AOL-Time-Warner-Red-Hat

It's nice to come in of a Monday morning and find the old rumour mill has been pumping furiously over the weekend.

AOL Time Warner is going to buy Red Hat, or so says the Washington Post, citing un-named sources, naturally. At the moment Red Hat is delivering a big fat "no comment" on the issue.

Why are we so interested? Well everyone loves a good bit of gossip and watching AOL and Microsoft vie for the numero uno position takes us back to the days of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks on Saturday afternoon wrestling.

More significantly, these corporate heavyweights have been locking horns, battling to cover all the bases of content delivery. Controlling the most successful Linux distributor could represent another line of attack for AOL Time Warner.

In theory, it's an exciting move - if there is in fact any substance to the report.

Imagine: AOL takes on the might of Windows by flexing its huge financial muscles in favour of Linux, giving the everyday consumer of internet and interactive television content access to a Microsoft alternative. The negotiations are apparently "still fluid," said the Washington Post, citing sources close to the situation. Hmm.

But cast your mind back four years (has it really been that long?!) to when AOL swooped on Netscape Communications. At the time, pundits viewed the purchase in part as a move to cultivate a serious competitor to Internet Explorer. Didn't quite turn out that way, did it?

Red Hat is unquestionably among the best at what it does. But if indeed AOL is interested in buying-up the technical and marketing expertise of a company which has a market capitalisation of $1.4bn what would happen if it fails to take Linux to the next level?

If it were to cock-up on this, nobody would be happier than Microsoft. It's too great a risk. We say forget the rumours.