“It is ironic that (Red Hat) eschews Open Source software when it comes to using software itself,” Tom Raftery noted in a comment on a post by Red Hat’s Mark Cox. “It seems that Red Hat prefers to be simply a signpost – pointing the way, rather than going there itself. A true ‘defender of public domain, and steward of open source’ would use Open Source software wherever and whenever such an option exists.” Other readers defended Red Hat’s decision.

Conversely, Six Apart has recently shifted its corporate web site for Movable Type and and TypePad blog hosting service from Red Hat to Fedora, the free software project sponsored by Red Hat, which was forked last year when Red Hat adopted a new license that required more substantial support fees.