[NTLUG:Discuss] Redhat Offerings -- the Red Hat bashing tour isback!

[Thomas Cameron]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Hulse" <hulse_kevin at yahoo.com>
To: "NTLUG Discussion List" <discuss at ntlug.org>
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 9:50 AM
Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] Redhat Offerings -- the Red Hat bashing tour is
back!

>
> Option A:  When a Linux gets critical mass of
>            marketshare, the distributor jacks
>            up the price 100% or more.

Oh, let me get my hanky real quick...  You're making me cry.

PUH-LEEEEZE.  RH has led the way in getting Linux into the enterprise.
Period.  They *gave* their distro away for free for, what, six or seven
years?  That is time and money they spent getting us to that "critical
mass."  Now they want to make some of that money back, and you're bitching
about it?  And at $109, it is about 20% the price of a Microsoft desktop and
productivity tool set.

I say again:  PUH-LEEEEZE!  Get over it.  They are still developing a free
(as in beer) distro - it's called Fedora.

> Option B: When a Linux gets critical mass of
>           marketshare, the distributor
>           discontinues the product.

Um, no.  Please stop spreading this misinformation.  Red Hat still has a
community, end-user distro they support - Fedora.

> Neither of these are make Redhat seem particularly
> dependable.

ROFLMAO - are you kidding me?  RH decides to focus on the enterprise and
that somehow makes them *less* dependable???  Get real!

> "Promises" about having a stable 5 year
> release cycle don't help. Redhat has earned all the
> abuse it has gotten lately. They haven't endeared
> themselves to those of us that would otherwise deploy
> on IBM or Sun systems.

Hey - you want to blow an additional 200-500% (or more) of your money, knock
yourself out.  In my world, if I made a recommendation like that to my boss,
I'd need to update my resume.

>
> They could have done that without effectively
> killing the original Redhat trademark.

Um, they didn't.  They focused on the market share with the biggest demand
and return on investment.  No one seems to pay attention to the fact that RH
is a business with shareholders and employees they are beholden to.  News
flash - this is a Capitalist society, and in order to succeed companies have
to make tough business decisions.  In this case they are dancing with the
ones who brung 'em (the community) but also taking care of the market share
most likely to make them successful.

Why is it that as soon as anyone gets to the top of the heap, everyone else
starts slamming them?

By the way - it's "Red Hat" (two words), not Redhat.

Thomas