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A Red Hat Summit riddle: what is 108?
Red Hat earlier this week unveiled a new developer portal dubbed 108.
All fine and well, but the firm won't say what 108 stands for. "Just look on wikipedia," they reply.
Well, did that, been there. Searching for 108 using Wikipedia's search engine gets you nowhere.
Google points to a Wikipedia page about the number 108. While it seems to offer better information, there are few hints about the term's true meaning.
One Red Hat employee told me that the number refers to the number of stitches in a baseball. But he quickly admitted that was only what he had heard. It might just as well honour Yuri Gagarin, who spent 108 minutes as the first man in space.
A more mystical explanation is that 108 is a scared number in Hindu-Buddhist civilizations, and it seems that there is no logical explanation for it.
Enough with the guessing, it went right to the source and asked Red Hat chief executive Matthew Szulik.
He pointed to all explanations listed above, as well as some sort of rebellion in Chinese history where 108 warriors would march on their enemy, knowing that they would die – but die for their principles.
"There are lots of interpretations. Don’t look too hard for the little details," Szulik explained.
Tags: Linux, Red Hat, Matthew Szulik, Red Hat Summit 2006
June 2, 2006 at 04:28 PM | Permalink
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Comments
Probably the origin of "108" is not unlike the origin of "42."
I.e. there are lots of potential reasons you can think of, but the "truth" is that it's rather arbitrary.
Posted-by: Chris | 6 Jun 2006 21:45:52
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