在他给LXer网站编辑的邮件中，他解释了他离开的具体原因，大体意思（注意：是大体意思）是说：

在1月中旬我会离开红帽，但并不是要和家人待在一起，或者照顾照顾俺的花园，或者忙些其他有意思的事情。而是为了能更好地继续战斗于Linux，更是为了自己的爱好——更底层程序的开发。对我来说，现在离开是个不错的时机，我和支持目前红帽在做的事情。从1998以合同工和员工的身份加入红帽，到现在已经10年了，现在有机会去研究一些我更底层的东西，不亦乐乎。如果没有什么大的变动，我就去Intel了！但是我会依然致力于Linux和自由软件的，大家不要怕！

有人可能认为会对红帽产生什么应用，我认为没有必要这样想，红帽的队伍现在很棒，很稳定，世界一流，我的离开对他们不会有什么影响的。放心吧，同志们。

原文参见如下：

Subject: Moving on from Red Hat

I will be departing Red Hat mid January having handed in my
notice. I'm not going to be spending more time with the family,
gardening[1] or other such wonderous things. I'm leaving on good terms
and strongly supporting the work Red Hat is doing. I've been at Red Hat
for ten years as contractor and employee and now have an opportunity to
get even closer to the low level stuff that interests me most. Barring
last minute glitches I shall be relocating to Intel (logically at least,
physically I'm not going anywhere) and still be working on Linux and free
software stuff.

I know some people will wonder what it means for Red Hat engineering. Red
Hat has a solid, world class, engineering team and my departure will have
no effect on their ability to deliver.

Alan
[1] I note that both the family and garden probably think I should