Disclosure: I worked at Red Hat from 1998 until 2004

I never experienced a "Silicon Valley" culture at Red Hat, not pre-IPO as a scrappy startup, or post-IPO as a growing company. Red Hat these days is an enterprise software company, and I think it retains a unique culture that I'm (mostly) proud to have been a part of cultivating in the early days even as a division of IBM today.

But what does that even mean?

Oracle is a traditional Silicon Valley company. But presumably that's not what they mean either?

Enough with the digressions! An open-source-foundational company with roots in the microcomputer revolution, vs IBM? Is there anybody who doesn't see the difference?

And no, IBM did not invent the microcomputer revolution - far, far from it. They put out an expensive iron boat anchor using other people's chips and designs that saddled the industry with obsolete choices for a decade. Just like you'd expect from a giant corporation.

> An open-source-foundational company

Well that ain't Silicon Valley! You're taking an extremely modern view and projecting it back! Silicon Valley was historically defence silicon and CIA contracts!

> Well that ain't Silicon Valley!

It absolutely is in the culture sense in which most people understand what that means, and how that those words are often used.

Words are not always used to refer to their literal dictionary definition. Instead, words can have multiple meanings, and people can use them to refer to coloquial definitions.

This is a common way of talking about these types of companies. I can't really help someone if they aren't able to understand the idea that words don't always refer to their literal definition.

> roots in the microcomputer revolution, vs IBM

You mean the IBM that invented the PC? The distinction you're trying to make here is far from clear.

The personal computer was not invented by IBM:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/06/did-ibm-invent-t...

Yeah, I was around, there were others before the PC, but it was the one named as such that sold millions and popularized the term. There's no point to being pedantic and bitter about it.

I'm just pointing out the truth, no bitterness intended.

You tryin' to say open source? Just say that. You created the digression.

You: Oh you got a pet! Is it a dog or an apple?

Him: Apples aren't really house pets.

You: Oh brother, are you going to pretend nobody knows the difference between dogs & cats?

That's an interesting thing to think about. Are they really like silicon valley companies? I wonder if north carolina culture is actually the same.

and IBM... hmmm...

The only IBM people that I have worked with had their office in North Carolina.