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

[Kevin Hulse]

--- Thomas Cameron <thomas.cameron at camerontech.com>
wrote:
> ----- 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,

Historical revisionist nonsense.

Redhat has primarily been a desktop distribution with
all of the other commercial distributors doing more to
push Linux into "enterprise" space. This includes
Caldera, TurboLinux and Suse.

> 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

What utter blather.

There is nothing in retaining the original product
line that would have prevented Redhat from 
"productizing" all of "that money".

> about it?  And at $109, it is about 20% the price of
> a Microsoft desktop and
> productivity tool set.

Yes, and a minimum of 90% of it was donated from 
other parties. That's a critical fact to remember
when keeping this in perspective.

The value of their own trademark is built on the
work of others.

Although, my gripe has little to do with that. It
is more along the lines of the failed notions that
you could get users to pay for Linux + a commercial
X server or GL implementation. Linux needs an ultra
cheap pricepoint. Redhat as the Linux figurehead for
the unwashed masses consequently needs to have a an
ultra cheap entry pricepoint.

Otherwise, it makes the rest of Linux look bad. This
is simply one of the negative side effects of an
"uber" distribution. It's not as if no one predicted
this. 

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

Fedora != Redhat.

This isn't about "free beer", it's about sound
business planning and building and maintaining 
the brand with the PHBs.

Good or bad, Redhat's market position means that
it's in a position to improve or degrade the
reputation of Linux in general.

Then again, if Redhat knocked itself down a few
notches that would not be such a bad thing.

[deletia]