Open source's windfall

摘要

Matthew Szulik stills remembers when, fresh out of college in 1978, he attended a meeting of the newly formed Massachusetts High Technology Council and watched Digital Equipment founder Ken Olsen bring out one of the company's PDP minicomputers and put it on a folding table. There was so much innovation occurring in the greater Boston area, and I was a 21-year-old kid, wide-eyed and impressionable.... [The experience] continues to have an impression on me," says Szulik, CEO of market-leading Linux distributor Red Hat. "I got to see men who not only had compelling visions to create great, sustainable companies at young ages, but also who understood the responsibility of doing positive things for the community It wasn't about exclusively making money and stopping," he says. "It was about innovating and creating technology that would improve the lives of others." Such missionary zeal for the greater good keeps Szulik motivated personally and professionally He drives himself hard in the office, but makes it a priority to leave time for family A husband and father of three, Szulik forgoes the golf course "because I don't want to spend four and a half hours away from my children."