale breath I’ve been holding for three weeks. Somehow, I never believed it would actually turn out this way, that I’d end up with stock in my hands.
About three weeks ago, on July 20, Red Hat sent an e-mail to hundreds of software developers offering us a chance to participate in its initial public offering, a gesture of support for the community of free-software hackers without whom the company would not exist. But weeks of infighting and confusion — aided and abetted by E-Trade — followed. Now IR