Red Hat Ranked #1 Most Valuable Software Vendor by CIO Insight Study for 4th Consecutive Year

Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that it has been named the leader in vendor value and satisfaction by Ziff Davis’ 2007 "CIO Insight Vendor Value" study, which polls IT executives on the value and reliability delivered by vendors. This marks the third time in four years that the company has been ranked first of all global vendors evaluated in the study, and the fourth consecutive year Red Hat has been named the most valuable software vendor.

The "CIO Insight Vendor Value" study, now in its fifth year, polled 472 respondents, more than half of whom considered themselves the top IT executives at their company. Each were asked to rate their IT vendors on eight key criteria concerning value, reliability and loyalty. Criteria included expectations of vendors for increasing revenues, lowering business or IT costs, solving business problems, meeting ROI, meeting time and budget commitments, flexibility and responsiveness to needs, quality expectations and customer loyalty.

This year, in addition to ranking first overall, Red Hat achieved first-place rankings for:

• criteria for meeting expectations for lowering costs.
• meeting commitments on time and budget.
• customer satisfaction, with 97 percent of polled customers who said they would continue to conduct business with Red Hat in the future.

Red Hat ranked in the top five of all vendors in seven out of eight categories, including additional rankings for:

• expectations for quality.
• increasing revenue.
• ROI expectations.
• flexibility and responsiveness to needs.¹

In 2004, Red Hat received the highest-ever score for value² when the CIO Insight Magazine survey interviewed over 1,000 U.S.-based IT executives. In 2005, Red Hat was again named the leader in vendor value³ and overall satisfaction and ranked first for value and meeting expectations for increasing revenues. In 2006, the Company was ranked third overall and the number one most valuable software vendor in the same CIO study.⁴ Similarly, in August 2007, Red Hat’s operations in Japan were named the number one IT vendor to do business with by customers in the region in Nikkei Market Access’ "Industry Trends in Intended Use of Products/Services of Major Vendors" study.⁵

For more information on Red Hat’s CIO Insight accolades, or to view the entire 2007 CIO Insight study, visit www.redhat.com/promo/vendor.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world’s leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 50 satellite offices spanning the globe. CIOs have ranked Red Hat first for value in Enterprise Software for four consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value study. Red Hat provides high-quality, low-cost technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: www.redhat.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to the integration of acquisitions; the ability of the Company to effectively compete; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company’s growth and international operations; adverse results in litigation; the dependence on key personnel as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions Risk Factors and Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.

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1. The CIO Insight Research Study: Vendor Value, November 2007
2. The CIO Insight Research Study: Vendor Value, December 2004
3. The CIO Insight Research Study: Vendor Value, December 2005
4. The CIO Insight Research Study: Vendor Value, December 2006
5. Industry Trends in Intended Use of Products/Services of Major Vendors, August 2007