On Tue, 2003-11-04 at 09:23, Randy Vice wrote:
On Tue, 4 Nov 2003, Timothy Murphy wrote:
So I don't think RedHat is wicked -- I just think they may have made a commercial mistake.
Agreed, and poor timing as well now that Novell/Ximian is buying out SuSE. I'll DL Fedora when it's released, but I'm keeping a sharp on Novell's Linux distro, they may be wanting to pick up those of us who don't fit in RH's new scheme. Guess the next six months will be an interesting time to see where the chips fall.
Randy
I don't see this as being bad timing at all. Actually quite the opposite, which is why I posted the Novell/SUSE release in the first place. The writing is on the wall regarding the major commercial distros, which is why Mandrake will be next.
The commercial vendors must focus their core business model where there is revenue to be generated. No, not for the shareholders, but *most* importantly for their employees who depend upon the commercial vendors for regular paychecks that don't bounce. If you lose your employees, you can forget about the customers AND the shareholders...there won't be anything left to have equity in.
If the commercial vendors remain financially viable, they are then in a position to be good citizens to the community at large.
The RHEL/Fedora 'split', in my mind, was a proactive recognition by RH that they needed to change in a fundamental way to remain financially viable and importantly independent, while still remaining committed to the community at large. They did not have to do the latter, but did.
If you gain marketshare in the broad corporate environment, that will eventually flow down to the small office and home user in time.
The home desktop environment is not a financially viable market at this point for any distro, which is why Szulik came out and supports most home desktop users staying with Windows for the foreseeable future (http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39117575,00.htm). Those that have the skills or inclination to try Linux will do so, but that is a small percentage of the market...though it will increase over time.
We can debate the facts, but the perceptions are the reality. Until the majority of home users can pick up the phone and call Dell, HP or Gateway, or walk into Best Buy, OfficeDepot or CompUSA and buy a PC with any Linux pre-installed and configured, the home desktop market (including SOHO) will not be broadly viable.
It is also becoming increasingly apparent that as the major community based projects increase in size, the resources required to continue to support them require funding, which is a problem when most users want it (no, *expect* it) for free. So, people can donate money (not just time) to the community projects, corporations can fund them (ie. as RH and Sun are doing) or they become self-limiting.
And...before you point to Debian, look here:
http://www.debian.org/donations
Consider all of the non-profit foundations that have been set up to cover the costs of the infrastructure required (ie. web sites, etc.) to support the major community projects. People may be willing to volunteer time, but there are other costs associated with these projects and in many cases the "hosts" at some point reach a limit in terms of what they can continue to provide without compensation.
I for one hope that Fedora is successful. It can be the fertile ground for leading edge applications and technology, even if at some cost of stability. If it is successful, it likely means that RH is viable and can continue to contribute to the community at large. In that regard, RH can justify funding Fedora as the basis for an R&D platform that supports and feeds the paid-for Enterprise versions, which seems to be the message.
Back to the original title of this thread...it is the basis for my hope. It shows that quality and not a calendar, is the priority.
Ultimately, the marketplace, not evangelism, will determine where Fedora goes and where Linux in general goes. The seeds of OSS have been planted...it is up to us to water and fertilize them. If Fedora fails and you want a community based distro, then Debian may very well become the only viable option. Is that good or bad...time will tell.
Marc