[aclug-L] Re: FW: Red Hat Network ...

[Chris Owen <owenc@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 8 Mar 2003, Arnold Cavazos Jr. wrote:

> I would buy the machine from the vendor with Windows and either move
> the windows license to a business office workstation or sell the
> license.  Then I would install RedHat (or most likely in my case
> FreeBSD).  Now who wins in that situation?  I have essentially either
> made or saved money in the deal, Microsoft sells a license, and RedHat
> doesn't get jack.

I think the basic problem is that most of the time all these situations
end with the sentence "and RedHat doesn't get jack".  That is the problem.
They have huge expenses to do the stuff they do and then have a hard time
getting back anything for the value they provide.

Lets not forget this whole thread started not because they were trying to
charge for the software but because they were trying to charge for access
to support they provide.

I used to use RedHat exclusively.  It was installed on probably 30
machines.  How did I get my copy?  I either got it via FTP or by paying
cheapbytes.com 60 cents for the CD.  However, every single major version
that came out I bought a full retail boxed set direct from Redhat
($60-90).  Did I have to?  No.  Did I even use the box set?  No (in fact
the other day I threw out 6 full box sets and 3 of them weren't even
opened).  Did I even use the support that came with it?  No I didn't even
bother registering.  However, I bought it because I realized that if no
one does then they can't do the cool things they do.

Without companies like Redhat around Linux has zero shot of ever being
much more than a hobby OS.  They not only provide some real core
technologies but they also provide the legitimacy that companies need to
be able to justify using it in their business.

Personally I've never been one that gives a rats behind what OS anyone
else uses (hell I'm a Mac guy) but lets face it, if the Linux world was
still all about Slackware and there was no Redhat or Mandrake we wouldn't
even be talking about Linux on the desktop.  We use Slackware almost
exclusively but it sure aint sexy.

Chris

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Chris Owen                ~ Garden City (620) 275-1900 ~  Lottery (noun):
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