In an era of digital transformation, when traditional businesses are increasingly becoming software companies to better compete in the market, software developers are the new key to business success. Applications are king. Either build better software into your products or services, or get disrupted by the next Uber.

The kind of software that developers build, how they build it, and the platforms they use are set to dramatically change in the years to come. Software development will become cloud-native, use microservices, and employ DevOps processes. To succeed in digital transformation, organizations must help their software developers to become more innovative and more efficient.

We want to do our part to help developers succeed, which is why today, as part of the Red Hat Developer Program, we are making Red Hat Enterprise Linux available for developers via a no cost development subscription.

So, why did we do this? As DevOps processes and agile software methods become the primary means for creating software, it is critical that software developers have access to the same environments and tools during their development phases as they will use when they push out their software into production. Especially as they build applications for cloud environments. And we expect Linux to be key to future success.

Linux is the operating system at the heart of many new cloud and innovative technologies, including:

  • Cloud platforms such as OpenStack and OpenShift.
  • The Docker container format, which enables portability and makes flexible microservices architectures a reality.
  • Big data technologies such as Hadoop.
  • The movement towards cloud-native platforms and DevOps.

And what company knows Linux better than Red Hat? For more than 20 years Red Hat has set the gold standard for enterprise grade, production Linux, all based on the power and security features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Just how trusted is Red Hat Enterprise Linux as a standard? One hundred percent of airlines, healthcare companies, and telecommunications companies in the Fortune Global 500 rely on Red Hat to run their most mission critical applications - that’s trust.

Linux has become so important for cloud native environments that even companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are making Red Hat Enterprise Linux and other Red Hat technologies part of their strategy.

So, to help developers on-board to the cloud, develop container-based applications using microservices, transition to DevOps processes, and have the same development experience as their production experience, we created a program to get them freely-available Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Furthermore, as a part of the Red Hat Developer Program, developers can assess other Red Hat technologies at no cost, including the Red Hat JBoss Middleware Java platforms, OpenShift Platform-as-a-Service, and developer tools.

At Red Hat, our mission is to help companies succeed at their digital transformation. But our passion is, and always has been, to help developers be the best they can be. It’s in our open source DNA.