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

[Chris Cox]

Kermit Jones wrote:
...
> If Red Hat had developed everything in house, it would be different, but 
> they have been successful because of the very community (free/cheap OSS) 
> they have now seemingly abandoned.  I Fedora is "so much Red Hat" as its 
> defendants claim, why did Red Hat choose to change the name?  $109 may 
> not be a lot for some people, but its the main reason most people I talk 
> to are still running Win98 instead of XP.  They should have stayed with 
> at least one $50.00 boxed product with a week or two support minimum.  
> Even charge for the support, if needed, but don't just leave people 
> hanging dry.

As with all USERS of free software, Red Hat benefits from the work
of the community.  Red Hat had a paid support model before, and they
have one now.  The price may be a bit higher now, but that's the
price of support.

Besides, Red Hat employees regularly contribute and help guide the
whole Fedora(tm) process.  It's wrong to say that Red Hat has
abandoned the community of free software.


People running Windows 98 are people with unpatched systems since
Microsoft no longer supports that product.  Of course, in the same
vein, you are free to run Red Hat 6.2 or whatever "good ole days"
version of Linux you want.

AFAIK, Red Hat is NOT leaving anyone hanging out to dry.  RHELWS
Basic is $179.  That's not terribly bad when you consider Red Hat's
boxed Professional 9.0 had the same price tag (it's now $99).
That $179 gets you basic support and updates (e.g. to the new version of RHELWS) for
one year.  Granted, your are better off with the RHELWS Standard
product (think SUSE Personal vs. SUSE Professional) for $299/year.

I'm sorry, but back when 9.0 was out, RH 9.0 was the MOST expensive
boxed Linux product on the shelf ($189 I think).

Now most USERS downloaded a free copy... since ALL USERS of free
software can USE the work of the community at NO COST.  So...
here comes Fedora(tm).  Fedora(tm) is a SUPPORTED version of
Red Hat... and (though some may disagree) prior to this, Red Hat's
support pretty much was NON EXISTENT for the consumer based
product.  The reasons projects like Fedora (pre-tm) were created
was to fill the HUGE non-support gap created by Red Hat for
their consumer product line.

If you want community based support, there's Fedora(tm).  If
you just have to have Red Hat for support, there's the RHEL
line of products.  Anyone who thinks they had better support
under Red Hat's OLD consumer line than with Fedora(tm) is
kidding themselves.  You had NOTHING! Zipola. Nada.

With regards to the names...
Red Hat obviously needs two separately trade marked names in
order that they can treat the two products independently when
necessary.  This allows Fedora(tm) to get into hot water
(just an example) before the "mistake" goes into Red Hat(tm)
proper.  Red Hat DOES want some ownership over Fedora though
and this is why it was trade marked.

You say Red Hat should have stuck with the $50 product... AFAIK,
Red Hat hasn't had (pre Fedora) a $50 product for some time.
Their base product went up to $89 and the real McCoy was
over $100 (I think it really was something like $189??).