Weather Channel's Web Site To Be Powered By Products From Two Triangle Companies

TheWeather Channel's Web siteaverages 250 million page views a month. The site will soon installIBMNetfinity server computers runningRed Hat'sversion of the Linux operating system. The IBM servers will replace those from Sun Microsystems.

"Linux and Open Source really powers the Internet and the Internet infrastructure," says Hal Covert, chief financial officer of Red Hat. "I think this is an example of that so it's very important to us. It's the fastest growing market segment today."

Red Hat stock(RHAT) has been very active for the past couple of days and the price is up. Covert says both are good signs for the company.

"The partnerships that we've formed and the earnings that we're producing in the company now is really powering the company and moving Linux into the next stage of being very pervasive," Covert says.

The company also expects to grow locally in the next two years.

"We have about 150 employees, and with the addition we're building out here now, we can certainly increase another hundred or so employees without any problem," Covert says.

Since going public, Red Hat has bought several companies, developed alliances with IBM, Dell and other computer makers and has become the Linux leader. Industry analystIDCpredicts Linux installations will grow at 25 percent through 2003.